Summer Walker isn’t big on diaries or therapy. Instead, the low-key R&B powerhouse finds solace in the studio, where angst, lust, and self-doubt morph into mesmerizing confessionals. For Walker, putting it all out there is healing: “Pro Tools sessions are my diary pages,” she tells Apple Music in Up Next: Summer Walker, the documentary film about her ascent. “That’s why a lot of my songs are emotional.” As a child growing up in Atlanta (where she was born in 1996), Walker would wait until her mom went to bed before going into the bathroom to record videos of herself singing songs and playing guitar. When she posted those clips on social media, the reaction was immediate—she had something. Her songwriting style—which she explored on her first two releases, Last Day of Summer and CLEAR—is both mysterious and bare-bones; the more she reveals about her heart and mind, the more captivating she becomes. “I don’t really need the pain/But I love to feel the pain,” she admits on “Deep,” a song that wrestles to distinguish between sex and love. To listen is to witness Walker working it all out in real time.