(calm music) - [Announcer] Talk photography with Adrianna Newell.

Learn about the rise of DJ TGIF.

And catch a performance from Sketches of influence.

It's all ahead on this episode of AHA, A House for Arts.

(jazz music) - [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include the Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts and we invite you to do the same.

(techno music) - Hi, I'm Matt Rogowicz, and this is AHA.

A House for Arts, a place for all things creative.

Adrianna Newelll is a photographer working in the Catskills, Hudson Valley, and beyond.

Her impressive list of clients include the New York Times Penguin Random House and Vogue.

I recently visited with her to find out what makes her work stand out.

(playful music) - I'm a photographer in Oneonta, New York.

I love photographing people.

I do a lot of portraiture.

I do a lot of fashion, documentary work.

A lot of the work that I do is based on like identities and the complexities within that.

But I'm also interested in making my work feel nostalgic and dreamlike and almost like my own world through my own lens as being a Black woman from upstate.

I got into photography when I was 14 years old.

Originally, I was really into doing like YouTube videos and making music videos and stuff like that, and I thought I was going to be a filmmaker.

But then I had found Flickr and then I started seeing amazing beautiful work and I was like, "Oh, I can make a still image and still tell a story."

And then it really just blossomed from there.

(uplifting music) I like to work with film a lot and I think that creates more of an intentionality for me.

I feel like a lot of the work that I try to make, I want the viewer to be connected in that way.

I started a project documenting sisters around the upstate area because I also had sisters myself.

I wanted to know like the differences between my relationship with mine and then other people's relationships with theirs.

I did a little interview asking them a little questions like, what's the funniest memory you have with your sister?

Or what inspires you about your sister?

That was like one of my starts to doing different projects, like personally, like in a documentary way.

From there, I had gotten the idea to photograph queer people in rural areas in smaller cities.

Well, I am a queer individual myself.

When I was growing up, I was a lot shyer and more scared and I feel like really putting myself out there with this project and getting to learn about so many different people from so many different walks of life, it has really been such an amazing experience.

I think my work is very emotional or at least I try to make it where you feel connected with the subject in the same way that I felt connected with the subject.

Like that's super important to me.

(uplifting music) I am a frequent contributor to the New York Times.

I've also shot for Vogue, British Vogue, some other little publications.

(laughs) It's been a fun time like getting these jobs and being from this area is definitely crazy.

When I had first started working with the New York Times, they had contacted me in my email and I think I was literally heading to class.

And I was like, "Oh, the New York Times wants to send me to Vermont to shoot Danny Roberts."

They were like, "We really love your style.

I saw your Instagram, I saw your website, I think you'd be great for this shoot."

And yeah, and then three days later, I went out there.

I had like an hour with him and I just shot a bunch of stuff.

You never know what you're gonna get sometimes.

And that was like one of the random moments and then I went on to shoot a bunch fun stuff for them.

If you want to pick up the camera and be a photographer, you should definitely just shoot everything and anyone and just have fun with it.

(classical music) - Craig Earle fell in love with DJing in the nineties after seeing the movie, "Juice" and today he's known as DJ TGIF.

Jade Warrick sat down with Craig to learn how he found success, doing what he loves.

- What's up, Craig?

Welcome to AHA today.

- Thank you for having me.

How you doing?

- Looking pretty great.

- I mean, you know, call me out here.

I had to, you know, dress for the occasion.

- Yeah, looking like blinged out.

So to begin, I know you're a promoter, a DJ, a graphic designer, a businessman.

So with all these creative endeavors and passions, like where did your journey begin to get you?

- Ooh, so my journey began with DJing.

Like DJing is the catalyst for everything.

And like when I fell in love with that.

Like, I fell in love with it way before I got into it.

So I fell in love with it during the '90s when I saw the movie, "Juice."

- Favorite movie.

- And like I rediscovered it when I was in college and yeah, from there, everything just kinda went out- - Kind of flowed through.

- Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

- And did you have any like mentors or anybody from your past that kind of helped boost you to get to like get into the creative pathways?

- For DJing, no, I kind of like locked myself in my room and just kinda like laid out for like eight months straight.

(laughs) And just like kind of, but once I came out of my room after that eight months, I just was like telling everybody, "Hey, I DJ, hey, I DJ, hey, I DJ."

And just was waiting for that first opportunity and then like ran from there but I've definitely had great mentors throughout my career.

- Who were some like were they, did they help you, like artistically?

- Business wise, Kevin Johnson's like my like mentor, somebody I talk to like every other day, every day really.

And just seeing the business side of the game and just like that encouragement or, "Don't fall for these things that I fell for when I was your age."

And like or, "Look out for this or there's a broader perspective here that you could look at this from."

And kinda having that like ace in the hole kinda helps me out a lot.

- Yeah.

- Even to this day.

