Once We Were Lunk Alarmed with Louis Jensen | Episode 38

Summary

Once We Were Spacemen | Ep 38: Once We Were Lunk Alarmed with Louis Jensen

July 29, 2026 | Hosts: Nathan Fillion & Alan Tudyk | Guest: Louis Jensen

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Episode Overview

In this dynamic and often hilarious episode, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk introduce and explore the extraordinary life and career of their friend and show artist, Louis Jensen. From gritty teen years in London’s graffiti scene to international art projects, political runs, and now a forthcoming TV series, Louis’ story is one of reinvention, risk, camaraderie, and creative tenacity. The episode blends in-depth conversations, memorable anecdotes, and genuine affection among the trio, all delivered with the hosts’ signature warmth and wit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Louis Jensen: The Artist & Adventurer

[00:48–06:13]

• Louis is introduced as the creative force behind the podcast’s artwork and an old friend of Nathan’s.
• Alan and Nathan banter about Louis’ impressive and unusual CV, including art, marathons, and gold teeth.
• “My old man was in prison when I was born and said it as a joke to my mom, and she put it down on the birth certificate.” — Louis [04:13]
• They joke about the correct spelling and pronunciation of his name, highlighting cultural quirks.

2. Life Journeys: From Graffiti to Galleries

[17:10–32:48]

• Louis details his youth in London: basketball for England, involvement in the graffiti/tagger scene, and the allure/danger of street life.
• “I always had this life of duality, right? … Academically successful, successful in sport. But…drugs and that kind of life was very prevalent in the surroundings.” — Louis [18:59]
• Describes his career fork: leaving behind “dodgy” activities after a close call with a police raid, leading to a period of living in a cave house in Spain.
• On the meaning/value of tagging: thrill in “how’d that guy get up there” and the difference between narcissistic graffiti and public street art.
• “Graffiti is a wild animal. I don’t want to see it tamed.” — Louis [25:50]

3. Evolving Into a “Creative Catalyst”

[27:35–37:18]

• Transition from illegal street art to organizing legal massive murals and working as a “creative catalyst.”
• Tells about orchestrating huge collaborative art projects, including the world’s largest painting on the ground in Hackney Wick, London.
• Entry into mainstream via real estate and networking, which led him back into the art world — now with a business and management flair.
• “Make shit happen, get shit done.” — Louis [27:38]
• Laments the ethical balance between commercial demands (e.g., Coca-Cola murals) and artistic integrity.

4. Adventures and “Getting Shit Done”

[37:18–40:55]

• Overseeing international projects, Louis recounts riding 42 countries on a Harley-Davidson, filming, arranging logistics, and managing creative teams.
• “At 24, it was like – it felt like a lot.” — Louis [37:18]
• Discusses staying emotionally resilient: “Unless my life is at risk… what’s the worst that can happen?” [38:16]

5. Personal Growth: Sobriety, Politics, and the Expanding Role of Art

[40:31–51:25]

• Brief stint in politics: ran for Parliament in Lambeth and for London mayor — reflecting his drive for creating positive change.
• The cyclical, networked nature of the art world: old friends, old rivals, chances for second (and third) acts.
• Transitioned focus to making opportunities for other artists, managing and creating large-scale art worldwide.

6. Sharing the Insider’s View: Upcoming TV Series "In Frame"

[51:25–58:17]

• Louis previews “In Frame,” a travel-art docuseries that will take viewers “inside” creative communities worldwide through the eyes of local artists.
• “The city is the lens, the artist is the subject.” — Louis [54:58]
• Speaks candidly about art world misrepresentation: “Women make up 50% of the artists community but they only have a 15% representation in the gallery world.” — Louis [58:17]

7. Travel, Community, and Living "Rich in Experiences"

[55:15–56:48]

• Louis celebrates the “richness” that comes from diverse global friendships and experiences rather than material wealth.
• Shares delight over unexpected art hotspots (Bentonville, AR), and the privilege of being globally networked.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Tagging vs. Art:
  “Don’t ruin my hobby. I like to vandalize sometimes… but art is always subjective.” — Louis [23:24]
• On Life Decisions:
  “The street giveth and the street taketh.” — Louis [81:51]
• On Self-Belief:
  “A lot of it, like, you just gotta do it. If I do it, something’s gonna work out. What’s the worst that can happen?” — Louis [38:16]
• On Art’s Social Impact:
  “In 2014, we painted the San Jose Middle School… In 2015, they had zero police callouts. The effect that art can bring to a community…is huge.” — Louis [89:11]
• Heartfelt Friendship
  “As our friendship has grown…nothing has ever changed. I am honestly, truly grateful for our relationship.” — Louis to Nathan [79:24]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [04:09] Why four names? (Louis Amadeus Dane Jensen origin story)
• [06:52] Mark Addy/Jurassic Park ride anecdote
• [08:52] Meeting Kofi Annan at the UN and singing “Hello” on stage
• [12:25] The Stonehenge helicopter trip + Fatboy Slim story
• [17:34] Early art influences, tagging as “Lad,” and getting out of the street life
• [20:13] Hiding out in a Spanish cave house
• [23:24–25:42] Tagging as thrill, the difference between street art and graffiti
• [27:35] Becoming a ‘creative catalyst’, arranging giant murals
• [37:18] International adventures, Harley-Davidson cross-continental promo
• [40:55] Brief foray into politics/parliament/mayoral run
• [43:08] Explanation of “The Rolling People” crew and London street art territory
• [50:14] TV project ‘In Frame’ preview
• [58:17] Art world underrepresentation and misrepresentation
• [62:10] Advice for emerging artists: “Put yourself out there…”
• [66:00] “Get to know you” segment: Alan’s hand-signaling, Louis’ “gym dick” confessions
• [82:15] Wildest art adventure: Trapped (then escaping) in rural China
• [89:11] Art’s impact on community (San Jose Middle School example)
• [91:08] Final riffing on tagger names and DJ names

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Memorable, Funny, and Poignant Moments

• Alan’s ongoing confusion and wordplay with Louis’ name spelling; banter about CV vs resume [01:24]
• Animated description of gold teeth, tattoos, and possibly getting gold fingernails [05:59]
• Louis and Nathan’s wild adventures: helicopter to Stonehenge, Fatboy Slim rave, Disneyland with VIP access [12:25; 44:53]
• Group riffing on “lunk alarm” (the gym siren), inspiring several new tagger/DJ names [69:13–74:09]
• Personal revelations about addiction, sobriety, and the power of new starts [60:35]
• The “get to know you” round: Alan’s hand-pointing/clapping navigation in NYC; Louis’ gym etiquette rage; Nathan’s sidewalk showdowns [62:49–76:38]
• The “prison break” from a walled Chinese village, painting defiant messages, and using snorted ginseng as a last resort [82:15–89:11]

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Advice and Takeaways

• For artists and creatives:
  "Just put yourself out there. Get into different gallery shows. If you find events that are art-related, put yourself in them... You need to be seen, you need to be mixing with people. It's about who you know, not what you know." — Louis [62:11]
• On living:
  “Be rich in experience” — Louis [56:17]
• On self-doubt:
  “What’s the worst that can happen?” — [38:16]

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The Tone

The episode is casual, candid, filled with laughter, genuine affection, and earned wisdom. Nathan and Alan’s warmth as hosts gives space for Louis’s larger-than-life stories, while never shying from reflecting on mistakes, transformation, and the meaningful power of community and creativity.

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Final Reflection

This episode is a celebration of the unpredictable paths of life and art, the friendships that sustain and inspire us, and the courage required to both take risks and maintain integrity in creative careers. For those who haven’t listened, it’s a roller-coaster journey through the back-alleys and high galleries of art, driven by a guest whose stories are as wild as they are moving.

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Additional Links

No ad reads or irrelevant sections included.

If you want to see Louis’s work or learn more about the upcoming “In Frame” TV project, keep an eye on his social handles and the Once We Were Spacemen feed for updates.

Transcript

[A]

Someone asked me recently and it's just like, you know, what advice would you give to someone? And I'm like, again, sounds so cliche. But just put yourself out there. Get into different gallery shows. If you find events that are art related, put yourself in them because you need to have. You need to be seen, you need to be mixing with people because it. Like anything in life, it's about who you know, not what you know.

[B]

Once we were spacemen.

[A]

Spacemen.

[B]

I tend to play weird people, usually aliens and robots and things that don't have romance.

[C]

I once didn't get a job where they were looking for a Nathan Fillian type. Once we were spacemen.

[B]

Once we were spacemen.

[C]

Alan, you've. You've never met Lou Tinsel.

[B]

I haven't. I. I only know he's the guy who did the art for our show. Like the, the. When you look at. On like our little thing.

[C]

You've heard me mention his name many times because I hang out with him.

[B]

Yes. And yeah, when we were in London last, you. When I left, you went off on that really cool art tour with him.

[C]

That's right. I'm so excited for you to meet Louis because his life was kind of. It's kind of like yours in that it's full of these bizarre adventures that you tell them and people go, what?

[B]

I looked over his cv, his. Which is the English version of his resume. Yeah, resume. That's exactly the. Yep. And which is the French version of resume. And I think his is even more extraordinary. I. I can't. I can't wait to hear how some of these things link up. Is how you go from this to this to this to this. It's just, it's quite an adventure.

[C]

He's involved in incredible projects that are so huge, they're larger than life. And Alan, I think you're going to understand that Louis himself is a little larger than life.

[B]

Life's pretty large, but. Okay, I'm interested.

[C]

Let's do this.

[A]

Hello, everyone.

[B]

Welcome back to another episode of Once We Were Spacemen in Space, which is that black inky part of the above sky that you can't see from the earth, but we are in actual black inky sp. While on Earth, although we see sunshine but not night, you should also feel in the day your spacey ness, which we do for Once We Were space men. Still are. As are you. Witness. Feeling altitudic.

[C]

Wow, that was.

[A]

That was gnarly.

[C]

There was some verbosity, there's some wordsmithing going on in there.

[B]

It was Almost. It almost made sense.

[C]

Yeah. I didn't quite track it, but it felt like you're smart enough that I was. Clearly. It's my fault if I don't track that, right?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, because the inky black, I think that's. It just got too sciency once I got into that part.

[C]

Alan, have you ever met Louis Jensen face to face?

[B]

I not only haven't met him, I haven't said his name out loud, so I might even say Lewis, as opposed to Louis, which is how it's spelled.

[C]

That's how his name is spelled.

[A]

It's not how it's spelled.

[C]

Louis is spelled. I. I have it in my phone. With an S on the end.

[A]

It is with an S on the end. And so that's how it's spelled. No, Lewis is actually spelled L, E, W, I, S. It's only Americans that spell Lewis with L, O, U, I, S. That's correct.

[C]

We have a. We have right here a cultural difference.

[A]

Cultural disconnect there.

[B]

Yeah, there we go.

