Mr. McClure, my previous interview, had been so quick, so efficient
and so flexible in getting together for an interview that I suddenly
found it to be 2pm and my next interview was scheduled for 7pm. Well,
no sense letting that go to waste! Metalhead had left me voicemail
earlier saying he'd be open for an interview at some point in the
weekend, so I called him and said "How about now?" He was a little
surprised I'd drive several dozen miles in the middle of the day,
but distance doesn't mean much in these trips, only fitting everyone
in. So he was a bonus interview, and an important one at that!
Known as Shaggy and Metalhead at different times, here was one of
the top members of Insane Creator Enterprises (iCE), one of the top
ANSI groups through the 1990s (and one still existing to this day).
He'd gotten away from ANSI art soon after he'd discovered DJing and
clubs, but before then he was right in there with the best of them.
As he was giving me directions over the phone on where to get to
him in his development, I asked him "Who paid for the Paradise Option
in your neighborhood?" I'd not be exaggerating when I say that the
entire place seemed just designed to be Heaven on Earth. Full trees,
beautiful clean streets, cultivated plants everywhere... and yet
not choked over with that "built to order" feel in so many
developments I've been seeing. I don't generally take pictures of
the surrounding area of an interview but part of me wishes I had.
He'd gone crazy cleaning his office for the interview, but the moment
I got up to the top floor of his apartment, I saw where we were going
to film, and it wasn't the office. For a party he'd had at some point,
a few friends had put a huge graffitti mural in his hallway. It was
blue, black and white, and spectacular on videotape. So I had him sit
on the railing of his hallway and talk there. I'm really glad I did,
because your head snaps back from the amazing image behind him. This
also fits in really well with the whole graffitti/tagging theme that
ANSI groups have always had. A nice bonus.
We covered a lot of ANSI topics; he was concerned there'd not be much
to talk about. As usual, we filled a tape in no time. We probably
could have gone a lot further but I didn't want the actual next
interview to suffer, so we kept it to one full hour. A great time.
