🎧 Welcome to the Vinyl Underground Podcast – Where Beats Meet Community!

In this episode, hosts Tony Rivera (Tony Technique) and Tim Piner sit down with special guest Adam Graetz, aka thefacesblur, a multidisciplinary artist, DJ, and visual creator based in Durham, North Carolina.

Join us as Adam shares his journey from classical guitar to electronic music production, his deep roots in the North Carolina music and art scene, and the story behind his acclaimed Elemental EP. We dive into the evolution of Durham’s underground party culture, the importance of community, and Adam’s experiences working with major artists and festivals.

⏩ Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro & Welcome
02:24 – Meet Adam Graetz (facesblur)
03:11 – Adam’s Musical & Artistic Journey
06:11 – From Graffiti to DJing
10:59 – The Floor 919 & Durham’s Party Scene
17:58 – DJ Styles, Genres, and Live Sets
23:46 – Collaborations & Notable Performances
28:23 – The Elemental EP: Concept & Art
34:15 – Visual Art, VJing, and Working with Interpol & Snoop Dogg
44:10 – Building Community & Supporting New Talent
53:00 – Reflections on the NC Scene & Final Thoughts
1:05:41 – Where to Find Adam (facesblur) & Outro

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Credit for intro:
Visuals: Visual Canopy
Music: Adam Graetz
Highlight Reel arrangement: Tony Technique
Show intro track: DJ Red Wild

VinylUnderground #Podcast #DurhamNC #ElectronicMusic #DJ #VisualArt #Community

Creators and Guests

Host

Tim Piner

Host of the Vinyl Underground Podcast

Host

Tony Rivera

Built from the streets Specializing in Crowd Control

What is The Vinyl Underground?

Welcome to The Vinyl Underground, a podcast created by fans, for fans of electronic music in North Carolina. Hosted by Crowd Control, this show dives deep into the local and regional scenes across Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Asheville, and Wilmington.

Our first series, Behind the Decks, showcases the hottest emerging DJs—sharing their stories, musical styles, inspirations, and favorite dancefloor moments. Whether you're Gen Z discovering the scene or a seasoned Gen X raver revisiting your roots, The Vinyl Underground is where beats meet community.

Tune in, get inspired, and stay connected to the movement.

005 Vinyl Underground
===

[00:00:00]

Tony Rivera: Welcome party people back to the Vinyl Underground Podcast. Where Beats Meet community. I'm your host Tony Technique. Here are my main man. Hey, you guys. My boy. My brother from another mother. Yeah,

Tim Piner: I fuck with him too.

Tony Rivera: Tim Pena. And today we have a very special guest. Coming all the way based outta Durham, North Carolina.

Tim, who do we have? Tim?

Tim Piner: We got a legend, Adam Gretz known him for about a decade, and the faces

Tony Rivera: blur.

Tim Piner: He is such, he's such a stud in every capacity. A real artist and engineer and amazing guy. He is an amazing [00:01:00] guy. He has

Tony Rivera: amazing digital arts and some awesome production that he's done. Which just recently with his Elemental ep?

Yes. He's been doing some stuff around town, around Durham, based in Durham. Usually he does a 9 1 9. Good, thanks. The floor 9 1 9 out in Durham. Yep. And um, you know, we're gonna show Durham some love tonight. Damn right Durham. You're welcome, Adam to the show. Thank you for existing.

Tim Piner: Yep. So much talent, including this legend.

Tony Rivera: Definitely. And um, hope you guys enjoy.

Tony Rivera: [00:02:00] welcome Adam to the show. Adam Gris, the faces blur coming here all the way from Durham, North Carolina, where he's based out of, you know, this is glad to have you and we've been following you and your art and your, your parties that you've been doing recently.

And you know. Let's let's get into, um, who is Adam?

Adam Graetz: Mm-hmm. Thank you so much. Really happy to be here. Welcome. I appreciate you guys taking the time to of course, have a combo course, honor to have you. Of course, man. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: I mean, you know, we've, you know, and I've, I've seen you around town way more, I don't know, may, maybe a couple of years now, I think for sure.

And, um, bumping, bumping into you and, you know, our little circle and whatnot. Mm-hmm. And, um, [00:03:00] but it's just recently, which I really started learning about, you know, what you've been doing and, and your music you've been putting out. Mm-hmm. Um, how long you've been like, you know, doing music and all that.

Adam Graetz: I mean, all of it.

Let's see. So I consider myself kind of a multidisciplinary artist, so I work in a lot of different ranges and areas. So visuals was sort of my first love in a lot of ways. Mm-hmm. Um, but I've been a musician my whole life in a lot of ways. Um, I grew up doing classical guitar, metal guitar, jazz, guitar. Wow.

From a young age, like eight, nine, probably really, um, for a long time. And then probably around 2007 or eight I got into electronic music production. And was really getting into that with like reason and logic. Oh yeah. Early tools. Like old school Yes. Was doing that for a long time up and through the early aughts or late aughts I guess.

Um, and then really once I got into sort of the club scene type world house music and all that really took off making club tracks and dance tracks and things like that. Um, but I've got a long history of just, you know, playing different instruments, playing in bands, things like that. Um, [00:04:00] a little saxophone here or there and like, you know, some funny middle school band moments.

Yeah. Yeah. Just being kind of a nerd, you know. Right. Um, but visuals were also always my, my true love. I studied graphic design, um, in Arts Magnet School back in high school in Greensboro. Oh wow. Um, did like AP portfolios, things like that. Mm-hmm. Was learning the Adobe Suite in like ninth grade. Yeah.

Pretty much. And learned like mastered Photoshop and Design Illustrator before they had the lasso tool. Yeah, exactly. Way back. I was like, I mean, we're talking like CS two, like Adobe CS two, like early days, so mm-hmm. Um, great times. But yeah, I've always kind of done like a lot of different. Types of art in a lot of ways.

I was a photographer for a long time, did a lot of videography. I was making short films experimental films, documentary work. Um, when I went to UNCI was on the staff for the Daily paper there, filming photojournalist stuff. Mm-hmm. Short video pieces and vignettes. Mm-hmm. Um, so I've kinda lived a few different lives in a lot of ways Wow.

Of different periods of time. I was a graffiti writer for a long time. Wow. Back from like oh three to oh eight or [00:05:00] 2010 ish. Really. Um. Done that for a long time. Riding trains, painting trains, stuff like that. Um, but that was all back Greensboro days. Yeah. Back in the day when I would kind of Yeah. Be rough and tough around the Greensboro Park.

Yeah. That's awesome. So it was like, you know, riding bikes around fixed gear, bikes like punk scenes mm-hmm. Stuff like that. Nice anarchists, punk house shows, stuff like that. So it's cool though, but I grew up in the metal and, and punk scene was kind of my original upbringing in that, around that time.

And then grew into other areas. Yeah. Over time. Kind of evolved. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But that's a lot. I just threw a lot at you. No, that's a lot of hobbies in I could I could go on and on and on. Yeah, that's, you

Tony Rivera: know, that's funny. 'cause you know, it just gives us a perspective of your journey and how you got to where you got to, right?

Mm-hmm. So yeah, you mentioned a lot of these different elements in which you've gone into, um, you know, um making music, you know, down with the um, metal scene and all that. And I have, you know, I dunno about you. I know when I was in high school I had some really cool metal, metal head friends. Yes.

And metal man. So those guys are always cool with me, you know what I'm saying? Um, you know, graffiti and right now, [00:06:00] so I can see where your progression, progression went.

Tim Piner: Yep.

Tony Rivera: Yeah, it's an interesting journey. Yeah. And to music producing and now DJing

Adam Graetz: pretty much. Tell me about

Tony Rivera: the DJing, bro. Well,

Adam Graetz: I mean, it's interesting.

It seemed like almost the logical conclusion of a lot of the things I'd been working on in my life up to that point. And I think. Throughout high school and into college. Um, going from Greensboro to Chapel Hill, going to UNCI was always a big lover of like the mix cd, the mix tape. Mm. Um, curating and creating songs and playlists for my friends and people I loved.

Curation was always a big thing for me. Right. And so I basically around 2016, decided like, why can't I just take this curation thing, marry it with a technical element, and start mixing the tracks I love and playing 'em for people in a different fashion. So instead of making playlists, making, you know, burning CDs mm-hmm.

Making mix tapes, things like that. That was like, and RIP. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, why can't I just do this live and have fun with it? And so around the similar time, I'd kind of gotten into house Yes. Techno stuff like that, and was like, let's let's get the four on the floor [00:07:00] a chance, you know? Yeah. And so 2016 kind of picked that up and ran with it for a while and, prior to that, I was doing basically in the club scene doing lighting, visuals, projection mapping. Mm-hmm. V Jing, stuff like that, quote unquote VJ is what people call it. Right, right. Um, and so that's kinda how I got the introduction to a lot of the shows and club world and stuff like that was through the lighting and visual stuff.

Sure. And then linking up with people in the crew. The floor in Durham, I was basically the lighting video guy for a couple years and they used to call it Shut up and Dance was the name of that party before it became the floor. Oh. And then eventually those folks kind of brought me under their wing and were like, you can DJ with us and have a good time.

So like, shout out Morgan Renee. Yeah. Mike, Jen. These are some old, old folks back in the day that,

Tony Rivera: that they just throwing that party during that party. Yep. And I

Adam Graetz: basically linked with them, was doing all the visuals and projections, stuff like that. And then some of them started to like bow outta the scene a little bit.

Mm-hmm. And they sort of passed the torch. Right. Um, and then around that time, Marshall Jones joined up with us, right? Yes. So he got in the crew and he and I kind [00:08:00] of took the torch from those folks, Morgan, Renee and those guys, and, um, they kind of bowed out and we're doing some more family stuff. Yeah. And we kind of carried the, the torch for the floor.

Shout

Tony Rivera: out to Marshall. He's gonna be coming on two weeks actually. That's excellent. The true OG in the scene, man. I just saw him last, last weekend over at the kinetic audio and he was, he did his thing. Excellent. The, um, yeah, the, the, the sound, you know, we're just talking about, you know, your, you're speaking of production and the music you play has a lot, a lot of that progressive type sound sometimes.

