Arlo Parks

00:00:15 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Singer songwriter Arlo Parks is a compelling new voice in music. Born in London, the twenty two year old snagged the Best New Artist trophy at the brit Awards in twenty twenty one, in part because of her breakout single Eugene, about an unrequited crush. Arlow songwriting is a vivid exploration of the euphoria and heartbreak that comes with being young and in love. She pulls inspiration from a diverse pallette of music, including Ethiopian folk, Radiohead, and Diggible Planets. She's found a way to expertly weave all of those influences into her work. This month, Arlo Parks will release her sophomore record called My Soft Machine. She collaborated with producers who worked with Brockhampton, Scissa and Frank Ocean, and even produced some of it herself. The album unpacks the anxiety of feeling lost in your twenties and navigating the uncertainty of life with grace. On this week's episode, I talked with Arlow about how seeing black creators pushing the boundaries of popular music inspires her. She also explains how taking long drives around La shaped the sound of her new album and how she first started writing songs at just seven years old. Plus, we'll hear Arlow play three of her songs live from the Village Studios in Los Angeles. This is broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. Before we jump into my conversation with Arlo Parks, let's hear a live acoustic performance of her new song Impurities My Chustice Barson like a blue bacage love like Julie, I've been not She touched my life to make sure I'm still there. Already like a star like a star, already like a star, like a star. Already like a star, like a star. When you in brace so my impurity, When you embrace so my impurity, When you in brace so my impurities, and I feel clean. Ah, but you thought me BN was so intense that it was physical. You're the rainboy in my sob you notice beauty more forms than most, already like a star like a star, already like a star, like a star, Already like a star like a star. Find you in brace so my impuities, find you in brace so my impuity, find you in brace so my impurities enough feel clean don't hide the bruise when you know what you made. Don't hide the bruise when you know what you may, don't hide the bruise. I know it's hard to be like sometimes already like a star, like a star. Already like a star, like a star, already a star like a start. Find you in brace, So my imperity find you in brace, So my imperity find you embrace, So my impuities enough you clean impurity. I've like listened to it, like it's a song that I find like I repeat like three or four times when I'm listening because it's such like a feeling of just like elation and freedom and that emotion really is so in that song that I just usually play it a few times because I'm like, I love that feeling, Like if I could bottle that, Yeah, And that's exactly how it feels to me. Like I wanted to capture that feeling of like either you're coming back from an out, you're coming back from the beach with people that you feel completely safe with and the sun is setting and everyone's just kind of quite serene, yeah, and like a few people are dozing off, and like everyone is just content and That's exactly what I wanted. Those moments. Man, if you could just like freeze somewhere, it's like everything is like perfect. Yeah, and they're always like moments of quiet or something for like a big thing or a little whatever. It's just like it was just like whoa, Like life couldn't get better than this moment piece, right piece. And I think the biggest thing that is like hard about being human is that those moments do end. But that shouldn't be a reason to like not let them be, you know. Yeah. I think a lot of it is just accepting that even the most beautiful moments, i'm the most painful ones, like at some point they will end. It's all transient, it really is. Yeah. I had no conception really how old you were beyond just knowing, like when I first heard your music, which I guess was twenty eighteen, Yeah, but I was like WHOA, Like I was seventeen then? Yeah, I literally was seventeen. I mean, not a stereotype what the young people make. But it sounds very mature, you know. I think we formed. I think honestly, it's just because I spent so much of my life when I was growing up just practicing like it, just just practicing writing, practicing, like just being a student of what I was seeing around me, and like making a lot of really bad silly songs. I just, at a very early age, decided to dedicate my life to like the practice of writing and expression, not necessarily singing, but just like storytelling. And I would write every single day. So by the time I put out a song from the age of like seven or eight, I was like writing every day. And so yeah, I had a lot of experience in that way. What inspired that seven or eight, I don't know. I was just very curious and my imagination was just so like insane that I needed a place to put all of that. And I just got a lot of joy from just like making up these little like fantasy worlds, more insane than the average seven or eight year olds. I don't know, maybe not. I feel like I just had that urge to put it somewhere. I feel like a lot of people maybe would like make up little games with their friends or you know, it would stay quite contained. But I always had this urge to write things down and