Recording his own music was never the plan for Reese Fleming, but after time spent playing for his friends and family, he was inspired to share his music with others.
Fleming, senior in aerospace engineering, began his interest in music by playing the piano.
“I took piano lessons in eighth grade for a couple of months, then I started teaching myself from YouTube,” he said.
When his brother was given a keyboard for Christmas one year, Fleming said he was the one who ended up playing it.
“I did the worship band at church in high school,” he said. “That was when I only played the piano and then I started learning guitar.”
As he got older, his musical interests expanded to include guitar and songwriting. He said he originally started an Instagram account for his friends and family to listen to his music.
“My friends had always listened to me play and they were a little upset that going to college would pull people away from each other,” Fleming said. “I made that account so my friends and family could keep up with what I’ve been doing.”
He most often posts on his Instagram account but also posts some of his songs on his Soundcloud and uploads most to Spotify and Apple Music.
He said he hopes to put two singles out this semester.
“I wrote a song back in May that I recorded over the break and I have another song that I recorded that I’m going to put out this semester,” Fleming said. “We’re recording the drums this weekend.”
He also recorded acoustic sets for both of the singles with his friend who used a video camera to film him playing.
“[My friend is] working on putting those videos together, so I have acoustic sets to promote the actual songs whenever that time comes around,” Fleming said.
With an extended play called “You, the Magnificent Sun” out on Spotify and Apple Music, which is a recording of one of his other acoustic sets, Fleming is planning on adding his new singles to both platforms as well.
On his Soundcloud, he has a song titled “We Buy Gold,” which Fleming described as a sarcastic song about people obsessing over money.
“I kind of wrote that out of frustration [due to] a lot of my friends or family just never being satisfied with stuff they buy and I don’t really find any connection to money,” he said.
Since the musician is also a graduating senior this semester, he expressed he will be focusing more on school this semester and hopefully returning to a focus on music after graduation.
“After graduation, I’m going to have a lot more free time to be able to learn how to do music production on my computers,” he said. “I want to get into being able to produce any kind of music that I want to make whether that’s indie or jazz or some cool beats.”
Fleming also expressed that he wants to continue to learn new instruments such as the bass.
“I don’t think it’s ever too late to start music or picking up new hobbies,” he said. “I have a very wide range of interests from space to music to religion, and I am curious to see what I pick up next in the future.”
Additionally, Fleming said throwing himself into music has helped him grow as a person.
“The biggest thing for me was getting over the uncomfortableness of trying new things and that’s kind of taught me to not be afraid to not be okay at things,” he said.
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