http://www.goodfellasmagazine.com

Give us a feel for what it’s like making a magazine from Spain. 

Actually the idea wasn’t to make a magazine about Spain, but do it on the Barcelona scene. We consider our city to be a major point of reference for European graffiti and it needed, at the time, a publication to match. As we published more issues and thanks to the extent that the magazine acquired, we tried to project a more international view and count with the best writers on the globe.

The scene in Spain seems to be always about the action rather than the final product a lot of the time, especially how hard it is there to paint trains, and I think it shows in the finished product.  But your magazine seems to always have quality pieces.  How do you sift through everything and find quality photos?

Spain is a country where trainwriters often choose one of two paths: the quantity or quality. It is common that the most courageous writers put aside concerns about the final result because the action is the most important part of the act of painting. Yet there are exceptions and that is what Goodfellas tries to show: active writers who see creativity and style as well as a fundamental part of the action.
Regarding the fact of getting material, fortunately, after years we have established friendly relations with important writers in both the local and international graffiti scene. Their collaboration is essential to spread quality material and also to encourage the participation of other writers who feel identified with them.

What sets your mag aside from other magazines?

First of all, it has a rigorous selection of material that primarily assesses the stylistic quality of the production as well as an austere but elegant layout, which diverts attention from the main theme: the photographs. In turn, the magazine aims to reflect a more profound and analytical report on the graffiti phenomenon.

What other magazines inspired you and got you where you are at now?

Xplicit Grafx for its career, the quality of its contents, and its layout.
UP for its career, variety, and its journalistic professional character.
Non Stop for its authenticity.
Bomb Alert for its layout and content.
We also have been influenced by all the fanzines that were before us in our city.

Do you want to continue the same path the mag is on now or take it in another direction at some point?  A lot of magazines from the states end up being some kind of style/fashion magazine rather than a graffiti magazine at some point just to sell copies. 

We respect that other magazines are enforced to use these mechanisms to achieve greater reach. It’s obvious that maintaining a publication with such an orthodox point of view is not economically sustainable, however, we intend to continue showing real graffiti in our magazine from the first to the last page, with the respect it deserves.

Where do you see the magazine in the future?

Completely digitalized ? 🙁

HAHA!  Where did the name Goodfellas come from?

Sounds good. It’s a movie that we love and a very large pizza franchise. Goodfellas is an expression that plays with the irony of the good which in true is evil, good guys doing bad things. It also represents the hypocrisy, of course, that exists in the graffiti world: we are all goodfellas and we all stab each other.
Moreover, the abbreviation GF greatly resembles the word “graffiti”.

What is your mission statement or what exactly does the magazine stand for?

With an inevitable choice for the productions on metal, the mission is to represent the best quality writers in the city of Barcelona, ​​while also having the best foreign material. In turn, by contacting some of the individuals who perpetrate these actions, try to find and explain the “why” and “how” of all this incredible and insane culture.

How do you feel about the current state of printed magazines and books in the graffiti world?

Generally a lot of visual content and not so much written content. Graffiti is really what it is, pieces and tags, but we think you can go further than this.
On the issue of the “editorial digitalization” we see how extremely easy is to find graffiti on the Internet. However, the majority of material are walls and trains in circulation which all the world has seen. Fortunately, the best graffiti on trains is still on the books and printed magazines.
On the other side and, in our view, the saturation of material on the net and the high frequency of publications devalues ​​the work that goes into each piece. We respect the graffiti and the work it implies, so the sacrifice and money it takes to make a print publication is the best example of this respect.

What about graffiti in general?

The girlfriend that has lasted the longest.

How long do you think you will be around?

As long as the sponsors, the law, and our health allows us!

What can we look forward to in the next issue and issues to come?

Watch out for the next issue #4 because it comes fully loaded with the best material and interesting reports, counting with such big writers from many different groups like BLOW, TSK, 031, FAME, VIMOAS… and much more!!

For a preview of the magazine go here:

http://issuu.com/agrione1/docs/gfpreviewissue4_1_