to document them. Was anyone in your family writing or a writer? No one. Everyone in my family is like plate engineers and lawyers and accountants, Like, no one is really remotely creative. My dad really likes jazz music and listens to a lot of music, but no one is like remotely creative in any way. Wow, if no one in your family maybe inspired you to do that where you seeing art or hearing art. I grew up with the Internet and with YouTube, and my uncle gave me a collection of records and that was like an interesting way into the world of records and world building. And he had a really interesting taste because he's French and so there was a lot of like French music, French funk, but also like l cool Ja and Tupac and like Shade Yeah, and like it was such an eclectic mix of things. And I think that started it for me because I was like maybe like nine or ten and then growing up with the Internet on YouTube, I could just go down these little rabbit holes and like see you Radiohead, performance Glass, like see people like Odd Future kind of like blossoming online and being like weird and black and like yeah crazy, you know. I was watching that rap Cava thing that Tyler creator did like Yesterday Night Beautiful, right, and it was so beautiful and I feel like I'm part of that generation because I remember seeing that, seeing the colorful clothing and like just that sense of energy and just these people being disrupts and making like weird stuff, and I was like, I can do that. I don't know if they know how important that was for so many people by that point. I was in college at that point, and I remember feeling like, oh shit, like these are my people finally, you know, like yeah, exactly, And that's always what has kind of inspired me. And I think growing up, I always did have a sense that the music that I liked was an interesting kind of pod of music, everything from ambient music to like my Bloody Valentine, and then I also really loved like Digable Planets, but I also loved like jazz music and like Ethiopian folk music. Like I just had this world of things and I was like, Okay, maybe I can distill this, Maybe I can create a kind of little collage almost of all the things that I liked, because I didn't feel like anyone else had that specific taste. I'm trying to imagine what listening to Tupac in England in your like nine or ten years old and it's like two thousand and nine ten and you're here in park, Like what was you know, I think a park. I grew about here and I was like six when it was killed, so like that's that's my memory is like it was it was a bunch of chaos and then he was killed, and it was it was like, oh, you know, it was like I was scary. I just trying to imagine when that vibe was like for you, I think for me it was, Yeah, it did feel like a world that was very alien to the one that I was living in. But I loved the fact that even though I hadn't lived any of the experiences that he was talking about, I could picture it, like it was so vivid the storytelling, and I think I've kind of carried that forward, that sense of like the spoken word and feeling like someone is telling you their truth, and that sense of rhythm and also just how that can kind of really bring communities together and move people. And yeah, I think I was just moved by the way that he painted these really vivid scenes of a place that was so far away from where I was as a kid. Yeah, there is a lot of that in your songwriting, Like I know you're gonna play Eugene for us. That's the song in particular that when I hear I'm like, oh man, that's like that's really laying it out there, Like definitely, definitely that song is like I feel like it's the first time that I was really kind of like stripping myself back in that way. But I think that the way that the song kind of travel in the world and the kind of queer experience that it captured, I think it's kind of like what you were saying before, where I felt like it was an experience that only I had gone through, and then when I put it out into the world, people were just like holding up mirrors to themselves and being like, wow, I this is what I lived, whether it was twenty years ago, well, this is what I'm in now. So I think that fair kind of melted away once I just started getting a reaction from people. But yeah, it's scary. It's always scary. It always feels very i don't know, just exposing, but I'm kind of used to it now because I'm doing it all the time being out here. When I knew what we're going to do this, I was like, man, I should think like why, Like, what is it that attracted me to your music. I think there's a lot of things, but one of the main things was I realized was the writing. You know, people who are like songwriters, it can be obtuse and that can be cool, but it's like and there's some mystery, I think what you're writing, but there's also like some of it's really evocative, you know, like just even like on your first song, like your Coca cola eyes. You know, I think I've thought about that phrase meaning three different things since the first time I've heard it. You know, the first time I heard it, I interpreted that one way was very vivid. It made me think of like a Coca cola bottle and like being like this person's like wide eyed. And then I was like, oh, it's like a person on cocaine. But it's such an evocative line. And even um your new song Impurities, there's there's some invocative stuff in there too. And