Arlo Parks

Sometimes you just sit down and talk to somebody and right away you know Experience with a uh a new artist called Arlo Parks very early on, and you know, we were all moved by the music, it came as no surprise to. beautiful path but you know what I wasn't prepared for was just how thoughtful she was gonna be in that A lot of new artists are still searching. And she uses her words in a really thoughtful way and she doesn't waste them.

Unlike me, so I'm gonna get out of the way. Uh a brand new conversation with a remarkable new artist, it's the interview series, and our new one right here is with Brilliant Artoparks. How many times did you listen to it before it was finished and you could let it go? A lot a lot. A lot. And yet for me when I heard it for the very first time

I would have just been happy from the second I heard it. Like'cause it's so immediate and so instant and so stunning. But I suppose I should remind everybody who I'm talking to because I have a habit of just picking up wherever I started about ten minutes ago. Arlo, it's good to see you. Yeah. How's it going? Good. I feel well. I'm kind of in this nice creative flow, kind of having finished the record. Yeah, yeah. Doing a lot of writing and resting. That often happens.

It's best not to get in the way of those. Does it make you sort of wonder is it done? This new thing I just did would have fit perfectly. I feel like honestly when a record is finished, like the space is cleared in my heart and I kind of it it becomes then a gift that I give away and then there's just space like a complete blank slate. And I feel like the record was made in this

very contained period of time and like nothing else would really fit. Yeah. It was just like this one snapshot. That makes perfect sense. I love it, you know, when you when you find how do you know when your heart is full enough to make a record or when you That's just this urgency. I remember my my friend describing it as like a bird's urge to migrate. That's just like something political.

like almost subconscious. Yeah. And that's how I feel. Sometimes I feel that but I don't know what I want to make or what I want to say. And there's five things that I want to do and it it depends on what time of the day I wake up and I realise I'm not I'm clear enough or have purity of vision to be able to to I'm just gonna be searching in the dark. Does it ever happen to you? I think that that's a good thing.

You know, it's like you you go fishing and you just sit and you wait and sometimes nothing comes and it can be frustrating or confusing or sometimes something comes you didn't expect. Yeah. But I think just Allowing for being stuck or having some kind of block or wanting to go for a walk

You have a m sounds like you have a pretty mature relationship with time. Most of us are racing against it, trying to make more of it, uh running out of it. Even in those the last couple of minutes of talking to you. Yeah. I think it took me a while to kind of learn patience. be perfect now. And I think I had that real sense of kind of frantically searching after the perfect way to say something.

But then I actually in this writing process found proof that when you actually leave things alone and allow for them to take Then that's when the best things come. Is collapse in some beams perfect? I think it it is what it is. I I rarely use the word perfect, but I feel like it captures where I was then and it and it felt like it felt honest and it When you look back on that time and that person does it feel like that.

Honestly, it feels like so long ago. I feel like I've lived a lot of life in between then and now. It's just so funny because most artists release music. And then they start tour it and do all the shenanigans, right? But you know what I mean. I'm a little bit shenanigans. I mean it's all part of the stuff you didn't really weren't. Mm-hmm. And and sometimes the the the living of How were you able to prioritize life lived over the pressures and the stuff that comes with being our

I feel like it's kind of a constant struggle. I think I realise that I have to be very intentional about like carving up And honestly I think that shows in the work. Like when I have rested, when I have like gone to the beach or met someone new. The work is so much more rich and like my cup is full. And then when I try and just work through my life, then I realise I have nothing to say and that's even worse. So planning to chill. Where else do you get a line like

It's interesting. That makes me feel a couple of different ways. Like on the one side of it I I love the the purity of intent. Um the idea of of of being with someone Yeah. But then also to embrace someone's impurities is to absorb. Help me get over myself. Do you know what I mean? I I I I don't know where it what where it sits for you.

Exactly. It's exactly that. I think it started off as kind of a celebration of like the new community that I'd found in LA and the people that made me kind of feel like myself and like I could be myself and then I started thinking about the idea

somebody completing you and somebody kind of taking on the things about you that you don't like and somehow saving you and that kind of double meaning I think was really interesting. Yeah, no for sure. It I think it's one of the great tests of any long term relationship. Friendship or otherwise. What's all friendship? Is if you can present those flaws to people and someone doesn't feel either the need That's when you know you got something good going on.

