Arlo Parks’s bedroom pop is ‘braver than ever’
Arlo Parks’s world revolves around raw, honest expression through the written word as a poet and singer-songwriter. On her latest album, “My Soft Machine,” the bedroom pop and indie soul singer tells stories from her life and what she has learned along the way. “Stories about romantic love and feeling held and something gentle and healthy, friendship and healing and the loss of innocence,” said Parks, who plays Royale thursday. “the sense of wanting to save people and wanting to uncover why i have that desire to rescue.”
Her debut album, “Collapsed in Sunbeams,” described the experiences of other people in her life, but with her sophomore release, she challenged herself to create something more personal.
“this record is very much through my eyes,” she said.
Parks drew inspiration from a wide range of artists, from musician and composer brian Eno to the Smashing Pumpkins.
Zooming from backstage in Vancouver with her camera off, Parks discussed her first published poetry collection, a song about the blurry lines between a female friendship becoming something more, and working with her friend Phoebe bridgers.
Q. How has tour been going? a. i feel really energized, honestly. Playing the new music has brought new meaning to certain songs and just seeing kids at their first shows and young queer couples and the diversity of the crowd, and the fact that everyone really takes care of each other. the atmosphere is really good.
Q. You won the breakthrough Artist Award at the brit Awards in 2021.
What was it like being honored with a nomination for Artist of the Year this year? a. it felt very full circle. When i made [”My Soft Machine”], all i knew is that i wanted to be braver than ever, and i wanted to delve deeper than ever. there was something quite scary about moving in that direction and showing more of myself in that way. So being recognized in such a big way, it’s one of the highest honors.
Q. How does poetry inform your songwriting process? a. i guess they are linked, but they do feel quite separate. Poetry for me is something that presents itself as more of a stream of consciousness or stringing together fragments that feels less structured and more intuitive. Songwriting is a lot more structured where you have to distill the essence of something into sometimes a single line. in poetry, i allow myself to ramble and be free.
Q. How has your music evolved since your debut single “Cola”? a. i’ve become a lot more adventurous and patient. My first songs, the way that they came out is the way that you hear them. there wasn’t that sense of refining or crafting. it was much more of an impulsive process. Over time, i’ve gotten more in touch with my sense of patience.
i’ve grown up and lived more life, but i think the essence is the same. My process is the same as it was when i was 15 years old, just sitting in the corner and recording voice memos and going through poetry, going through books, creating these banks of words.
Q. Your debut book “the Magic border” combines poetry, song lyrics from “My Soft Machine,” and photos by Daniyel Lowden. What was the experience like creating an intimate publication delving into your identities as a queer black woman, exploring love and trauma, and sharing your poetry with the world for the first time? a. it kind of happened by accident almost. i’m writing pretty much constantly, and i had all these fractals and these little things written on the back of receipts and scribbled in my books, and it felt interesting to me to create this book that felt like a collage.
Daniyel is one of my best friends in the world. i was so moved by the romantic lens that he captured people through. You could feel the gentleness of his gaze, and he was someone who always encouraged me to write and to share the poetry, so we sat down one afternoon in his apartment in London and went through his archives. i almost fell into creating the book.
‘I’ve become a lot more adventurous and patient . . . . I’ve grown up and lived more life, but I think the essence is the same.’
ARLO PARKS on the evolution of her music
Q. “Eugene” off of your debut album describes the difficult and confusing feelings of a friendship becoming something more. What was it like for you moving from “best buds” to falling “half in love” with a girl and shifting from happiness to isolation when she falls for a boy? a. it’s a very specific queer experience that i didn’t realize was so universal. there is something inherently romantic about those really deep friendships and that feeling of having a soulmate in someone. Especially as a young person who’s still figuring out their sexuality and figuring out the competence to be free and open about it, it’s a very specific, quiet kind of pain. Obviously you want your friend to be happy and in love, and there is that happiness for them, [but] there is this underlying ache of, “i wish that was me.”
Q. You featured [Phoebe] bridgers on your song “Pegasus.” What was it like working with her and what about the song made you think she was the right artist to bring in? a. Phoebe’s the best. She has this very beautiful command of the bittersweet. i think of her music as holding so much nuance and subtlety. “Pegasus” is so heart open and romantic, but then there are the moments [where] being with someone always made me feel used and just that slight tinge of a darker past when it came to relationships, and i felt like she could do that nuance in that multi-dimensional storytelling really well.