And definitely it's really nice house type music and stuff like that, you know, and then different styles. I know you play, I know you, you have a, you have quiet a variety of stuff. Mm-hmm.

Adam Graetz: It's a range. It's a range. And I think that can be a liability for some promoters or other people. Sure, sure. Um, when they try to book me or try to bring me on, some folks I've heard, I've heard varying levels of critique about some of that, where they're like, I don't know what I'm gonna get mm-hmm.

When I book you, or I don't know what I'm gonna get when I come to see you. Mm-hmm. And I think that's a positive and a negative in a lot of ways. Like, I enjoy having range.

Tim Piner: They ain't done their homework,

Adam Graetz: but I think being predict, like [00:09:00] having sort of predictability factor. I agree.

Tim Piner: It's like, you know.

Right. It's like, don't be lazy, man. Like, you know, you can be good at a lot of shit. Yeah. But I get it too, right? I mean, if you're, yeah,

Tony Rivera: of course. Of course. Mean open format. I mean, I mean, if, if it's open format, of course I like open format personally, man, you know, because you, you can get surprised of what you, what you're gonna get next and whatnot, you know?

For sure. Sure. And, and for sure, you know, and also like, knowing what I'm gonna expect, but usually for open format, I have more interest into, you know what I mean?

Adam Graetz: I never thought I would be sort of open format in some ways, or like being very genre what's the term, genre agnostic in a lot of ways.

Mm-hmm. But I'd like to view it in some ways of like, I define a certain range that I operate in, so it's not like I'm gonna go like, full DM b. Right. Or like play hard dubstep or something in like a how, like there's a Yeah. Just certain range or a factor of respectability or like, I operate with

Tony Rivera: them uhhuh,

Adam Graetz: but there's still like a spectrum of flavors that I like to offer.

Yeah. And I try not to go too far outta that. Yeah. But a lot of it's like lately for me at least, it's like deep house. Tech house, techno, garage, breakbeat, [00:10:00] electro, that kind of stuff. Mm-hmm. Usually operating in the like one 15 to like 1 35 range. Nice. And not being up in that garage realm like the one thirties.

Yeah. Um, but I do have a interesting long history enjoying one 40 type stuff. Um, I wouldn't say I go like straight American dove step. I'm more in the tradition of like the early UK dubstep sound. Yeah. Banga casa, like the OGs, that stuff. And I really admire and respect and all that kind stuff as well.

Like the taste, I call it tasteful base. Yeah. Taste base. Correct. It's like, I call it not mainstream shit. Right, exactly. But Oh, sorry guys. I mean pretty much it's like I call the American stuff the bro, that's the bro step, right? That's the rhythms of the world. And like rhythms, no shade if like that's what you're into.

I want people to enjoy what they want. I'm not here to like, be a genre, please. Of course. But. I don't want to hear that cutoff filter going above and getting that plasticy, that's like ww it's like insane sound. Like I wanna subdue, tasteful, chilled out kind

Tim Piner: of dub sound. So anyway, trying to elevate others' IQ too.

Yeah. 'cause it's kinda like you have [00:11:00] a pulse on, but it's like here's a little extra something that maybe might help aid and lighten, I dunno. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: Yeah. It's a classic type of sound. I mean, it's, it's, you know, you can get lost in a lot of the, excuse me, these, these soundscapes nowadays, you know? But, um, sure, definitely heard you.

One of the sets I heard you play at were, was at, um, the Fruit with Heroku. Oh, yeah, yeah. With Lex. With Lex out. Yeah. On the show. Shout out to Lex. Um, and, um, you guys were just throwing down. I was like, oh my gosh. Was like, can we just keep them on for another like hour? Because this, it was just,

Tim Piner: was that all a, a Well, prepped, premeditated.

We were locked in. I mean, it was all improv. I mean Oh, that's amazing. Good for you. We,

Adam Graetz: I mean, I basically freestyle every set. Mm-hmm. I never, I didn't know that prep. Yeah, I don't prep at all, really. I mean, I'll, I'll like usually pick a ballpark of things I kind of wanna play. I'll probably make like a general playlist of.

Oh, here's 50 songs that fit a certain mood. Sure. Mm-hmm. It's like pre curated, A little bit semi, but there's no ordering to it at all. Right. It's all fully off the [00:12:00] fly, off the cuff. Just like you gotta be sharp, follow the crowd and like follow your heart kind of thing. Yeah. Sharp proof. So really a no kind of overarching plan, but that was one of my favorite sets I played in the Hot Minute.

Like, I feel like we really locked in. Um, we, that was our first public B two. We'd played a couple afters together and like never played too much like in front of people. Right. So it was really kind of magical and unique in a lot of ways. Where, and you guys,

Tony Rivera: you guys just like have magic together sometimes.

I mean, you know, I think she really joys and looks forward to playing it back to back with you. 'cause I've heard her, she speaks very

Tim Piner: highly of you, you guys already know. But it was just nice to hear praise from another. Awesome. Of course, of course. It's a mutual

Adam Graetz: feeling. I mean, she's one of my favorite, she's special DJs in the area.

She special person. Oh yeah. She's definitely like and is a good person. And a good friend. And a good person. Exactly. Exactly. I was gonna

Tim Piner: ask, is that available? Like, I'm follow on SoundCloud and you know, I've, but is that, is that set, is that, that's set. Is it there or is it, where can I find it? Or we find it.

Adam Graetz: So it's currently unreleased, but I have B2B. Well, I have heard rumblings that there might be a release coming out from the promoters of that show. Okay, cool. Um, they're cooking up something there, so stay tuned. Will do. I think it will be released [00:13:00] in probably the coming months.

Tim Piner: Maybe if you were saying it with that much pride and not, you know, one of your favorites, then I need to, I need to check

Adam Graetz: that out.

No, I'm really excited about it. 'cause that was a great, a great set. But we definitely went hard as hell. I mean, it was like, it was, it was gloves off. Well it was funny. So the person before us. He's also a great techno dj. Um, he left us off at like, oh yeah, here 1 35. Have fun. Oh shit. And we're like, great.

This is awesome. We're like, wait, well now it's time to like, 'cause we kinda had some plan to do a little more minimal or atmosphere to kinda like cool. The cool the room down a little. It's like part of our kind of idea going into it we're like, well no more of that. Let's just hit the gas. Yeah. And kind of went for it.

And a lot of that hypnotic, a little more industrial, like faster techno stuff. I threw in some electro brake beat stuff, which I love to do is like, kind of my thing that I enjoy is like you can only get four on the floor at one 30 plus for so long before the speed fatigue sets in. Yes. And so I enjoy to like throw it off with a break beat or a halftime or something.

Yes. To get that syncopation and to break people outta their bodies, you know, but only like two or three tracks in an hour. You don't need to [00:14:00] overdo it. Right. But I'll venture off into Breakbeat world, give 'em a little of that and then come back. And then go back again and just keeps it fresh, you know?

Yes. Keeps it. Yes. But that's my favorite thing to do, honestly, is like, I love bouncing between four on the floor and halftime or Yeah, break beat, but get the kick. Give the kick a break. Yes. Yes. It's like no one does. I know it's less common, I think, lately than from what I've seen in the area. At least the reward hits

Tim Piner: better too, I think when in small doses.

I agree. I agree. Need tension. That's actually, I took, I've

Tony Rivera: taken that strategy and just one of my last, um, mixed events when I played for a kinetic audio at that for to floor, you know, techno was bringing it up to like started at like 1 43 or something like that and just kept bringing it down to like 1 35.

Then I hit him with electro. And just like, you know, that, that, oh, it was just, yeah. Nice break. He can

Tim Piner: I brag on you. I know that, that was great. I see her, my partner and I brought some different friends from Asheville and some other folks that don't make it out. They're just not part of the scene as much and everybody's like, that guy was my favorite, so Oh yeah.

Yeah. Nicely done instead. Yeah. Was

Adam Graetz: is

Tony Rivera: that set coming up? Is that out for

Adam Graetz: available here? [00:15:00] It's on

Tony Rivera: SoundCloud. They, they put on that kinetic audio. Okay. Check it out. Because I did

Adam Graetz: hear other, I heard from other folks unrelated to here that that was an amazing set too. Alright, good. So I've heard good things, so I'm excited.

Check it out. That was the crawl. Was that the crawlspace show or Crawlspace? Yes. Okay. Great space, because I played that one back in February with them. It's a cool series. Yeah. Like it was the first one, wasn't it? I think it was. Yeah. Yeah. Like me and Ed and some other folks, so

Tony Rivera: That's right. And I heard that you was just like taking it here, there everywhere.

I was all over the place. I was all over the place. That's why

Adam Graetz: that sets posted and it's That's awesome. That's one of those like, Ooh, I really ran the gamut on that one. So, you know, it's like we trust your journeys though. Yeah. And I think that was the

Tony Rivera: idea of kind of crawlspace, kind of just like, you know, fusion and just bring all these other, you know, different tech house.

House mm-hmm. Elements together and whatnot. But, um, for sure. Um, yeah. But you know, you have other stuff going on other than DJing, man. I mean, you're a busy guy. You're like, you know, at the floor 9 1 9, how's that going by the way?

Adam Graetz: Honestly. Excellent. I love it. Yeah. Um, it's been a great crew. Right now it's Marshall and I basically holding [00:16:00] things down.

Mm-hmm. We've been doing the monthly at Ruby's for about three years now. Mm-hmm. Um, we've been doing the monthly before that at let's see, we did Arcana for many years. We did the fruit basement before it became club era. That's right. So this, this monthly has been happening for almost 10 years now.

Yeah. That's crazy. Um, crazy. And we've had Little's crazy. We had some COVID breaks obviously. That's crazy. 10 years, man. About, yeah. Let's

Tim Piner: like, so you really got into, when you said started in 2016, you kind of hit the floor running. Yeah. Yeah. Because you were

Adam Graetz: sort

Tim Piner: of

Adam Graetz: plugged in through the visual and then Exactly.

Yeah. And then once I learned to dj I was like, all right, well after the races and then a couple years later it was like, well I should learn CDJs now. And then kind of got into that and then um, my good friends are in the crew morning choir that does a lot of the fruit shows. So then started getting booked onto some of those shows and great shows opening for some like crazy.