[C]

There we go. But I just go for the French Louis King Louis, where if you were to. If you were to Google Louis Jensen, a Dutch author comes up. That is not the Louis Jensen we're talking to today.

[B]

So I read that novel for nothing. Thank God. It was so boring. Most of the words were unintelligible.

[C]

This is Louis Amadeus Dane Jensen.

[A]

Boom.

[B]

Nice, Louis.

[C]

Why. Why four names?

[A]

Well, first of all, the name came from. My old man was in prison when I was born and said it as a joke to my mom, and she put it down on the birth certificate.

[C]

I see.

[A]

And Dane is his actual name, and Jensen's obviously his last name, but Louis Amadeus. But I think it actually does come from the fact that my great granddad enjoyed Louis Armstrong and Wolfgang Amadeus Moats. That's the story I like to tell

[C]

anyway, rather than the former, rather than joke gone wrong on Versus.

[A]

Yeah, I think you know, where I come from. Like, my mom wanted to try and make me more regal than I was, you know, than where we came from. She's just like, ah, you know, my son's gonna be posh someday.

[C]

Did that work out?

[A]

I don't know. Look where I am.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The. The picture of class. When I think a glass, I think Louis Jensen.

[A]

Guy with gold teeth covered in tattoos. Yeah, that works.

[C]

If. If one were to explain Louis Jensen. Lou, you're coming in at what, six, four?

[A]

Six, four. 200 pounds.

[C]

Okay, you're six' four, about 200 pounds. How many stone is that?

[A]

I think I'VE been here too long to even convey it, but round it's like 14 and a half. 15 stone.

[C]

I like. I just like doing that.

[B]

Such an inaccurate. It's like. It's so between things.

[A]

Do you know what it is in kilos? What pounds is in kilos? You know, the conversion of that? I don't know.

[C]

Nobody knows.

[A]

15 stone is a race. Around 95 kilos.

[C]

Tall fella, athletic. Louis run marathons and whatnot.

[A]

I did the New York one last year.

[C]

You have tattoos all about your body, your shortcut hair. How many gold teeth?

[A]

I got four permanent ones.

[C]

And do you have any gems in there?

[A]

No gems. It hasn't been bejazzled?

[C]

Not yet. Any plans. Any plans to gym up your.

[A]

Okay. You never know. But I am thinking about getting gold implanted nails. Are really contemplating having. I don't know how it works, but I think they can remove a nail, implant a gold fingernail.

[B]

Does it grow like the other ones? Because I see a money making venture here.

[A]

Nah. Nah.

[C]

Okay. It's so difficult to know where to start because I want to start at the beginning. But that won't tell you why Louie's here today. Louis is connected to us for a couple of reasons. One, he's a friend of mine through Michelle Chapman for many years. Two, Louis is an accomplished artist. He does the art. For Once We Were spacemen. You've heard his name many times in the closing credits of the show. Also, Louis has a connection through a friend of yours, Alan, in Mark Addy, one of the first guests we had on this podcast.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And one I'm really proud of. One just I thought was a really cool get.

[B]

Yeah, he's, he's, he's, he's a. He's a smart fellow.

[C]

And Louis, would you please tell us your Mark Addy story?

[A]

Yeah, I really enjoyed his podcast as well. But when I was younger, I did a. Nathan hyped this up as if I knew him.

[C]

And this is wonderful.

[A]

Deeper than I did. But when I. When I was younger, around 16, I used to do body United nations and we did an exchange with a school in Newport and the OC and we went to. For like, for a little excursion day. We went to Universal Studios. Anyway, so we're lining up for the Jurassic park ride there and they like kind of held the line and I was like, what is going on here? And they basically held it up for your friend so he could have his own problem. So what I did.

[B]

Excuse me, cunts. Yeah, essentially. Right.

[A]

So I decided to. I was like that. So I, I hopped the line, jumped the fence and jumped in the back as they were about to move and just hopped in the back and he went, oh, you alright? I was like, yeah, you're right. And then we did the ride together. It was amazing. It was just me at the back and him and his family at the front. I think I ruined the photo on that one as well. It's just me at the back.

[C]

You know they have that framed at home and everybody's looking at it going, who's this?

[A]

Yeah, the back guy.

[C]

No idea.

[A]

Been waiting in that line for ages as well. Yeah, yeah. I'm not like no special, special treatment.

[C]

Alan. You're going to find through conversation with Louis Jensen, he's going to drop some bombs every once in a while and you're going to go, wait a minute, wait a minute, go back, go back.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

There are so many of these. I'm going to. It's. They're going to be hard to gather up into one spot.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

But since he brought it up, the mock United nations that you were attending and when you were 16, you also went to the United nations, did you not? Whether you. You met the.

[A]

The leader is Kofi Annan at the time. Yeah.

[B]

Oh really?

[A]

It really was. Good memory because obviously it switched out since then. But yeah, we did. We went to the International Court of Justice in the Hague and we did the big conference there. My school was actually the only state school, the only. You would call it public school here, but public school for us is private school in the UK was the only state school that got invited. And so anyway, it's a huge modern United nations conference. People from Eton and all these different schools from around the world that come together and obviously do the mun. And our school, because it was such a low school, we were representing digibuty in Africa. That was our country.

[C]

Gotcha.

[B]

One of the best named countries I think in the world. Digiboot. Yeah.

[A]

And obviously beer from a state school. We played on that. And the people there for the private schools were super impressed with our jokes. But so the opening kind of conference, they had Kofi Annan do a talk. So he came up to the speech and then sat down and they were whittling through different speeches and introducing different people and then they kind of had time to make up and they're like, you know, does anybody want to come up and say something like. And I was like, oh yeah, this is perfect time. I just thought they wanted to fill the time. I didn't realize I didn't realize they were expecting something political or something of any intellect. So I. I went up there on stage and I sung Lionel Richie, hello. Go on stage. And went, hello, Is it me you're looking for? And then I got halfway through. I could see it in your eyes. Until they literally, like, someone ran up on stage and just covered the mic. But Kofi and that found it super funny. That man was entertained for sure.

[B]

I bet it was a nice break from all the bullshit that they have to shovel at the un.

[A]

Exactly, exactly. They love this. And it's so funny because at the end of every conference, anyway, again, because we were the only state school, we used to play Jarvis Cocker, Common People. We used to play Pulp. Common People.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

We used to dance in the circle there. And they'd all be trying to get into the group. We're like, no, no, no, no, no. This one's for us.

[B]

Did you hear William Shatner's remake of that song, Common People?

[A]

He did a remake of Common People?

[B]

It's badass. I recommend it. This will be Alan's song of the day.

[C]

What are you listening to?

[B]

What you listening to? What are you listening to? Alan, can you turn it down? It's Common People by William Shatner. All right, I'm sorry to interrupt, but. Yes, yes, that's brilliant.

[C]

Now, Alan, Louis Jensen and I met in 2018. We were just tracking this. We met in 2018 in an artist's studio. Deface.

[B]

I've been saying it. Deface.

[C]

I've seen his work now all over the world because I do a little bit of traveling. It's all over LA right now. There's a spot downtown where we go film all the time. And I see massive murals by Deface down there. What is that area of town down there?

[A]

Are you talking about the artist district? Yeah, it's literally the downtown. The artist district. Yeah, that's. And that particular piece, which is opposite where you film, is that love mural that we did. And it's at Cory Helford Gallery, which is a gallery that we shot at. Huge gallery. But that's right opposite where you film.

[C]

Exactly. We. We're down there all the time. We're down there all the time. So. But that was the. That was the Fellas studio in London where I very first met you. A couple of days later, we took a helicopter to Stonehenge and met this professor from some prestigious university who said, guys, I think I got this place figured out. I think I know what it's all about, and gave us the lowdown on Stonehenge, as only a professor could. It was incredible.

[B]

He bored us to death. What? What? No, no, no.

[A]

He was actually super interested.

[C]

Oh, really?

[A]

Like, Nathan's missing the part at the. You know, he gave us a very, like, educated guess in terms of formation etc, like that. And he was like. And then essentially at the end, he was like. And, you know, that's when, you know, the father's sky just basically penetrated Mother Earth. And we were like, oh, Sex.

[B]

It sounds like they were married. So it was at least good, because it was.

[C]

It was. It was fascinating. It was really fascinating. And at the same time, too, he said, by the way, you guys, I heard you came in a helicopter. So on your way back, just scan the landscape because there's Stonehenges everywhere. This is just the most famous one. But they're kind of littered across the countryside here. And sure enough, you'd watch. You see, like, a little town. There's a church, there's a little town, there's a little store, there's the school. And running diagonally through it was a Stonehenge. You can see it from the sky.

[A]

Yeah, that was a beautiful day. Then we went to. We went to a Fat Boy Slim rave afterwards where Christian Naan played as well and supported Fat Boy Slim. So.

[C]

Right. So right after that, we were at. That was called the Crystal Palace.

[A]

That was quite an experience, Alex. Alexandra Palace.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you very much.

[A]

Ali Pally, we call it.

[C]

And Fat Boy Slim was the headlining act. But Christian Nairn, who everybody knows as Hodor from Game of Thrones, is also an extremely talented dj. He was one of the fellas who opened up for Fat Boy Slim. So we're backstage with Christian and meeting all these DJs and people coming through, and then you go out there and you see, like, these are the fans that follow the DJs. It's craziness.

[B]

So they follow the fans that follow the DJs. They go like, rave to rave to rave to rave, like the Grateful Dead did way back in the day, taking acid. But they take Molly.

[C]

I guess I'm gonna leave that to you, Louie. Is that what happens with the DJs?

[A]

I'm not so clued up on the house DJs, but what we used to. We used to do a lot of. Well, not me personally, but we used to have a lot of illegal raves back in the day in London and before the ordinance order. And I forget what year it was, but we used to. There used to be a lot of illegal raves that were hosted all the way through, like, West London, out by Acton or where the warehouses are, and a lot in East London as well, by the Docklands and stuff like that. But they were very well organized, highly illegal, but the police kind of let them go because there was always, like, paramedics that were showing up. And you don't always get, like, you know, a secret, right. So you buy your ticket and then you get the address on the day, and then you turn up. But these were drum and bass and jungle raves. That's what I was more into than the kind of house music that the Fat Boy Slim was doing, for sure. But I did go to. And it was the only time I ever got mugged. Only time in my life I ever got mugged. But we went to Brighton when Fat Boy Slim did Brighton on the beach. And I always remember. We remember being like 12 or 13, and we got off the train down by Brighton beach, and there was just these bigger boys. They just like. And I swear to God, but like, these bigger boys kind of walked up the street. They're like. Flicked out a tiny little flick knife. They're like, give us your phone. Give us your wallet. And we were like. And it hadn't even. The rave hadn't even started at that point. And, yeah, we gave him the phone in the wallet. But then, like, when we went back, I remember going back to school and, oh, man, we got bullied hard for that. We're like, ah, you got mugged. You got mugged.

