Making Waves: Passion for Producing

Making Waves: Passion for Producing

Making Waves 

Passion of Producing

 

At the age of 11, something caught the attention of a young Terell Winchester that he had never heard before; the BOOM BOOM of music coming from the open door of a club. Instantly he became enamored with the beat and a lifelong love of music began.  

Now Winchester is a DJ and a music producer. He goes by the stage name Gvcci (pronounced Gucci) and co-owns and manages a techno label called Voltage Records with partner Anna Vlachaki. Winchester is also a student from Webster St. Louis who decided to do his study abroad time at Webster Geneva. 

After discovering his passion for music he realized that all music in clubs sounded the same and somebody had to change that. 

“I got sick of it,” Winchester says, “It was always the same thing every weekend, in every club. I ended up bringing headphones and listening to my own music. The only way to change it was to do it myself.”

Even with his passion for making music Winchester fell into the business accidentally. After he had already decided not to pursue DJing right away the opportunity presented itself to him. He commented on a music track on Facebook and after getting in touch with the artist he decided to fly to Athens for a show. This artist was Anna Vlachaki (stage name Anna V.) After knowing each other for only a few hours Anna proposed the crazy idea of starting a label together. Deciding to trust her, he agreed. 

Together they launched Voltage Records and three years later it’s still going strong. After only a year and a half the label was already close to being in the top 20 techno labels in the world, an incredible success for such a short period of time. 

The secret to success? “We don’t cheat the system,” Winchester says before adding, “Every release has to be quality quality quality.” He believes that what adds a signature to music is someone’s personality and hopes that his own personality and passion shine through in the music that he is making. He and Anna pride themselves in gaining their success organically. 

Working with the label allows Winchester to travel across the U.S. and Europe for shows. He and partner Anna Vlachaki both play shows, as well as guest artists that they hire. They play often in New Orleans as well as Miami, Athens, Amsterdam, and London. He is based in the U.S. but prefers performing in Europe. He laughs at the difference between the two, “They don’t compare. In Europe the music is appreciated and not tolerated.” He elaborates, “American music is trendy, it doesn’t have a personality. It changes so often that it’s hard to keep up with what is and isn’t in style.” 

“It’s many people’s dreams to be able to travel so often as part of their job but he warns that it’s not always as nice as it seems. “Nobody sees the hard work. It’s like Instagram, you see the glamour. Its taxing mentally and emotionally. There’s nothing stable,” he says.

Trying to balance studying and the label is a struggle. Winchester doesn’t want to make any sacrifices with music or with school but cannot fully commit to both at the same time. 

Winchester is a self-starter, who began without a degree but is getting one now to push his business further along, as well as to make his mother proud. He pauses for a long time when asked about college, refusing to give advice to anyone. He believes that college has its advantages and disadvantages but that everyone must follow their own path. In his case, he got lucky and put in the work. He does, however, explain how he gained success and that it can work for anyone willing to put in enough work. 

What can cause people to fail preemptively is a lack of perseverance. You need to be willing to give it your all for at least two years before seeing profit. You also have to know how to network. Most people who get into the same business as Winchester produce for years to master their craft before buying or starting a label. He did the opposite; deciding to take a social approach and use the label as a fallback plan. He began by becoming friends with as many people as possible within the scene, to get both himself and his label in people’s minds. This got them curious and he was invited to more events. His key was establishing friendships before he ever mentioned business. 

Now Winchester’s aspirations are growing. The goal moving into the future is hosting a festival, which he is working on now. He also wishes to expand the label to cut back on the workload for himself and Anna. 

Winchester teases at big projects coming up soon but warns that the scene is fickle and he can’t give any more information. He believes that promoters are often cut-throat as they try to boost themselves above their competition, making it a constant fight to stay relevant and keep up with trends. 

Oftentimes label owners decide to sell when the business is well established or pass along the responsibilities to others. Winchester refuses. While he explains that he would like to shed some responsibilities, he’s too proud of what he’s created to let someone else take over. 

“I don’t want to put my entire life into one thing,” he says. After a few years he wants to step down a little and focus on building a family and taking time for himself. But he isn’t going to stop. “I’ll keep going until the wheels fall off,” he says, “and then I still might keep going.” 

Concorde: the Crown of the ’60s Jet Age

Concorde: the Crown of the ’60s Jet Age

Concorde: the Crown of the ’60s Jet Age, Welcomed in the ’70s

 

When you think of the jet age, the rich flying in wonderful cosy seats, glamourous fashion, traveling to new destinations with bright smiling posters all around. This was an age when the world truly started to open up. The plane that opened up the jet age without a doubt has to be Boeing’s 707. But if I had to choose an aircraft that was the queen of this lifestyle, a definition of the Jet age at its best?

That honour goes to Concorde.

Few aircraft have been able to capture the Imagination of the public like Concorde. An aircraft associated with the rich, the famous, and nobility. To fly on Concorde was an experience, not just another day of travel. Concorde meant one could have breakfast in London, lunch in New York and dinner in Paris. It was technology and art that came together to create a masterclass, no, its own class of lifestyle. 

Created in 1965 as a joint venture between the British and the French aerospace giants BAC and Sud Aviation (later known as BAE and Airbus respectively). Aircraft had moved from propellers to jets; supersonic seemed like the next logical step. Airlines were falling over themselves to get in orders ahead of others to get into the race for supersonic dominance. 

The Concorde first flew on March 2nd, 1969 to an awe inspired crowd in Toulouse France. It would make its first commercial flight on January 21st, 1976.

It was incredible the collaboration between the British and French aviation giants that before had been bitter rivals. However with the threat looming of the American aircraft manufacturers building their own supersonic aircraft backed by the promise of nearly 10 billion dollars of government funding was enough for the British and French engineers to put aside their national differences to unify and create the winner in the supersonic market.