Shout out to morning choir. I major shout out. They have brought a lot of really awesome, yeah. Brought a lot of stuff here. I know. I've been to

Tony Rivera: some good parties there. And, um. For sure. So, so, right. So, um, the the, I didn't know the name of Floor nine when I was that established. I, I didn't even realize that.

It's

Adam Graetz: been a minute. It's got a really cool origin story I will say. I've mentioned a little bit [00:17:00] about earlier where, yeah. Um, some folks that had moved to Durham in the early two thousands, Morgan and Renee, they're coming up from Miami, moved into Durham early two thousands and started this party. You say Morgan is that

Tim Piner: Morgan Strider was just

Adam Graetz: say Yep, yep.

Know him faintly and met him a few times, but I gotcha. Just to plug in. You shout out to them for just all they've done for me and the scene in a lot of ways. So they had started that party shut up and dance. They were doing MoCo for a while. Then I grew into another area doing the fruit stuff. And then I came in and then basically the origins of a lot of the floor parties were the Moog Fest after Hours, Moog Fest.

Oh, dude. That was in Durham for a while. We need to bring that

Tony Rivera: back. Durham city or county, whoever was doing the move, bring back, move, gotta come back, man. Those are still the glory days for us. So our first

Adam Graetz: big party was like 2016 Fest after hours. It was like we had like Flying Lotus there, Hannibal Burris, like the guys from Survive, like a lot of like in that year, bicep played so Oh wow.

I was running visuals. I didn't bicep play the names. That was insane. That was first time I was, I forgot all the talent. Yeah, yeah. That was the first time I was introduced to [00:18:00] Robert. Robert Hood was here that year. Robert Hood. Yep. Crazy. Even a friend of mine, his name is

Tony Rivera: Function, he's out in Germany right now, but he was here for Yeah.

Function.

Adam Graetz: He's sick. I remember his set. That was one of my favorites is my boy

Tony Rivera: from New York. Shit, that was small. He's, look at that. That was one of my favorite David. Yeah. That's

Adam Graetz: crazy. He's

Tony Rivera: out in Germany now with my boy Lenny. Shout out to my boy Lenny and shout out to function. You guys doing your thing out there in Berlin.

That's wild. You

Adam Graetz: know him. That's awesome. He's really, I went

Tony Rivera: to go see him actually, um, one night when I was, I was working, I had to go work in Switzerland and he was playing and I was like, yo, I'm, I'm gonna play. I wanna. Planned my freaking work date for when he's there. 'cause I know he is there that time and went to go see him in Switzerland.

He was like,

Tim Piner: yo,

Adam Graetz: he can leave

Tim Piner: now. Had a bad story.

Adam Graetz: I love it. Such a small world, man. I did just visuals of that show, so I was running slight visuals for that. So, and

Tony Rivera: you did a lot of, you know, and I've heard you've done some like visuals for some like big names before. I mean, you know, or lighting or something.

What was it?

Adam Graetz: I mean, you run the gamut. I mean I did like, yeah, I mean there's John

Tony Rivera: Summit or, or

Tim Piner: hey, here's three I wanna mention fucking Interpol, that's [00:19:00] gangster. David Lynch. Yes. Stephan Boin. Shit man. Just those three alone. I've already, so

Adam Graetz: Stephan Boon's, one of my favorite sets he that I had done and that was the Mo Fest.

2018. I did his live visuals 'cause I was basically the house visuals guy for the festival an honor. So all the artists would come through. Anyone who didn't have their own touring visuals I was running. Wow. So ran Robert Hood. Ran like Kahan like function, like, I mean you name it like all so much around the years.

Yeah. I mean I didn't even

Tim Piner: mention, but I just thought seeing Interpol too and David Lynch and like, yeah. Dru Paul

Adam Graetz: Van Dyke,

Tim Piner: honey di Seinfeld. Honey di

Adam Graetz: Seinfeld, Ellen Alien. Yeah. Yeah. Eon, Emerson, um, Christophe fucking love Christoff. Some of those artists in that lists on Nice bio I was opening for DJ Wise.

Oh. So some of the artists on that list are visuals that I did. Ah, and some of those are direct support DJ slots. Right. So I did like direct support for John Summit, Christophe, she baa I remember Christoff. And those were all the fruit shows. Christoff, Frankie Wa, Frankie Wa, you name it. Yeah. There's a lot of, a lot of folks.

So I feel very, you know, that's a hell of a resume, man. [00:20:00] Very blessed in a lot of ways to have those opportunities. So, you know, I really appreciate all the folks that made that happen. And I wouldn't be without like those opportunities. Your talent preceded you. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: It's, no, it's, it's true man. And I think everyone recognizes, um, you know, not, not only with your DJing, but your production is the, your latest production that you've gotten out.

That we've, you know, I've, her and I have been just kind of falling over because of the whole idea of the Elemental ep. You haven't heard, but the Elemental EP is one of your lady CPS that you have out.

Tim Piner: Mm-hmm.

Tony Rivera: And how that, that incorporates the four elements of, water, right? Air, fire, earth. And each, each song is representative of each and the digital art that, that coincides with.

It's freaking amazing. Thank you. Thank you. And um, that was something that we said. I had a lot of thought put into it. Yes. Um, and but what's the fifth element?

Adam Graetz: I know. Well that's a funny story because the art, the art inspiration was from the fifth element, the film. Right. The movie, which is an all time favorite of mine.

New fifth song. [00:21:00] Shout out Luke P Song, Chee the Opera Woman, whatever. Chris. Was it Chris Tucker Performer? Amazing. Like perfect performance. Yes. He's a bad ass. Amazing. But I can't talk about the element only P without shouting out. Seance my collaborator. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: Shout out to Seance.

Adam Graetz: Yeah. Yeah. Sean. Major ups.

Like, we really had a good time on that. And that was one of my first big EP releases and that was through the label Mazen Fauna. In, in dur. Yep. Um, around COVID time. So that was a Wow. Interesting time to write that. We actually started writing that EP over Zoom. It was during lockdown. Yeah. So we were kind of remotely collaborating on it.

Right. Sean and I, and it grew into being this bigger piece and did the whole concept thing and the art and all that. And I did all the 3D renders and video and designs for that were all my own stuff that I'd made. And amazing.

Adam Graetz: It's a good time. I, yeah, as I mentioned,

Tony Rivera: I, I heard the track, the first track on the, on the EP called [00:22:00] afa.

And um, I just heard it recently, I don't know where it was in a, must have been a mix, a random mix I was listening to on YouTube or someplace, and then she played it for me today. I was like, I heard that song just recently. Yeah. And then I couldn't just realize this ain't that wild song. Crazy in a minute, man.

So, you know, on, on, on Spotify is at least 9,000 listens or something like that, that I, that, so I know it's pretty popular. That's awesome. And um, I couldn't believe when I, when I looked, I had a look at the name twice. I was like. Faces blur and say, I like get out it. It's our guy. That's my man. You've seen him today?

Mm-hmm. Thank

Adam Graetz: you. Thank you. Yeah. Means a lot. Serious, dude. It's crazy. I forget sometimes I'm like, I should probably go back and look at that. Oh nine k. Damn. All right. I guess I should probably start nice, start getting back on this tip. 'cause that was an interesting thing where I was releasing a lot around that time and then kind of slow down a bit.

I haven't released too much in a while. I've been focusing more on DJing the last few years. Just been picking production back up in the last like nine months or so. Yeah, I probably got, yeah. Four or five IDs right now that I'm sitting on. Nice. Got something coming out in like five weeks or so with a really good [00:23:00] friend of mine outta Asheville.

Um, Marley Carroll, who's like one of my mentors in like early, early kind of production. Sounds familiar. Right. Okay. Um, friends and he's incredible. He's out, out,

Tony Rivera: oh yeah. Marley and, yeah, that guy, right? Yeah. He's out

Adam Graetz: releasing on Engine deep right now. Yeah. Yeah. He's got some stuff. Nice.

Tony Rivera: He's really, he's really nice.

He sounds like a lovely sound. He's super talented and he got some good sound. Yep.

Adam Graetz: Yeah, he's great. And like I've been,

Tim Piner: Marley Carroll, M-A-R-L-E-Y or C-A-R-O-L.

Adam Graetz: C-A-R-R-O-L-L. Okay. Alright. We're gonna, I'm gonna

Tim Piner: geek on him.

Adam Graetz: Major. Shout out to him. He's definitely supported me a lot along the way in my early career stuff.

And I've done his visuals for his shows throughout the southeast. Like we've gone to Atlanta together, we've done orange peel, sold out, we've done orange peel's called Cool Venue. We've done shows with him, with emancipator, like a lot of different artists. Oh wow. We've done some cool stuff that's, that's, I know it was old.

Kinda electronic, but

Tim Piner: bands Yeah. Down, down Timbo electronics stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It was a good, I like that organic stuff. I, I know, right?

Tony Rivera: Yeah. So I like that. You based out, he's based out of Asheville. He's in Nashville, yep.

Adam Graetz: Mm-hmm. Oh,

Tony Rivera: okay. I knew he was like, not in a triangle area, but I didn't know he was that, that far out, right?

Adam Graetz: No, he's, he's great. And so we've got a collab track coming out [00:24:00] too. Oh, great. TBD. Yeah. Great, great. I'm very excited about, look out for it. You know,

Tony Rivera: that's that's definitely, you want to hear that 'cause that that dude's pretty talented and I'm sure you guys are gonna join forces and make it, make it crazy.

So Yeah,

Adam Graetz: we've been cooking. It's gonna be good. Yes. Does

Tony Rivera: he, does he DJ as well, or He does, yeah, he does. And he's

Adam Graetz: incredible. Sorted out more of a scratching, scratching DJ battle type stuff in his early days. Technical. Yes, very much so. Yeah. And and yeah, he and I just. Get along very well, A lot of co curation, and we just have a lot of, a lot of fun together.

That's cool. So I'm excited to see what else we can work on in the future. That's awesome,

Tim Piner: man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we've talked a little bit Asheville and Greensboro too, like, I mean, there's a lot of these periphery. Oh, well, they're not periphery, but they're just out. We're kind of focused on that triangle here, but let's not sleep on Green.

