Arlo Parks
“There’s something really profound about the years where you find yourself.”
Arlo Parks’ sophomore album is, in some ways, accidental. “I started listening to everything I’d collected, and I was like, ‘Whoa! I pretty much got the raw material for an album here,’” she tells Variety. “I tricked myself somehow.”
This helped the 22-year- old London native avoid some of the pressure that often accompanies an artist’s second LP — especially if they’ve had an ascent like Parks’. After building a loyal fan base in the U.K., she released her debut album, “Collapsed in Sunbeams,” in January 2021. It went on to win the prestigious Mercury Prize and earn Parks best new artist and alternative album nominations at the 2022 Grammys. But all of that success didn’t come without a cost: After opening for Harry Styles, Clairo and Billie Eilish in the first half of 2022, Parks canceled part of her U.S. tour later in the year, saying her mental health had “deteriorated to a debilitating place.”
In many ways, that honesty has made her even more of a beacon of relatability for Gen Z, and her new album, “My Soft Machine” — which was released May 26 — is her most personal project yet. Parks discusses mid- 20s anxiety, working with Phoebe
Bridgers and what makes a good love song.
• How does it feel to finally have “My Soft Machine” out in the world? When you’re really going inwards into the deepest recesses of yourself and showing people what you come out with, it’s like the conversation you would have with a best friend or a therapist, but you’re having it with the world. It’s scary, but when I think about some of my favorite artists — like Elliott Smith or Phoebe Bridgers or Jeff Buckley or anyone who has that openhearted approach to music — then that’s what’s moving about it, right?
• Much of the album focuses on the unique but universal feeling of being a 20-something. What do you feel is so significant about this period of life? There’s something really profound about the years where you find yourself, where you have to decide where your place is in the world. There’s something quite painful about that journey, but also beautiful, because it’s something that everybody goes through.
• Musically, “My Soft Machine” is a bit more upbeat than your debut, but still deals with heavy topics. What draws you to that type of juxtaposition? My voice has a quality of softness, and I always want there to be balance in the same way that some of my favorite songs [do]. Take “Kyoto” by Phoebe, that sense of it being purely happy, but then the lyrics and the depth that it goes to in her relationship with her father. I love it when there’s that contrast. Because that’s what it’s like to be a human being.
• Speaking of Phoebe Bridgers, you finally collaborated with her on “Pegasus.” How did the song come together? I wanted it to feel quite minimal, like a “White Ferrari” moment or [like] that pianist, Duval Timothy. I just wanted it to have space to breathe, because I felt like the instrumentation on the rest of the record felt rich and lush. I’ve been a fan of Phoebe for so long, since I was 17. We’ve sung together a bunch, and I feel like when our voices come together, they just mesh really naturally. So I sent it to her and was really honest about how much her music meant to me and what the song meant to me, and she said yes.
• Falling in love is a big theme on this record. What makes a good love song? It has to be specific. ... Like I can tell that maybe you’ve been writing this in the corner of the room whilst your person is cooking or on a phone call. I love a bittersweet song — it doesn’t have to be depressing, but I just like it when it’s not completely blissful.