Coka: I am Coka29, and I founded the ADA Crew together with Ray in 1995.
Ray: Thats was '95, I'm tellin' you. With break-dance in the pedestrian area, that was not half bad. First we were writing together and then Shir joined us. Poker was in the crew before for about 1 year, and Trick17 as well for a short time, both left.
Shir: Alright, I'm Shir, I was hanging around with the boys, but I never felt like writing myself at this time. I noticed one day that the boys were doing trains, that was an absurdity to me. I couldn't imagin how one can do something like this, that it's actually possible. Then I watched, somehow in '93, a telecast about Dortmund with guys entering a hall and doing a piece in there. Someday after the boys started doing trains and after 5 or 10 of those, I thought
Coka: We all started with a trashcar, those old discarded GDR trains. Very small wagons, really funny and we did our first pieces on them. I think we did them with Sparvar cans and a silver Belton outline. That banged.
Shir: Well, we didn't know that there was something like Belton chrome, we always used Sparvar chrome and we never got it why our pieces weren't as shiny as others. It was like grey, but just not chrome.
Coka (laughing): 10 years he kept silent and now he is talking.
Shir: Man, that's hard for me! Later on we also found the Mad Flava (local can store), we didn't know at all that it existed.
Ray: We can tell you a lot of stories about the Mad Flava. There we had the first contact with Keim, it was 5pm and he was like
Coka: Right, there we first checked that you don't have to do a train around midnight, but way earlier. Nowadays everyone knows that, we first had to find out. We needed like half a year to know all the yards, it really took ages.
Ray: The problem was, that after another half-year we had a stay-away-order for all of the yards and got ass kicked in front of the I-Shop (writers bench back then)
Coka: The oldschool was a little bit askant, it was weird for them that there was someone following. They were comfy with their routine, doing a train every two weeks and suddenly there were new guys with drive to do something and to do a lot. Furthermore, they had funk that their yards could blow up. But eventually, we did it the same way and gave stay-way-orders and everything.

Coka: Shir and me started in 92/93 together as the brother of a buddy was an oldschool writer.
Ray: I was into serious sport then which I had to stop with someday, so through a workshop during vacation I got down with graffiti. I then met the Boys and found them pretty cool. We've been to hardcore concerts then together. The other three were still active in skating.
Bn105: Exactly, Coka and I came in the same class in the 7th grade and we were already skating at this time. Just like Shir. I don't want to say that skateboarding and graffiti are close to each other, but the two elements were definitely crossing each other somehow in Leipzig and all the writers were hanging around there too.

Bn105: This question will not be answered here. But the 105 is pretty easy, we were hanging around with the SWEdes at this time, we met each other at some action. In these days we had some problems with the older guys and we planned to do an "all dumb assholes" end2end. The action went wrong, but we met the SWE.
Coka: They were as hated as we were then, so we were kind of a good team.
Bn105: We realized then that I lived pretty much next to them. So we lived more or less half a year at their place. We cleaned the dishes for all of us, went shoplifting for food all together and were hanging around all day long. It was very cool with them in the beginning, we were pushing one another for a good time. Like this we learned together and went bombing. And then there was this network gaming thing going on, and some handle was the 105. The 105 became then some kind of a top level crew for everyone hanging around with the SWE.
Shir: It became more and more people and that was finally the reason for a little conflict that made us go separate ways.
Bn105: Sometimes you just dont get along with people and that was definitely the case with some of them.
Ray: Well, but we still had some good time with them.
Bn105: For example on the 23.12.`97 or `98. That was a damn well planned action with guys from west-leipzig, say K2M and so on, with the SWE, LND and us. We met at the place of the SWE guys and one of them, Buja, gave me a huge cashmere pimp coat and a bag with a police radio inside. We just had that somehow. So I was checking like this in front of the central station with a bag for the radio, headphones and a daisy, and the boys were doing a "Fr?hliche Weihnachten Leipzig" ("Merry Christmas Leipzig") in the undercrossing nearby.
Coka: The cool thing about this action was just, that is was a real bunch of people and that we bombed the undercrossing entirely.

Shir: Alright, we got some connections to other cities and you get these connectionts less likely through parties but directly through writing. For instance in ***, we did some wholecars over there and wanted to go there again, with two cars. We just parked there when two other cars were coming with license plates of Halle (a city close to Leipzig), only big guys sittin' in them. So we were like "Okay, they got to be writers". So we catched them "We from Leipzig, You from Halle, Whats up?". They actually wanted to meet with the local writers but that would have been too many people for this yard. So we left the local guys home and went to Halle to do an entire Train line means 7 wagons end2end! Actions like this happend constantly, always if they came they had a full car, we had at at least a full car and then there were actions with minimum 10 people in the yard. They were always real big actions.
Ray: Sky was the limit! When I remember back to our weekends, seems just like we had nothing to do. We were driving trough half eastern germany, with "Omsk" and 230k/h on the road, been to to all the spots - nothing; to end in a Leipzig yard again after seven or eight hours of touring.