- No, I agree.

Mentors are very important.

- Yeah, for sure.

- So within your DJ career, what type of music do you play or produce for folks who've never heard?

- All right, so I'm hip hop first.

I'm hip hop first.

Happy 50 years of hip hop.

But I play everything.

So I go hip hop, R&B, afrobeats, reggae, dance hall, Latin music, little soft classic rock.

Like whatever you need me to do, I can do it just 'cause that's what my experiences have led me to do.

- Yeah, and what did you think it comes outta as strength of being able to be able to flow within those varieties as a DJ?

- Yeah, the more tools you have in your toolbox, the more possibilities you have for work.

And so I opened for like Pat Benatar and like I said, I'm hip hop first, so when I step out on stage, I got my jewelry, I got my chains on, they're looking at me like.

- What's about to happen right now.

- For Pat Benatar?

You know, she's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And so, you know, I played some pour some sugar on me and some AC DC, they're like, "Okay, this guy knows his stuff."

- I love that.

So, knowing you're a businessman and honestly a very well-known like entrepreneur within the area, so when was the moment you realized you could use your musical abilities to create a business?

Well what was that?

You know what?

I'm actually gonna go to business for myself instead of working for other folks.

- So funny enough, it was just me doing the job, but the club like manager had asked me, he's like, "Hey, who should we bring up?"

And I was like, "Well you should bring up this act."

And after looking at the spreadsheet backstage and realizing that my idea had made 30, $40,000 that night and I walked away with $300 that night, I was like, "Mm, we gotta make some adjustments."

That's when I knew that like my ideas and my business was like valuable.

And I could, you know, kind of make a living from this.

- And what's your business called?

- My business currently is called Always Outside.

I'm also DJ TGIF.

- And now, Always outside, what's the meaning behind that name?

- Because I'm always outside.

- There we go.

- You're looking for me, I'm outside, I'm involved.

I'm in the community.

I'm in these streets.

Yeah, I'm always out here.

So, yeah.

- Yeah, it's a perfect business name.

So I wanna know, how do you curate, like when you do these parties and these events, how do you curate the good vibes?

Like how do you curate the energy so everyone's engaged, everyone's connected?

'Cause I've seen DJs play, it's really, it's like a psychology.

You're like watching the crowd, you're feeling the crowd.

So how do you work with that?

- I mean, some of it just like kinda happens.

So some of it's like really based on like what's happening within the world.

So like Drake and J. Cole are going on tour, it's called the All a Blur Tour My life's a Blur.

I threw it.

It's all a blur apart.

It was like, it's a moment.

You know what I'm saying?

So sometimes, capitalizing off of moments like, and you can build around a vibe or you get that stroke of inspiration.

Or if I like, Amapiano, which is like music coming outta South Africa, which is taking over the world right now.

And I'm like, "Well I wanna do an Amapiano party.

How do I get people who may not know what that is interested in it?"

And I'm like, "Hmm, maybe I'll do it at the Van Gogh exhibit."

- Yeah.

- You know, like this vibe with this like, we'll do, you know?

And you kind of start to create things like that and it was like, "Hey, who's interested in something like this?"

- Yeah.

And how do you like read the, I guess, 'cause you know, it's a little bit of marketing too and you gotta train like, kind of behaviors of people you know 'cause you know, they may not always go to that type of vibe at like, let's say a more African-centric place, but having it at the Van Gogh kind of opens it up to a variety of audiences.

Is that something that's really important within your work?

- Yeah, absolutely.

It's just, like I said, the more tools you have in your toolbox, the more people you can draw in, the better chances you have of success.

And like something like the Van Gogh exhibit is like, I'm looking around at this visual experience while I'm having this audio experience and then like, I'm interacting with people.

And so you're trying to kinda hit multiple levels of, you know, engagement.

- Yeah.

So every artist, you know, kinda has their niche.

You kind of already glanced over a little bit of like what your special thing is.

So what would you, in your own words, consider your thing that sets you apart from the majority of DJs in the area?

'Cause you're everywhere.

Like everywhere.

Not even just in New York.

So what's your strength?

- I'm relentless.

- Always outside.

- I'm relentless.

I'm always there.

I'm always at the top of mind.

That's why I'm always outside.

Because if you're looking for someone to hire you for something or when people think of your industry, you want you to come to mind first.

And so how are you coming to mind first?

Be outside.

Be in people's faces, say, "Hey, what's up?

How you been?

What's up?

How you doing?"

Support events.

Like even when you're not working, be outside.

Like go do stuff.

- Like be a part of the community, dude.

- Yeah, go support stuff.

Don't just be a business person.

Be a consumer too.

- Yes.

And people see that.

People see like, "Oh, you know, DJ TGIF, he's not just here to just try to sell something.

He's actually engaged actually authentically here and wanting to be here and party with us."

