Issue 22: Draft state of mind...

Dearest reader,

I trust this letter finds you as it leaves me, in good health. I’m starting to find that my time is increasingly occupied these days. The vast stretches of open-ended, “what might I do with myself now” periods—which were quite numerous around the beginning of May—appear to have fizzled. I sense I may have returned to a familiar rhythm of balancing my attention and focus between teamwork and solo work.

I decided to take on some engineering work for an early-stage startup around the beginning of June, and have since then gotten quite deep into the process of building out the foundation of a platform they’re planning to launch quite soon. It’s been fun. I may have more to share soon, and I may not. I’m still unsure how much I want to blur the lines between “work” projects and this newsletter.

I’ve been continuing to practice piano and have a recital coming up this weekend that I’m both excited and slightly nervous about. I don’t think I’ve had a piano recital since I was—like—in middle school, and I guess I still get middle school jitters, even at this advanced age. I’m playing a very short piece—it’s the first twelve bars of “Just A Dream” by Gerald Clayton (featuring MARO on vocals). Mr. Clayton has a lot of skills at the keyboard that I don’t so this has been a fun challenge to take on.

My friend and I received drum takes over the past week for a song we’ve been working on which, frankly, stupefied me in the best possible way. It’s an honor to be taking a small part in his project and I’m really excited to share more with you all as it gets closer to completion.

I’ve also been listening to some drafts by my sister. For those of you who might not already be aware, my sister is an incredible artist and has some of her musical work posted online1. She shared a draft she’s been working on with me this week and it overtook me. I’m excited for what she has in store, and I have a huge amount of respect for how she approaches her work. She has a relentless attention to detail combined with a huge degree of patience which I find very inspiring.

Speaking about “approaching one’s work”—I perhaps am of the chaotic, impatient variety. And so, I added five new drafts2 to the playlist I created for last week’s issue of this newsletter. Three drafts are from this month, and two are from last. One is a micro-flip of a Bryson Tiller song that I had a lot of fun with (the original song itself is one I’ve been returning to often these past few months). One day I’ll get better at finishing my projects before I share them with you—but that day is clearly not today. 😎

That’s all I got for now. Be safe, and I hope you have a magnificent weekend ahead of you.

Love,
Reef