[B]

Really?

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

They piled on.

[B]

They're on the side of the muggers.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Where we come from, you could. You can't let your guard down. You got. You gotta be able to hand. You gotta be able to handle your own, you know?

[B]

Wow.

[C]

At 13, you got to. Oh, man, that's. That's high expectation.

[B]

If you get those gold fingernails, a mugging is going to be a very different experience. I'm. I mean, yes, there'll be a lot of scratching, but, you know, it'll. They'll make weapons. But still, if they take those off. Give us your fingernails, mate. Give us your fingernails.

[C]

They just snip off the ends of

[B]

the fingers, nails and teeth right here.

[A]

Put in the nails and teeth.

[C]

All right, from that point. Wait. We've had many adventures over the years, Louis. I. I don't want to say again. I don't know where to start. I want to. And now I want to kind of go back in time. You were a young man in London growing up, you were going to crazy raves, maybe got. Maybe Got involved some gang stuff maybe there's some. Some wrong side of the track stuff in there. When did you start with the painting? What did it start with?

[B]

Tagging.

[A]

There was an artist. He's still one of my favorite artists, actually. He moved more into tattooing. But word to Mother, we grew up together. But he was a school generation older than me, so I was always like, very into, I suppose, American culture, right. Hip hop was very prevalent for me. Basketball, I played basketball for England at under 13s. Like, I loved basketball and like. So word to Mother, he was like, I say, a school generation older than me, so he's five years older than me. So I always saw him tagging when we were going to basketball practice and stuff, because he was in. His name is Word To Mother Word Tom Park. But like his. His graph name, which is the most ridiculous graph name because it's like 12 letters. It's very difficult to paint that in a quick time. So he ended up shortening to just like painting Mother. But I saw him and was. Was, you know, just trying to copy and tag. And I used to write lad, which is because my name is Louis Amadeus Dane Jensen. So I used to write lad. And then, you know, the connotation with lad that comes in into the UK as well. So it's like a half. That's quite a double entendre. But there's something to it anyway that, you know, even back then I thought was kind of cool. And I actually evolved into writing King Lad or Kng Bad because I wanted to drop the eye because I didn't want to be so obvious with the King. It's so ridiculous, dude. It really is. I mean, like tagging your name on a wall. I'm nearly 40 years old and I

[B]

still do it,

[A]

you know, but, like, it's, for me, it's. It's fun. It's something about getting your name out there. But I suppose, yeah, going back to your original question, I did. I kind of. I always had this life of duality, right? Like, I was always academically successful, successful in sport. But then where I grew up and how I grew up, like drugs and that kind of life was very prevalent in, like, the surroundings. And, you know, it's the cliche of, like, when you grow up and that you do have this impression that there's nothing else for you. Like, you have to follow down that route, right? So that's the kind of route that I did go down for many years until I got a point where it was kind of like you take, you know, It's a fork in the road, right? You go this way, you go that way. And I was very fortunate. I feel like fate fell on my side with how things unfolded. I think I told you before, Nathan, but, yeah, my partner at the time found that he got arrested just by chance. And then I kind of fled the country and lived on a cave house in Spain.

[C]

So that's the thing is you. You dropped this bomb on me one time. You said, yeah, I got into a little trouble and I had to go to Spain and live in a cave. But okay, wait a little more. Rounded up that story. There are houses. There are houses built into the sides of hills and mountains. Like cave houses.

[A]

Yeah. So just so happened, like, my partner didn't turn up to a safe house one day, and then I was like, this is a bit weird. So I pulled around to his house. He lived in his cul de sac. I'm trying to shorten the story real quick, but. And I. There was pig wagons everywhere. There's police cars everywhere. I thought, oh, he's been this pig wagon.

[B]

Another tagger. Is that

[C]

pig wagon my new tag?

[B]

Sorry, Pig wagon.

[A]

Unless they ride it on a pig wagon.

[B]

Right.

[C]

I'm going to be pig wagon, but it's going to be like, wagon, Mateo. Like, pig wagon. Like, Like I'm wagon. A pig around.

[A]

So there was tons of cop cars around. And then I knew he'd been nicked. I knew he'd been nicked. Which, sorry, arrested. And. And then I just. I got my driver at the time, we just. I grabbed a bag of cash and then jumped on the plane. Next plane out, which was Amsterdam. So I was in Amsterdam for a minute.

[B]

What was the bag of cash?

[A]

I literally went back home and pulled a bag of cash. Just what? Do you have the cash? There's so many questions.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Where do you get the cash for the bag? Is that the tagging makes the money at that point or that's the drugs?

[A]

Yes, exactly.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Got it, got it. Get your bag. Cash. And he was being nicked by the pig wagons because the tagging or because of drugs?

[A]

Drugs.

[B]

Got it, got it, got it, got it.

[A]

They raided it.

[C]

So while he's being arrested, you're hot footing out of town.

[A]

Oh, yeah. And then a friend's dad had. He had this cave. He. So I got wind of it and my friend was like, hey, we can go there. We can chill there. It's beautiful. It's. It's. The town's called Fusa, which is a tiny, small, little town just about 45 minutes outside of Granada in southern Spain. And they have these crazy cave houses. And I'm not joking. They're literally houses that you can. We would make in extra rooms. We had like a kangaroo and we were making, like extra rooms in the house. Like, you can keep just extending it as much. Wow. It was insane. You had to do it at a certain angle, but it had electric. It had the Internet. We didn't have any windows. That was the issue. But it was so beautiful. Like, there's an orange tree on the outside and a wake up. There'd be the lady that come with the. With the trolley, with the bread every morning.

[C]

Oh, nice and cool in there. I bet the temperature was gorgeous.

[A]

Gorgeous. But you would just sleep for hours because you're like, ah, still, whatever time, you know, even the sense of time. Right. Went out.

[C]

Like sleeping in a casino, when I

[A]

was going to say went out the window, but there are no windows

[B]

now. How amazing.

[C]

You and I have talked about art. And I shared with you that I'm not a big fan of taggers. I see someone tagging something and I think that's kind of weak. You're not really being artistic. I think you're just kind of ruining stuff for other people. And you explained to me something about tagging is wonderful when you see something up on a spot where you go, how'd that guy get up there?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And that's where tagging starts to get its worth for me, for sure.

[A]

I mean, again, all. I hate calling tagging graffiti art, because when I do it and people say to me, oh, that's an art. And I'm like, don't ruin my hobby. I like to vandalize sometimes. It's not the same. But, you know, art is always subjective. If you ever hear me say art is subjective, by the way, that's code for me not liking something. Someone's like, oh, what do you think of this? And I'm like, no, art is subjective. Maybe not liking something, which is more and often the case. But so, yeah, for me, especially when it comes to tagging and especially graffiti, it's more about the reach. Right. Like how. And a lot of people, a lot of younger generation of graffiti writers these days are rappelling down the side of buildings.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

You know, like 4 or 500ft in the air.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Repelling down certain buildings. Rams. Who's this graffiti kid from New Zealand. He represents the crew MSK as well, which started out of la, but he is kind of king of that around the globe right now. Just literally repelling down building. So it's like I look at things and I'm like, how did you get up there? How did you get to that point? There's certain bridges that I know that people would have had to climb. Their tiptoes are on the edge of the bridge and their fingers like that. And then got to a point and there's. And also then you've got to think about CCTV and being looked at. So there's. There's a ten foot and a pear piece that is above by London Bridge, right by London Bridge station that I find phenomenal. It's right in the center and it's one of the most watched CCTV like areas in the whole of London, especially after the attack that happened a few years ago.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And it's a full color piece. So it's not only just an outline, they've actually done their full outline. They filled it in. There's a fade in it, there's a couple of highlights and I'm just like, how. You know. So that's where I get a buzz from. And then there's also the. You know, there is a difference between graffiti and street art. Graffiti essentially is a narcissistic hobby, Right. It's just, how many times can you get your name up? You want other graffiti writers to see it. It's a code. And then there's street art and public art. And that to me feels like it's more like a gift, right? It's more like a gift to the public.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

So whereas art isn't a hostage in a museum, it is out there amongst the people, it's free and it's for everyone.

[A]

Exactly. And I do also feel like I'm. Again, these are just my opinions, right? Like, I'm not saying they're right or wrong, but where street art can transition into a gallery. Now, for me, seeing graffiti transition to a gallery upsets me purely because graffiti is the wild animal. Like, I don't want to see it tamed, I don't want to see it in a gallery space. Like, I don't want people to transfer their graffiti into the gallery space. But there is graffiti writers who have developed their contemporary art, right? Like, Futura is one of my huge heroes. One of the most. One of the godfathers of graffiti, based out of New York, what's his name? Smashed a ton of trains back then. Futura. Futura 2000. Really inspirational to me, just in the pure fact that, like, he has his graffiti but then he has his art. You know, they're separated and one can influence the other, but they're like they're two different entities and it's contemporary art goes into the gallery space. I'm just not a fan of seeing tags or graffiti or full blown pieces and throw ups in a, in a gallery space. It just feels like a caged tiger.

[C]

So, so you're a young man, you're engaged in graffiti, you certainly have an artistic ability, you certainly have some art inside you that wants to get out and you're in the scene and you're with these people and you're tagging alongside making art pieces alongside other folks fully illegally. What point did you come to where you said what if I did this? And you started organizing artists with buildings and you started making a business out of this. As far as saying I'm going to set up this building with this artist and get a massive mural done.

[B]

Like an agent or like a manager, like a talent manager or something.

[C]

Exactly. What is it?

[A]

I'm a creative catalyst is what I am.

[B]

Oh, nice.

[C]

Is that what it says on your business card? And do you have a business card? And is it spray painted?

[B]

That's my tag, Creative catalyst. It's very long, but yes. And I don't know how to spell catalyst. I'm sorry, go on.

[A]

Creative catalyst is probably the best way to describe it because I make, I always like the phrase I make shit happen, get shit done. You know. I remember when Ben Iron was coming back from the US when he got got kicked out of the us so Ben Ion was famous famously. David Cameron bought one of his pieces to give to Obama when he got into the White House and one of his pieces was hanging in the White House. And when he was coming back to the UK after doing a stint in the Bay Area, he was like dude, I need to do something. So I was like, cool, let's do, let's do the largest painting on the ground. That's what we're gonna do. There was all these spaces in Hackney Wick at the time in East London, which Hatney Wick used to, used to house more artists per square mile than anywhere else in definitely in Europe, maybe the potentially the world at the time. So there was a lot of development going on especially around the Olympics and stuff and there's a lot of empty spaces and yeah, it took like 12 months to pull off. But we pulled off this, the largest painting on the ground which I think 25000 square feet or whatever. We actually had had images from, from space taken by NASA which was really. So it's always about like make sure happen, get shit done. But how I, how I transitioned. So after coming back off the run, I did find myself as a real estate agent for a very brief period. That's also luckily, weirdly, is how me and Nathan, that's how we got connected essentially right through. Because if it wasn't for that brief period. Well, because when I was younger I, I, I made enough money and it was pre 2008 that I could, I, I was able to do some dodgy photoshopping. But I bought houses. I bought a house when I was like, like 18, you know, with dirty money.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I was like, well, you know, when I came back off the run, I was like, well, I need to do something legit. What, what can I do? What do I know? I was like, well, I bought, bought and sold a house before. Like, maybe I'll do that. And that's when I found myself into real estate for a very brief period. And that's where I met.