- For sure.

- And everything like that.

And I want just to have the audience know, what was your promise to yourself?

You said you're gonna do this for 20 years or 10 years in a row that you promised yourself as a youngin?

- So when I said I was gonna start to DJ, I just was like, 20 years straight.

20 years straight, no stopping, no breaks, no, "I'm taking time off.

I'm taking a sabbatical to, you know."

None of that.

20 years straight.

We gonna do this 20 years straight and accomplish whatever we can accomplish out of it.

And I'm in year 15 right now.

- That's crazy, year 15.

That's really great, man.

And what have been some of your accomplishments in those 15 years that you would say your highlight moments?

- Ooh.

I mean, everything's a highlight, but like this year, I made 40 under 40 Albany Business Review.

- Congrats.

- And so like to be, you know, put on the same list with like captains of industry.

It's like CEO, CFO, president, chair, this.

DJ TGIF.

I'm like, yo.

- Let's get it.

- So to be recognized for the work that I've, you know, done and continue to do like on that stage is kind of crazy.

- Yeah, that really is.

And then you get something from Congress or something from the government as well.

- Yeah, shout out Paul Tango who came and gave me my certificate during Black History Month for my contributions to the community.

So I got like a congressional award, like, come on.

- That's amazing.

- That's insane.

I've DJ'ed at the United Nations like... - 15 years of grinding.

Look where it goes, man.

- It's crazy.

And so everything's a blessing and I'm thankful for all of it.

- Yeah.

I wanna talk more about, a little bit about the local music scene.

'Cause I know you're everywhere, but I wanna know about local.

- For sure.

- When it comes to the local music scene, knowing you're so involved, what are some issues that you see that you think could be fixed?

Because there's so many amazing musicians in like Albany, Schenectady, Troy, Saratoga, but it seems like people have a hard time climbing out.

- It's infrastructure.

And since there isn't any, like a lot of people leave to go to cities where there is infrastructure already in place.

But I think the biggest value that someone could bring as an artist or a promoter or as a concert organizer, whatever, is building the infrastructure.

And like people who do artist showcases, like a DJ Hollywood, like NBB, Rexie, like they have started to build those platforms and are nurturing artists so people can just come here and do stuff.

Or people that are from here can do stuff here as well as, you know, explore options out of town and outta state and stuff like that.

- Yeah, and how do you think, you know, you mentioned like, DJ Hollywood, but how do you think as a community, how can we all get there together?

Like do we need to like create independent record labels?

Like how can we just?

- Well, like an independent record label is cool, but like everybody's putting their music on Distro Kid and putting their music straight to streaming services.

So really it's just getting the word out there, getting people to say, "Hey, I'm doing music.

This is where it's readily available if you like this show that I'm a part of."

But it's like you have, you know, a local music showcase, you have a Live Five that and Tulip Fest and all these like things that are happening.

You just gotta kind of put it all together.

- Yeah, it's gotta show yourself.

Show out as you said.

So this is in.

If you were to give one word of advice for artists out there who really wanna make it and be in your shoes or you know, do that type of like, oh, I'm just gonna just go, go, go, go, go until I like get to my goals.

What kind of word of advice would you give them.

- My secret weapon, my superpower, the thing that has set me apart, the thing that has made me a success is knowing my value and I started throwing my own events.

I did the events myself instead of being like a private contractor, instead of, you know, being a DJ for hire, I started throwing my own events and I set basically my own value.

And so if I by myself can bring 500 people, 1,000 people, 2,000, 2,500 people to an event, that's my value.

Not this like gig rate.

- Yeah.

- You know what I'm saying?

And so yeah, that's kind of, I would tell somebody trying to get into the business or trying to build and trying to become more, do your own things.

- Yeah.

Trusting yourself.

- Yeah, absolutely.

If you're an artist and you throw your own art show, if you're a musician, throw your own concert.

If you're a DJ, throw your own parties.

Like that will set you apart.

That will set what your demand is and then you build it.

- Awesome.

Well thank you.

Here's the building empires together.

All right.

I appreciate you, Craig, and thank you for being on the show today.

- Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Thank you.

- Please welcome Sketches of Influence.

(jazz music) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) - Thanks for joining us.

For more Arts, visit wmht.org/aha and be sure to connect with us on social.

I'm Matt Rogowicz, thanks for watching.

(techno music) - [Announcer] Funding for AHA has been provided by your contribution and by contributions to the WMHT Venture Fund.

Contributors include The Leo Cox Beach Philanthropic Foundation, Chet and Karen Opalka, Robert and Doris Fischer Malesardi, and The Robison Family Foundation.

- At M&T Bank, we understand that the vitality of our communities is crucial to our continued success.

That's why we take an active role in our community.

M&T Bank is pleased to support WMHT programming that highlights the arts and we invite you to do the same.