Exactly. Pretty bad. Yeah. Pretty bad. Pretty bad. Pretty bad. Yeah, no. That balance that balance is so interesting. Finding people who you do feel like you can lean on and not having that kind of like solitude, lone wolf, kind of insular approach to your pain.

And never looking outwards, but then also knowing that the change has to come from within. I love that you came searching for that in Los Angeles. It's a city that gets a bad reputation for community and friendship circles. A lot of people talk about it in terms Drive meaning. I don't find LA ugly at all. I've found a some some of the most beautiful. Great community around me. How's your experience been out here? I feel the same, honestly. I think maybe I came here just completely open. I don't

um pre-existing kind of notions of what it might be like. And I came also, you know, wanting to make a record and having these people who I had that thing in common with who were just creative and loved music and that community kind of just spread people and I don't know, I think I found it it feels like home. I think there was this sense of like the city did like embrace me and I feel like I don't know, I wanted a new adventure and I just found made me think of LA like

Well you also worked with a member of a band that was like fifty deep and all lived together for about five years. Ramil understands exactly what it means to be able to share and collaborate and and share space. Yeah. Why did you choose to work with the people you choose to work with and who exactly did you make

So I have a long list of collaborators. Um, all wonderful people and all who kinda bring different things out of me. So I worked a lot with Romel. Uh I mean this song in particular in Pure. And Romel. Um and I honestly just chose them because I was I was a big fan and I felt like you know it's the the first track on the

Perfect. And it I wanted it to feel like a door opening and that sense of atmosphere. Well it does, even the music, even if you're listening to like, you know, the And it's so crazy because you think you're a bit lost in The little resolve at the end. That caught at the end just had me my feelings so high.

Here and then oh no I'm at home. Yeah, that's what I wanted. That's what I wanted. I wanted it to feel searching. I wanted it to feel like I was kind of like adrift in a way and then the lyrics kind of then root you in like It's the people, the people of the hut. What was the process of finding the thoughts, converting them to words and making them

you find the song on this music? I just like I honestly don't know. It was one of those songs that almost happened like by accident. Because it was the first day that me and Rome met And we spent most of the day just hanging out and then this was kinda just made like as an aside in very And he just played me that sample and the lightning bolt just struck. Yeah. And I recorded it. And then I was like, okay, let's go back to hanging out and like listening to the Beatles and like driving around.

And I think that, you know, those songs that happen almost by accident or that feel like moment and I think I only started to really understand what I was writing about retrospectively in the moment it just was like Yeah I needed it. I think that's the only way you really should. I I know it's not that easy You know, it is a conscious experience and you have to search for what it is you're trying to say and it's deep and you need a you know, it's like a garden.

Spade and cement. It's like I've got to just find this thing and I'm never gonna find it. Yes. But the dream is obviously to be able to listen back to it. Even you were caught off guard. Hmm. And honestly it's all the songs on the record were like that. I never went into it with my spade. The spade vibe is not for me. That's definitely.

It comes, it comes. Yeah. So what role has the has the previous few years and and finding us and your fans and your audience and and us finding you? What of any impact? I feel like I the process that I m make music by is always gonna be quite insular. I feel like I try but I try and cultivate Like I like the idea of feeling like a teenager in my bedroom all the time. Like I like feeling like I'm away from the world and then I can kind of craft this little thing that is just for me.

But I think definitely a big impact that like being out in the world and having people embrace my music was just it gave me a lot more courage. I was like, I can be brave, I can be myself. And that I guess encouraged me to go inwards a lot more radically on this record, rather than speaking about characters and people outside of me. It was a lot more I and like yourself. Yeah, there was a lot of really beautiful observers.

There was it was an empathetic album, I thought. Yeah, definitely. A lot of empathy, a lot of sharing, a lot of searching, a lot of trying to repair and fix. Yeah, it's a little different. And I I don't know, I I guess I haven't really I didn't go into making this record with an intention. It was just like I don't know, I was taking notes of of growth, I guess, like unconsciously and just taking notes.

I felt about the world and how that changed and just made music that felt really good. I was just like chasing that feeling. How do you feel about How do I feel about the world? I feel hopeful. I feel like there's a lot of things to maybe not be hopeful.