Greensboro, Asheville. Definitely some of that

Adam Graetz: outsider art vibe. You're like, oh, you wouldn't really think to go there. Then you can find some really interesting creative people. Like got diamonds in the rough thing. You're like, oh wait, you're in Greensboro. Right, right. It's seemed a little impressive sometimes.

I mean, having, being from Greensboro in some ways, you got feelings about your hometown You bet. And whatnot, and going back and all this stuff. But really, [00:25:00] there's a cool scene developing Greensboro. There's some cool new DIY venues popping up and Yeah. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: And there's, there's definitely, I mean, a lot of talent around North Carolina, man, you know you know, we all know that, um um um.

Charlotte has, you, has a big scene for sure. And I've been out to shout out to Charlotte and they have, you know, a lot of good parties out there. But you know, definitely people sleep on the rest of the you know, cities in and the Carolinas man. I mean, here in, in Raleigh, man, I've come across some incredible talent like yourself and, and, and you mentioning Asheville and Wilmington even.

Mm-hmm. You know, Greensboro. So, um, a lot of shout out to North Carolina for bringing up the talent and, and stepping your game up because Yeah, it's definitely popping out here and, and you know, and I think for sure, I think also, um, it's getting noticed from other, you know, other people out, out of different states.

Tim Piner: Yes. Yeah. I think I think our transplant, you know, Raleigh, uh mm-hmm. Being a pop five place to kind of move to for work and you, you bring people from all over the country and I think that eclectic vibe. They've seen generally kind of maybe raise your IQ a little possibly just 'cause when you have all those options from, you're an [00:26:00] NYC guy, I mean big, big city existence, then coming here, you're probably bringing something that that's helpful, generally speaking.

Right. It's true.

Adam Graetz: I mean, I think per capita, like the triangle, North Carolina in general, per capital is the keyword. There's so much talent. Agree in general for being a sort of southern, you know, quote southern state that's maybe a little sleepier, I don't know what you wanna call it or whatever. Like Mid-Atlantic.

We're not really south, in my opinion. No. Grown up we're like, I'm technically a southern boy kind of stuff. But yeah, grew up in Greensboro, people are always like, you don't have a southern accent, are you like Southern Greensburg born bread? But like I don't feel like I identify with that. Yes, Southern draw.

Stuff. Like, I've got the hospitality, I'll take that, whatever. You know, I try to be Right. Right. I try to be like, you know, wear some of those principles in some ways without sort of extra good stereotype, extra baggage that comes with the, the southern identity. Sure, sure. You know, so if I'm being candid a little bit No, no, that's, that's a good point.

I'm a transplant

Tony Rivera: and I've already, I've absorbed some of that, you know, hospitality thing as well, man. So, um mm-hmm. You know, I can't always be, um, you know, if they say good morning, I'm gonna say good morning back. I'm not gonna just say, I'm not gonna Right. Soft you up, up [00:27:00] soft now, man. You know, I'm not gonna look at you crazy.

Adam Graetz: how long you been here now?

Tony Rivera: I've been here now flip 2009. The table 2009. Very cool. We've been here more than 10 years. How come we

Tim Piner: center? Was it just 'cause maybe, I don't know. 'cause I, I've, 'cause I never went out,

Tony Rivera: I didn't think Fair enough. I didn't think Raleigh had anything to offer. I was Raleigh, this three big giant.

I'm serious. I was, I was living, I came down to, I was going up to New York like every three to six months and go see my family, come back, go back and forth for a good. 4, 3, 4 years. Yeah. I just figured you tired. It moved here when I've

Tim Piner: met you. Like, and figured you were here six months before, so that's a cool story.

I didn't even know about you. Yeah, Michael. Well, did you know all along there's this sea per everything was per underneath. Think it was per

Tony Rivera: the only place. I do remember I told mentioned that a long time ago. Was it was true

Tim Piner: underground then, right? Was mosaic Mosa. I was about to say the only place talking about Marshall.

I know he was running that shout. Shout. I know you're in Italy, but thanks for opening a pretty cool bar. Yes. Mosaic was cool. Yeah. Um, my there a few

Tony Rivera: times went back in the days and stuff like that. And then, um, never found anything else. Kind of dropped out the scene. Um, then of [00:28:00] course, you know, COVID happened, all that stuff and after COVID is when I got back into it, but, um, very cool.

Yeah. And then I met you. I know. That's awesome. That was it. It was meant to be. Now we're here. Love it. Love it. We got here so but yeah, shout out to, you know, Raleigh. Shout out to Greensboro, Asheville, Charlotte, Wilmington. All you guys doing your thing. Keep doing it. You know, we, we, we are gonna come and.

To your city at some point. I have you guys, we wanna uplift, you know, the North Carolina scene out here and everything. And we have, you know, you guys like yourself that truly have an interesting story, man. You know, I mean we don't, I think being so spread out out here, you know, people don't get to hear each other.

So, I mean, this is actually one of the, one of the this, this podcast, you know, um, um, Charlene, she's, she's the one who, you know, suggested maybe she do a podcast because. My idea was to, outta necessity, find out who the heck everybody what, who the heck everybody is. Mm-hmm. What they're doing.

Tim Piner: Yeah.

Tony Rivera: You know what I'm saying?

Like, like I, like I see DJs, I like them. Like what's their story? Yeah. Why are they here? They're probably not even from here. Maybe they, maybe they're from another state or something like that. Yeah. What's their [00:29:00] background? Mm-hmm. And that was one of the reasons why, you know, 'cause I originally, I was like, well, I wanna do like a radio show or something.

Right? Yeah. Do a livestream, whatever. But podcast seems seemed the right thing. And you know, here we are and, um, now we're getting everybody's story. Yeah. You know, and it's an interesting thing. You know, I mean

Adam Graetz: this is the 2025 radio, radio show in a lot of ways. Exactly. Like the modern format. This is, this has become the point, inherited the role of the Exactly.

Yes. Classic radio type telling, storytelling. Exactly. And so major props to all for putting this together. 'cause I think this is, the scene is missing in a lot of ways. There's so many untold stories, like you said. Exactly. And how do we shine a light on some of this stuff and figure out there's more connections and similarities than differences.

Exactly. And we gotta work together. Yes. There's not, there's so much competition and like backbiting and like scene drama, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah. And it's like we're all after the same goal. Yeah. We're all working together. Right. We should figure out. Our connections. Right. And leverage those.

Right. Versus like trying to like tear each other down. Like, I'm not about that. It is that simple. Two words,

Tony Rivera: shoe words, fucking man. That's what I'm saying. That's, that's, that's, that's exactly it. And not only, you know, um, it, it kind of draws everyone together. Right. And, you know, people [00:30:00] get to know each other a little bit more.

You know, we know that, um, um, they get to know your stories. It's like, oh, and maybe the next time they see you out, oh, well they can probably identify you a little bit more. Right. Or they can say, well, I know this guy's sound, I know his background. You know? Yeah. Correct. Agree. What's he

Adam Graetz: gonna play tonight?

I don't know.

Tony Rivera: Always gotta play tonight. Open format. Yeah. Right.

Adam Graetz: I love learning more, just self sleep. Isk doubles up or is it Deep House, right? I dunno.

But you gotta meet the moment. It's all about the show and where you're at. Like the, the floor started a new series at dhi, the ramen spot in Durham. Right.

So we're working at the, is it Kaya? So the ramen spot in downtown Durham has an Is Iki upstairs, which is basically a Japanese pub.

Tim Piner: That's a cool imager. Little thumbnails. That's, that's, shout out Marshall. That's all Marshall's part. Just that little light. Yep. That's why the home, like the font for the floor.

Yeah, there is a Kaya just, yeah, exactly. But just that, just whatever little thumbnail on Instagram. Yeah, no, thank you. That's all before hitting it. That's all my business partner Marshall. It's, it's just a cool design. Yeah.

Adam Graetz: He, he crushes it with the graphics, so he's doing all the graphics for the floor and he is, he's great.

Cool. And I've got other people saying that too, that are like, that's that's a good look. Yeah. So simple and yet,

Tim Piner: yeah, well thought out. Oh,

Adam Graetz: clean. Yeah. Well, can't take [00:31:00] credit at all. Um, oh, well, no, we got, we can brag on you now. We just, but on that, but all that to say in some ways about the iki thing is like for those type of events playing in a space that's like, okay, izakay Japanese pub late night or like early in the evening.

It's like deep house, minimal down tempo. We're doing a little more chill stuff. We're usually doing one 15 to one 20 the whole night. It's like seven to 10. Nice. That's it's like dinner service drinks and it's very kind of laid back and relaxing after work kind lab. So you gotta meet the moment for the show you're playing.

And I'd be like, I bring, I bring what's relevant to the event. So of course I love playing down or like, not quote unquote downt tempo, but chill, like more chiller accessible house stuff. So like crazy p crazy p like, that's one of my all time favorites. Yeah. I play them all that like Miguel migs making music, all that kind of stuff.

Like the little more sexier deep house type stuff Yeah. Than Sergio. So it's, and I just love that sound. And so all for like, the Izakay sessions we're doing, we just did our first one a couple weeks ago. We're doing our next one on the 15th of August. That's intriguing. I love bringing that energy to that kind of [00:32:00] event.

And it's like interesting to have a, um, creative constraint, right? It's like this is a cool container or box to put this vi in. What's the night briefly on that? So that is Friday. Friday, August 15th.

Tim Piner: Okay. So it that it's semi frequent at this point, or it's at least an individual maybe with every third Friday?

Yeah. Okay. So every third Friday it's actually

Adam Graetz: streaming on Dan Screen Radio. Oh, okay. Cool. So Marshall Station will be streaming on that. Got it. And got, we got three lined up, so we did July. We're doing August and September also. So pretty excited about that. Um, but like I've mentioned, like meeting the moment, it's like you've got the sets with like Lex at the fruit playing the hard techno stuff, and like, yes, I love bringing the heat and that kind of thing.

Yeah. But then also being able to like, hold your fire, switch it out, chill out a little bit. So you bet I I don't know, I do a lot of different sounds.

