Interview with Ergot

I caught up with Ergot recently to talk about punk and punk graffiti.

Slim: When did you start writing Ergot?

Ergot: Started writing Ergot in 2006 in Minneapolis. First crew was called BS (Black Sabbath), which was me and my friends' high school code for smoking weed, then later code for doing graffiti… PEB (Pigs Eye Boys), TKG (The Kind Gents), PTS (Philips Terror Squad/Paint The Streets), were all my original crews with my scummy punk/rocker friends in southside Minneapolis. A bunch of misfits who’d drink cheap beer and go to punk shows in basements and warehouses – a story that’s played out countless times across the world… I painted a lot on tour with my bands back in the day, doing spots in a bunch of cities in North America and Europe. And also traveled a bit in Europe/UK while staying in squats and all that, going to shows and painting. Once again – an archetypal story!

Wow love the weed smoking code. I feel like the graffiti story now is more be a skater. Is there a big scene of people touring, squatting and painting in the US? Who were the people that inspired you to join the graffiti movement?

Well yes definitely crews like KUK from the Bay Area or early KYT in Seattle/Minneapolis were more punk focused, maybe even political at times, playing in bands or adjacent to the music scenes there. Abhor KUK did the lettering in some DYSTOPIA records, for example. And if you can find the old KUK zines they’re clearly sorta bike crusties. Early 907 crew from NYC also – they were linked to the Black Label Bike Club and had a chapter in Copenhagen who would do Bike Kill at K-Town.

I would go to a DIY warehouse for shows in high school called the Mala in Minneapolis and see tags by OZE108 907, Nimz HM, REHAB HM, YOUTH RVS (another Mpls crew worth mentioning), and I was mystified. I felt like I had discovered these two underground worlds that I’d imagined were separate, but here they intersected and it made me feel very at home.

I later traveled around Europe and saw lots of Nimz stuff. I think he may have been in 907 too. He’s still got a spot partially riding on the highline in NYC.

Has the avenue you pushed stylistically always been accepted or have you had some battles?

Graffiti is interesting because you have so much personality wrapped into it if you’re able to decode it. What a person paints on, the colors they use, how it’s placed, the style of the letters themselves, all tell a story once you can read all the cues. I personally see lots of value in graffiti when I can see a full story in a single piece, like an individual screaming about their life and their interests. So being able to fuse some colorful, intricate piecing styles with a more raw punk bombing essence was a way for me to tell my story in a satisfying way.

There was always a little bit of funny commentary from either side, like I should cut back the drips on a piece, or I shouldn’t put bubbles in the street spot. But I think at the end of the day the attempted fusion was appreciated by both sides

I should also say that none of this was really conscious at the time. It’s only looking back years later that I can see that I was mixing this stuff together. Back then I was just trying to have fun with letters and keep things interesting for myself.

What’s your best moment from graffiti and what’s your worst moment?

Hard to pin down a single best or worst moment, but I guess in general best is whenever you get into a flow style-wise and with getting over. Climbing down from something and looking up and what you left there and feeling self actualized. Worst moments for me are when you’re caught in someone’s beef and you think they’re all silly, or losing friends to ego or social pressures.

I do have some getaway stories and getting caught stories too...

How’d you get into punk and what made you feel like it was your community ?

I sort of can’t remember, but initially I think i just vibed hard with music and then went down a rabbithole from NIRVANA and stuff towards heavier music, looking for something specific but not knowing what it was. Finding bands that had politics in the music really clicked with me. And it was like this crazy underground society (similar to graff) that seemed to have lots of meaning and feeling. The catharsis of the music itself and also meeting other kids who were sort of fucked up and damaged made me feel at home for sure.

I found out about bands like TOWER 7 and FLOWER through your illustration work. Not to mention the incredible cover you did for DESTRUCT’s record Cries The Mocking Mother Nature. When did you begin drawing flyers and doing illustrations for bands?

Thanks. I started drawing flyers and doing punk art in 2013 or so. I’d done some designs for my bands like collages and simple layouts but decided I should try to push myself a bit, and was inspired by some classic punk illustrators. Plus I started working with Shock at his screen printing studio and wanted to make posters and shirts for my friends. It was pretty chaotic for years, trying to do punk art, paint graffiti, do music stuff, and drinking a lot and all that. But I think I found a better focus at the end of the pandemic.

I did some logos and art for WATCHLIST, and some of the newer bands from NYC, and hope to keep it rockin.

Could you tell us a bit about ICBM (the most punk graff crew)?

Ok, about ICBM –

Started by zigzag and wombat pre-pandemic. AMEBIX reference. It was pretty important to be like a “real” graffiti writer but also actually down with DIY punk and active within that world to some degree. I remember when I met Cancer Carl he was wearing a NO SECURITY shirt. Pesoe sets up gigs. A lot of other members play in bands and stuff. There’s also a political bend to it all and importance on critical views of society. I suppose it’s just trying to keep an assembled group of people who are like actually down with the more underground forms of graffiti and music and on some anarchist/whatever-you-want-to-label-it political bend.

Could you tell us a crazy story?

Ok so one time, during the peak pandemic, I had this spot at Myrtle Broadway in Brooklyn on big boy while it was all shuttered up. I’d done a fill right on the corner there. And then it got dissed presumably by the business owners with “bitchass” and stuff like that. So on a Sunday at like 3pm I biked right up to it just to fix the fill quick. But I was suddenly apprehended from behind in a chokehold by a few people who live on the street there. Turns out some of them were sorta running security on the block, I think they got k2 as payment. It was like 4 or 5 guys holding me all crazy, and also this was peak pandemic so it felt pretty wild to be so close on top of the violent aspect. They dragged me into a smoke shop and locked the doors. And inside was like the kingpin guy all “well well well” gangster style. They took my glasses off my face and held my eyes open and acted like they were gonna spray paint my eyeballs. And they opened a door into the basement and said they were gonna throw me in. It was pretty hectic. Then a grandma from the block who’d seen it all started banging on the windows saying they needed to let me go. And they all got shook and also maybe respected the grandma so after a while they opened the door and threw me out. I thanked her and biked away. I biked past the same intersection a few weeks later and all the guys were still on the block and pointed and laughed at me. I sort of felt bad for them. I think graffiti takes you into places where you witness certain depths of suffering that aren't always easy to engage with.