Concorde was an aircraft ahead of its time with the most advanced supersonic engines ever put on an airplane. A famous example of just how far ahead it was from the rest of the competition was a story where Concorde on one of its first flights across the Atlantic with British Airways was met up by an RAF Tornado fighter patrol. The fighter pilot challenged Concorde to a race to see who could get to New York first. Concorde accelerated to Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) and the Tornado pilot did the same. After only 20 minutes the fighter pilot messaged Concorde saying they could not sustain this speed for long without using up their entire fuel reserves. The Concorde pilot replied that they would be maintaining this cruise speed for another 2 1/2 hours en route while he casually on the microphone sipped champagne.

Concorde was in essence the limit of physics, wrapped in gorgeous art with a lifestyle on board of the bon vivant at their peak.

Unfortunately, Concorde did not last, and that was for three main reasons. 

The first was the cost of fuel; flying supersonic is incredibly expensive and the fuel burned on a single flight was near that of a Jumbo jet, an aircraft far larger than it. The second concern was damage to the ozone layer as the aircraft was flying at the edge of the troposphere. Environmental groups were very insistent that the aircraft would add to the publicly known hole in the ozone layer.


 And lastly, tragically,  the two hit combo of the only Concorde crash in 2000 when an Air France Concorde struck a loose part of metal on the runway dropped from a Continental DC-10 that had taken off just before it and exploded its tyres igniting the fuel tank in the wing with the rupture and crashing shortly after killing all on board. Not long after was 9/11 in which aircraft were grounded and many airlines went under struggling to survive. And two years later in 2003, it was finally, heartbreakingly retired from service. 

Nearly 20 years after its retirement, the talk of supersonic aircraft for the public is finally returning to aviation leaders. Though likely just in the private jet market for the foreseeable future. Yet, when one looks at the numbers these future jets are putting out, even these aircraft will only be able to cruise at Mach 1.5, and carry at most 15 people. Concorde, lambasted for all its gas guzzling, still to this day has yet to beat in fuel burned per passenger by any modern supersonic aircraft. An aircraft capable of flying over Mach 2 while carrying 128 passengers (and 15 crew). It took an ideal we thought 50 years ago to be impossible, and to not only do it, but to it with style – enjoy some of the greatest comforts with fine food, fine wine, and fantastic cigars on board (when that was still legal on commercial aircraft). 


When people talk about the glamour of the jet age of the ’60s with flying high 707s, Concorde will always remain in my heart the peak of that glamour and high-flying life.
Here’s hoping the future will bring some more Speedbirds with tickets to fly to far-off destinations with my name on it.

Beyond the Frame

Beyond the Frame

Beyond the Frame:

An Interview with Lina Bessonova

 

Polina Bessonova is a Russian born analog photographer working in her own lab in Florence, Italy. Analog is a method that combines photography with chemistry to develop and process the film that you shoot photographs on as well as to create physical prints. She is a graduate of Webster Geneva and continued her studies by getting a photography masters at Studio Arts College International. Her focus is on film photography and she teaches workshops in her lab as well as showing her work in exhibitions and in her newly published book “At Home.”

 

  1. How did you end up at Webster?

Before Webster, back in Russia, I was working as a radio presenter so I went to Webster to get a Media Communications degree with an emphasis on Radio Production. But then I discovered analog photography and never took a single radio class!

  1. When did you start photography?

I have always had the urge of documenting my life, so I started blogging and doing digital travel photos when I was 16. I was also doing some paid digital photoshoots, as I really liked showing people their own beauty. However, the medium didn’t satisfy me much, as it was way too easy, and I was spending too much time in front of the laptop. I consider the real date of starting photography to be September 2010, when I processed my first roll of film and fell in love. Another important date would be the summer of 2011, when I made the commitment to stick with analog no matter what.

  1. Who are your mentors? Both in and outside of Webster? 

I would not be where I am now without Francesco Arese Visconti, who back in 2010 was just teaching the Photo program. It was so important to see that analog photography can actually be a real job. You can teach, do documentaries and art, travel with a large format camera, and get published. Witnessing him do all of that made me believe that I could too. Since then I just did it.

  1. Why do you think your photography is important?

I don’t think it is. The world wouldn’t notice if I never photographed at all. However, since I started being more active on social media, I got hundreds of messages from people who watched my videos, read my posts and got inspired to set up darkrooms or buy film cameras.

  1. What type of photography do you work with most? Do you have creative freedom or are you pressured by demand?

I have zero pressure about any kind of specific subjects, because my actual work is on the teaching side. I’m researching, reading, testing and learning every day, but the images themselves can be anything I wish. It’s such a nice and rare setup. I can go from portraits to reportage to still life to landscape; whatever I feel like on this specific day. I generally like metaphoric images of random objects.

  1. What kind of clients are attracted to film and how do you find work?

There is an increasing amount of people wanting to learn analog photography and darkroom printing. They make time and money investments, come to workshops or take individual courses. I mainly encounter film lovers with engineering/IT backgrounds, but there are also artists willing to learn a new medium of self-expression, doctors who have a hobby darkroom in their basement, or digital photographers wanting to get their hands into chemistry.

  1. Why did you decide to create a book of your prints?

It was a big shift from taking random photographs to making a series. It’s like you’ve always been rhyming two words, and suddenly you have to put together an entire poem. It’s a challenge, and I love challenges. And you can certainly express yourself more in a poem. The book’s title was “At Home” I would love to make a second one, or do another edition with extra images.

  1. What advice would you give to people who are into film photography as a career?  

Good luck, and keep a backup second job, at least in the beginning. And make sure you aren’t allergic to chemistry.