Tim Piner: Yes. So, well, it keeps your brain, I mean, I think you are on such a quest for, you know, you, you, you will be in and insatiable quest for just knowledge and hobbies and, and that's neat to hear people that are, that passionate about and they just wanna be good at a lot of stuff and, and, but you have to kind of have that passion and desire and

Adam Graetz: Yeah.

So the drive is there. I wish I just got more sleep in [00:33:00] general, but, you know. Yeah. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: Where do you, um, where do you like to play more in Raleigh, in Durham?

Adam Graetz: Mm. Great question. Um, I think Durham takes it for me in a lot of ways. Mm-hmm. Um, I really enjoy the crowds in Durham in some sense, where I feel like they're a little more open to following you on a journey or if you're trying to like tell a story or kind of traverse a couple genres or like kind of mix it up a little bit.

Yeah. They're a little more tolerant of some of that exploration. Yes. That I've seen. I

Tony Rivera: agree

Adam Graetz: and I appreciate that in some ways, as like I've said earlier, like I can be a little eclectic sometimes, and so them being open to that, but also. Um, yeah, I don't know. The flexibilities I enjoy, but also there's, there's a great like, personality to the crowds and the scene and the culture in Durham that I really enjoy.

A little grittier maybe and a little more diverse in some ways. So for sure. No, hey to Raleigh. It's just not maybe my favorite place to play, so. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: And I know that, um, there's some guys out in Durham who've already been facilitating stuff like that, so shout out to Party Illegal. I know it's Party Illegal with Ben Blends with friends.

Yep. And those guys over there. Mm-hmm. Love all those guys. Guys. Yeah.

Adam Graetz: Patrick's an [00:34:00] old friend of mine. I love Patrick Tree City. I know you've done, you've done Shout out to Patrick Tree City. Shout out to Matt,

Tony Rivera: but you guys, I know we've been done some stuff together even, right. I mean,

Adam Graetz: we've clever on some parties together.

Um, we had a little offshoot party off of the Blends with Friends brand we did for two years mm-hmm. At the fruit basement called Below Decks. Below Decks. Yeah. Yeah. And that was a cool party series we did for a little while. And we had this interesting concept with it where, um, you know, with blends of Friends we're kind of like trying to bring people into the scene in terms of learning DJ or like onboarding new DJs and kind of getting 'em up to speed.

Like here's like a ramp on ramp. To like you can come learn to DJ on the fly at the Blendor friends. Yes. And like we'll elevate you and try to teach you in real time at the event low pressure kind of thing. Like learning to get behind the decks and be technical. Sure. The idea, the concept we kind of had with the blow deck thing was like, what's that next step?

Mm-hmm. Beyond just the OnRamp, like where do you go? That's like the middle piece between like big shows. Yeah. Like getting your, landed your gig for an opening gig, but like how do you fit the beginning of like getting into DJing and then playing a show at the Fruit or something. Right. Where's that middle ground?

Where's that middle piece? Right. So that was the kind of concept we had with That's great. Below decks, it was like, oh, you graduate from BL Friends, [00:35:00] we'll book, you come play below decks deck, then you can get some media, you get some photos taken, you get a recording, you get something and you use that to leverage to like get more bookings and like grow the scene more.

So it's all about just giving back to the scene, growing the scene a little bit and getting more people involved, and like finding ways to get people up to speed and like really bring them in and, um, give them show opportunities for shows that they, they might not get elsewhere, you know, kind of thing.

Tony Rivera: And that's great. That's, that's such great concept.

Tim Piner: Yeah, no, I was just saying what, what a great vision you prove. You're thinking ahead and, you know, I obviously you think whimsically on the fly and do sets on it, but that's some little, a little premeditation in the art and delivery is that's classic.

You too. Oh, thank you. Thank you. I mean, we,

Adam Graetz: we just wanna help the scene. That's all it comes down to. And that, that's, that's what

Tony Rivera: I'm saying. I mean, that's a great piece of derm history that you guys are receiving right now. You're learning about. The history of the party scene with the floor 9 1 9. Yes.

Listen, you listen, you hear listening about the history of of of, of, mm-hmm. Of friends With friends. I didn't even, I didn't even realize that that's, that was the whole concept. 'cause they, they do the party now, but the below the deck is not [00:36:00] happening anymore. Not

Adam Graetz: anymore. We're kind of put on hiatus. Um, Patrick might be, we've been kicking around, maybe resurrecting it at some point, but there's some, some talks happening.

We'll see how it goes. Speaking about maybe different Different venue. Yeah, different venue. And, and shout out to

Tony Rivera: those guys. 'cause they gave me a chance too when I, when I, um you know, we, we did, they do the, um, the competitions and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. So I, I, you know, I went one one night. Um, that's, that's the night that, that's the, that's the competition that poetic note had won.

Mm-hmm. And then I was the support for that night and stuff like that. The blender series or So the blender series, right? The blender series. That's cool. Huh? Pin. Yeah, the pin hook. I'm sorry. Shout out to the pin hook. Right? Pin hook, yeah. So, um, and the, these guys, you know, played their set. They loved it.

They put me on the lineup and that was that, you know, and shout out. And that was, that was just, you know, and this was. Maybe the first night I play for them, you know, and, um, at the pin hook. But those guys are doing great things. Um, shout out to those guys. I always go see them and support them at the pin hook when I can.

You know, actually they're gonna be going tonight from, Ethan's gonna be going tonight. Shout out to Ethan. Red Wild. Nice. He's gonna be going tonight. He invited him. He's like, I'm gonna go out to pin hook and check it out. Whatever's so cool. I think they're having [00:37:00] one of their competitions is gonna be, um, winding, winding up soon or something.

Like coming up soon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I know you're affiliated with those guys and that's and that's the derm scene, man. I think, um. You know, and, and we, you know, we had, we had one of our guests here last week who gave us the rundown, the whole Raleigh history, right? Mm-hmm. And you know how that came about, right?

Yeah. You know, and he was, he was just telling us all the whole thing, how it started back then for him and what he remembers and stuff like that. So it was an interesting contrast to hear, right. You know, how the you know, derm scene has, has come into, you know, into existence. There's a lot of

Adam Graetz: these oral histories that don't get written down or told Exactly.

It's all like, we're just having to talk it out. 'cause like, these things don't get written down. Exactly. It's very interesting. Now it's recorded here in the mind on the ground, and it's

Tony Rivera: gonna be, and we can look back and say, look man, this is how it went down. Um, but um, you know, yeah. These guys, you know and, and, and um, and that's what I like about Durham as well, man.

You know, there's a lot of community based. [00:38:00] Um, you know, people that are just like no visa, shout out to no visa. Mm-hmm. And those guys shout out to you know, all the other groups that are doing, you know, stuff out there.

Adam Graetz: Yeah. There's a lot. I love the diversity of all the different crews and like what they bring in terms of genre stylings and stuff like that.

Mm-hmm. Like you've got some of the world stuff. Going on with some of the novisa stuff, like world influence or like on piano and like, I mean, they're bringing lots of different sounds. Yeah, different sounds. It's all over. But I love that. And then, then we've got like, you know, Gemini and House of Black and a lot of the series that they're doing, and there's just a lot of really cool different stuff happening.

I that man, what's the other one that came

Tony Rivera: out recently? Um, black Power Social Club or something like that.

Adam Graetz: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Sean, Sean Tucker and his business partner. They're doing that. Um, yeah, it's endless. I'm trying to think. There's a lot of that ad nausea. There's a lot of desist. Desus deciduous. Yes.

Oh yeah. De deciduous. That's sort of, um, my understanding is that's sort of like a affiliated brand of morning choir. Um, oh. Kind of like a offshoot. Ah. Um, and you know, I can't speak for them obviously in a lot of ways, but, um, I've seen, from what I've seen, at least for those parties, it's almost like a, [00:39:00] um, they're doing maybe more of a, um, like a less top.

Talent or like less like main room talent? Mm-hmm. Or if they're trying to bring in maybe like a more emerging artist type thing. Oh, it seems to be more of like that type of series where that awesome. Instead of doing like the big morning choir show with like someone like Daud or she Bassan or something, it's like who are the more emerging artists that are maybe in that?

Sort of middle tier that's important. And it's sort of like that's a label, sort of brand party series label that they're kind of putting on that. Um, but obviously can't speak for them totally on that. But that's been my understanding from what I've seen of it. And I love that. I mean, we the floor collaborated with them on one of those parties last year bringing L-S-D-X-O-X.

Mm-hmm. It was a really cool, um, sort of forward thinking like Jersey Club type type artists. Yes, yes. So they brought some cool artists in that realm, like conduct us some UKG stuff they brought with deciduous and um, yeah, I'm trying to think who else they brought recently. But yeah, it's a cool party series.

I guess Heroku was, Heroku was deciduous. That was Hey too. Yeah. Yep, yep. So it's sort of like a offshoot of what's Got it. Got it, got it. I didn't realize that. Right. I don't realize that I have this or learning math in my brain. Its how I [00:40:00] figured, obviously what I, but it's cool. I love chatting about it.

Mix teaching history. Literally you're in the mix. I can't even claim much of the history where it's like, I started where. The people that our forefathers left off. It's like I say forefathers loosely, but like the people that built shit before me shared the groundwork. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I come in in like 2016, I'm just some new Jack kid.

I learned to DJ and had a good time. But like I don't claim to be an authority on anything. It kind of me that it's like there's so many people that paved the way before me. Yeah, sure. So shout out to everyone who, who I know like came before us. Like the power the, what was it? The, there's a club in Durham in the eighties called the Power Station.

No, the power. What is that? Oh, I don't know. This there, it was basically where teasers is now. It used to be a three story club. In the eighties. Wow. And then there was another club called Ringside and there was a couple other ones that were big back in the day in Durham that were really big. Wow.

The Power Company was an the power company. Yeah. And it was a three story club in downtown Durham. It was like damn Three story club. It was like throughout the eighties, like, and it was the big race. It had to be the, yeah. And it was like really cool The underground in Cameron

Tim Piner: Village, which was more [00:41:00] alternative bands, but they fucking, so many great people played right below Cameron Village.

I've heard tale of that. So it's really cool. I don't know about that. Anything electronic, but it was a badass kind of, it's a shame when there's not something that still exists for that, for alternative bands.

