Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A delicate Cure for a broken heart
Singer’s debut charts her growth as well as break-up
Assured Stevie Parker offers a compelling voice on her debut album The Cure. Its brooding and reflective songs, of love found and lost, capture life in motion – and a young woman’s coming of age.
A split with her first serious from her Fleetwood Mac namesake Nicks, Dusty Springfield and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O, is clear about one thing – The Cure is not simply a break-up album
“I like to see it more as an account of personal growth. The songs were written at lots of different stages in time about multiple changing situations,” she says. “The earlier songs are both more scathing and more vulnerable. I think I’ve mellowed out a lot. I look after myself much better, and I think it’s nice to have that journey reflected by either end of the timeline.”
Revealing her inner life in song was not always Frome-bred
Stevie’s life goal: “Music is something I felt like I’d do for somebody else or totally privately.” Stevie’s father aided her development, writing songs with her at an early age.
“I was such a weird kid with a lot of strange whims. I’m still impressed my dad was so accommodating.” Growing up, she learned to shield her sexual identity. “It wasn’t really public knowledge. Only my friends and family knew and nobody really cared,” she says.
“I was lucky in that sense, but I would see homophobia all the time, small-town style, which made me hide it.
“It was really disheartening and another thing I was happy to walk away from.”
There have been setbacks and delays in her budding career, but after two early EPS forged her bond with fans, Stevie feels the timing for her debut album is now right. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been in the right head space for it until now.
“There have been times I’ve been so restless, but I think it’s easy to get a bit entitled in this industry – you get fed so many expectations.” The Cure is out today.