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http://www.westcoastpoppin.comEnjoy the interview!
westcoastpoppinWhen did you start Popping?
WaveomaticI started doing the robot in 1979.
westcoastpoppinWhat got you into popping?
WaveomaticI use to hang out at this park close to my house, it was mostly a Samoan nieghborhood around this one park, and my homie David Alo was locking as usual, but then started doing these crazy robotic movements, I was hooked!
westcoastpoppinHow did you get your name?
Waveomatic I was with a couple of my homies learning some moves from some of the older cats that "occupied" the park so to speak, this one Samoan cat was showing us an arm wave, the only wave I had seen was really a tidal wave, so when he told me to try it, I did it pretty good the first few times, he turned one of the other cats and said "that was automatic, he got it down automaticaly!" and this other older Samoan cat gave me his beer and a hit off a his joint (I was like 12, hehe), and told me "your wave-o-matic", .... and that was it.
westcoastpoppin Were you in a crew? if so which?
Waveomatic Some of my homies and me started a crew early 80's, Electric Knights, we were a mixed bunch, started with Chilly Willie, John Hayward, Deno Rivera (we called him Flap, he was half Philipino half Japanese, hehe), Danny Affajay, Fili Vaa Swani (his cousin was Oka from Blue City fam, one of the dopest poppers I had seen back then), Scotty Pearson (also Blue City fam, we use to go to Sam Niko's house and eat, practice, eat, chill, eat, eat and eat some more), Philip Gills(one of the craziest tutters, hard ass hits with tuts), the Morales Brothers, Sunny, Joel, and Jo Jo, DOPE ass lockers and poppers, crazy cool filipino brothers from Carson, and fo sho Pookey (my homie Craig Caseywho lived in Inglewood, CA, who moved from the Harbor Area to Inglewood back and forth, always had to give homie a ride when I got my car) and others later.
We were poppers, lockers (Willie, Pookey, and me weren't as much as lockers as the others, just basics for group routines, I became crazy for waves, hehe) and even eventually bboys(we all got into breakin'), a grip of nieghborhood crews had all aspects covered, especially when bboyin hit the scene here in the West Coast.
westcoastpoppin Are you in a crew now? if so which?
Waveomatic No, but I represent Homeland, Long Beach City, California, and all of the Harbor Area, you know! :)
westcoastpoppin Where were you from? Where are you now?
Waveomatic I was born in Hollywood, CA, first male of my family to be born in this country. My family is from Greece. My grandfather lost what they had during WWII when the Germans bombed, they hit our house and destoyed acres of land, so my grandfather gathered whatever he could and they came to America through Ellis Island.
They came to Los Angeles, and my dad grew up across the street from Lagoona Park in East LA, went to Garfield High, worked hard, went back to Greece to marry my mom, then they moved to Hollywood then Harbor City. I went to school with some amazing poppers growing up, my area was a poppin haven. Anthony Medina, God rest his soul, was an AMAZING dancer. I went to school with Boogaloo Shrimp for a year in middle school, he was living in Wilmington, CA. Would always go to Scott Park and see cats like Donald Devou then Blue City crew and now you can see him still hittin hard as hell in Booyaa Tribe videos, hehe, still bad!
westcoastpoppin What do you think is the major differences between todays scene and before?
Waveomatic It was much more raw back then, battles in the streets, malls, schools, parks, garages, everywhere, 24/7. Today, thanks to technology and to many OG's that never stopped doing for the artform what all of us should be thankfull for.....keeping it alive, it has reached many people an many areas and has given bith to many events and contests all over the world. Expereincing both eras, it really makes me appreciate one another. The rawness of back then, the growing love for it today. I am amazed at so many of todays dancers, the technicality and execution of their dance is amazing to watch.