Adam Graetz: There's a lot of history in Durham for the, the ra, the rave stuff and the electronic stuff. And so I can't claim to be any kind of progenitor running stuff like, you know, blazing a path.

But it has been fun in the last 10 years to do what we've done in Durham. And of course, um, but the floor did kind of grow out of those Moog Fest after hour parties where when we first started out, it was like before the fruit, it had kind of become official. It was still a little more of a di like a, a legal type rave type thing.

Right. And so we were kind of putting our necks out there and growing that, but doing the, the official after party for both Fest when it happened and we did 20 16, 17, 18, and we kept doing those afters and building that out and that was kind of how we kind of cut our teeth Yeah. In those early days. And that grew into a monthly kind of thing.

Yeah. But that was sort of our big first like hurrah. And we had a lot of those bigger artists and talent that came to Vogue Fest would come to our after and hang out and stuff. Right. And that was always really cool to see the right. Nice, different crowd. D you can see in there. And like [00:42:00] hanging out with like Flying Lotus and his visuals guide, flying room and hanging out, like walking out.

I just remember one crazy, just like walking down the hallway with the fruit before it was all done up and stuff, and I passed like Hannibal Burris, like walks past was like, is that, oh, that's that dude, the comedian. You know? Okay. Like pretty, pretty cool guy. That cool dude. So, I don't know, just been a, it's been an interesting time in this, in this.

Yeah. I, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy because little,

Tony Rivera: little old Durham, right? I mean it's, it's not a big city Right. This, you know, but it's, it has a lot to offer I think. Yep. Um, you know, we live in Durham and you know, we have any, any chance we get to pop over there and do our thing, it's just awesome. Yeah.

I love it. Um, I know there's something coming up soon and well I know by the time the show comes out, um, this month at the Fruit. Shout out to my boy Steve James. He's gonna be, he's gonna be supporting Salton Shepherd. Salton Shepherd, Salton Shepherd's. Great. And poet notes on that too. Do that? I think so.

I'm sure. I think Good. So I had heard that maybe I, Steve James is gonna be maybe I'm leaking information. I shouldn't, I know he is on it for sure. Which I'm

Adam Graetz: excited about. And I heard maybe also bird and might be on there too, so. Oh, nice. I think it's very damn, [00:43:00] pretty stacked. Oh, right on. That's cool.

You asked me. That's a pretty local talent stacked local talent, so

Tony Rivera: Yep. Salton and Shepherd. And yeah, shout out to those guys and they're gonna redo over there at the fruit this month. So they bringing pretty good stuff. Pretty good talent, man. I know

Tim Piner: what Salton Shepherd, they, they're, they're tribes of, and Andrew naep.

I'm trying to think. Some it just reminds of them, huh? I don't, yeah. Yeah. I've got, I don't know, I, I think I've, you know, five or six of their tracks or just have 'em on playlist, let's say, but they, but it's a good sound man. Yeah.

Adam Graetz: Yeah. I've heard good things like kind of, kind

Tim Piner: of deeper tribally. I don't know.

That's what

Adam Graetz: I've heard

Tim Piner: too. Yeah. Anish mix with whatever ish. I dunno. Some, some, but, you know, slightly lower beats per minute and Yeah. I'm into it. I'm into it. Good stuff. Yeah.

Adam Graetz: There is talk of the floor doing like a pre-party hang thing before that, which I'm excited about. We might do a, well we are doing a thing at Pony Source actually.

Oh, nice. Prior to that event that, that a walk away too. You can almost, if, if you're speaking fruit. Yep, exactly. Graphics. That's part of the idea is that hopefully we'll be able to kind of bridge that corridor there. Yeah. Do like an early thing. So like seven and 10, three parties that way. Yeah. So Marsh and I Oh, cool.

Spinning

Tony Rivera: out there. Right on. That's one thing that Durham [00:44:00] definitely needs is needs to connect these little spots together so that, you know, people can walk from one place to another. Mm-hmm. And not feel like they're walking through some dark back road or, you know what I'm saying? Murder alley. Yeah. You know, it's like, okay, it is disconnected.

The gentrification slowly continues. Yeah. It's like the food has, you know, has apartment builders around it now and stuff like that. But to get anywhere else, you kind of, well down the street, like where Fiz works and all those places. I mean, yeah,

Adam Graetz: that's built up a little bit now it, that's built up. But it used to, I mean, it used to be that whole area.

Yeah. It was not, it was pretty, pretty creepy. I got some good Durham stories in the late nineties. Oh boy. Yeah, yeah.

Tony Rivera: Oh yeah. I mean, when we got down here, 2009, man, Trump was not the place to walk through or go to, I think it

Tim Piner: was the top 10 murder capital per cap at one point. Like it was rival in St. Louis.

That was before I got here. I was living in Chapel Hill at the time. But that grit's still there and again, kind of ways that I think we all find drives our, you know, kinda like a Detroit, but a little micro Detroit. But it's kinda like, it's, it. Artists move here and creative minds, and it draws people, [00:45:00] it makes it a little cooler.

Like we, like we've kind of talked about, we love Raleigh, but Brooklyn

Tony Rivera: ish feel that we have Durhams, we come back from home and stuff. We, we kind of related to Brooklyn and, and, and Raleigh to Manhattan. Correct. Correct. I've

Adam Graetz: heard that analogy before too. Yeah. You know, and also hear that about Oakland and San Francisco kind of thing.

There you, good point. That's it. That's a great example. And then you get, there's what Chapel Hill at Carbo is like the, what's the um, yes, the really liberal small town with the colleges out there. Oh.

Tim Piner: Carbo Pittsburgh. Oh, we get out,

Adam Graetz: out in the Bay area out there. Oh. In what is that little, anyway, there's some analogy there.

There's, there's, what are you saying? The big grit city and then like the, the, yeah. Anyway, right, right.

Tony Rivera: You need Silicon Valley now.

Adam Graetz: Anyway, I, yeah, I shouldn't talk about things. I don't know. No, no, no. That's

Tim Piner: fine. But it's cool. We all just didn't, didn't figure it out as a team. I know what you're talking about.

Just the

Tony Rivera: name has come to my head. Yeah. Yeah. We'll

Adam Graetz: come back. When I'm not on camera, so Yeah.

Tony Rivera: Right, right. Um, but yeah, Durham, so, so, um, yeah, Durham is, is, you know, we, we've been, we can talk about Durham like all night versus Oh, for sure. Yeah. I know some great. But

Tim Piner: that's why we also are glad you're [00:46:00] here.

'cause we we've pumped up a lot of, or we've had a lot of rally people, well, we kind of cross over really everybody we had, but some are more rally. We've had, we've had a few,

Tony Rivera: we've had a few guests here, you know, as far as residents. Yeah. We had like, one representing Raleigh and the other one is like, we had kinetic guard.

They shot guard, you know, they started out, they kind of bridge both gaps. Those are great folks with the, with the, with their parties at this party in the basement. Yeah, those are great. Yeah. Pre,

Adam Graetz: pre basement area. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: Um, and you know, we've, we've, um, I've, I've come across to meet a lot of the guys over in Durham as well, like the guys from the Fruit, like Ian and yeah.

Yeah. Great

Adam Graetz: Folks like Ian a lot. I know.

Tony Rivera: And, and, and, you know, got to meet those guys. But it's, it's been fun. And this, I think, I think, you know, I. Right now with the scene a lot of new, new talent coming on board for sure. Mm-hmm. We see, we see him at a Blends With Friends. Shout out with to those all the new DJs that are popping up on the scene.

Yep. Yeah. Um, you know, 'cause everyone has something to offer. So many. Definitely. Wild. Definitely. And there's a lot of, a lot of, lot of folks coming on, man. And I know you see, I just saw you at Blends with Friends maybe [00:47:00] like last month or a couple of months ago when I, when I, when I, when I invited you to the, to the show and stuff, right?

Yep, yep. That was, yep. That was where we and was just hanging out. That's cool. I like to

Adam Graetz: pop in. I mean, it's like, you know, it's not just for people that are new or whatever. Yeah. There's plenty of the sides of the deck. Plenty. Yeah. Yeah. Just to go out and, um, you know. Exactly.

Tony Rivera: Chill. And it's a good vibe.

You know, people that come to, they're playing this, they'll do a vinyl night too, which is pretty cool. Yeah, that is really cool. That's

Adam Graetz: someday I'll get their, those are fun. Those are fun. Yeah. Yeah. They'll do like

Tony Rivera: an all vinyl night and I think they even had like a, yeah, it was like an all vinyl night. Um, and then I know that, um, well those are the party legal guys, but also I know they're doing stuff at the Velvet, velvet Hippo.

Adam Graetz: Yes. Yeah, the disco thing with Lex, they're doing whatever, disco,

Tony Rivera: the disco, um night out there and stuff like that. And but there's other parties that are happening around that, around Durham that are pretty cool.

Adam Graetz: There's no shortage of it, that's for sure.

Tony Rivera: Yeah. Yeah. So, um. You know, man, you gotta, you gotta give love to other peeps.

Tim Piner: Yeah. I mean, it, it's, and it's, it's so nice we're kind of getting more and more saturated. There's, there's [00:48:00] great house parties, man. Or I could see you at one and Yeah. Oh yeah. So we stay up till six and Adam's playing every, I'm like, yeah. It's just like a, that talk about intimate, right? Yeah, it's right.

That's just a small club. But, um, I mean, those are my favorite 40 people in it. That's fucking, I mean,

Adam Graetz: those are my favorite environments to play in, honestly. Intimate. Yeah. Small, intimate, or just like the, after the late night. Like I joke sometimes it's like after just my natural habitat. Like I, I enjoy the house party.

Like, it's just like, there's just, there's a place and time for the club in the big stage. Correct. And all that stuff. And like the production. Right. But I thoroughly enjoy the intimate late night hangout. Like that's where the connections are made. They really are. That's the bonds are formed. I remember those.

Stronger than have a conversation. Get in depth. Correct. Learn someone's soul. Like really connected to deeper level. Correct. Where you don't get that in the club in a lot of ways. No. And so I enjoy that kinda intimate setting, but also just playing late night too, where you can get a little weird with it.