Coka: The basic idea was "Aerosol Dizzy Anarchist". BN started at some point to write all the the possible meanings down, like 52 different. Now it has actually no meaning anymore as a crew name, but it is synonym for us. I don't wanna have a single meaning.
Ray: We were never real Hip Hop or something...
Shir: ... rather Punk Rock ...
Ray: ... yeah, and you are the only one still looking like that. (laughing)
Bn105: What cool stories else... for one how we went to snowboard vacation just four hours there and nothing else to do than calling Ray in Leipzig to ask how many trains he did since we left. We were seven days snowboarding and he did 11 pieces, cause he still had to catch up a little bit to Coka.
Ray: Another time we wanted to do a "Bulletproof" wholecar, because we really liked that group and seriously wanted our picture of it on their album cover. So we were painting that whole thing chrome standing on the catwalk as a train with some guy approached what made us leaving. You got to say we weren't that clever then with the parking.
Coka: We parked directly in front of the yard...
Ray: And there was just one way to get there which led through a tunnel.
Coka: I have to tell it, I was the driver... anyway it was just possible for one car at a time to pass the tunnel, and another car was approaching from the other side with high speed, so we had to wait in front of the tunnel. It was a security car (Lada), but because of its totally iced windows the guys in there couldn't pay attention to us.

Ray: I think there was just once some action.
Coka: Well, I remember, there were aggros but never real brawls. I don't want to say that the people were softer, but it was definitely less violent. There were always some problems between someone and someone else but... we had Ray. (Laughing)
Bn105: I remember a story; we were to a party, some stupid Heidelberg shit. Anyway, their was trouble and clamor with some guys from out of town, cause they were -normal for parties- tagging around and somehow also crossing Ray's stuff. Finally there was peace and we started talking. At the end we went to their town and did a wholetrain together with them, both sides!
Ray: Say it different, we fucked their yard.
Bn105: Yeah, they had a pretty smooth yard.
Shir: ... pretty smooth? That was the most wicked yard I've ever seen. At the end of nowhere in spotlight, very nice.
Bn105: We were kids, getting there by train with our backpack full of rattling cans passing the security. Until someone came to pick us up.
Coka: ...in a car with jeans seats ... (laughing)
Bn105: ... and than through their area to a crappy party.
Ray: They just wanted to show us the local hip hop but it wasn't that cool...
Bn105: At the end we rocked that thing, Coka and Ray did a panel and everyone a wholecar, me and Shir a wholecar, Shir another panel and the local boys did another wholecar deathless. We went back with the first train then put out backpacks away and were passing our wholecars. That was a coolest feeling ever. Sadly one of our crew members has no picture of his wholecar. They accuse me, but I'm not saying anything now.

Coka: One seems to have said that we didn't write the text ourselves.
Shir: What makes ADA to ADA is first of all the street bombing thing. What we promoted a lot together with the SWE guys. And above all
Ray: Because we never really had yards. We then did the spots no one else wanted to, but that wasn't an easy thing at all and that's why all of these pieces were bombed really quick.
Shir: Before we founded ADA, we all were already writing for some time but mainly tagging. It was like a hobby for to steal 850'ers Edding markers and to smash the tram interior. We had a competition who gets the most tags on four tram stations. Once they nearly busted us trying. Coka and I did some scratchings on the tram pane as someone tapped on my shoulder "tickets please". We were totally shocked, but they didn't notice the scratchings and just wanted to see our tickets, so we told them some names and got out.
Coka: Not to give a wrong impression, we did sketches. In school I was actually just physically present but all the time sketching.
Shir: Style definitely was the most important thing, we always only sketched to have different styles.
Ray: To be honest, you've seen our first things, they were classically screwed up just like from others. It is like sport "Practice makes perfect.", if I bomb 20 trains then the 21st is better than the first.
Coka: You don't necessarily have to start a crew when everyone is already perfect with his skills. That's okay, since no one can diss you for your older stuff, but often the people then just don't fit together.
Bn105: About the topic "fitting together", we simply spent our youth with each other and I don't know how many crews there are that pushed that thing through as straight as we did. That's my ADA-thing, we grew up together, we screwed up together and now we're sitting here together at Christmas. Especially because the most of us live far away from Leipzig. Even if the interests, business or the job are totally divergent - is this still going.
Shir: lso if Skom for example was in and then out again, today we still like to chill with him from time to time, but he just doesn't fit into the crew. The four people that are sitting here are the crew.