[C]

Isn't there a licensing thing you have to, you have to get licensed?

[A]

Not in the uk.

[C]

So you just said, okay, I'm a real estate agent now and what's the steps you were doing high end real estate. You weren't doing like crappy little places.

[B]

So not just like caves, you were you gone, no more caves. You were now into actual houses.

[A]

Actual houses, yeah. Yeah, obviously they were beautiful. I'll just applied and did interviews with different real estate agent companies in London and central London.

[C]

Now, to be fair, if I lined up a bunch of blokes and said pick out the real estate agent, I would not pick Louis Jensen. I would say that guy's going to take my wallet.

[A]

Yeah, that's just. It wasn't, definitely wasn't a fit for me, but it did lead me back

[C]

to how did you convince people it worked?

[A]

That's how I met our mutual friend David, which means I met Michelle, which means I met you. If I didn't, you know, sell him his building that he lives in now, then this would never have happened.

[C]

It's true.

[A]

Everything happens for a reason to a degree. Right. There's always.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To be learning. Everything does happen for a reason as

[B]

cliche that sounds judge a book by its cover. You're gonna look at him and say this guy did drugs, this guy's a druggie. He probably goes and vandalizes all over place the, the place. Why would you think that? Wait, he lives in a hole in the ground. But you're obviously, you get done. You're a Good businessman. You bought a house at 18. Says a lot. Even if it was with dirty money, which is another good tag name. Dirty money. Thank you.

[A]

And I had a really great accountant, like nearly mentioned her name. I won't mention her name, but like pay slips, bank statements, and had me down as a self employed pharmacist, which isn't. Isn't untrue. It wasn't untrue. It wasn't untrue. I should say it wasn't untrue.

[C]

Oh, my God. Okay.

[A]

No, but yeah, once I did that, I met these guys that were funny enough working with word to Mother, the guy that I looked up to as a kid. Oh, well. So it all came back full circle. They're like, oh, you're from the same area at the south than Tom park, where tomorrow. I was like, well, you know, you know Tom. And then I found out Tom's doing really well. Like, made a career, had like gallery shows international in like internationally acclaimed. And I went and met with him. He was like, yeah, dude, this is, you know, what we do. And I was like, whoa. So it led me back into. And I worked for an agency for a bit where we did. And it just happens to be right place, right time, because back then in the early 2000 and tens, after Banksy had grown up, blew up in the early 2000s, the 2000s is really where people, brands and agencies started commercializing it, right? So we were doing like hand painted murals, almost like ghost painting, you know, like how they used to do advertisements back in the day on the side of buildings.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And I found my way through that. But I, I did a project with, I did a project with Coca Cola. And you know, I learned a lot because I was still in my early 20s and I learned a lot and it lacked integrity. Like, and we went over certain works in, in East London that had been there years. And I know I learned my lesson there of balancing like, like sacrificing integrity for money and like, where, where do you sell your soul? How do you balance that in terms of putting food on the table but also making your soul feel healthy? So then I, and I at the time had met Jamal Edwards, God rest his soul, a friend of mine who passed away a few years ago. I love him because he taught me, taught me so much, even though he was so much younger than me. But he had a successful YouTube channel, youth YouTube channel called SBTV, which was like, it like showcased grime artists. And grime is like a, like the UK ver. It's Like a UK version of hip hop, I suppose. But, yes, very difficult explain grime that.

[B]

But also married Elon Musk or had kids with him, I think.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, same, same, same.

[C]

But different.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, same thing, but different. So he was like, hey, I wanna. I wanna an art arm to my. To my channel. And he had millions of subscribers at the time. And I was like, okay. So that's where. That's why it's spraying bricks. Because SB relates back to him and his channel, which his sbtv was based on Smokey Bars, which was his rap name, which was his MC name. So that's where the name Spraying Brits comes from. But he was such a good friend to me because it got to a point because he was so big and blew up. He came to me and he said, hey, the people higher up and me, the people that basically fund a lot of this, they want me to complete. Completely remix. Because I started filming artists that I work with. And, like, you know, I have such a close relationship from painting with all these people and knowing these people and some of them growing up with these people. And so I. I did a. Like a documentary series, essentially. And he came to me and he was like, look, the higher the people above, they want to. They want to switch out some of the logo. They want me to be the face. And this is when it goes back from learning from the inside the fact of integrity and sacrificing my integrity, right? And I'm so grateful that he came to me as a friend to present that to me. He's like, I understand that might not be what you want. And I said, yeah, I'll be real with you, Jamal. You're like, you're not the fate. You don't know anything about this culture. You don't come from this culture. You don't. You've never painted. It's not like you do graffiti. It's not like, you know these guys. Like, this is. This is. This is my realm. And he was like, dude, if you want to break off, break off. So I broke off and I released the series on my own. And then that developed into somehow got picked up by Harley Davidson, who saw it, and we're just like, wow, this is amazing. We want to do Miami Art Basel. We want a load of your artists to paint tanks. And then I was working with a very good dp, like, director of photography at the time, Pro copy. And we went and met with Harley because I was like, well, this is serious. I'm like 24 years old, and I know really What I'm doing, like, trying to make a legitimate company and this massive global brand has come to me to do a project. And we went and met with them and realized they're lacking in the touring market. So we came up with this whole crazy concept to, like, tour around America with a bike and, like, visit artists. Let's take spray and bricks on the road. And then actually they were like, well, we like the touring market in Emea. So I completely sidestepped, went into video production for a bit, where we. For four and a half months, we took a Harley Davidson street glide. We created this whole brand called Discover More. We took a Harley Davidson street glide from Jordan in the Middle east, rode around the whole of the Middle East, Northern Africa, all through Europe up to Scandinavia and all the way back down. We did 42 countries on one bike. And it was me. I took a friend of mine who hadn't even finished university at the time, and I got them to. I got them to fast track his graduation because. Because they were like, wow, this is a crazy opportunity. You're gonna go on the road with Harley Davidson and do this thing, media that you always wanted to do. And I had. He was the dp and then I had one photographer and we hit a different city every day and I had to arrange all the press and everything. At 24, it was like. It felt like a lot.

[B]

It was.

[C]

It is a lot. It is a lot. Especially if you don't know what you're doing,

[A]

pissing it off. But I made it work and you sure did.

[C]

I am always amazed at the stuff that you convince people to let you do.

[A]

Now you got. There's got to be an element of self belief. I can be quite an insecure person sometimes, but a lot of it, like, I'm like, it. You just gotta do it. If I do it, it's. Something's gonna work out. Like, what's the worst that can happen? I always think that, like, you know Xander, right? Nate, he did that song in his, like, in his last ep was like, my friend dressed in Nike isn't stressed. Because, like, as much as I get sad and down, sometimes I don't. I don't get stressed. And I think stresses me out because unless my life is at risk or unless a friend or a loved one's life is at risk, what is the worst that can happen, right? Because to me, like, a death of a loved one or death of yourself is the worst thing. Anything else is just like in the ether, you know, just.

[C]

I love this. I always love Looking for advice that you can pass on to someone who's trying to do something. Something over something general that will help everything. And this is the. What's the worst that can happen? This is the advice that I think people are looking for. When you start to self doubt and think maybe I shouldn't and your fear starts to take control. That's a fantastic question. What's the worst that could happen?

[A]

It was the worst that could happen. And even on that trip with Harley Davidson we, I got, we got in a serious car accident. We were coming through Palmer because we had the, we had the support car and then the bike behind that we always had a rider on. And this, this 18 Wheeler just clicked the back cuz we. They gave us because the, the budget for the expenses wasn't good. Like they really. And I learned a lot about contract law for all this because I was very young and I lost the. I lost, I lost the brand in through that because I. We came up the whole brand and a couple of years later they took it and ran with it which led me back into arts management. But anyway. But they gave us this dodgy car from Bulgaria which was our support car. It was some guy's friend's car and the wheel axle looked like. I was like dude, it's coming off. I can see the wheel. So I went to pull over, we hit this, this 18 wheeler just bang straight to the back. Flipped us round. Luckily everybody was safe. But he flipped. His whole cargo had flipped and it was all styrofoam, right? So it looked like a bunch of cocaine had just like hit the four lane highway. And in true Italian style. So me and my friend, we were like okay, we're fine, we're fine. Let's go check on the. The truck driver.

[B]

So we, let's go get some cocaine. Yeah, dude.

[A]

In true Italian style, we open the door to make sure he's okay. And he's like mama mia, mamma mia. But we're supposed to be on the road again the next day. And I was like, what am I gonna do? It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. Like I'm gonna book us a hotel, I'm gonna get us another car. And so I've always been able to. Dealing under pressure is fine. I actually get more wound up with little things that should just work.

[C]

You've managed to now though through this. So through that you lost the brand which made you create more another brand so you could connect artists with buildings.

[A]

I had a production company and it kind of led into, like, doing a lot of, like, fashion stuff. And fuck me, like, don't get me wrong, I like looking good. But that industry is, I don't know, struggle with it. It really. I really became so much more detached from. From the art. And during this time, like, I entered back into politics, which it's kind of interesting. Like, I ran for mayor, and that's the one.

[C]

You ran for mayor in London, was it?

[A]

Yeah, I ran for Parliament first in 2011 in the Lambeth. Because the constituency of Lambeth, and then I ran for mayor in 2015.

[C]

Had you won and gotten into Parliament, would you be wearing one of those wigs?

[A]

Nah, dude, no. Because a member of Parliament doesn't have to wear those wigs.

[B]

But if you wanted to just. This is for personal question, right?

[A]

But they still was. Nah, dude, look at this skin fade. Crazy.

[B]

You don't want to mess that up.

[A]

Come on, Come on.

[B]

I want to wig the skin fade.

[C]

I'm going to interject a couple of things here because I have a list here of. And we're going to get back to more of this Louis Jensen journey, because it continues. I'm gonna. I'm just gonna have a list here of adventures that I've had with Louis Jensen. Just some of the things that we've done together. So we've mentioned the helicopter ride to Stonehenge, which I thought was a big deal. We've mentioned the Fatboy Slim DJ concert thing. You also took me on a fantastic. Me and my family, my brother, my niece, both my nieces, Jordan and Emma. You took this on a street tour of London, which was fantastic. We've spoken about this before on this podcast because it was on that street tour that we ran into another one of our. Once we were spaceman guests, Felicia Day. Do you remember that story, Alan?

