I keep noticing the same things happening in different corners of my life. People are sending snail mail again. They're buying record players, but not as a joke or a collector's flex. They're learning how to surf, knit, make craft cocktails or espresso drinks, or sitting in a cafe sketching the people and landscape around them.
It may seem like a trend, but I believe it's a shift in the collective ethos; small decisions that all point the same direction: away from the screen, away from AI, and toward something we can hold. I've been in that current for longer than I probably realize, but it wasn't until the last eight months that it stopped being a meme or preference and became the thing I actually wanted to build something around.
Lost Mixtape is me, not yet in my final form. Every project, product, creative experiment is a track on the playlist on a mixtape that's not yet finished. What holds it together is a commitment to the analog experience—made by hand, meant to be held, and resistant to the flatness of the scroll.
My name is Dave Conrey and often refer to myself as a creative generalist. I am an artist, former magazine art director, author, and most important, father. I've spent the last several years building a life around being available to experience things first hand, with my hands, and often with others. Lost Mixtape is the capsule that holds all of these things; often random, but all with a purpose of exploring creativity, for myself and for you.