the way you reference people like I love it. I can't stop myself. I love when you reference people, you know, Gerard Ray, Claire Dane's Juliette. But it's like, oh wow, I don't know why I have the instinct to do that. I think when it comes to my taste in writing, it's something that I really can't explain, Like I guess it is just a mixture of my favorite writers and my favorite influences. I think a lot of it is just like a love of a film. When did you start loving film? I think, honestly, it was a little bit later in my life, I mean my short life, so probably when I was like in my late teens, I really started like throwing myself into film, especially like international film, like I never really explored like Brazilian film, an Iranian film, and just actually really spreading out into different cultures in the way that they approach storytelling. And I think that really blured into the work because there was a sense of wanting to paint these scenes as they were unfolding in front of my eyes, and picking out these specific details. And you know, the people who are listening to my music aren't like living my life, and maybe they weren't there, but there is something about like detailing like the eyelash on somebody's cheek, or like what exact song was playing on the CD when this happened, and the exact tone of brown of the floor, like I really love that sense of detail, and I think that happens so naturally the details, little details really create like a point, like the for me as a listener, to really all of a sudden be transported, you know, like yeah, it does like the hard work of getting me in, and then like all the other things that are maybe a little more open for interpretation or whatever can kind of like now I'm like in a frame of mind where I can really interpret those things in an interesting way. You know, when you say, like Claire Danes and it's like you're automatically like I know, I just it's like a shortcut. It's like I know what you're saying, like yeah, shorthand for like this feeling. You know. I think it's interesting to have also that balance right between those really clear anchors that are so specific and can't really be interpreted in any other way, and then parts of it that feel more fluid and that are just open. And it's like, you know, when you embrace my impurities and I feel clean again, like there's maybe a more obvious way to interpret that, but then it can like blossom into a million different ways of thinking. And I think I like having that balance because I think being specific as well makes it feel like it's something that you know, I really lived and it is so yeah. Yeah, that idea of like the personal being general too. We all feel like our experiences are so personal to us, but you know, human experience is some degree limited, so like much of what we go through a lot of other people have gone through just another variation. You know. It's the idea of like the personal sort of being the more specific and the more snow you can get, actually, the more kind of brad a pure You're opening up exactly exactly. And I feel like the songs that have moved me and like moved the world in in the biggest sense are the ones that feel like they were written just for you. And everyone feels that way, you know, which is kind of impossible, but that's how I feel. I was thinking about, like Coach is coming up. I remember seeing Radiohead there back. Oh that's so funny is that I was literally gonna be like Radiohead? Were you thinking of Radiohead? Radiohead? I mean, I just love Radiohead, so I'm always thinking about Radiohead. But yeah, when did you When did you get onto Radiohead? Probably when I was about seventeen, and I just fell completely in love. I feel like it really informed those first few songs that I was doing those first few EPs, because I was listening to songs like House of Cards and Weird Fishes and Videotape and just like the warmth and the texture, I was like, how did they make instruments sound like that? There is this sense of minimalism, but everything is so intentional. Yeah, and then I kind of like blossomed into like kid A and listening to I'm Easy, I can thinking about the Morse Electronic Elements. Honestly my favorite bound of all time. And I've never seen them live, really never. I really really need to. I saw the Smile in Copenhagen, but I haven't wanted to see them. Yeah, I wasn't. It was so good, like Johnny Greenwood like doing his guitar with a bow thing and the bows just exploding, and he looks like the same age as he always never change wizard. I love him. We have to pause for a short break, but before we go, let's hear Arlo Parks play Eugene from her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. I had a dream we kissed and this is all and of your eyes was fine. You hung a cigarette right between your popple. We've been by birds since they I hold your hiberg when you're Twoing, I hold the tackled bout and you cry over you cheek. He was me, He was me, but high and not being a little bit often last my mistake. I kind of fell half in love, and you're to blame. I guess I just forgot that weeping mate since day cad don't know what to say, and now I've been a little bit often. That's my mistake. I kind of fell half in love, and you are to blame. I guess I just forgot that we've been made since day you done not to say. Seeing you with him burns. I feel it deep in my throat. You put your hand in his