[A]

I remember that podcast, yeah.

[C]

Yeah, you remember that?

[A]

I was listening to that podcast. I was like, he's talking about me.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, you were there that day. You were there the day that we ran into Felicia Day, coincidentally in London. So coincidentally that she did not believe. It was not planned.

[A]

We ran in. We ran into a. Just outside of Spitalfields Market, if I remember.

[C]

And I sent you a video just like a month ago, because I was in that same area, market area. And I said, this is the spot. This is the spot where we were. Some of the arts changed around, though. They haven't. I mean, clearly it's been 10 years,

[A]

but that will be in particular that you showed me. Sorry to interject, but that war in Particular is run by the Rolling People. They've had that wall for almost three decades.

[C]

So even though.

[A]

Yeah. Even though that wall changes, that is run by the Rolling People, which is a crew near that area. And they. They control that wall. So no one else paints that wall.

[B]

Are they a gang? Is that

[A]

like an element? No, it's just like an element of respect and honor. Like the Rolling People have that. No one paints over there. If you see it painted over by someone else, it's definitely a foreigner. It doesn't know the rules.

[B]

And what would happen to said foreigner?

[A]

Yeah, Nothing, dude. They just go paint over it.

[C]

On that same tour that was that London art tour, it was also a kind of a mixed in with a Jack the Ripper tour at the same time. Because we'd be standing looking at some art, and you'd look down and go, also, this is where they found victim number 12. And then at the end of the. We went for a little beverage at a bar where Jack the Ripper used to sit outside on this porch of a little chapel, I want to say, that was nearby. And he would watch the drunk people come out of that bar and. And then he would prey on the drunk people.

[A]

Took his last found.

[C]

Yes.

[A]

Around the corner from where he is. Ten Bells is the. Is the bar which actually is still there.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

That's when I was like. That's when I saw. Because you're such a generous person, Nathan, you're one of the most generous people I've ever met in my life. You really are. You're very humble, and the way you approach things, you're always very caring, always very engaging. And I always remember you when you tip the barman. That was when I was like, I don't know. You tip the barman. I was like, you tipped him more than the drinks cost. But you were so. It just. But it came from such care and honesty that I was just like, wow, this is enigmatic. And. Is that the word I'm looking for?

[B]

That's my tagger name. Enigmatic. Thank you. And also victim 12.

[C]

Another thing we've done is we've had a number of trips to Disneyland and we go kind of.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[C]

We go all out with the guide. We get like a special guide that comes in.

[B]

Wait, so now you're the guy cutting in front. Now

[C]

I'm the Mark Addy. And Louie is Mark, Eddie's family still.

[B]

Still in the back still.

[C]

He's in the back trying to make sure no kids try to jump in the way. He's Looking out for the clothesline.

[A]

Clothesline from hell. DDT at the front room.

[C]

Here's another one we've all shared. We've all done these. The delusion haunted house. You've all had this experience with me.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

Allan is hilarious. All these damn things. Alan is very scared. Joke a minute. I can't stop laughing when he's around. Louie is perfect for these things because Louie gets into it. Like, Louis suspends reality. It's haunted. There's ghosts everywhere. It's his danger. Like, he's in it. His heart's thumping. You can see it just by looking at him. His eyes, his pupils are wide. He's ready. He's in alert mode. At one point, we were told, quick, hide. And there was a wagon being pulled by a truck. Well, we jumped into the bed of the truck and we laid down. Some maniac comes out and gets in the truck and drives it away to another location. And now we're in the back of the truck. Our friends are in the wagon in the back. He gets out and he's circling the truck, and we're just laying as flat as we can, looking at each other, and we're totally silent. We're looking at each other, and there's a look of fear in Louis face. And he looks at me, he goes,

[A]

like, I.

[C]

Like I said something. I did it. I didn't say anything. I'm like, what? He's just, like, so pre worried I'm gonna. I'm gonna.

[A]

I also had to do that because, like, I've been told, like, people like, yeah, yo, Nathan takes these seriously. And I was like, jazzy, Lil, let me tell you,

[C]

We're just absolutely silent. We're both afraid. Like, I'm loving it. I'm loving every minute. But we're looking at each other, laying down in the bed of a flatbed truck, looking at each other, and the instruction, shh. Like, I know, I know, Shush. We're hiding from a crazy person. Yes, I know the shush. Thank you.

[A]

I tell you what, it was really affirming the last one we did this last year where we went to a place in. Down in downtown L. A. But, you know, I was, like, creeping in at the end. You were like, you really. You really do get into it. And I'm like, I come into it, and I was just, like, really affirming that you saw that, you know, like, I keep behind.

[C]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. After the end of one of those, I was kind of look around and see who's as sweaty as Me, because my heart rate gets real high during those things. I love to suspend that leg when you're getting chased by something. You better move.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I love them.

[C]

Now you have more recently, Louis, because we. I'm going to add. I'm going to add one more tour. You gave us a tour in Paris. I just ran into you in Paris recently.

[A]

Wow. We did. Yeah.

[C]

Did a fantastic tour in the hottest June on record in Paris till next June.

[A]

Hey, what's up? And then got you taken on a rooftop as well. Just to be more in the sun.

[C]

Louis had us meet him at this little spot. He goes. There's nothing about this spot that's special except we're getting on the train here so that we can drive through this elevated. On this elevated train track and see this whole neighborhood as a whole where all these incredible murals are up on all these buildings. We get to the end, jump off, come walking back a couple miles through this neighborhood, ending at a gallery where we met the artist who had these phenomenal pieces up. And then we met the couple that ran the gallery. And then they took us in a car to a rooftop somewhere else where we could look at all the houses, all the. All the murals on the buildings from a rooftop and popped open some champagne and had some. Some snacks and stuff.

[B]

Nice. This is great.

[A]

It was amazing. So that that area is just like, give name to the area, but that is the 13th variedissimo. And the gallery is gallery itinerants, and they curate all the artists there. It's like Shepherd, Fairy, Invader.

[B]

Oh, cool.

[A]

D face. We've done, like, with dface, we've done three murals there now. You know, they've really taken over that whole area. It's curated very well. And, yeah, like Nate says, you could take the train up from Bersey and then just straight up, see everything in a flash. And then you get off and just walk back down slowly. It's beautiful.

[B]

How cool.

[C]

What's really nice is when you're hanging out with Louis and he's showing you around these things, anyone you encounter, be it D Face, be it that lovely couple that ran that gallery, the artist we met, everybody loves Louis and is ready to, like, step up and, oh, let's do a little something extra because Louie's here. Let's. Hey, hey. Let's pull out all the stops because Louie's here. Oh, Louie has some guests. Let's show them. Like, everybody is very happy to see you, Louis.

[A]

I don't know how to take that. I'm not very good at taking compliments,

[C]

which is, which is something I understand. It's something. It's an experience I, I can share with them. Now. You recently started working on something. It's not unlike the art tours you take me on, where you take me to crazy neighborhoods and meet wonderful people and see a sample of a piece of a city that you would never likely see. You're talking about making a TV show, aren't you?

[A]

I am, yeah. In frame.

[C]

What are you gonna call it?

[A]

In Frame. In Frame. That's the working title right now.

[C]

What have you done so far? Because I saw the sizzle reel for this.

[A]

You saw a concept piece that I'm putting together for the pitch? Yeah, it's.

[B]

It's like a travelogue type travel. Travel show where you go around and

[A]

this is like where it developed into going. If I'd revert back to the story just to finish that off after like a stint in politics for a little bit. Art was always in the, in the, in the background there and it became back into the foreground. I went back into it because I do work with, I do work closely and have been fortunate to paint with so many internationally acclaimed artists. Specifically D Face was the one in London for me at the time. And it basically opened up doors for me. And you know, I like to feel like I took the skills from how I grew up in a kind of gang esque culture. I took some of those skills and then apply them into art. And I've mentioned this before, but, you know, art is more deregulated than, than the drug trade. It just is. So to apply those skills, I know I can. Then, you know, a lot of artists, they're great at creating, but they're not very, not necessarily savvy in business.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And you do, as an artist, you do have to treat art is another business, you know, so there has to be. And what makes a business like worth its way is the processes that you add into it, whether that be in production or in obtaining work, etc. So I found myself in like creating these opportunities for artists. And, and over the last year, 15 years, I've been so fortunate enough to travel to almost every. I've been to every continent. I've been the most, you know, I've been to 96 countries now and there's nowhere I. There's literally nowhere I can, I can go and not know someone or know someone who knows someone. Oh God. You know, the whole idea came and what actually really inspired me is that I'd go to Miami every year For Miami Art Basel. Right, right. And I so jaded. I've been doing it. I've been doing art Basel since 2011. And when we used to go there, Wynwood itself has become so gentrified, and there's a lot to do with, like, the local real estate there and people pushing out the kind of local community. And I just, you know, in 2011, we would paint there and still get chased by the police. You couldn't get a packet of cigarettes or a beer for like a mile. You just had the Wood Tavern or Gramps Bar. And I've just seen that place evolve into what it is now, where, like, we were painting recently and there's like a huge double decker tour bus. And then people asking to. They were asking me to take photos, but not with me. They want to take my brush and pretend that they're taking photos. And I was just like, this has become ridiculous. And, you know, the facade of Miami anyways, like, the general consensus is that it's like this flashy, like, pretentious place and everybody has to party, be half naked. It's just like, it grosses me out. And then my friend Hawks, who I managed down there, he's. They call him the mayor of Miami. Like, he has more murals in that city than anyone else. And he was like, did you really need to come and see my Miami? It really frustrates me that you slate my city so much. My city, please come see my Miami. So two years ago, and I even went in the height of August, which is the most people. If people know and go to Miami during August, know that's the most unbearable time to go. It's most unbearable season in terms of humidity, rain, the sun. It's just unbelievable. But he showed me this other side, which was just the nature there. We went kayaking and like, you can really escape there. These, like, kind of different, like, little communities like in little Haiti and Little Havana and like just all these, like, really, like local mom and pop restaurants and bars. And there was just so much more to do there than what, you know, is just like on this, like, face of it.

[B]

Right?

[A]

So that was kind of like I was like, wow, here we go. Like, I have access to artists that other people don't have access to. And if I use Hawks again as an example, you know, the whole idea is that I will fly to these places, go to Miami, say Hawks is the overarching artist. He takes me into Miami, shows me his Miami, but we also meet the other artists there. So when I was in Miami, or so Alexis Diaz is a friend of mine. He does all the Bad Bunnies artwork. And so, like, I'm very well connected and, you know, I, I can break down barriers with these people that other people can't. Right. They feel comfortable. If I sent you a load of interviews that Hawks has done in the past, you see how rigid he is and how uncomfortable he is. But with me, we've been friends for over 10 years. We've done some crazy shit together, like, for the last 10 years. And so there's this element of, like, being comfortable and vulnerable with me that, like, they can open up. So the whole series is like, you know, showcasing the city. Like the, the city is the lens, but the, the artist is the subject. Right?