A major difference between today and then, for me, is creativity. Back then, we didnt have tutorials in forms of mpegs, avi's, dvd's, vhs, forums, newsgroups, emails, etc. So when we were "stuck" or "studing" on a style, we looked at movies, cartoons, insects, whatever to get some iinfluence, some direction. We looked within our imagination. Many stylese came out in a short period of time, and those styles got flipped by the next person, you took the ball and ran with it your way. Today, many cats emulate thier dance from the sorce they are studing to learn it from. That, in my opinion, takes away some of the creative process that takes place when figuring out styles, moves, transitions, etc, yourself.
westcoastpoppin Who were some known poppers back then? What made them known?
Waveomatic Wow, so many. From Boppin Andre to Boppin Ron, King Snake to King Cobra, Heckle and Jeckle (samoan) to Heckle and Jeckle (white), hehe. So so many to mention. You had cats like Mr Wiggles, Mr Wave, Popmaster Fabel and others we had seen in movies and videos, we were like "those cats are bad!" as in DOPE. Here in the West Coast, you had gangs of dancers and crews from the Bay all the way to LA.
Many cats were not famous, out of all the dancers involved in the scene, a very very small percentage made movies and commercials, or even made huge reps amoung the masses, many underground cats were dope as hell!!!! Some could take anyone!!! I'll tell you about my hoods poppers. In my niehborhood and surrounding hoods, more knowns were Boogaloo Shrimp, Blue City Crew, really dope cat Anthony Medina, Alo Bothers, Cosmix, Curtis E, Packy and Candy Man ( local crips), Sunny Lopez (hardcore lowrider popper), Chilly Willie (mostly a bboy when that hit, but before he popped and locked, his house was the spot, pool, we swam when it had water and skated it when it wa empty, his garage was the main practice spot.) Dino (baddest American-Japanese popper I had seen, we went to school together and practiced a grip), Deno Rivera (first dude I ever seen do hand waves like what cats doing "liquid" nowaday call the handflow, I took his concept and flipped it to travel around my body, bending and turning as it changed speeds, antoher amazing waver) , Pookey, Scotty Pierson ( a blood from Scott Park Killers, also Booyaa Tribe/Blue City Family, my close poppin partner, half samoan half white, hehe, and would inspire me to get better all the time, so did his brother J J, God rest his soul, another soldier murdered), Bam Bam (Ricky from EST, got his name from getting shot 7 times in the back and still lived, now has a house and family and all that, Sammy Burchet (this dude looked exactly like Billy Idol, he could get down! Bad ass whiteboy.), Lil' Guns (not cause of guns as in 9mm semi automatics/gats, but he had some big ass muscle arms....guns), Joker ( gansta), Wero (gansta), Actions (dope ass dancer), Fili Vaa Swani ( my close homie, dope ass samoan popper with mad styles, my sister recently ran into him, hopefully I can get him back into the game. His cousin OKA showed me the very first trace wave I had scene, he would wave his eyebrows even, he was an amazing waver, showed me the "neverending wave", Willie Walnut (later became a crip, died runnning from the cops in a freak death, hopping over a spiked fence, he slipped and the fence speared right thru him), Jo Jo, Joel and Sunny Morales (DOPE ass filipino poppers from Carson) Phillip Gills (crazy hard ass tutter from my hood, one night he battled all night at some Gardena Rec Center poppin event, mostly tutting on them, hard ass sharp tutts with crips hits, all on beat,), Marcellas, Whiteboy Danny and Whiteboy Dave (part of the Kurkindile brothers, craziest whiteboys I have ever met, youngest bother Psycho was a notorious killer in the hood, thank God we were good homies, hehe.), Dee O T (pimp popper), Marty Martini (new wave popper), Sinbad (sentinced to life in prison for murder), JimBad, Tone Stone, , Lil' Creeper (dope mexican popper), Angel Rivera, Randy Keaha (Hawaiian cat, an all round dancer, he did jazz and all that too), Kung Fool(this cat was funny), Tung (dope vietnamese popper, one of the dopest basketball players too, this cat could hoop anyone, and Pookey was semi pro, and he would ball him up.... me, Willie, Vaa, Sammy and Pookey use to kick it in his garage all the time, homeboy had 8 brothers, Tin, Ton, Tung, Bin, Bong, Vit, and some other older ones deep into veitnamese mafia, homeboys were crazy! ), Little Casper (his brother was huge dealer, hehe, dude had a new car every month, till he got raided), Arabian Prince (yeah, he was a DJ and lived down the street for a while, he made some dope cuts too) to name some.
westcoastpoppinWhere were the hot spots to session/battle at? How often did these things go down?
