Just like the Boogie Night Crew, this is the first time for Andre to leave his hometown of Paris for the beautiful city of ours. Apart from buying mobile phones, watches and crazy stuff, Andre bought the peopleâs love by his cute graffiti of Mr. A!! Here, we bring you the interview with this smooth criminal who would go to court, just to declare his love on the walls!
Alyson: Hey Andre, how you doing?
Andre: Good, ready for tonight!
Alyson: So youâve just arrived, or have you been here for a few days?
Andre: Oh I arrived 4 days before, first time here, Iâm so happy, Iâve just discovered the city, I really felt in love with HK.
Alyson: Tell me where you went!
Andre: Like⦠not really far from here, Mongkokâ¦
Alyson: Oh! Youâve probably went to the street market!
Andre: Yeah, I went to that park thatâs errr⦠all the fake stuff, thatâs too much for tourists⦠I didnât care about that⦠Nah I went to all the small malls⦠where all the young people from Hong Kong go to⦠those small shop, very specialized shopsâ¦
Alyson: Before you arrived, what did you expect?
Andre: Something like this⦠but not as crazy, I like thereâs a kind of mix between like⦠modern things⦠old things⦠for me itâs kinda like the future will be like in Hong Kong.
Alyson: I know youâre really good at what you do, which is graffiti arts, how did it all started?
Andre: Oh it started when I was like about 13-years-old, was like the middle of the 80âs, I was just a kid you know, I had some spray cans and some markers, I used to walk around in Paris, and draw on the walls, just draw my name! And it was kind of a game, just write my name everywhere, in most places I could get.
Alyson: Wow! Did you get caught for it??
Andre: Ahhh⦠yeah, many times, was in court, I tried not to get caught, but sometimes, it happens.
Alyson: Well, what motivates you to stick to this?
Andre: I donât know! You know, the 1st day I just draw on the wall, I felt something like.. I donât know⦠itâs about freedom or something very powerful, I couldnât really explain but I just had to do it. Even today, 20 years later, Iâm still doing that, Iâm still drawing on the walls outside at night, you know⦠itâs part of my life, I need it, itâs my energy!
Alyson: Tell us whatâs your trademark!
Andre: Yeah, I have my icon itâs called Mr. A, who I usually draw a lot on the walls⦠but I also have many different work!
Alyson: Iâm looking at this gallery book of yours, every one is so different, and itâs all like names!
Andre: Yeah, it was a project I called âLove Graffitiâ, and I used to be like⦠a public writer, and people can order from me to write the name of their lover, so I used to go and draw the name of the girl or the guy, just nearby where they live, so when they get up in the morning, theyâre up in their window, and they saw their name, in huge brightful colored letters, and that was a kind of declaration of love, and that was doing part of all the projects I made, I made about more than 100 different names, and that was a work!
Alyson: Now with all your experiences, thereâs gotta be one or two pieces of work from yourself which you can just not forget, or you can just take that one out and be proud of!
Andre: Yeah⦠Iâm proud of about everything I make⦠thatâs good, yeah!! I make some crazy things, I made like⦠I painted the wall, that was like 400 sq meters big, all by myself, it took more than one monthâ¦
Alyson: Wow!
Andre: I KNOW! And I made a Mr. A giant! Was like one the building, and (that) was like more than 20 floors high⦠in Paris⦠all illegal⦠(giggle) thatâs doing part of graffiti, I have a few⦠different things like this that are quite bigâ¦
Alyson: Youâve done crazy things like these, do you have anything in mind that you still havenât done, but youâd die to do it!
Andre: Yeah! Paint a plane, up-going⦠that would be one of the great things I would love to do, I would also love to paint a really really big wall on a really high building. Thatâs gonna be somethingâ¦
Alyson: I see youâve been doing a lot live events, which combines your graffiti to music.
Andre: Yeah, I do that sometimes, I made it for HK, I used to do it when I was much younger, nowadays, I donât always have the time, but for this occasion, Iâm good to do something special.
Alyson: Speaking of music events, do you like music?
Andre: Yeah, actually I produce some music in Paris, and itâs part of my life, graffiti is always about music, dance, itâs about todayâs life, itâs not just one thing, itâs not just art, or drawings, itâs just a complete universe.
Alyson: Itâs like a whole culture.
Alyson: Now, before I let you go, everybody from our website theyâve all been waiting for this moment, they all want me to ask you to do something for our HKClubbing Radio⦠would that be ok??
Andre: Of course! I can do a small drawing for you!