[B]

That sounds so great.

[C]

You have a very good luck. You have a very particular position in being able to enjoy these things. And, and now you're taking this opportunity to share your. Your fortunate position.

[A]

I mean, even, like, there's places, like, I always bang on about it. Like, if I had the disposable income for it, Bentonville, Arkansas, if I had, I would, I'd buy a home there. If they had an international airport, I'd be. It'd be even better. But, you know, they just have Fayetteville, which is a local airport. But Benneville, Arkansas has this crazy, like, it's the home place of. It's where the Walton family are from. Right. It's where Walmart started.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But they've cultivated such a beautiful art community there and like, like, there's this beautiful music venue and it's very progressive for, for really, especially for a city. Dude, I love Bentonville, Arkansas. Every time I get a project mural, I'm so excited.

[B]

I'm so like, you're like the ultra ultimate Walmart greeter right now.

[A]

Everyone come to.

[B]

Yeah, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

[A]

I've been sent in, you know, a bunch of places in crazy places in Japan and Korea and like, and I know creatives in all these places, like internationally acclaimed creatives.

[C]

Right.

[A]

So I have access to all these. And that's what makes me very fortunate. That's what makes me rich, is these experiences. And that's why I think I'm always chasing, right? It's like, how can. How can I be rich in experience? And that's why I end up saying yes to everything, even though I know I'm probably going to be in over my head a lot of the time.

[C]

I don't think I know anybody who travels as much as you do, Louie. I think, I mean, you Must have incredible air miles somewhere.

[A]

I do, I really do. I really do. And I have loyalty as well.

[C]

You travel a lot. Where's home base for you? Where do you consider home?

[B]

There's a place you don't even know, a safe house.

[A]

Because obviously I split my time between New York and la, but the people in LA have really, you know, Michelle's really made me feel like this is home. Like if I ever, if I met someone, I found someone and like it's like I'll come meet the family. Like I feel like I would bring them to L. A, but I live in New York. Right. That's how, I don't know, that's how I kind of see it. Even though, like, like, obviously London is home. I don't know, I do feel like if someone, I suppose London and LA for like home and I live in New York, does that make sense?

[C]

You know, I hear you. It's just. That's a lot of places to call home. Yeah.

[A]

And I spent a lot of time in Miami too, and Paris a lot recently, so I don't know, it's everywhere. But LA and London feel like home.

[B]

I'm glad you didn't get any of those political jobs that you were pursuing.

[C]

Yeah, I'm glad you're not the mayor.

[B]

I think, I think this will be a much better service to this show. Hoping it, it goes and people are able to see it. That would be a great service to the art community and to artists and just to show people, teach people what's here and you know, and to expose artists that maybe don't have the exposure yet. And also the art industry, I'm interested in that which you mentioned about it being unregulated and stuff.

[A]

Well, unregulated and misrepresented. I talk about this a lot. Like, women make up 50% of the artists community, but they're only, they only have a 15 representation in the gallery world. In the US black artists make up less than 5%. So there is a, there is a huge misrepresentation as well within the art world. And that's something that I like, want to kind of lean into as like a, like a sub subject, I suppose.

[B]

But yeah, shine a light on it.

[A]

Yeah, bring in light into that. And also, like I do, you know, going from where I came from and to where I am now, I'm incredibly grateful. And I really do feel like as conscious beings. Right. That what separates us for another species is the enjoyment of art and whether that would be art in nature, art and architecture. Or building or just, you know, on the wall, anything. You know, art as, like, a person, like modeling or photography, like, you know, how people look, how clothes look, fashion, everything. Like, we're so that's what hits our senses. Senses, right. And I saw this quote from Tracy Emin, who's one of my most favorite female artists, based out of the uk, originally from Margate. But the art is the most purest thing that we have. It really is. More than anything. Anything, art is pure. It's the thing that we just connect to. It's the thing that doesn't have any other, I don't know, ulterior motive.

[C]

It's just.

[A]

It's there to enjoy and appreciate.

[B]

Yes. When it's honest, when it's true, when it's like coons.

[A]

Would you say I hate coons?

[C]

Dude, I really do.

[A]

Does have. I do love his. I do really like his Michael Jackson sculpture in the Broad Museum in la.

[B]

All right.

[A]

I do that one. I. I do like. But I just.

[B]

Yeah, he has an ulterior motive. Check chain.

[A]

Something about that. What would you give finance as a.

[C]

As a young artist? What would you have given to run into someone like you in your career who could say, hey, I want to put you into contact with this guy, with this building.

[A]

What would I have done at a young age if I met someone like me?

[B]

Sold him drugs? Listen, let's be honest. Let's be honest.

[A]

Yes. Yeah. Let's be real. Yeah. Possibly. I would like to caveat. I am almost eight years sober, though.

[B]

Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Congratulations.

[C]

Congratulations.

[B]

In our. In our last podcast. Hasn't come out yet. I'm. I'm recently 15 years sober, so. In the same. On the same journey.

[A]

Amazing. Yeah, I heard that. So, yeah, I just wanted to share that. Congratulations.

[B]

Oh, yeah, you too, man.

[A]

Each day as it comes. But going back to that question, I. I don't really know. The thing I would like to say is that within art in general, there's not. You don't just have to be an artist. There's other avenues to explore with art, whether you're a curator, collector, an agent. Like, you know, there is space. I think the space is open further than just being an artist.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, you can. There's also ways of doing art where it's conceptual. You know, you can be the concept creator. Right. And then you have people that. If. I mean, Jeff Koons, that's exactly what Jeff Koons does. Jeff Koons doesn't paint. Jeff Koons doesn't sculpt. He has a concept, and he has a team of people that do it. Right.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

So I think there's just like, there's different. I just think it's very important to find different avenues as well. If you feel like I can't draw, I can't do this, but I'm so passionate about art, then find another way. You know, maybe, like, I act as a consultant a lot of the time for different artists, and. And then I also feel like someone asked me recently, it's just like, what, you know, what would you do? You know, what advice would you give someone? And I'm like, it's, again, sounds so cliche, but just put yourself out there. Get into to different gallery shows.

[C]

You.

[A]

If you find events that are art related, put yourself in them because you need to have. You need to be seen, you need to be mixing with people. Because anything in life, it's about who you know, not what you know. That can always come later. You know, you can learn it, fake it till you make it.

[C]

Oh, I love that. I'm big on that advice. Louis, did we miss anything incredibly important? Because, I mean, there. There is always so much with you that it was so hard to know where to start, and now I don't know where to end.

[B]

How about finding out something about you finding out something?

[C]

Let's. Let's get to know you better.

[B]

I know you and you know me.

[C]

Let's get to know you better. Okay, so this is the bit, Louis, you know it well. This is where you have to tell us something about you that. That we don't know. This will be easy because, my God, you. You have a quiver of these things always on hand.

[A]

Because I've heard this and like, for some reason, my mind always wants to go to places that are probably disgusting.

[B]

Would you like one of us to start first?

[C]

Yes, Alan.

[A]

Honestly, I don't know if mine are like, I always want to go to things that are rated.

[B]

That's perfectly fine to do. I'm got mine. The one that I have up here that I wrote down the other day is very pedestrian. Literally, I realized, and I've been doing this for several years now as I walk around New York and really anywhere where, you know those. Those moments where you're you, where places are crowded and you end up walking towards somebody and you have that negotiation of to go right. You're going to go left. I'm going to go. Which way are we going here? I. To avoid those situations, I point to where I'm going to go. I'm always hand signaling I use my hands as blinkers about where I'm going to go, whether it's like a bike coming down. I'll point to where I'm going to go and I walk straight to that point so that. So it's confused which way I'm going to go. So they can miss me. I'll. Somebody's coming straight for me. I point to the right, I go right. I point left, I'll go left. I. I'm always avoiding people by pointing.

[C]

Is there confusion as to, like, when the point happens, the bike goes, oh, I thought you wanted me to go there.

[B]

I point my head at the same time as my finger and I just start walking towards it. So far, no one's good. No, someone's. No one's hit me.

[C]

I like that.

[B]

But I realized I might look a little strange if you're a little ways off just watching this guy walk around pointing and sort of zigzagging around. But that is how I negotiate the world around me.

[C]

It may look like you're a little on the spectrum.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of things I do look like that. Almost to the point where. At what point does it look like it?

[C]

At what point? You're never off the spectrum. The spectrum is from here to there. So you're always on it. Yep.

[B]

So that is, is. That is my getting to know me better. And I was getting I something. I realized, oh, this is probably something not a whole lot of people do. Also, if someone is walking towards me with their head in their phone and they're walking straight towards me and they can't get a hand signal, I clap. I learned this from a guy who's a really tall guy. He said that people would do this, but he just would walk and clap low. Like clap at his waist, clap, clap. And people will look up immediately, look up and, and walk around. It works perfectly.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So I clap and point around. It's a show. I'm sure it's. It's stomp. I'm doing stomp as I walk around the city.

[C]

Louis, have you had time to.

[A]

So I'm loving. I appreciate humanity. I'm grateful for everybody. There's never any real malice in me. I give everybody the benefit of the doubt. Right. Normally in day to day life, okay. But then there's the gym. I am a dick. I am such a dick at the gym.

[C]

Because you have patience for people doing their thing at the gym.

[A]

It's my church. It's my church and you come in, destroy my worship. I'm. I'm fucking angry.

[C]

So I just got. You have your head down. You're in a set. Someone comes and goes, can I work in with you?

[A]

Well, that I don't. That I don't mind. What annoys me is people. Is bad gym etiquette. Right? So I'll give you an example. I was with Xander. This was like, last year, but. And he was like, hey, why don't you come test my gym for the day? You can work out with me. And I'm pretty sure he regretted it because we haven't been back to the gym again together, but because he doesn't like confrontation. And, you know, there's someone on the. On the pet deck. And then he stops. He's sitting on his phone. So I walked up and I was like, hey, how many sets you got left? He was like, three. I was like, okay, cool. Back on his phone, I was like, I just want to check. Is that three sets on your phone or three sets on the machine? Because I'm confused. And then I turned around, and Xander bowled off somewhere. Everything okay? And he was like, I have to go here. And I was like, oh, you are right. And then, you know, I'm. Yeah. If I'm on, like a. You know. Okay. In New York recently as well, you know, I'm. I'm at the gym, and there's the. There's the squat rack, and someone has got a bench in front of the squat rack and doing dumbbell shoulder press. That annoys me because I can't. Who's going to? No one can use the shoulder. The squat rack. So I'm like, are you. I used fouler language, but I was like, are you guys stupid? I was like, can you just move out of the way? And then they had the. There was the actual personal trainer from that gym there. And I was like, you're even. Like, I get really irate, really angry, and I. I can't say what I would be saying in these situations because I don't want to. I don't want to be foul on your podcast, obviously, but I am a dick. And then I have to immediately, once I've kind of relaxed and done my sets and I do, I go off and I'm like, hey, sorry. Yeah, a little tense, but bad gym etiquette. I hate people that don't understand because, you know, fitness has always been, like, such a prevalent part of my life. I play for England in the 13s. I was a Championship K1 fighter. I was a freestyle skier. I run every day. I run marathons. Like Fitness is so important to me for my health. It's the only thing that's actually in my life that's always been consistent from the moment memory started happening for me. So, like, I take it really seriously. And it's like, there's been a resurgence of, like, people want to keep fit and healthy. But I'm like, man, no one's really. There's like, there is an unspoken rule. And what. Do you know what also annoys me? Sorry.