Yes. Be experimental. Yes, yes. And then also just go B2B with some random folks, you know, like, and enjoy like talking about music and just connecting and I don't know, I really enjoy that environment a lot and so do I concur mean

Tony Rivera: that, that that's definitely my, [00:49:00] my, my cup of tea right there when it comes to, um, that late night after hour scene and stuff like that.

Yeah, I mean, I just remember, you know, being in that environment, you know, I would just go out in New York while I was in New York and just end up at a place four 30 in the morning or something like that and or not even go out. I would go out like at six in the morning go party and stuff like that, and then still be a, you know, on a Sunday morning and it's like packed in there.

You know what I'm saying? So yeah, it's definitely something special there. Definitely a different vibe. Yeah,

Adam Graetz: it is, it is. And it's, it's got its place. Like that's where I fell in love with Electrode and Breakbeat was the late nights and talking to my friends who were into a lot more experimental stuff and like hearing that stuff.

In different environments that were outside the club and just experimenting with those sounds being like, wait a minute, is this what electro is? Is this Detroit? Is this like all that sound? I was like, I really kinda like this and how can I incorporate that in a techno set or a thing? And finding ways to weave those worlds together.

Exactly. With the more experimental and like the more club focused stuff. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. That's where I kind of got to know all that stuff. Totally agree with [00:50:00] you, man. Those, those are special memories. Tell us a little

Tony Rivera: about your artwork, man. I know that we spoke a little, I spoke earlier about your artwork and, you know, what, where, where you at with that now? What was your influences and everything, you know?

Adam Graetz: Yeah. Interesting. Um, let's see. So I mentioned this kind of early on, like my intro stuff, but, um, I've got an interesting visual history of starting out with graphic design. 2D design was where I kind of came up in like high school times doing like Photoshop and like commercial art type stuff.

I did mention it, yeah. Yeah. Like collage and Photoshop and like designing things, laying it out, product design type stuff. Okay. Right. Um, then grew into photography and videography. Right. Then kind of fell in love with video work, video editing, cutting video. Mm-hmm. Like more, um, photo journalistic stuff.

Commer like sorry. Journalistic video work and like cutting. Like little like kind of news reels and stuff together for like the daily Tar Hill. When I was at Carolina, I would do a lot of that kind of stuff, like photo journalist stuff. But then I got into experimental video, took a bunch of courses in filmmaking and experimental film design and stuff like that, and started making like ambient films and experimental films and studying that stuff.

And there's a very interesting history there

Tony Rivera: with all

Adam Graetz: that stuff. Like, [00:51:00] um, the Holy Mountain, like Roski, like yeah, that very, and like, um, there's a film called Daisies, like sixties Czech films and stuff. They're like super feminist, communist, like very progressive stuff. That film got banned in all these Soviet countries and stuff.

Yeah. Get out. Yeah. And fell in love with this, like this really kind of out there video stuff. And yeah, that kind of parlayed itself into doing the, the vij and the projection mapping and the collaging video together for a live band and stuff. So I was working with like indie rock bands and Chapel Hill in like oh five.

Oh, awesome. 6, 7 0 8. Seen that. That is really, so like oh five to 2010 I was doing like. Like local 5 0 6, like Future Island? Yes. Like indie rock bands, cutting together videos live and doing projection mapping with like all these rudimentary tools and like taking my video editing work and doing it live and projection, mapping it on like bands and stuff.

Nice. And that started growing into going to places like the nightlight in Chapel Hill, which is like one of my favorite news back in the day. Very small underground vibe. Yeah. And I would go do these experimental ambient sets and do visuals for like these ambient and like kind of ambient techno dub techno stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. And that was like 20 12, 20 [00:52:00] 13, 14 maybe. And then right after that kind of got into the club stuff and then was doing more projection mapping and stuff. But all throughout that time I was just doing, um. 2D design, like basic still image stuff, but then really gotta find us for video. Mm-hmm. And that's where I started just doing tons of video work and yeah, animation like after effects.

Um, creating just really kind of strange, trippy. Like it's awesome isn't it? Mandala stuff like that. Little, little DMT vibes. Yeah. So, and so I've really grown that out to be more stuff of just like now doing generative art and, um, using some AI tools. Yeah. AI driven stuff and like putting a lot of ingredients in the pot and letting the computer kind of do its thing.

Yeah. And then let it kinda spit out some cool stuff. So I'll generate a lot of cool still images that are kinda like fantasy art stuff. Yeah. But I'll put 'em all in this like software I use with like Python coding, so I'm doing like Python scripting. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then I'll kind of put it all in and then link all these nodes together and tell it to like, read all these different images and then it interprets all that and spits out.

These like very trippy like psych, which is on my Instagram. Instagram, yeah. All those. It's almost like you see

Tim Piner: the, the warm lit house. Yes. I love it. I love it. Fusion and Turkey, [00:53:00] whatever. But then it just kind of fuse. We have a few, a

Tony Rivera: few listed here. You did like one called Glass Tempo, another one. Desert Magic.

Yeah. I love one called, called Amethyst botanical. It all out they, gold terrain was one of my favorite ones. It was just like these gold terrains going like this and whatnot. It doesn't take from the music form. It's awesome. Yeah. That's

Tim Piner: tricky with the video sometimes. 'cause sometimes I just wanna close my eyes and, but every now and then Yeah.

But when you combine the way you have, it's like the two together, some of the parts makes a better whole. Right. Retrains important for a lot of this. Yeah. Um,

Adam Graetz: and I actually forgot it. Part of that's not distracting. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta really compliment the music without taking too much away symbiotic in a way and all that.

Yeah. And I forget that part of my story here that I've kind of left out, which is like my more recent history prior to my current day job I'm doing, I was doing live visuals and VJ work for big bass artists and like EDM artists in the North and South Carolina scene for four or five years as a profess.

Really? So I was building LED walls, I was doing mapping of LED D shows and stuff. I've heard about that. Yeah. Or a lot of different stuff. All the like Disco Donny shows. Yes. All the Sugar Society stuff. This

Tony Rivera: is what I, I knew, I knew there was something missing. I knew there was something missing because I know you've done something [00:54:00] kind of bigger than what you, what you were discussing earlier.

This is what I wanted to get back. And I'm talking about

Adam Graetz: early days, like the early Chapel Hills. So that's where I kinda started out. Mm-hmm. But then, um, I was working for a production company called Life Is Art Out in Raleigh. Shout out Soup and Thibo for bringing me on. So around 2018 I signed on with them.

I was doing animation like 3D rendering, so like cinema, four D Blender, stuff like that. Creating 3D animation stuff. Wow. And then building content for tours and other artists. Mm-hmm. So I worked with folks from like like Subtropics, liquid Stranger, um, Ian, like bigger, like Yeah. Bigger EDM type artists.

Yeah. So like two friends, me, like tropical house stuff, like Yeah. And I was building content packages and LED walls for their tours, build the tours out and I would deploy the tour and kind of send 'em out and I would basically stay back and just work in the studio and stuff. But I was also doing local shows around the same time and just going out and ving for the production company as like the house vj mm-hmm.

For a lot of these bigger shows. Mm-hmm. So I did like the digital gardens down in Charlotte. We had like Mr. Carmac, like Eprom Troy boy, like these bigger [00:55:00] kind of Yeah. Bass music, crappier stuff. And this was basically my day job for a long time. Um, wow. Boogie t like you name it. Yeah. Sullivan King.

These are like just again, like the more Oh God, top billing, like base type artists. Yeah. And so that was more my like day job for a while and I got a little desensitized to some of that stuff over that time and I was still DJing and stuff and on in my free time after that. Yeah. So it was kind of challenging sometimes of.

You go to your day job in the club doing bass music all the time, right. And then to kind of pivot and like on the weekends, go do your own shows. Yeah. And be a quote unquote promoter and DJ for your own thing. And it's like, you know, 30 people in a basement bar. Then you go out and you're ving for like, you know, 800 kids at the black box in Charlotte.

We did like, you know, g Jones. Wow. Like stuff like that. Like bigger shows down there, maybe thousands of people sometimes like festivals and stuff. Yeah. Very interesting to see those like dichotomy. Cool. And so I got interesting, like firsthand view of a lot of the entertainment industry stuff around that.

Sure. And I did like corporate video too for a while. I was doing like GlaxoSmith Klein, Lenovo. Wow. IBM Jesus. And I was doing video walls for their corporate, like sales events and stuff. So like during [00:56:00] COVID they would have to like farm out their sales calls and stuff. They wouldn't bring everyone out for a sales like con conference.

Mm-hmm. So they would have these like high-end studios where they would like phone in everyone with like zoom calls and stuff. Mm-hmm. So I would build LED walls and these like fancy, like live video studios. Wow. And we would Skype in people. We had all these video tech engineers and stuff. And like I was in charge of doing the video over ip, like all the local networking, vid building all the video walls.

Wow. Skyping people in and like working with a team of like 20 people. On like video cuts. Wow. Big project. That's amazing. It scaled from doing just smaller EDM artists to like getting to a corporate video level. Did stuff for like Duke Health, like a lot of different people. My god.

Tony Rivera: Were you doing just contracting or were you just I was

Adam Graetz: full-time with that production company at the time.

Oh, okay. Um, I did some contract work around that time too. Um, and then later after I kind of pivoted away from life art and started working more in tech at that point. Mm-hmm. I did some one-off contract work with them. Mm-hmm. Like I went down to Miami for a one-off gig, which was really cool. For a Afrobeats festival.

Mm-hmm. In Miami at the Mariner Stadium or the, the big stadium down there. This was all on piano, Afro beat, something like that. And I ran the on piano [00:57:00] stage that two days. Yeah. Outside, outside the M LB stadium. That to be pretty neat. Amazing. All the biggest names of like the on P scene and all that. Like I was working with all them, doing all visuals all weekend.

That had to be a fun party in, and I never heard much of that genre fun people. Yeah. I got to know and was like so obsessed, like for the next six months I was like, I can't stop listening. See people really dance, man, their phones

Tim Piner: down and a huge party. Yeah.

Tony Rivera: That's big. That's pretty big, especially Ma.

Miami's a huge scene as well. Man, we have those festivals out there, you know they're gonna do, and you get that international flavor. Yeah, that's.