WaveomaticMy favorite spots where Noahs Ark/Infinity, an all ages club in Long Beach. Carson Mall, Dell Amo Mall, Fox Hills Mall, school dances had dope battles, Big Johns, King Harbor, Venice Beach, at house parties (meaning at ppls house, not meaning the House music of the Chicago scene) Hollywood Blvd (motly by Highland, but up and down the blvd), friday night highschool football games, Shamrock roller rink (nice low key spot), FatBurgers, and Studio K/CLoud 9 at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA. Shit went down every weekend, and once in a while a good local park event or a church's dance to go hit up :) Also if I was lucky enough to go to an Uncle Jams Army event, those were dope, think of it like a funk-tastic-poppin-pre-rave, hehe.
westcoastpoppinWho was ur inspiration?
WaveomaticMany dancers, really many different things. As I said earlier, I started in 79, sometime before May, I had asked my Mom about it and she says I was doing it on my birthday nonstop that year. :) Back then, I had seen many older Samoan cats, also David Alo (he busted the robot first that made me really trip out) and Oka (my waving inspiration) inspired me big time. Also seeing Robert Shields and Yarnel on TV was mad inspirational. So many cats I grew up inspired me at one point or another, so did many cartoons, movies, animals, and things like water. :) I'm sure indirectly other inspirations helped me and keep helping me grow as a dancer.
westcoastpoppin Did you train with a certain group/individual/teacher? If so who?
Waveomatic Mostly with the homies, but in 85 I had to leave the country, I moved to Greece and was the only popper there, at least that I knew of.
westcoastpoppin Can you still find inspiration from the new generation?
Waveomatic HELL YEAH!!!! It's the new generation that has me out dancing all the time again!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!
westcoastpoppin Please tell us about any memorable battles, beefs, sessions, moves, places, etc.
Waveomatic Man, there is so much to say about all the battles, sessions, moves and places...lets just say that there were some spots like Hollywood Blvd that you would see a gang of new heads you had never seen before, seeing new shit, and at all age clubs. Sessions usually happened at a homies garage, but we would also session at the park.
I grew up close to Scott Park in Carson that opened me up to a lot of poppin. A crazy beef I remember was between two cats, Pookey and this other cat, cant remember his name, this filipino cat, but they battled, then they squabbed, and then they battled and squabbed all over again. This lasted a few hours between a lot of shit talking and pushing, later getting half the place involved. It was at a rented out wharehouse party, Knights of the Turntables spinnin, kegs, no ID needed, these two dudes went crazy that night. I'll never forget during their second battle, the other homeboy was poppin and by the end of a few rounds he had a big ole' knott on his head (Pookey had headbutt him), hehe, he was swellin' up bigtime, bloody shirt, lump growing upside his head, busted eye and all, :). These cats didnt dance to fight, but fight to dance :)
westcoastpoppin What was the dominant styles back in the 70s? How about in the 80s?
Waveomatic When I started, it was all about the robot, and if you weren't doing that, you were lockin or doing both. It was the robot that got me into it fo sho. Again, this was in '79, and before that I really don't remember much, I was 11, and wasnt exposed to much other than lockin and the robot. It wasnt till I saw it done up close that got me crazy hooked.
The 80's is when I started seeing all kinds of styles and moves, here in the Harbor Area of Los Angeles, the very early 80's was a poppin explosion. As far as my area goes, from the 70's, many Samoan cats that orginaly lived in the Bay had moved to Carson, CA, and Long Beach, CA, and some of their styles came along with them. Also, Poppin Pete and his brother Boogaloo Sam moved to Long Beach from Fresno, and brought Sam's Electric Boogaloo style. I had heard of Pete, my sure my homie had told me about him, like I beleive he called hime Poppin Pistol Pete or something very simular to that, describing his hard hittin style, and I later came to know about Sam and Pete.