[C]

I love this.

[A]

Okay, so I go to Planet Fitness Fitness, right? Because I, I go to other gyms as well. Like, I use another one in, in la and there's, you know, in London I use a different one, but Planet Fitness because it. What's the most amazing thing is it's 20 bucks a month. I can go in anywhere in Canada, anywhere in Mexico, and even when I'm in front, nowhere, Arkansas, there's always one within three miles. So always have a gym. I was in Fort Worth, Dallas recently, and there was two within a five mile radius. So I, I use it, right? Their whole thing is like, this is a no judgment zone. But they have this sign called. They have a lunk alarm. Right? And the lung alarm is you're not allowed to. You can't be wearing a Gold's gym tank. You can't carry a big jug of water. You can't grunt, and you're not allowed to drop your weights. And I'm just like, isn't that a judgment? And it really. And I've only ever had it go off once. And it's so funny. I had it go off in ingles. I was like, oh, dude, I'm in the hood and you're gonna run a

[C]

lung alarm on me? What's a lung alarm?

[A]

What did you do? I was doing like, I had like 50 pound each side. I was doing like, just press with dumbbells. And I just, I just went. And I dropped them. And then the thing went. It's like a siren in the middle of the room.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

But the hypocrisy of being a no judgment zone and having a lunk alarm, which is based on judgment.

[B]

Yeah, that's.

[C]

Now I have mixed feelings about this because wouldn't that have been nice if you had a lunk alarm for those fellas at Xander's gym so you didn't have to say something.

[A]

Exactly.

[C]

But at the same time, you're in a no judgment zone and you feel you got lunked for something that's maybe not really.

[A]

I'm actually using the gym I think, you know, and I also think, think that unless you're using, unless you're using your phone. Because I do use my phone to log my exercises, right. I think unless you're using it for that, don't take a phone in, you know, you shouldn't be able to use your phone.

[B]

Yeah, people will just. Yeah, they'll just.

[A]

Yeah, it frustrates me, man. And, and also like, and I get really arrogant in my head, which I, I'm just. This is what I mean, this is a get to know you. Like, I'm going to be honest with you. That's why I'm such a dick at the gym. Because I look at these people and I'm like, that's why you don't look like me. Because you're doing this sort of shit. Like if you had the same mentality or the same ethic, then you might look like this, you know, Because I get people all the time, they're like, oh man, maybe you can write me a regime. Maybe you can do this. And I'm like, you ain't going to do the work that I do.

[C]

Just for the listeners at home, I'm just going to fill them in. Luke Jensen is a physical specimen. Yes. And he's a, he's a handsome fella. He's a tall fella. He's got eight. He's got an eight pack. He's got abs. And here's a quick story. Louie was gonna go to a Halloween party and I said, oh, what are you dressing up as? And he goes, oh, no man, I'm not, I'm not dressing up. I said, dude, it's a Halloween party. And you know, Alan, I'm.

[B]

You love the Halloween. That's your favorite.

[C]

I love Halloween. It's fantastic. I said, I have a costume that will fit you. You can wear this costume, you'll love it. He goes, no, no, no, I won't be into it. I said, you can show your abs. He goes, what is it?

[A]

I did, I was straight around your house, get it on, let's test it out.

[C]

And then you drone.

[A]

And I was like, yeah, dude, this is real good. You flew that drone.

[C]

So, yeah, so we, we threw some, some goat horns, some curly goat horns on his head and a vest of furry vest. And I had made goat leg pants with like hoof shoes that are really tall. So he was like about 7 foot tall. A goat legged fawn, man. A satyr.

[A]

Satyr, that's it. Yeah, I was a satyr. What was really funny because obviously you Met. What was beautiful is you made that. First of all, like, I really like. You made every part of that, which was phenomenal. But, like, obviously, the shoes had heels. And I went to a Halloween party that was predominantly my Asian and Mexican friends. And so I was. And I'm six four as it is, so I'm out there at six seven. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Everybody's up to your nipple.

[A]

Yeah, it was.

[C]

They're eye to eye with your abs.

[A]

Really intense. Still stuck out like a sore thumb. Felt like Gulliver in there.

[C]

I am. I got to tell you, I'm really pleased with your indignancies about being at the gym. And I think what. What is required and what you like is what I like, which is what I call ccr. Courtesy, consideration, and respect. People suffer the world over from entitlement, and they don't give a crap about whether or not their day is affecting someone else's day. Have a great day. But as soon as your day starts stepping on someone else's day, you're doing it wrong. You're doing something wrong.

[B]

And I want to do my. I want to. Just real quick, just. Thank you for giving me my tagger name, which is Lunk Alarm. Thank you. Now I. Lunk Alarm.

[A]

All right.

[C]

My. Get to know you better. I'm going to also be. I have a social indignancy when I'm walking down the sidewalk. This happens to me a lot. Someone will be walking towards me. It's always a man. It's never a woman that does this to me. Someone will be walking towards me, and they have plenty of sidewalk, whereas I don't have much. And they're not making any moves to, like, give me the room, I'm going to need just to go straight. So there's going to be a collision. And the expectation, I'm guessing, from this other person, is I have to move, whereas they've got all the room to move. It would be more prudent if they did, but I have them. And I think. Louis, I think I asked you about this. Do people.

[A]

Yeah, I was about to say we spoke about this in Paris.

[C]

That's right. Because when I'm walking around in a big city, it happens more often. And my solution for it is I'll just stop and, like, look at my phone. And now when you're walking towards someone, the kind of. The social agreement is, well, one of us is gonna move because we're both in motion, so one of us is gonna have to move.

[B]

Right.

[C]

But if I stop and now I'm not moving. And you're moving. The social agreement is now you gotta move. You're already in motion. So you keep going. You keep. Now you. Now you circle around and I'll stop and stare right at a fella, right? And it makes it a different kind of a thing. It makes it a much different kind of an interaction, rather than it's two people passing by in the street. Now it's me stopping and looking at you going, go ahead and make a choice.

[B]

I'm watching you because they have the option to come and clip you with their shoulder.

[C]

And they will if they don't move. And I'm like, I'm up against a building or there's someone else right next to me. Like, where do you want me to go? Push my. My date out of the way. Like, what's your plan?

[A]

The funny.

[C]

I got to go off the sidewalk

[A]

into traffic, hearing Allen's and then hearing yours, and I'll just. I'm now envisioning what that situation would be like. You know, I'd be clapping

[C]

and pointing.

[A]

Be like Glitch of the Matrix.

[C]

I'm just standing there in front of him, staring him down.

[A]

What the hell do we do? Is that how you two met? Is that how you became friends? Oh, that's great.

[C]

Okay, Alan. What is. We're coming to the end. What is your tagger name and DJ name?

[B]

I think I'm gonna go with Lunk Alarm for my tagger tagger name and my DJ name. What was the better DJ name?

[A]

Something.

[B]

Cage. What is it?

[C]

Oh, Fear Cage.

[B]

Fear Cage. Fear Cage.

[C]

All right.

[B]

Fear Cage.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Okay, Louie, this is your chance at a second tagger name.

[A]

A second. I mean, I still, to this day, because I. I used to do a lot of chin ups. I still do a lot of chin ups, but I do chins with a Z. Or occasionally I'll write Disco just because I like the letters. And I, you know, I had a dance.

[C]

All right, will that be your. Will that be your DJ name? Is Disco?

[A]

Nah, my DJ name. Interesting fact, Shepherd Ferry's DJ name is DJ Diabetic. You know, just chucking out a pointless piece of knowledge there. But it's really interesting. I do like that. I don't know what my DJ name was. Would be.

[B]

What would you give it.

[A]

Give me my.

[C]

My tagger name, I decided, is Pig Wagon. Like wagon. A pig. Not like a. A wagon for pigs, but like, I'm wagging a pig around. Ah, Pig Wagon. Right. And then my DJ name, I decided, is Sticky Floors.

[A]

Sticky Floors.

[C]

Yeah, because it was smoky bars. And I was thinking, what other things are. Are. Are. Are, you know, a thing at. At a bar? And I was like, a good crappy bar has a sticky floor.

[B]

Sounds like. Like a blues name.

[A]

Yeah, it does.

[C]

The dance floor always has a little

[B]

bit of drink on sticky floors.

[A]

Sticky floors.

[B]

I think golden nails. That's not. That's a dj. Apac. Apac. There you go.

[A]

DJ Eight Pack.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, buddy, what did you. Wait. I'm going to ask you my last question, which should have been my first question. What was your first impression of meeting Nathan Fillion? That was back in the day. That was at deface's studio in London.

[A]

Yeah, I was. That was the year I went sober. But I definitely wasn't sober then.

[C]

Were you looking at me going, who's this guy? Well, no.

[A]

Did you care?

[C]

Was I on your.

[A]

I did care. I did care because, like, Michelle means the world to me, you know, she really does. So. And anything she says, I take as gospel. Anyway, so if she says, oh, Nathan's cool, Nathan's nice, then immediately you are right. Like, I have. Loyalty is a big thing for me. No, I thought you. I thought you're amazing. I did think I was like, what is he wearing? Because you're wearing these jeans and these. It was the shoes. And I get it, you're wearing walking shoes. But. But I was like, he doesn't look like an actor.

[C]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I really have zero.

[A]

You know, I'll be real with you. But part of that. But, like, everything about you, like I said, you were so engaging and so lovely, and as our friendship has grown, like, I can see that isn't just like a. That wasn't just like a first, you know, because a lot of the time when you meet people, they have a representative, and then you get to know them and that represent off and you get to see the real person. Right. But with you, that's always been a continuous thing. Like, nothing. Nothing has ever changed. And, like, I am honestly, truly grateful for our relationship and, you know, the experiences we had. Like, I feel very fortunate. Me, too.

[C]

I always. I love looking at my social circles and seeing people who I call unlikely friends. And the very idea that you and I should ever even cross paths is ridiculous. In what world. In what world does this Canadian guy and this London dude, do our paths ever cross and become, oh, these guys will be friends now forever. When does that happen?

