PATTERN’s May curator, Eric Rees, is a core volunteer for PATTERN and one of the biggest music enthusiasts in the group! He enjoys exploring collaborations and mixes in the rap and R&B scene, and he titled this playlist “SUMMER IS OVER”.
The playlist highlights some of his favorite tracks and albums from the last couple of months, including recent local Indianapolis releases. Follow the playlist on Soundcloud and/or Spotify for your listening pleasure!
Tell us about your musical background.
Outside of playing trombone in middle school and high school, I’m just a spectator as far as music goes. I grew up on a whole mess of stuff, but a lot of listening to the radio–top 100 in the ’90s kind of stuff. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gravitated more toward rap and R&B because it’s become such a melting pot for including elements of different genres. Well done features, collabs, and crossovers give me life.
Tell us about the mix you curated. What’s the mood? What should we be doing while listening in?
There’s so much good music out right now, but the rap and R&B scenes are just undefeated at the moment. I couldn’t attend Chreece this year, but I did peep some acts on social media after that I’ve been listening to ever since. As far as vibes for this playlist, “Summer is Over”. It’s time to bust out those hoodies and get cozy as the hot days give way to colder fall nights. I’m a bit biased because fall has always been my favorite season, but this mix should be a good soundtrack for sitting on porches with friends and family or driving around town as the nights start to come sooner.
What groups are killing the game right now?
Summer of 2016 and 2017 go to Frank Ocean man, it’s not even close. Blonde landed last year, and that man still found a way to give us “Slide”, “Lens”, “Chanel”, “Biking”, and “Provider” in the meantime? No contest.
What are your interests outside of music?
That’s a tough question, because if we could make every issue of PATTERN Magazine about music, I’d be all about it. I guess food would be my next biggest interest outside of music. Trying new restaurants here in Indy; trying new recipes at home. It’s a great way to get together with people for pretty much any occasion. My family’s big into BBQ, so I’m sure we’ll be having some people over for that sooner rather than later.
