Back in the murky past he robbed Paul Arnold, sported one of the finest mohawks we’ve ever seen and lived with the singer of John Peel favourites, Extreme Noise Terror.

These days ASBOluv is an emerging street artist and part of the Grafik Warfare crew, his distinctive afro-girls motif decorating walls, wellies and canvases up and down the country. He joins us at Chew the Fat! to paint live on May 29th, with his work being auctioned afterwards, and is contributing toward the design of our limited run of t-shirts.

We caught up with him and found out why he ain’t never be respectable…

Apparently you were once known around Ipswich for your own mohawk and bad behaviour. What are your best memories of your punk days? Is that where the ASBO part of your name comes from?

Ha, ha, ‘Trouble’ Arnold been telling tales about me! Yeah punk was my first love musically and is still dear to my heart. Those days were the best, drinking cider all day and going to see live bands nearly every night of the week. I was the baby of a huge local punk crew, everyone was in a band or knew someone in a band, I lived with the vocalist from Extreme Noise Terror for a while then Ecstasy came along and another adventure began! ASBOluv started as an ironic statement, it’s my tag with ASBO and a heart above the letter O. It was done purely as a joke to take the piss out of all the Daily Mail readers bleating on about graffiti ruining their beautiful urban landscape, so I hoped seeing some portrait stencils would challenge their thinking. I never intended to keep the name but a bit like nicknames, they stick with you. On reflection those that know me might say I have had a bit of a long running affair in my life with antisocial behaviour but I couldn’t possibly comment.

How did you make the transition to street art and how long have you been doing it for? Is doing something illegal part of the same anti-authoritarian attitude that got you into punk?

I started making stencils about three and a half years ago so I’m quite new to the scene. I started putting stencils up in my home town, then someone said I should go online as people had posted photos of my work. I purchased a digital camera and a whole new world opened up. There is a link with punk, I used to paint jackets and make my own t-shirt designs as well as copying band names etc, I was a huge CRASS fan (still am) and they were associated with stencil logos and political statements. As with punk there is a DIY ethic associated with street art, anyone can get a fat marker pen or a spray can and make their mark on a wall, ‘street art’, ‘urban art’, ‘graffiti’, I don’t give a fuck what you call it, anyone can have a go!

When was the first time you thought, ‘I’ve made it’, in what you do? And what work or shows do you have coming up?

I’ve never thought ‘I’ve made it’ because I have no idea what I’m working towards other than developing my work and pushing myself further but most of all having fun and doing my own thing. I will be painting with a good few other people at The Beautiful and the Canned in Brighton 15^th 16^th 17^th of May come down there will be live painting and all sorts going on. I’m also painting at Upfest in Bristol during June.

How did you get involved with Grafik Warfare? And which other artists do you work with or would you like to work with?

SNUB asked me to join Grafik Warfare last year, this was quite a big deal for me as I had admired artists like Hutch, Farkfk, SNUB and Orticanoodles for quite a while and been very influenced by them. To be asked to paint with Grafik Warfare meant they valued and respected my work that was a huge confidence boost for me.

It seems like you have an eye for iconic haircuts as your central motif has become afro girl. Where did she evolve from and what does she stand for?

My beautiful wife and two beautiful daughters are the inspiration for ‘afro-girl’, ‘afro-girl’ is simply the strength and beauty of women, I will always be painting ‘afro-girl’ in varying forms as homage to my family.

Describe a typical day for ASBOluv.

No.

Paul says you used to buy records off him in Out of Time Records. Are you still into punk or have your tastes mellowed? What are your top five punk records of all time?

I seem to remember nicking them from Out Of Time! I have a very diverse taste in music. When people used to say that I thought that used to mean they didn’t know jack about music and had no specific interest but that’s bollox. As you get older you don’t feel the need to be stuck in any one genre and try to be cool all the time. I listen to digital radio a lot and am always discovering little gems, you will find me pogoing at a punk/indie gig, skanking to ska, nodding to dub, flexing to house and electro and sometimes I like to freak my neighbours out by playing some Michael Nyman (he’s the geeza that wrote the score to the film The Piano). 

Ipswich Town and Roy Keane. Are they going to get promoted?

Damn fucking right they are!!! BLUE ARMY!

What advice would you have for any young kids getting started today? What was the process of you moving from stencils to other materials and what’s your favoured way of producing work today?

My advice would be follow your heart and not your head, do your own thing and develop your own style. I only use stencils, they are all drawn by hand and cut by hand, I do not use any photoshop or computer programmes, the images are based from photos that I always get permission to use.

If you had to give it all up tomorrow what would you do instead?

Be the new England manager of course, and I would make Rooney do extra press ups.