Also Boppin style was big, thanks to Boppin Andre, he influenced many here in LA too, another poppin legend as well. I beleive all these cats, Bay Area styles and more, played a role in the area and surrounding areas I'm from (Harbor Area).
The 80's you saw a lot of poppin, animation (3 d'ing and many other styles incorporated in mimicing stop action and clay mation movements, much inspired by movies based on Greek, Persian and Arabic mythological creatures), bay are struttin and boogaloo, the style of poppin in itself (yes, poppin is a style, like continuouse hitting, not just a term used to describe the dances that accompany it, hehe, and different areas "popped" different even though the foundations was there, like compton style was more gangsta, for example), electric boogaloo (old man, walk out, twist o flex, rolls), waves(all different types, waves in the mid 80's got VERY creative) , bops (came from bottin, rythmatic robot dancing which incorporates a hit usually comming from the stomach area and chest), hits ( the "tensing" of various body parts, the essence of poppin), vibrating, strobbin (mimicing the actions of a strobe light's effect), tickin (sharply "stop and go" pausing your moves), tuts (egyptian style, mimicing egyptian hieroglyphic postures, ancient eastern indian hand positions, buggs bunny cartoon angles, then led to more geometrical styles)floats and glides (illusionary walking movements, like walking in place, or going backwards while giving the illusion of moving forwards[this is known as the backslide, but was commonly mistaken as the moonwalk, which is what Micheal Jackson called it when he first performed it on a Motown Show on TV-MJ use to robot back in the days, but he learned a gang of poppin from Poppin Taco and Poppin Pete I beleive], also done on the knees, like the famous Mr Wiggles knee slide), walks (character walks), puppet (like being controlled on a string), to name a some, and routines (many influenced by the Bay Area)and so on.
westcoastpoppin How were battles judged back then? Do you feel it is better judged now or before?
Waveomatic It depended, if it was a battle, or a contest, or a talent show. See, a battle, is the RAWEST form, it was judged by the crowd watching it. The crowd judged. Contests, it would depend, as did talent shows, sometimes they gave it to the highest crowd response, or they had judges, usually the sponsors of the event, hehe. I like it when you battle and the crowd judges, this artform is such an entertaining one, its great to be able to feed off of that factor. I'm all about the crowd :)
westcoastpoppin Skill level compared to back then to now, what are the differences?
Waveomatic The skill level now is INSANE! Not saying it wasnt back then, the Old School is no were close being documented to see what the skill level was like, the footage available, being great, does not reflect all what was going on, those who were there know how advances some were..... but DAMN, some styles have progressed so much, like boogaloo, tutting and waving, even bottin, for example that seeing cats like Sweepy, Jay Jay, Tetris, Skywalker, Elsewhere, Madd Chadd, and so so many more, to see them doing amazing things with it, wow, makes me feel young again! I definetly would like to see more character, musicality is dope now adays, cats are hitting beats like crazy. I wish they played more of a variety of poppin music at events so we can see what cats really can do with musicality other than songs that are redundantly being played throughout events.
westcoastpoppin Who did you want to battle back then? What about now??
Waveomatic Anyone, and anyone. ;)
westcoastpoppin what do you feel about the internet becoming a big part of networkin in poppin community?
Waveomatic DOPE! The internet is a valuable tool, a very powerful one too. But be carefull, it can make you lazy, and if it is your blueprint to learning this dance, then it might do you more harm. As a communication tool, to talk and learn with others all over the world, its amazing, I'm a nerd because of it. What I mean by lazy, if it's just to download clips and vids to learn, thinking its a shortcut, it is, but its a shortcut to somewhere that will be harder to find your OWN way back home. IMO dance is self expression, you want to express yourself when you dance, not someone else. Also much credit goes to Space Capital setting it off with Bboy.com, and FO SHO Mr Wiggles for his many contributions even thru his website, and how it's brought so many dancers together to discuss topics in a form not many other places have provided, always reaching out to every dancer and respecting every opinion. It has proven to be a valuable tool, I think his website might be underappreciated by even myself for what it has provided for the community. So on that note, THANK YOU!
westcoastpoppin When did you get back into the scene? why?
