The following lines are an almost exact replica of the email I sent to Raphael Recht before publishing his interview. Raph and I (Pablo) had a conversation over the phone where he invited me to make public my message below. In it, I describe the process I went through to capture his interview. I hope you enjoy its intimacy, vulnerability, and honesty.

Hi Raph,

Thanks so much for sharing your story with me and also thank you for your patience. Capturing your story and letting it sink in continues to be a process. I would like to share some episodes of this process with you.

After we met, I listened to our recorded conversation and immediately realised how deep we went. The challenge for me was to make sure I could capture in a clear way the depth of your story and of your project. I started thinking I could write your story as a tale. I remembered I had written a tale inspired by my grandfather’s own story whose name was Raphael (Rafael) too, so I read it. When I finished reading it, I didn’t feel right to replicate the format but I was sure I was going to find the right one for your story.

I enjoy working at public libraries. While transcribing our interview at Carlton’s Library on Rathdowne St, I found two magazines. Juxtapoz was one and I can’t remember the name of the other one but it was a Music magazine. They both publish interviews in a Q&A format. I took ideas from them both and chose that same Q&A format to capture your story.

Manually transcribing our full conversation was very important in my process. I was able to listen to the tone and melody of your story while writing it down. I think our conversation’s flow and narrative were easy to follow.

An emotional hurdle came to me when I got to the question “Who am I gonna be on stage?”. I call it a hurdle, but probably pause is a more accurate word.

I paused and digged into my own memories. What was I doing when I was 8 years old? I was definitely not asking myself that question back then. Thirty years later (i.e today), I started to welcome that question as my own and I’ve been ruminating on the answer almost every day since I transcribed our interview. Am I a different character when I meet or interview people for Brunswick Daily from who I am when I talk to, let’s say my brother, my Saturday date, my ex, my dad, or my friends? Maybe.

Feeling comfortable with this potential dichotomy is becoming part of my “who am I going to be on stage?” process.

Sometimes, I like scavenging for elements that will help me get into the right headspace to write or edit a story. Location and music are typically these elements. Walking around Brunswick looking for hidden spots, I ran into Three Phase Coffee which serves as the front shop of a music rehearsal studio. The barista plays the drums and she enjoys talking about music. There was no need for me to keep looking for a place to write and edit our interview. This was it.

Sorting out the music to inspire my writing was different from finding the place. I feel the music found me. An album came to my head straight away when I started writing. Today, I think it was the lyrics, the melody, and the message in the songs that brought me to it and what connected your story with it. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips is the name of the album (and one of its songs titled this article).

When I did the editing I understood the format I chose needed to reflect our conversation as accurately as possible (words, timing, tone and vibe). I imagined the reader being entertained by our words as if they were watching a good talk show. In that sense, you will notice the words in our transcribed interview (attached to this email) are almost exactly the same as the final version. I did minor but important changes to find the right balance between entertainment and accuracy.

Under the same editing umbrella, I also wanted to make sure that external links and images contributed to the storytelling. In your draft article (also attached to this email), you will find text highlighted in yellow, if you have those images please send them through so we can improve the narrative.

Overall, my dear Raph, you were very present during my whole process. I hope my work reflects and honours your story and that it invites people to follow closely the LEX project. I also hope that reading your own words brings an angle that contributes to your next steps, and the next episodes of your story.

Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions and I’ll happily address them before publishing the article.

With admiration and love,

Pablo.

PS. Other Albums (A)/ Songs(S) I listened to while writing:

Thriller 25 Super Deluxe Edition (A)- Michael Jackson
Hoy como Ayer (A) – Los Hermanos Gutiérrez
Dancing Queen (S) – Abba
Bamboléo (S) – Gipsy Kings
Immigrant Song (S) – Led Zepellin
Maybe (S) – Janis Joplin
Cactus Tree (S) – Joni Mitchell
LIFEXPECTANCY (A) – Raphael Recht