Coka: At the beginning there were street bombings, they were there to make us known. It was really about pushing the name, without going to deep into art. However, at the same time we were also doing styles, because we wanted the people to know that we were able to do both. Someday yet, after five years of rocking it was over, I got what I wanted within Leipzig, and nothing else mattered. I gave a fuck about popularity within Germany, same for Saxony mostly because I think that Leipzig is the city in Saxony anyway if you want to be known somewhere. Berlin fucks everyone in any event, that's why it doesn't really matter.
Ray: You also change and there is most of all as well a life after Graffiti. Financial interests are also some how important as you change the focus of your matters. Maybe also because Graffiti becomes contrary to your occupation.

Ray: For me it was a certain event, and I don't know if it even was the last action. We were writing in the yard and then there was a abrupt "Watch out, there is a car coming" and I didn't care about that at all in this moment, there was no adrenalin rush anymore. Maybe it was because of the drugs, but there was just no kick. So I said to myself, if there's no kick anymore then i can leave it.
Coka: Before you always felt enormously happy when you finished something, but that was just gone. Then you just went to the spot, you did your thing, next day it was rolling, nice! If you were lucky someone made a picture for you. You yourself were indifferent about this.
Bn105: I can guess the time frame almost, namely when we all went to the army. The school was over, the funny summer was over and then we weren't that much in Leipzig anymore.
Shir: We also realized that you don't need a train at the end of an evening to have fun together, that there a different ways.

Coka: Compared to the past, there are many people now, that's cool because that means real competition. The bad side is just, that it's now a competition without an own concept, everyone just tries to make the most or the best with same stuff again and again. It got really boring.
Ray: I don't really notice the whole thing, just that the scene grows that's a peach! I just find one thing negative (know it from hearsay), that some wannabe-gangsters beat other people extremely up without any reason. Something like this shouldn't get out of hand, you can solve this as well in a battle, we were able to solve it squarely.
Bn105: Things change, but that doesn't mean that it's alright now if the kids thrash each other. The one is cooler than the other, but there is no style anymore. No one does proper street bombing, what's up? We showed the way, didn't we?
Shir: It's a disaster that nothing new happens and if I see the comments on Rail7 to some Berlin pics were some wackos write "uh, that's bullshit, how does that look like.". They got no plan, they babble around cause they are just focused on the stuff they know from their city. That's too deep for them. Nobody tries anything new, that's just it; I admit I did so much crap but it was at least about the progressing!
Ray: You got to see from were Graffiti developed and how the writers pushed it in those days. You have to discover and try it for yourself, that's the essential thing, it's not about having a look at Berlin or Munich or wherever. Of course you see stuff from other people and you are impressed, and some how you always take something with you, but at the end you got to go your own way. For sure it's way catchier if you go "stamping", actually that's clever psychological tactic.
Coka: ...but as soon as they stop, they are forgotten. An evidence for that is this interview today, because we actually didn't add much in the last four years. Although, the people remember.

Shir: A scout has the task to ensure security for the writer, not that much like he's saying "someone's coming" more like that you know that there is someone watching for you.
Bn105: Because of my central address and the contact to the Swedes, we were always hanging around at my place to then go out for bombing. Being a scout is also about organizing actions, call people and stuff. By the way, there is a cool trick if you want to see whether a car is police car or not, but you actually cannot see it because of its headlights. You stoop then behind a parked car but in a way that makes the roof of the car cover the light of the headlights.
Shir: I think Bn was more often rocking/out for graffiti than me, because he was always present.
Bn105: And because I never had paint, cans or caps with me we thought the cops would have never got a search warrant for my apartment. That's why my place was the storage. Why I was never writing myself? Because I'm a writing toy.

Coka: In no way we are oldschool, that's Easy, Joy and Cookee in Leipzig, no one else.
Shir: We are more like mid-school...
Ray: ... but graduated from high-school. (laughing)

Coka: Well, the thing with greeting someone is that you might forget somebody and then he's pissed, or you give shot-outs to the wrong people. That's why "hello" to everyone who wants to hear it.
Bn105: Just a big up to our parents. And a special big up to my granny, who got 90 yesterday. Moreover, respect to the CWS the crew with the coolest eye(glass) fashion in whole Leipzig...
Shir : ... and with blockbusters that made engine blocks burst.