[A]

I don't even think I'll be even in a day. But I'm here You know, there's a lot of things. I'm like, oh, what the hell? But, yeah, one of you meeting you and, you know, having you calling you a good friend is. Is a beautiful thing, and I'm very grateful for it.

[C]

You know, you did the artwork for this very podcast, Louis.

[B]

Thank you.

[C]

Be honest. Did we ever pay you for that?

[A]

You did. You paid.

[C]

I would.

[A]

You paid me a friend.

[C]

Well, I know that you were doing us a favor and I was trying to do. We were stuck. We, like, hey, we need it now. We need to do something now. Like, we need like, a. Like someone like a proper artist who could do that. And then Louis said, I'll do it.

[A]

Yeah. And I also. Also painted the back of your house.

[C]

That's right. Louis did a mural for me.

[A]

It's more of a state.

[C]

Somebody. Somebody tagged the mural. We did a beautiful mural, and somebody tagged it. That's another reason I'm like, I'm not big on taggers, man. That took nothing to just. I'm gonna go, hehe.

[A]

Did they do it on the face? Yeah, because there was certain things. Like that Rams, who I was talking about. We did. Me and D. Face did this huge mural in Williamsburg that you can see over the Williamsburg Bridge right on the J line called get me to the Moxies on the side of the Moxie Hotel. And Rams came down it. But the way he came down it, there's two faces on there, and they're driving this car. The way he came down, it was like in the middle of the negative space. And a certain. That's what I mean. Because the street giveth and the streak taketh. So I'm just.

[B]

There's certain.

[A]

You know, I can't get angry.

[C]

Punk stuff.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Crappy jokes and no regrets. And. Yeah, they did dumb stuff. Nose rings. Like, I'm just. That's not. Sorry. No quality you get. No. No love from me.

[A]

Wait, wait, wait. I have a nose ring, though. Like, what? There's nothing wrong with a nose ring. Quality, though, in a person, right?

[C]

No, my niece has one as well. She's. Oh, things My niece wants to know what's the craziest place your art has taken you? She was thinking about a story where you went to China.

[A]

I was literally gonna say, when I went to China and had to escape out of this tiny little compound and took a flight to Russia. Got stuck in Russia. That one.

[B]

That.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do we have time to do it? I can give you a quick rundown of the story.

[C]

Do it.

[A]

If you like, okay, yes. So me and this other artist, Him Bad, based out of London, we got an opportunity to go to this project in China. So we fly to Beijing, we meet this guy, Dr. Wu, runs this organization there, and he showed us his house in Beijing. It was super beautiful. And then we drove like six and a half, seven hours, kind of west of Beijing, into this tiny little village. The population is probably 250 to 300 people max. And they were hosting us there and we did the opening ceremony there. Like they had this stage and me and Him Bad end up rapping on stage, which was kind of funny. Just for the opening. And then we were supposed to like paint murals. And so I painted a mural. Him Bad painted a mural. And we also were doing like canvas pieces for like a little group show at the end. And anyway, one day we're like, you know, because this was again the height of. I was still drinking and using at the time and I couldn't get anything out there. We ended up snorting ginseng quite a lot of the time because couldn't find anything else. We were getting ginseng and snorting ginseng, which is wild. But then we we left one day, the little village to the nearest town, just to have a drink, have fun. We've been there like a week and we get back and this Dr. Wu was like, what are you doing? You can't leave the compound kind of thing. And we're like, what? Like why not? And then he put guards on the door. This is weird. And then as time went on, like we had a week left. And then I did actually have another project that was in either Berlin or Belgium, I can't remember, it was somewhere around there. But I was like, hey, we need to leave. But the weather been so bad, he's like, we can't have the closing ceremony. And I was like, cool, I can't wait to for the closing ceremony to happen. Like, I have other projects I need to get on with. He was like, no, no, no, you can't leave, you can't leave. We need the closing ceremony. And I'm like, okay, we're being paraded for his funding. Like he gets paraded to his sponsorship. Etc. So anyway, he left one day and I was like, this guy, dude, like, everybody's living in poverty here. He has a house in the center of the, of this village. But it was like balled up, right? It was like a, a 15 foot wall. I was like this dude, like, there's something fishy. I don't like it. So I got on him bad is like the same height as me. So he hoisted me. I was like, I'm gonna break into his house. So he hoisted me up. Oh, it's got me over. And then, yeah, literally, I. The door was open because after you jump over the gate, the surrounded area and everything's open. So I walked in. I realized he had Internet. He had a computer, and perfect electric. Even though we were, like, using candles to walk around the streets, he had running water because we were just using buckets to shower in and holes in the ground to. To. To. For the bathroom, right? And he. He had a running shower, toilet, bath. So I let him bad in, and we started, like, using the place. Like, I had a bath. I was like, this dude, dude. He's like. Because in my head, and I'm like, he's.

[C]

He's.

[A]

He's taken advantage of the villagers. He's taken advantage of our. Of our charity to, like, give something to this. This town in this village. And any money should be distributed across the town. I would have thought, like, for, you know, for reconstruction of the place. You know, we taught at the school there. And it was just like, you wouldn't send a barn animal there. You really wouldn't. So I was like. And I was like, no, I'm leaving, dude. So I spoke to my host family, and I arranged to have him pick me up outside the walls. It was like, two, three in the morning. And I left him with all my stuff, like, my clothes and the rest of the money I had. And I just, like, I would hop the fence, right? And that was the plan, because Dr. Wu has still not come back at that point, but there was still, like, guards at the front gate. And. But before that, I'd already painted this mural. And what I did is the village was in the shape of a phoenix because they had this tree in the middle that had died and come back to life, right? So that's. That's why they did the village in the shape of a phoenix. And there's a river that kind of a small stream river that run through the middle of it. So originally, I painted the river and the tree and the phoenix all in the respective colors. But before I left, I was like, screw this, dude. So I painted the tree black, I painted the phoenix black, I painted the river red, and I painted a dragon on top of it, right? So keep that in mind. Jump the fence. It took. The train station was supposed to be, like, an hour away, but, like, there's certain areas in China that you can't take white folk. Etc. So it took us six hours to get to the train, got to the train, took the train to Beijing and then took a flight to Russia because it was the first flight out. And then from Russia I went straight to. Back to London. Anyway, they emailed me. They're like, you can't do that. You're under contract law. And I was like, I like to try and like, see you try and hold Chinese contract law up in the UK and, you know, went back and forth. They're like, okay, like, well, at least give us a synopsis of your piece. And I was like, okay, cool. Yeah, so the. The river is running red of the blood of the villagers, and the tree and the phoenix are black because they're overshadowed by Dr. Wu, who's represented by the dragon. And I never heard from him again. Yeah. Oh, I love it.

[C]

Yeah. That tickles, Alan.

[B]

That's great. Yeah, Yeah.

[A]

I never got invited back.

[C]

Alan loves sticking it to the man,

[B]

you know, who doesn't? That's great.

[A]

It just upset me, man. It just upset me the way the villagers were cheated. And I was just like, this is not right.

[C]

Also, the imprisonment was a little bit of much.

[A]

It is, but I don't really care about that. It was more the fact of, like, what am I giving? Like, I'm not, I'm giving to him and it's not for the greater purpose. Right. The greater community. He was so lovely. Like, you know, me and him, bad. They put us up in this in their hat. Like the host family put us up in their house and eight of them slept in the lounge because they can, you know, it was just. Yeah, it's just everything about it. There was just such beautiful people, so grateful even just to see us like, see foreigners there, you know, and then like to bring art to it, you know, because art is, is so important. Sorry to ramble on, but I'll give you another key example of. In Miami in 2014, we painted the San Jose Middle School, right? And in the year, it was the end of the year because it's Basel, but in the year of 2014, they had 92 call outs from the police to that school. And in 2015, they had. They genuinely had zero. You know, so the effect that like art can bring to like a community, even a small community is just, is. Is huge. Yes.

[C]

Incredible.

[B]

Get your show up. Let's. I can't wait. Everyone supported. If you see it, we'll. We'll talk about it as it progresses. Yeah, yeah, man.

[C]

Louie, thanks for doing this. I know I promised you an hour. You've already gone well over it, and I appreciate it very much. Thanks for. This was wonderful. I'm so glad that people are going to get a chance to understand. Exactly.

[A]

Well,

[C]

a little piece of who Louis Jensen is when we mentioned him in the end credits.

[B]

Yeah. And now people will have an eye out. They'll see. They'll. They'll see you all over the place because you are all over the place. So. And you're not stopping. So. Fantastic.

[C]

We'll post some. We'll post some photos of things going on. Alan, why don't you. Yeah, why don't you. Why don't you take us out of orbit?

[B]

Ladies and gentlemen, there's been another episode of Once We Were Spacemen. Oh, we're going back into orbit. This planet looks wonderful. Oh, there's life forms on it. They're small, they're furry, and they have no teeth. I think we'll be fine. Touchdown. See, I gotta find out. I gotta figure this ending out.

[C]

Why start now? I learn a lot every time I talk to Louis.

[B]

Buddy, I cannot wait for that show. I hope his show happens. I mean, he. Something's gonna happen no matter what, whether it's that show or something else. You like Anthony Bourdain. You know, he's sort of the main. Like when people think about really cool travelogue type shows just because he was legit. He was a chef. He had. And he had a perspective. He had a point of view of life. Well lived. I. I get that same sense from Louis.

[C]

I'm gonna send you a sizzle reel that you're gonna. That. That he showed me. You are not going to be disappointed. You are going to be thrilled with what they're coming up with. With for this show.

[B]

I'm gonna get sizzled.

[C]

And I'm really glad. I think one of the things we can really walk away with here is having a tagger name and a DJ name.

[B]

Yeah, it's about time I was. My DJ name was Puffy Rice. It's so outdated.

[C]

My DJ business card just had a blank on it.

[B]

Oh, that's actually kind of cool.

[C]

Just blank shooting blanks. That's a terrible DJ name.

[B]

The null set, the empty brackets. All right, man, that was fantastic. Yet another one. Thanks for listening, everybody.

[C]

See you next time.

[B]

Bye.

[A]

Thank you for listening to. Once we have Spaceman. If you haven't yet, head over to our Patreon to get bonus content, longer episodes and a chance to take home some incredible crap. And if you love the show. Please leave us a review and tell your mates once we are spaceman. It's a collision 33 production.

[C]

Production.

[A]

The show is produced by Michelle Chapman, Siobhan Homan and Josh Levy of Collision 33. Production. Services are done by Rabbit Grin Productions and the theme music is of the minds of Carla Sosa and Joshua Moore, known as the artwork created by me, Louis Jensen, AKA Spraying Briggs, AKA Ghost Painkiller. And yeah, this is a true, real, authentic South London accent, so don't get it twisted, Nathan. Allow it, bruv. Stay blessed until next time.

[B]

Give us your fingernails, mate. Give us your fingernails.