Interview with Everfresh Studios

September 2008:  Everfresh Studios are a collective of graffiti and street artists based in Melbourne, Australia.  Their work can also be seen on the streets of Sydney, Tokyo, New York, Wellington, Paris, Barcelona, London and anywhere else they happen to visit.

Who are Everfresh? describe yourselves..
It’s a studio in Melbourne, Australia.  Basically it’s a group of friends with similer interests, art, vandalism and the like.

How did you all first meet?
I guess we were all basically painting on the streets of Melbourne at the same time.
A few of us came together at Blender Studios back in 2003 before it got shut down. From there a new venue was sort, we moved out of the city and found a bigger space and got things rolling.

What have you been working on recently?
It seems everyone has been busy with solo shows this year. Last year l think we had 3 or 4 group show’s which was a little hectic.  Things tend to go in phases at the studio and now it seems everyone is having solo show’s. A lot of these are in other states which is nice, nothing like turning up in a new place with a bundle of art.  Our group show in Perth in April was epic,  good times.  Some more world travel is on the cards, as well as a solo show in London for one of the members but l don’t think l can say who just yet…and we just got a ping pong table, so we’ve been playing a bit of that too.

How would you describe the work you guys do?
That’s a hard one.  Everyone’s work is different and always evolving in different directions.  I guess we paint a lot of productions together in Melbourne, none of these walls are planned or sketched which makes them a little different l ’spose.  Who ever has paint and is around just heads out, we are lucky to have an endless supply of walls to paint in Melbourne.

How did you first start getting involved with street art?
Everyone came at it from different directions, some guys came from a more traditional style of graffiti (if you want to call it that) while others were maybe more art fag based (can l say that?) and then throw a few stencil geeks into the mix.

Tell us about the Blackbook, how did this come about?
The Blackbook was a self published book that we put together for our Backwoods Show at the last No Comply festival. It was basically a behind the scenes look at the studio and the artist’s, we saved a lot of images over the years and never put them online.  The book was super limited, hard cover, 10 copies only.  They were all sold at the show and if you got one you got something really special. At the moment we are putting together an updated version and talking to publishers, hopefully we will be putting it out soon, stay tuned.

Are you doing any commercial work?
A lot of the studio guys do commercial work, l think at one stage almost everyone in the studio was making a living off their art in one way or another, It’s always nice to get paid to paint shit.  A few of the guys do work in the commercial design fields now, so l guess they do commercial work all day long, on the upside of this you can claim paint and markers as a tax deduction.

Your work can be seen on the streets of Sydney, Tokyo, New York, Wellington, Paris, Barcelona, London. How did this come about?
A lot of the people in the studio have those type of jobs where people pay you to travel to different places. Nothing better they getting paid to be somewhere like Tokyo…and of course your going to take a few posters and stickers with you right?

A few of the guys also went on a World Tour last year and went and visited a few of our friends that have stayed at the studio over the years.  You sleep on our couch and we sleep on yours.  If someone is heading OS from the studio they will take a few posters from the rest of the guys, always funny when you see photo’s of your work in a city you’ve never been too.

Where do you find inspiration?
Obviously there is going to be a lot of variation here as everyone looks at different things, but generally speaking l think everyone gets a lot of inspiration from each other and the studio itself.  There is always someone painting in the studio, scheming or talking shit.  There’s always something inspirational drawn on something inside, everything gets cained.  The toilet door has a fair bit of inspiration…

Which other artists are you following at the moment (locally or globally)?
You have to say Blu don’t you?  I don’t think anyone else is stepping it up like him right now.

Links:
Everfreshstudio.com
Brokendamage.com
HouseofMeggs.com
Thisisvandalism.com
Niceproduce.com