Issue 1: Recalibration

Dearest reader,

If you’re receiving this message, you subscribed to the music/artist newsletter I kept intermittently active from November 2018 through February 2021. At the time, I hoped I would maintain its cadence with some regular consistency—a position in which you find me here today, ironically, once again. It’s been over two years since I’ve shared an update with this group, and, as you may imagine, quite a lot has happened in the time that’s passed since we last connected.

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I’ve migrated my newsletter from a now-deactivated Mailchimp account to this Substack publication, which I’m calling “Out of Place” (inspired by Edward Said’s memoir of the same title). I hope to share weekly updates with you, containing an assortment of notes related to projects & life events, as well as other musings/notes on things that have been capturing my attention. If this sounds like something you’d like to remain subscribed to, no action is needed, and I’m happy to have you here! If not, you can opt-out/unsubscribe at any point & I’ll always be happy to welcome you back with open arms. <3

I’d like to pick things back up by sharing a recent life and career update with you.

Last month I decided to move on from my role at Catalog, a music marketplace built on the Ethereum blockchain. I joined the team in the summer of 2021 as their first outside/non-cofounding software engineer and am grateful for the privilege and opportunity to have learned and grown alongside this talented group over the past year and a half. I continue to find inspiration in what the organization has built thus far—especially when it comes to its artist-centric editorial work and curatorial approach—and am excited to see where the team takes things in the months and years ahead.

Since my transition, I’ve been recentering, recalibrating, and taking time to intentionally focus on how I’d like to direct my efforts from here.

I likely won’t be rushing into another engineering role. While I’ve found the field to be quite good at satisfying my intellectual curiosities (and, let’s be real—also quite good at paying the bills), I’m feeling driven to pause and seriously consider revisiting a path that’s always played a significant role in my life but to which I’ve never been fully invested or committed:

Music.

While my plans are far from concretized or complete, I do have a clue of what I’d like to set as a kind of initial guiding goal: I’d like to share more projects and completed works with you. This will likely take the form of music released and shared as singles, EPs, rough/informal drafts, and—if I can overcome my fear around this format—full-length, fully-produced albums.

I anticipate having more updates to share with you about all of this soon.

For now, I want to take an extra moment to thank you for being here, for reading this far, and for supporting me on this ongoing journey of creativity and finding “home” by means of human expression & connection.

Love,
Reef

Out of Place is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.