Adam Graetz: It's special there. Yeah, it was really cool. I, yeah, I feel very fortunate to have a lot of those experiences. So yeah, I've written the gamut on that. I kind of, that's, it's funny, I've never really gotten this part of that story, but that's now, I was a good five year chunk.

That's massive. And then I basically pivoted away from that into tech now, now I do like, um, like tech work, so, yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if one,

Tim Piner: if one thing ever tanks, you know, you, you got, you can still get, get paid in a lot of areas.

Adam Graetz: I, I feel lucky and I still, I still

Tim Piner: contract

Adam Graetz: out respect on visual work, so I'll still, like, I'm still available for hire.

Like I'll go do one offs. I've done some [00:58:00] stuff with like rabbit hole, those guys and some projection mapping work. That's awesome. And some other folks, so I'm a hired gun, you know, if anyone needs visuals, I'm down to help out. Hell yeah. Or lighting or lasers. I do all that stuff too. So I kind of, yeah, I've got a lot of That's awesome.

A lot of fun skills and stuff I've done the past. Yeah. That's awesome. So it's cool to leverage that stuff. Um, and

Tony Rivera: definitely. And you're probably like the only guy in the whole triangle who probably can do this. I mean, wait a minute, I know. And enjoy it. And pal's very niche jealous. Set jealous. It has to be very niche.

It's

Tim Piner: pretty niche. Jealous. You went to school and learned shit too, not just the hand, right? I mean, like when you say you took this. I look back on college and it's, of course I remember a lot of things, but it didn't end up translating to practical anything in corporate or other things I've done. But you actually were learning good shit that was hands on.

It worked out. Yeah. And then you stuck with it. Yeah. And it made it your profession, so Yeah,

Adam Graetz: it's

Tim Piner: kind of wild.

Adam Graetz: I didn't think it would actually happen, but it did. Yeah. Media production's always been a fun thing for me. And media production in any way. It's like fun, like, you know, the visuals, the music, all of it, it all, it's all connected in some ways.

It's all expression mean, hiring in some capacity. So it's same thing, [00:59:00] it's a, it's a good time. We're novices. One of my favorite visual things I'd ever done was in the, was it middle of COVID? Might even right after that, I got a call to work with David Lynch and Interpol. Yeah, I wanna ask about that because I

Tim Piner: told you I've, I've seen Interpol like four times.

It was insane. And they're, one of my, is one of the most famous, well,

Adam Graetz: Interpol's, one of my all time favorite Aren they up there. So they were basically the interesting stories. They were doing a collaboration between David Lynch and Interpol the band. So they had met up on some shows and were basically like this like sort good 2017 season.

This, this was maybe 2020, actually. 2021. Oh yeah. Got it. Cool. So, um, so basically they had done a collaboration with David Lynch where they had his short films that he had done and then they scored them and they were a little like 15 second loops. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And so they wanted to release a series of NFTs Yep.

Of the little animations with the, with Interpols music. Yes. So I basically assembled and built these 3D renderings with David Lynch's videos and their audio in like a world. So I was creating these 3D animations with David Lynch's material. Intervals material. Nice. And then made 'em into these [01:00:00] 3D rendered looping animations that were probably like 20 seconds each.

But I made like 20 of 'em. Mm. And then they were released on super rare, which is like a big Ethereum Yeah. N ft marketplace. That's, and like went for ungodly sums of money and stuff and Wow. And had my name attached. It was pretty cool. Um, but that was just through an old friend of mine who out in the Bay Area who worked at a marketing firm that was like peered up with Interpol in them.

And yeah, they kind of just were like, Hey, I might know a guy does some 3D stuff. That's cool man. And it's funny 'cause the way I kind of break, yeah. The way I made the connection was like my friend from kindergarten Yeah. Just happened to be dating the guy who was working with the firm and they kind all came together.

That's, so I felt very lucky. And then more recently I did some work with Snoop Dogg with them. Nice. So I did some 3D assets. I designed for the stoop dogs launch of his new website. Oh, wow. So I was doing some 3D design, 3D modeling, and like painting models and stuff for their web experience. So That's so neat.

So that was more, I gotta add that one to the the CV I guess. There you go. Add to the cv. That's amazing, huh? Thank you. That's, that's that's been, you know,

Tony Rivera: that's a quite, quite a resume. And, um, you [01:01:00] know, it's, it's interesting just to hear because, you know, people see you DJing like, well, they don't know what, you know, what else you've, you really done.

Don't, man, it's, I've, I've done worked with some big names and I've just learned that recently. I mean, not, not too recently, but just, you know, not too far back. But, um, you know, it's, it's interesting to know because gosh, you know, we have this talent right here in the triangle, man. Hi. That's so

Tim Piner: cool, Adam.

You don't

Adam Graetz: have to

Tim Piner: go

Adam Graetz: far.

Tony Rivera: Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like this guy's here, we, we, if you need a lighting or, you know, a visual graphics or something guy, look up my man hat IQ

Tim Piner: 1 45. I probably was, he is on another level, guys, so we're not worthy, but do some DevOps,

Tony Rivera: DevOps stuff if you want. I demo by day,

Adam Graetz: DJ by night.

That's like what I gotta say right now. So it's a good time. And

Tony Rivera: I was about to say, yeah. So, um, um, as far as technology, um, you, you're in the, you're in the triangle. That's, that's why you work or you work remotely stuff? Yeah. Down in

Adam Graetz: RTP. Yeah, but I'm, I'm technically remote, but they're based in RTP.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not too far and I can go to the office like one day a month if I want hang out, but I like working from home. It's not, I [01:02:00] kinda like the flexibility. It is nice. Yeah. It's nice.

Tony Rivera: Yeah. DevOps is, um, kind of, you know, we, we, we, I I dabble little on DevOps at my job, but, um mm-hmm. That's a pretty big operation that Yeah.

For developers. Especially if you have a big, huge

Adam Graetz: It is. You gotta keep the fires burning, keep the lights on, you know, make sure everything's running smooth. It's a lot. It's a lot. But I enjoy having the technical hobbies and technical day job and kind of, it's all technical at the end of the day. Yeah.

And so these skills translate a lot.

Tony Rivera: Exactly. Um, that's

Adam Graetz: kind of how I got into the DevOps stuff, was doing the ai, python visuals and building Linux servers in my free time. Yeah. And having fun building applications and things with different coding languages that I developed. And then basically was offered this insane opportunity of like, Hey, do you wanna come work in the site reliability world?

And I was kind of working in more technical documentation. Yes. Video editing for training materials. Mm-hmm. And they were like, yeah, we see like you got some Linux skills and this stuff, you wanna come over and like work in the mm-hmm. The engineering world. And that was basically a year and a half ago and I basically changed my whole career into engineering and DevOps and that was basically how I kind of.

Got a little break there and it was kind of insane. I really enjoy it. Yeah. It's a [01:03:00] new career path for me at my age, so it's good.

Tim Piner: Does that, um, does that also kind of buy, I mean that, that that's a step up right? When we talk pay and from where I was. Yeah. That buys some freedom even to do more artistic than it does, does now you kind of have that cushion to Exactly.

To play. Exactly. And even one day what you're playing with, it becomes the gig 'cause you've done well enough to keep growing. I

Adam Graetz: don't know.

Tim Piner: That's the hope. Yeah, that's, yeah. But it

Adam Graetz: definitely frees up some of my, um, energy and, and finances and stuff like that. Yeah. To allow me to maybe focus more on my creative stuff when I'm off work or like Correct.

Or having a clear boundary of like, okay, now I can really not. Worry about work and feel comfortable outside of that. Right, right. Flourish as a, you know, visual. You've worked hard visual man. That's that. And,

Tim Piner: and again, it's also kind of cool. You, you, you're about it too, and you enjoy it. Like, that's not, that's a rare thing.

I think know, I mean, I feel very fortunate, so, yeah. Thank you. Appreciate.

Tony Rivera: Well, you know, man, I, I appreciate you coming on the show. Um, thank you. And telling, telling us your story, giving us a little history literacy about yourself and about germ stuff that I didn't even know. And I'm sure you learned some.

I mean, I'm blown away. Yeah. I mean, you know, and, um,

Tim Piner: fan [01:04:00] boy. Yeah. You know, we definitely, we definitely appreciate.

Tony Rivera: You know, telling us about your history and about, and your art and the, the music you get out, check out. Really cool his Elemental EP if you haven't already on Spotify, wherever they stream music.

'cause this guy got some good stuff. He got some great digital art. Check him out on Instagram on the, the, the faces blur. Yep. Faces blur. Yep. Check out the SoundCloud page, which is that's the face of Blair. Also faces of blurs across the all platforms. That's fine. And if you're in, I

Tim Piner: know you're, you're just your image when, when you Google.

I love it. You got the little symbol as eh, you got the one one brand to rule 'em off. Vimeo, everything. It was awesome. Yeah. Vimeo is right. I went down that rabbit hole.

Tony Rivera: You're in Durham. Come check out his floor 9 1, 9 party because that's banging. You know, it's either ano. You guys have, I have it in rubies.

Installation. You got the installation, you have the

Adam Graetz: set with installation out. Yeah. Shout out to the

Tony Rivera: Visual canopy guys. He's great. Those are my boys. I love them to death. Yep. Um, and yeah, man, you're a man around town, so they, I'm sure everyone will catch you. Catch 'em out.

Any last [01:05:00] words, man, you wanna put out there and Oh, and say? I mean,

Adam Graetz: that's a great question. I mean, I think ultimately we're all in this together. We gotta look out for each other. And it's all love. I mean, yeah. It's, I know it sounds kind of cheesy in some ways, but like the scene and the movement that we're a part of is not too important to not really look out for each other.

And I mean, we shouldn't be fighting for fighting against each other. We shall be working towards a common goal. Yeah. And work together. And I'm all about like collaboration, not competition. So I'd say let's all build, let's get something going and make some magic Yeah. Happen. So I agree. That's awesome.

Tony Rivera: That's we, that's, this is what, this is our premise right here at the vinyl under ground where Beats meet community. Yeah. Love it. Love it. All about that. You know? Indeed is. So with that, man, thank you. We'll wrap it up.

Thank you guys. I appreciate you having me. It was awesome. And with that I'll say, Joe, bring that beat back.

[01:06:00]

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