Waveomatic You never stop dancing, I really believe that, but I did fall out of the scene and stopped practicing for years. My crew started claiming the hood instead, gangbangin, drug dealing, quick comeups, it just ruined what we once had in my hood. The crack cocaine hit hard, dealing went out of control, gangs, dancing was the lowest on the list.
I started doing shows with THE SHAPESHIFTERS, an underground hip hop group started by memebers of CBS graffiti crew here in LA. I produced tracks, worked a lot with Circus, we were close homies for many many years, and Mek on beats starting even before the album Planet of the Shapes very early 90's, and danced live during shows later in the 90's too, even poppin in costumes.
I toured with the homies thru states too, and also did tons of shows all through California. I also popped on a few underground videos, like for Awol One and a few of our crazy ShapeShifter vids. In the 90's, I also toured to Europe with Milk Skateboards for the World Championships, in 96 I had a REAL battle again in Amsterdam against a Dutch popper at a hip hop event. This got me back into lookin more into it again.
Then around 2001-2002 I started posting online, on websites, where I met Tetris and Pandora, they took me to Homeland(a place for dancers, DJ,s and graff writers to do there thing without getting in trouble, we have designated walls there for cats to do there pieces, legally) when it was for Bboy/Bgirls, and we became the true homies. With their help, IceMan (OG Bboy), Bboy Don (OG boy), Steam(OG Graff artist), and Dixie ( REALLY OG, she ran the park, changed it around, use to be gang infested, its deep in the hood, but is one of the safest places you'll ever visit, thanks to all her efforts), we started Homeland on monday nights for poppin and lockin. They are the ones mainly responsible for getting me back in the game.
Those two and what else that inspired me most to get back in the game was seeing Detours. WOW, I related to those cats cause I have a simular approach, later I met Skywalker wavin at an underground D&B event, we started meeting up at spots a grip, then later Elsewhere and Squid where we shot a video for some house group called Eltro, and we have became close homies since, hehe. We are some really weird wavers from SoCal, hehe.
I can never thank Elsewhere enough, and even more Tetris and Pandora, they took me under their wing and we were the three amigos going out every weekend, oh yeah, and Ted, haha, those were good times.
westcoastpoppin what was the down time of the scene like (late 80s early 90s) how did ppl react to poppin?
Waveomatic Mid eighties is when I saw the down fall, actually in 86-87, I came back from Greece and most of the crew was gangbangin and hustling instead. No one was poppin at parties. I was getting clowned for poppin, 'cause when I was in Greece, I was still doing my thing. I couldnt beleive it, I was not feeling this change one bit, but later got sucked into its trap. Many of the "poppin" neighborhoods got infected by this social virus, bieng they were in low income areas, like the projects (ghetto) and arrested developemented communites.
Our poppin shirts and pants were replaced by colorless gear, our boom boxes by boom sticks. No glory in it, nothing close to the days of poppin battles. Poppers were like gladiators, battles were face to face, not suppose to be someone who gets shot in the back while running for cover. In LA the gang scene got really nutty, and many of the most talented individuals fell prey to it. If they werent bangin, they were robbing, and if they werent robbing and stealing, they were dealing, and if they werent dealing, they were smoking, and when they werent smoking, they were doing other dirt. Many fell to that lifestyle, and the media started to milk it thru gansta rap and other forms.
Poppin is a West Coast dance, spawned by the funk era musically, to its earliest traces in the Bay to Central, then down to Southern California area geographicaly, commonly mistaken for being a Hip Hop element, even though now in my opinion it probably is, but thats not where it originaly came from, as Hip Hop originally came from the Bronx, NY. When Hip Hop started to take a change, so did many of its dances and the dances it accompanied. Bboyin, a true hip hop element, also started to phase out when poppin and lockin phased out as a main scene.
