10/03/2024
From my book Creative-Exposure/Hudson which is now available for $35 at Spotty Dog Books & Ale Oblong Books and https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Exposure-Portraits-Hudson-York-Weckler/dp/B0CYMPB5NP All portraits were taken with a film 4x5 camera. Here Andrew is standing behind a screen door.
Andrew Nelson (aka DJ Mr Chips)
Photographed March 27, 2023
I don’t sit still well. I was born and raised in a small Central New York city, but I’ve lived in just about every region of the state from Buffalo to Brooklyn.
Maybe it was growing up in a small town during the 70s and 80s that made me feel like there was so much potential in exploration and experimentation. We had so much freedom that I really felt I could try and fail over and over. It also built a certain brand of confidence allowing me to challenge the norms and expand my world.
In high school I recognized myself as a “creative”. As a fan of the budding Hip Hop scene, I found great joy in the dance, fashion and graffiti elements of the culture, but it was the music and how it was delivered that engulfed me. I didn’t know what I wanted of it, ultimately, it seemed I wanted it all. I tried being an emcee for a Hip Hop outfit with a crew of my friends, rapping, dancing and contributing to the little bit of music production involved. That was short lived, but what followed would stick to this day. DJing.
The levels that would unfold and the opportunities that would come from being a DJ were not evident at the time. Nobody actually thought you could make a career from it at the time. But by the mid 90s I would find myself in New York City working for a music production company, helping to build events for a trendy nightclub agency called Giant Step. My responsibilities came in the form of everything from setting up the DJ equipment for events, to promoting, to designing flyers, posters and print ads.
I slowly built an on-the-job portfolio of design work while building an understanding for event booking, lifestyle marketing, branding, and project management. This lead to a new position as a label manager for an independent label group, where the day to day included everything from creative campaign building, to album distribution, press, social media, and album packaging production.
Meanwhile, I peppered my evenings with DJing. I booked, promoted and performed at one-off events throughout my entire term in New York. The range stretched from loft gigs thrown by friends, all the way up to weekly residencies in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia, to opening at concerts for the likes of Jamiroqui, Macy Gray, Herbie Hancock and more.
All things tied together under the creative umbrella of connecting people through music, image and information. So when the time came to make a life change and move north from the metropolis, it seemed a natural move to find the nearest venues to book, play and flex creative conversation. Booking shows in Hudson, Tivoli and Kingston turned into promoting and branding for a clever second-floor venue in Hudson called Jason’s Upstairs Bar – with a great success relevant to the time. That success caught the eye of the Lori Selden, then president of the Hudson Business Coalition, who brought me on as both a member of the coalition as well as marketing director at her Mexican Radio restaurants. While assisting Mexican Radio in re-branding efforts, I volunteered on the coalition to assist in the branding, promotion and wayfinding for Hudson and its business community. This included the creation of a series of themed illustrated travel posters, bumper stickers, postcards and in 2012 launched a pocket-sized Walking Guide which was under my design and direction for 5 editions through 2018, when the torch was passed to the hands of the coalition. The success of the Hudson guide prompted Beacon to follow suit in 2014 when I designed one for their business district.
My local promotion efforts would be lent to several local businesses in addition to Mexican Radio, including Shana Lee Jewelry, TK Home and Garden, Hudson Standard, Two Boots Pizza, Columbia County Habitat for Humanity, Hudson Development Corporation and Columbia County Tourism. I found satisfaction in creating promotion tools that continue to be used to this day, including 5 GPS guided walking tours in Hudson that display the rich history.
Beyond the borders of Hudson, my Down In The Valley Creative operation expanded into a proper graphic design operation that now lists just under 40 album designs on Discogs.com, including extensive collaborations with Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, Dresden Dolls and their associated acts. But I’m equally proud of the album packages designed for Clermont Music, punk outfit Chrome Cranks, Sundazed Music, Nat Geo Records and the several artists in between.
These days I continue to put my creative juices to work for CCS Bard & The Hessel Museum, Fruition Chocolate Works and other regional businesses. I have crafted books for artist and illustrator, Sean Andrew Murray, and serve as creative director at Signal Company No. 1 where I create art that drives campaigns for award winning podcasts like Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions, and Bone Valley which brought me a Silver Ambie Award in 2023 for Social Media Content.
If you’re curious what came of my passion for DJing, then I invite you to join me on a Thursday night for a session of my weekly radio program, Dollar Bin Radio on Radio Kingston which is gearing up for its sixth season at the time of this book’s launch.
As I look to the future, I hope to find time to sink into more personal work and less client work, but we’ll see where the road brings me.