I do feel hopeful. Same and I'm and sometimes I question that feeling. I'm like, Am I on natural dru drugs? Like am I like why is it that I'm going through this life feeling hopeful and every single turn right now feels really rough? But there is some kind of like weird uh unexplainable optimism. Yeah. I seem to feel. Yeah. I think if I could get as close to putting in words, I think maybe

It's like maybe this is what we all have to sort of go through in order to find some light. Yeah. Exactly. And I feel like you have to you have to hold on. Yeah, you could've gone anywhere in the world, you know. And I know you came here to some degree because you wanted the the you know, to work in the creative But you are a curious person and you've gone from what one um, you know, interesting Ancient

philosophical and political environment into a n into a younger one but with but a similar hot spot. Yeah. You know, and I wonder kind of when you move out to a place like this and you keep your eyes open how you absorb every part of the society rather

Right,'cause you have to live in LA, you have to live in America now. You just said LA feels like home. So how are you finding that transition and and and and adopting, you know, a different I feel like it's what you said before it's just having a Like having a spirit of adventure, speaking to people who I just maybe wouldn't normally speak to and just like being actively in the city and like being aware of myself as somebody who comes from the

And just kind of just like soaking in it. Like I think often people move to a city and kind of stay in their in their bubble or where it's kind of comfortable and they know But I think just being curious about where you are is kind of the ethos that I carry. You're doing great. It took me a few years. I was actually I said to Toby who's a mutual friend of ours, you know, and he

I know how tough it is to find a community out here. It took me a year or two. So if she won wants to hook, you know, hang out and give me a call and have a coffee, talk about deft tones. He was like time and then you know and then and you sound like you've just settled into it beautifully. Um you know what is the one thing you love the most

I think nature. It's great, isn't it? It's right there. It's right there. I spend so much time in nature, going up to Big Bear. I love being like I love being in the water, I'm a water baby. I feel like that's something that But there is actually a lot of space to be. It's such a spoiled brat. It is such a spoiled brat. Like if you look at cities as Punch.

California is a spoiled brat.'Cause it's got everything. Everything. It's like I've got the mountains, I've got the snow, I've got the c the coast. My daddy's better than all your daddies. That's California. Which is beautiful. It's kind of it's got a beautiful naivety to it in that regard, you know. Um and I agree with you. I love I love being very close to something that I don't understand. Yeah, exactly. It makes you feel small in the Yeah.

Who else did you work with on this record apart from Carter and Rome? Um I worked with Buddy Ross, I worked with Ariel Reckshide, I worked with Amazing. I worked with Bird. I worked I did some of it myself as well. Yeah, and let's talk about that side of it. Um, you know, I know you make your own music and I know that you produce yourself and ultimately you co-produce everything even if you're working with other people. So when you're on your own.

Would you personally like to make an entire project on your own in the future? No, no, no. No. No, I'm a very like I need people. Like when I spent two Ooh, yeah, this is not for me. I think what I enjoyed about kind of demoing alone. Like that's where I am, I'm most courageous, because no one's watching and I can make mistakes and I can kind of fumble around and you know I was I made a few of the songs on tour. Um one of the songs called Dog Rose I made.

And it's just to kind of bottle the lightning, honestly. It's like it will strike me and I just have to gotta get it done. I have to get it done. I have to sketch it out, otherwise I'll forget. So it's more out of necessity rather than the desire to work in room three oh six in a Marriott in Toronto. We've all stayed in room we've all stayed in room three oh six, Allo. It's it's a rough day.

Um, you got a chance to do some really amazing shows and be and and see stages that people dream of seeing. Um, you know, going into environments. I feel like it's a little bit more than a little bit Just seeing even just seeing somebody seeing his show like after I played, seeing his show, seeing the way that he commands that stage, seeing like just feeling that energy and being like a small part of such a like mass

machine and and just being like a student. You know, I've never I had never been in a state Not even as a as a printer or paying.

So your first stadium your first stadium was you. Yeah, and the last and the last time I played that city was like in a pub that like smelt horrible and there were like fifty people there and it was the last show before the pandemic and and then it ended. Yeah. What I love about stadiums, I've done them a few of them DJing before sh artists and whatever, and it's like first of all, it's unless you're headlining it, and to some degree sometimes even when

You've got to acknowledge it's just not really your show the way you know it. Like for the people who are writing the shows as we know it. Yeah. Where there's a thousand people in a room. becomes something so beyond everybody who's put it together in a strange way. Yeah, it does. It does. And I think that's the that's kind of the best thing about those shows is that they do just like transform and everyone I feel like performing is definitely it's like a gift.

