Garage JS4KIX Part 2: The Interview
Part 2 of 2 of our Garage JS4KIX exclusive.
We took notice of JS4KIX during last year’s Street Car Supreme when one of our SH Crew members was working the booth and took notice of the JS4KIX 240sx. He was ecstatic to see such work and all he could mention was “JS4KIX!!!” Recently, JS4KIX popped onto the forums, advertising his shop and thought it would be a great opportunity to check out their work. We set up a meeting and when we go here he showed us masterpieces that were nothing short of amazing! With shops setup here in Hawaii, California and Arizona, you can be sure you can check out the work of JS4KIX when you travel to the west coast.
Here is the interview we had with Gary Ganotisi and Mike “DJ Wish” Quering.
SH: Hey, What’s up Gary? What’s up Mike? Lets get this interview going…
SH: How did you guys get started in this business?
Gary: For the love of the sport. Its just for fun. Just for kicks.
SH: That’s dope, that’s dope…What is your favorite car to work on?
Gary: My favorite car would have to be the 240sx. It’s cheap, affordable, and you can make some power with it with limited time and resources.
SH: True that, I see a bunch of them emerging to the higher ranks… I see you do pro-am drift competitions, what’s the scene like there?
Gary: I’m not a pro, but I do drift at pro-am events up in Vegas, Arizona and Cali. There are a lot of really good guys with really baller cars so it makes it a little more challenging and interesting to stay in the game. I’m a real person with a real job with real bills and a family to take care of. I wish I got more $ to back up my drift career.
SH: You show off your Aloha spirit up there?
Gary: Oh yeah, I rock the Hawaii plates and drive my car to the events with tires still stacked in my trunk. Everyone knows I’m from Hawaii because I represent JS4KIXHawaii whenever I paint cars for fellow drifters most of them are pro drivers.
SH: Good to see Hawaii getting put on the map, back to the shop. What are the plans or goals for the shop in the future?
Gary: Some plans and goals for this shop is to try to take it as far as I can, and eventually start like a solid team that could be chill and fun yet go to the mainland to continue to drift.
SH: Cool. What do they specialize in?
Gary: In this shop, we specialize in everything from custom auto body and paint, Airbrush art, graphics to mechanics, Fabrications, wheels and tires, to parts and service. Everything we can get our hands on.
SH: Any certain style you guys cater to or is it just like the general public?
Gary: Nah, we try to do it all. Everything from VIP cars to race cars, to mini trucks, to bikes, we dont want to be limited to one thing.
SH: How do you feel about the current state of the automotive and tuning industry? The slump of the economy?
Gary: It is what it is, but we try to give everybody the hook ups. We try to work with their budgets. Were not one of those shops where it is either 5Grand for a paint job or take it somewhere else. We like to work with the customer and work with their prices, kind of cater to their budget. Yet produce sick quality worksmanship.
SH: It is always great to hear local shops hooking up the locals. Now, everyone just needs to realize that and support locals. What do you guys for see as the future of our industry?
Gary: I’m hoping it will pick back up as far as the track opening, if we have a track, we can work on more racecars again; start welding fabrication and all that roll cage good stuff again.
SH: K, time to shoot you some questions Mike. What companies have you worked for before? And what did you think of previous companies’ type of people?
DJ Wish: Lots of the companies I have worked for before were straight up and to the point of making money; They just wanted to get jobs done right the first time. There is quality and we make sure the customer is happy with job before they left the shop, and not give somebody a job that has screw ups and force them to take that; like the only way I could make a living is to prove myself to the customer.
SH: What types of graphics do you do? Types of paint lines?
DJ Wish: I do a lot of air brush murals, realistic people, I do silver leafing, and gold leafing, pin striping all by hand, pretty much anything a customer would need. I can even take somebody’s ugly design and make it look good for them.
SH: I know you been around for a while, are they any other big name people who you’ve ever worked for before?
DJ Wish: I used to DJ for people before. I used to make music and hang out with a guy named DJ Lord from Public Enemy. Me and him used to do a couple shows together in Florida and Georgia and Savanna. He used to DJ for a store called DK Skate Shop and I’ve DJ’d in Tallahase, the FSU radio station. I’ve also opened up for Wu Tang Clan, and George Clinton in the late 90’s and 2000’s, around that era. I’ve opened up for DJ Spooky, Cool Keith, and the Ultramagnetic MCs; Mostly just opened up for them, and advertising for them on my radio spot. I got more into airbrushing and painting to make a living until now. I was pretty good at break dancing too; we used to go across country to go break dancing and battling because I was really big in the hip hop scene. Most of my friends were MC’s, I was break dancing, graffiti, DJ’ing, that was my part.
SH: Looks like you’ve been all over Mike. Any shout outs guys? Anything else you want to say?
Gary: Down here or in LA?
SH: Any and everywhere haha!
Gary: Well.. I don’t mean to be mean but, haters fuel my fire! Haha! Anytime you do good, there’s always going to be haters. This is the Aloha state, we should all support each other. In the past, I’ve brought out fellow drifters to come to the mainland to drift @ Willowsprings California drifters Crazy J,Chris Taylor, Sean Nasty,and the Js4KIX crew all these guys came up and I gave them the opportunity to actually drive my car and drift just for the love of the sport and represent Hawaii. That”s what I want to see more out there, instead of everybody trying to be like crabs in a bucket.I would like to thank my girl and daughter Aly for lettin me go up to follow through with my goals and for being so patient with my crazy schedule. Ernie Fixmer from L.A. for all the help and track support and all the boys @ my shop for all the work that we put out.
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