The true essence of these West Coast dances and Hip Hop elements found themselfs at thier roots again....underground....when only MC'ing could be turned to products to sell, rappin was on the forefront.....commercial Rap and commercial Hip Hop spawned other scenes, and took some of the dancers there, even away from dancing, hehe. At that time, many elements of poppin found themselfs in other scenes here in LA for example, that era, mid to late 80's, was the time of the first "raves" her in LA. Electro, which was big in the early to mid 80's, also shifted scenecs, it went way underground, college and underground radio became a home to these, the BMP's started getting faster and faster, which started the first TechnoElectro parties here in Los Angeles, and with the influence of a scene starting in Detroit, Techno for short (many Electro Funk influences, like Kraftwork and Tangarine Dream, were the influences that also spawned the Techno scene that first started in Detroit, these influences and others, like Chicago's House and New York's "Garage" scenes, and UK's many electronica scences, and many others reached here from the 80's thru the 90's).
Here in LA, Party Crews started throwing these type of clubs, as did many college students promotting these hallucenogenicaly laced parties, mostly illegal events at abandoned buildings, rented out hangers and lofts, our even out in the desert. Some poppers like myself attended these parties, we could dance and not get bagged on for poppin, but with the beats so fast, we mostly just waved all night long, hehe. Just try hittin to beats at 100 - 140 BPM all night long, hehe, what a workout!
westcoastpoppin what do you think brought poppin back? Who is responsible?
Waveomatic How could such a dance, an artform, so unique, so distinctfully different..unhuman if you will, compared to other dances...that came from the streets, done with such grace, creating so much creativity, igniting such imaginaton, how could something like that ever just dissappear? Thats what I really think now, it never left, just shifted scenes. Sure, it lost many participants along the way, but now gains more and more all the time.
I give most of the credit to the Electric Boogaloos for taking this dance to soo many places, that is just undeniable. Also, cats like Boogaloo Shrimp got many cats involved thru ppl seeing him in Breakin, you'll always here the words "turbo" when someone with minimal knowledge tries to describe it. He doesnt get much credit, but he should, he also went to Japan and took the dance with him doing shows. Now cats like Elsewhere have sprung new dancers and fans of the dance with his worldwide commercials and his Kollaboration clip, the most downloaded dance clip on the internet, hehe, that keep exposing the artform to different scenes and regions.
westcoastpoppin What legacy would you like to leave for the scene?
Waveomatic hehe, I would love to be known as or even leave a legacy, who wouldnt, the truth is I'm just one of so many poppers that got down back in the days, I wasn't famous back then, well, outside of my hood, hehe, but I had my underground rep fo sho, mostly known as the crazy white boy from harbor city, hehe. Ideally I would like to leave cats hopefully knowing that my style is mine, a much as anyones dance can be thier own, that I tried to be an innovator, and create new ideas for the dance. If I inspired at least one person thru my dance, who inturn inspires another, that not too bad. :)
westcoastpoppinWhat advice would you give to anyone who is interested in getting into this dance?
Waveomatic DO IT!!!!!!!!! ITS THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!!!!!!!!!
westcoastpoppinAnything you would like the readers to know about you? Any other comments?
Waveomatic Yeah, thanks again for the interview, I wasnt famous or was I the best popper back then, but I know I could get down with the best of them, hehe, so its an honor for someone like me, an underground popper, to get a chance to be heard and acknowledged, even though my participation in the history of the artfrom is just a splash of water, a wave breaking in an everflowing ocean of knowledge.
That, and come to Homeland Cutlural Center on Mondays nights so we can get down!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Much love to my family, Mom and Dad let me dance, they knew it kept me out of trouble....for a while, hehe, and I have to give a big shout out to my baby Karlita aka "Pop Roxx", she helped my thru some really tought times not too long ago that almost had me sent somewhere way outside this scene, hehe, THANK YOU BABE! And a big huge thanks to all the homies I have met, all my HOMELAND HOMIES!!!!!!!!, and all the homies I have yet to meet!