It's an exchange, but it is a gift. Yeah, that's right. It's right. And the stadium is like a map. Yes. Like a very large gift. Unlike unlike a personal here's a gift from me to you, shake hands or embrace and that's it, right? Exactly. It's like I remember talking to my friends when the EDM thing was out of control. Two hundred thousand people showing up at speedways, you know. for like ten hours to watch like DJs three miles off in the distance with like ice cannons and fire.

works. It's like if there was a real li living breathing dragon that would have pulled that thing out just to at the peak drop. Blah you know, like get out the dragon, it's the drop, it's Derude. And it was so crazy and I remember saying to my friend, like, Do you think anyone even knows what this music like what the names of these songs are or even half the time who's DJ? Mm-hmm. And he gave me the most withering

He gave me that look that only friends can give you sometimes, which is like, dude, that horse you're on, get off it. I know it's high, but get off it. Like everyone's here to have a good And I and I thought that was a I never forgot that because I thought, you know, we do sometimes put art on a pedestal and we expect people to feel the same. For some people Yeah.

And it can just be that. I feel like there are like a million different layers of depth at which you can enjoy a song or an experience. And if it is just an opportunity for you to like go out with your friends. And let loose and like hug each other and sing along to it. Maybe it is at times and it's not a little bit more than a It's personal expression. Yeah. So where do you get that kind of guilt free release? Hmm. Musically or just in general? In general. In general. What do I do?

I feel honestly I get it a lot. Like I'll just like run. I'll run runner. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a runner. And I feel like I get my release in anything that's like physical. That and also cooking actually. Yeah.'Cause that feels like a meditation where you're in motion and then It's the thing that drives me crazy. Like like I You can't flow or you can't cook? I can flow. There's hope for me. There's hope. But me in the kitchen is a bad day because I I I find flow in the time.

So I I start running out of it and I start not knowing what to do flow and then everything burns and everything burns disaster. Yeah. No, it is it is definitely like it is all about timing. But I feel like I don't know, start small. Start with a sandwich, build up. I mean you did it in a way that only a little patronizing. Only a little bit. Only a tiny bit. In a sort of like almost a caringly patronizing way. I do, I do. Consider it patron.

I'll start small. Boil an egg. I'll boil an egg. Like scramble eggs pretty good. Yeah. Um I want to talk a little bit about the album. I know it's Soft Machine conjures up lots of different imagery for me, um, predominantly and immediately the band. Uh so what what was it that you that

Mm. It was um this film that I watched called The Souvenir, and I wanted the title of the the record to kind of convey this sense the world through my lens and kind of that that sense of herb and flow, that sense of contrast, that a lot of Feeling deeply and surrendering to that feeling or kind of closing up and then.

And I think even in terms of the instrumentation there are moments that are a little bit more abrasive and energized and there are moments that are more kind of soft and hypnotic and I heard some edge. I mean, I don't want to give too much away, but I mean, obviously, you know, I heard a couple of songs a little while back, and there was definitely um, and by edge. Like some of the musicality in there and some of the performance in there.

Mm. Definitely. And I think honestly that just came And also feeling like I was able to kind of probe Musical taste. That's something I want to talk a bit about because I feel like you came up with such a uh distinctive voice in an area that people were drawn to and it was unique. Poetic thought, malady, soul.

It was Saul Williams, it was this all this beautiful thing wrapped up. This is just my observations. In a way, we all did you a disservice because we were like, well, that's Arlo. Right. And then they're like arguably my favorite rock band of all time. And I said, Man, this is rough. Like I hear almost chino melodies in there and And I want to explore your own.

before by not asking those questions or I didn't. I feel like yeah, my taste I guess would be maybe surprising to some people. Like I listen to mainly ambient music at the moment'cause it's Um, but listening to a lot of like Duval Timothy and Brian Eno and also a lot of dance music. Over mono. A lot of rock music. I love White Pony so dearly. And I saw Deftones play at this like a thousand cap venue. Oh two can.

Uh in North London. When was that? Like a few months ago. The day that I finished the song Wow That seems like it's in that. Scorched that room. I mean I've seen him crowd surf from the front to the Get a pint of beer. This is a true story. Get a pint of beer and then jump up on everyone's shoulders and crash.

To be fair, a decent amount of the beer still in the pint glass. Wow. And then smash the beer and keep saying I mean this was younger Chino who probably like, don't tell their story, bro. But like they are to me. Is so emotional, and I think I kind of wanted to just tap into that that sense of like abandon. That sense of. I think the first record there was a little bit.