shot, you play him records, I should you eat him? Silly play? I thought that that was often? You know, I like you, like that. I hate that sun over. We've been bys buds since their teeth, But that don't change the things. I oh when I see smiled your teeth, that you cheat here I could do, but hi, and now I've been a little bit often. That's my Mistakeing, I kind of fell half in love and your to blame. I guess I just forgot that Weeping May since day. You don't know what to say, hey, and now I've been a little bit often that's my mistake. I kind of fell half in love and your to blame. I guess I just forgot the Weeping Maid since day. Yeah done. Not to say. We're back with more of my conversation with Arlo Parks. What was the first music that felt like your own? Music that like you kind of discovered and felt like this is That's interesting. I think I think the first people that I really clung onto were actually like sing a songwriter, like listening to like Carry and Law by Sophie and Stevens, listening to Either Or by Elliott Smith, listening to Blue by Joanie, Like just these really kind of like emotional especially when you're like fifteen and you're like going through it or for the first times exactly big emotions, Like everything felt on like such a massive scale, even if in the ground scheme of things, it's like a tiny minor inconvenience, And I feel like I really aligned with that, and I think that's something I've always kind of taken with me, that sense of being really like emotional and like you know, open heart surgery. Those lyrics always come from this really deep place and it's everything is kind of overflowing and brimming. And I think I've always taken that element into my music and then maybe moved away from it sonically, but always having that thread through like how I write, meaning like you feel like the songs as you write them end up sounding very different from what the record sounds like. Yeah, no, I mean, I mean more than when listening to people like Elliott Smith or Joanie I try and kind of carry that essence in terms of how they write, but the actual kind of sonic world always like moves in a million different directions. At you got you. That's really interesting. Also interesting that those are two LA transplants. Yeah, that is true actually, which I guess you've just recently moved to LA. Yeah, no, I have. And there is something about like reading like Joan Didion when you're in California, like how you know, just everything aligns. I'm from California, but still it's like reading Joan Didion in California or listening to a Johnny Mitchell. Start listening as I'm driving, you know, I have to anytime I drive like up Laurel Canyon. I'm like, I gotta think about Joany and think about you know, the mamas and the papas or something like. It's that effect. Even though I've lived jim all like it's never gone away, Like this is a magical place still, you know. I agree. Was a lot of your writing for your new record done here or was it? Yeah? I mean that's kind of how I really got to start knowing LA. I was coming back and forth for sessions, so in London, I was working with Paul Atworth, who's like one of my oldest collaborators. But in LA I kind of started building this little community out of people who I really loved and trusted for the second record, and I started just having so much fun with my music. Like I just felt infused with this new energy when I was here and just driving around and like going to the beach, going to Big Bear, making weird little bands with my friends for the day and just like really enjoying the process of making my second record. I suddenly felt like LA was an adventure that I needed to have, and I kind of made the leap quite randomly. And I feel so happy here. I feel so at home. Did you like set out to move here or was it just sort of what happened like gradually, Yeah, I just realized. I was like, I'm here all the time, but I still tell everyone that I absolutely don't live here, So maybe I should just yeah, how did you find your community here? I feel like that's something that people's oftentimes say that they struggle with. Yeah, I mean, I guess I have an easy route in in terms of music and just being a fan of music before anything. And for example, like with Ramel from Rockhampton, just loved his production and I loved all the references that I had kind of seen him pull from, and I knew he loved the Beatles, and I knew he loved like the Neptunes and pop music but also like folksy music, Like he just had this really intense love of music, and I could tell, and so I just said, like, do you want to just get in the studio, And the first day we met, we made impurities and I could kind of feel that we had this synergy and it kind of just branched off from that. Like the same with Buddy, Like his chords on all the Franco and stuff are absolutely beautiful, and I was like, hey, like I'm here, now do you want to do something? And it happened like that, just so organically. Wow. So Impurities was the first session. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Can you walk me through the creation. It's funny because with Roumelle, we always kind of make We always hang out and then like make music in the background almost. So we were just chatting for like five hours, driving around getting coffee, like listening to Jay Paul, and then he kind of pulled up this little sample and I was like, oh, I like that, and I sang over it and everything just kind of came out and then we just went back to hanging out like it was just this like our little pool of magic. And I think I always know when I can really trust somebody, like the first session, if something that profound comes out, it means that we do have a genuine bond because it does take a lot of vulnerability and trust and kind of allow someone to witness you in that like very soft and inward space. So I knew immediately that, yeah, we were going to make music together for a long time. When you heard that sample and you started singing over it, were you singing the words as they turned out to be on the record or were you just so I sang. It always happens where I hear, I hear the chord or the sample or whatever, and then a melody will come to me and I'll kind of voice note what I hear, put it into sections, like structure it out a bit in my mind. And then I have my notebook, which is just like a collection of phrases and text and references and just things that I want to say, and then my heart just gets drawn to whatever's on that page. I'm like, okay, like I just had written down something like impurities, clean like escalade, laugh like Juliote, but like all of these little notes and then they just kind of the fragments form this whole that's beautiful. So so just so I understand. So you'll kind of structure out just like a melody, so not even necessarily words could be just scatting or whatever like or whatever you know, like, but you come up with what you feel like the verse if there's a bridge bridge of course, So it's almost like then you find what in your writing in your book connects to what song exactly exactly. And I think it didn't always happen that way around. But just with this record, I started finding this almost like I know, it felt cosmic the way that melodies were coming to me, and it always came first, so I kind of started like weaving the words into what I had melodically to create a story. Did you do as much driving home in London? Because I learned to drive here, so it has driving impacted so much because you're saying that you were driving around five hours talking and then it sort of yeah, like there was when I think about it, a lot of this record came to life in cars because there's a song on the record called Devotion, which is kind of inspired well, the name was inspired by the Mary Oliver collection of poems, but the actual music was like smashing pumpkins, like Yollo Tango, Deaf Tones, my Bloody round Time, Like I wanted to create something heavier, but I was going in and like, but then we were also listening to Seventeen Days by Prince and I just loved the like drama of it, and I was like, I want to create something that's like so dramatically romantic with the backdrop of like these heavy smashing guitars, and we were just driving around and it just all came together and that's what we made. Ten date that's the greatest. That's I mean, there's it's so hard to pick up, but some of the days it's consistently I think the greatest Prince song on my mid so special, So special. I just love the groove he gets locked in. Have you heard the demo version that he has on piano? No, it's online and it's amazing, Like he's just like ripping the piano. I gotta hear that. I love that. It's interesting too, though, Like it doesn't sound like this record is not necessarily like a dramatic departure, Like it feels like distinctly its own thing. It feels separate from the first album, but it doesn't feel like, oh, like clearly this was the first album written in the UK, different thing, and like this is like, oh, this is an LA you know, the second album LA album. Like there's a lot of continuity between the two, and it's like all the things that I feel like I love from the first carry over. Yeah. I think I wanted I definitely wanted to have that blank slate approach, but then also still recognize the fact that there are things about me that I do want to keep as a threat in terms of the way that I speak, in the way that I kind of choose to tell stories about love or loss, but I did instrumentally. Just want to have complete free reign and you know, be able to really put more of my references into the music, Like I feel like people don't really know how much I love like IDM music, how much I love AVX Winn and Balls of Canada and ambient music, or you know, putting more moments of like ESG and like Zamie and funk and the music that I really connect to. I think the first record had more of a sense of quite minimal warmth, and this one is more of a journey kind of through everything that moves me and that I love. We need to take another quick break, but before that, let's hear Allo Parks perform an acoustic version of her new song Blades. I'm exhausted What you like claddains through the water catching lie like Blades, Three Boys, the parties of place we grouve part when you will fight it with your sister, don't think her realize how horribly I miss you. Who cried is flowing inside me? Help you know that I I just don't to want to do because I only want to be. I remember the something strangely a mountain in a friendship with a true Mandy. I want in your talking for hours on my graffle, fucking to boxes, linking pinki's wearing my chim pulse and now I'm struggling, I'm choking. Well good, okay, know that I I just don't want to do because I only want to beating you. I just miss your voice. Side wear right, call it