I was listening to that and I was listening to like MBV and that song Who Sees You? And I was like, How how that makes me feel how did they make it so soft? I know. And yet it's just like it's like intense, but it's so So ethereal. That to me is the magic act of what Kevin Shields achieved, is the ability.

wall in front of you. Yeah. And yet I'm not scared by it. Yeah. It doesn't intimidate me. It's so Trent does that as well. And it's so delic how is it so delicate? Yeah, Trent resin is a master of that. Oh hard. And at the end, you almost like, thank you. Thank you. Like I needed that. Like it's amazing. Things like Nils Frame and Max Richter, a lot of solo piano, a lot of what Fred You know? Um the idea of drones.

Bryanino and things like that. Um, how does that where does that take you and how how do you use that in your life? I feel like Well, in the music, I feel like my my kind of ambient music taste kind of would like veer more towards like there's this record That's wonderful. Uh there's this How do you spell my tie, do you know? Um Then there's this record. La plantine and then I listened to this NTS thing which was this kind of more like doom.

What does turn me music? I don't know, it's like it's like imagine like my bloody Valentine, but like just very like muffled. Wow. And it's like So suspenseful. Yeah, it's it's suspenseful and it's just like this. really good. See simmering and suspense aren't two things I've ever leaned into in my music. The only suspense I've ever really embraced is the hard dynamic of a soft part and hard part. Right. So I know.

Oh, it's gonna get hard again. Boom! You know, and that I'm into. But I've never, I'd be interested to know how I feel if I really. I like that though. I like it when there's this tension that gets And then it drops you. You know? And then it just drops you. Have you seen Tar, the movie? I have. What'd you do? I really liked it. Talk about tense. It was so I was so stressed. Stressful. From Like I fa I like had to like unclench my fit. I realised I had to watch that in a preview.

Amazing. That was amazing. About the film. Okay. Like it's taken me ten years to watch true detective. Everyone's like you've gotta watch true detective. I'm like listen isolation like lonely car. Kids getting murdered. This is not my jam. This is not the one. This is not my jam. This is not the one. Um anyway, I guess I've matured somewhat when my in terms of my ability to absorb anxiety because I watched Tar and I loved it. But I just found the whole thing so unbearable.

and stressful because it's like watching someone's life unravel so slowly. That's the problem. It's like the slow, slow unravel. The long, slow goodbye, man. Oh my god. It is always really. as well and see someone kind of like slowly'cause they're not like hurtling towards their demise. It's just like a slow walking almost.

Don't go, don't go down that and literally within five minutes, you're like, Oh, that's not good. It takes three and a half hours to just be like, oh my gosh. She's amazing though. I really feel like you are somebody I don't know if this will land and you'll understand where I'm coming from, but your willingness to be curious and to learn and your ability to absorb that and translate it goes beyond music. I wonder whether or not the there are Perhaps in front of the camera.

Definitely. You know, I would love one. And I would also love to write a script. Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. I mean I think you'd be an incredible actor, but I I think you'd write something remarkable. There are moments where I've like kind of started brainstorming bits and pieces, and I guess the one thing is that with

and do it for a long time. I don't know how people do it. I know. And I have to be like in a certain I think maybe a less like frenetic like time in my life. Yeah. When I'm like in Calm down. Calm down. Some of us are already there, mate. Some are down. Don't put your dream your dreams are not my problem. I think it's something cool to look forward to and it I the idea of you being able to pick anywhere in the world. This is the artist's life.

inspiring like you for anyone who's one looking for inspiration is that the reason for the The reason for the hard work, the reason for the for embracing all of the unknowns is that if you can get yourself to a place where, as you've done, you understand Then really there is no box. And you can choose at any given time to go to an

And that's your life. Exactly. That is my life. And it and it's so exciting to know that. I think it's so exciting as well to know that there are so many people out there as well who do money. different phases of their life and kind of creative flow and who might just maybe take three years. going back to school and and studying architecture, whatever it might be, and having that freedom is really exciting'cause I feel like I can kind of go anywhere.

The incredible Allah Pox, a brand new album, is on We squeezed as much juice out of that as we possibly could, but of course you gotta wait for the album to come. In the meantime, lots of great live talk, lots of subjects covered. Unexpected talking points and I hope you enjoyed it. conversation right here on the interview series.