when you're lonely like a NIGHTCUSI on he want to being, so I make my way over us the white Lightning sixers and you with ahmad plumb reslax and tequila phraser and you love the same hand on mouth because you hate your teeth and I love your teeth and I'm scared to speak. I I just gonna work to do becauss I all he want to be by. I just miss you for sid be right, cool it when you lonely like a night Cussians. We're back with the rest of my conversation with Arlo Parks, who tells us about the inspiration behind her new song Blades that she just performs live before the break tell me about making blades. So I made that song with Paul at Worth at Church Studios in Crutchen in London, and I feel like when I make music with Paul, there is just this real playfulness, Like I feel like we're just two kids running around banging on things and we just come up with beautiful music and neither of us really know how, because we were just in a few state all day. And this one came during what I call the Magic Week, which is where we got three songs and like four or five days with the record, and I just wanted to create something that felt euphoric, like this sense of freedom and this sense of like bitter sweetness and having that balance between light and shade that I feel kind of colors the record. And we were listening to a lot of ESG and like weird deep cuts that I found like on NTS radio, and he just started playing drums and I was like, hmm, what's that And he was like, oh, I got this new sampler and he just started playing that sample and then I started singing and then the rest is a blur. He knows, he knows what happened, but it was magic. What about like that? I'm a spoken word bridge. Honestly, I feel like I include those moments because there's so much more than I want to say that doesn't fit into the melody. It's just too much to say. So I'm just like, Okay, I'll pass off this little chunk work and just continue the story. And I wanted it to almost sound like a stream of consciousness, like an inner monologue where you see someone across the room and you're kind of like, oh, I can see them laughing, and they're covering their hand with their teeth. Oh, I remember how much she said she hated her teeth. Oh, she wearing the same perfume. Like that kind of inner rambling and then opening up into this like sentiment coming back to again and again that you can't live without this person? Would you mind reciting that little boy? Yeah? So I make my way over as the white lightning zig zags, and you're with Ahmed plumb red slacks and tequila fraser and you laugh the same hand on mouth because you hate your teeth, but I love your teeth, and I'm scared to speak as I catch a with a eurose dipteeth. So cool. How much of the specifics in that, like the name, particularly, like does that come from real life or like, are you writing about real people? I'm writing about real people, but I often don't use real names because I'm scared. I was talking about this with my friend Rommy from the XX. We were talking about it, and I was thinking, I was like, well, when that person comes to my show, like, I don't want them to know how much they hurt me, Like I don't want them to be able to recognize themselves and the music. But I feel like with this record, I just kind of let go of that fear because you do have to be real, and I feel like when you bend reality too much, it doesn't feel like a release to talk about it, So you just kind of have to be unfiltered as much as possible. What is that the reality of that? Though? So for your art, you feel like you have to for the sake of creating something real, You feel like you really have to throw your whole self into it, including the people around you, like your real life experiences. And does the reality of that ever like sort of settle in where you're like, damn, like, oh, I'm gonna feel a little open now, you know. Definitely, Definitely. I think when I write the song, I'm always like, ah, that exactly captured how I felt. And then I start to realize that it's not just for me and my three friends, and then it's going to go on to the Internet and everyone be able to know. But at the same time, when I think about like my favorite songs, I think about say Yes by Eliot Smith or like Biscuit by Poulter's Head or whatever it might be, and there is this sense of someone being open completely. Yeah, that's why it moves me, Like, that's why I feel like it just gets me because that person has just been fearless with how open they've been. Yeah, that's a really advanced place to be where you can be that that open, you know, that honest with yourself, even just with yourself or you know the people around you. It's hard, you know. And I think it's interesting because when a lot of people tell their stories, I feel that there is that sense of kind of wanting to be the hero of a situation. I think it can be difficult to be like, actually I was wrong on this. Actually I was being jealous, or I was bitter, or I was being petty, you know, like being able to actually show the experience as three dimensional. I feel like that does take a lot of honesty, but at the same time, it feels so much more human when you hear that kind of song. Yeah, it's also like I think back to being twenty two and just like the ripples through your sort of social life that can because I like saying one cross thing or you know, one thing the wrong way or you know, it's just like, oh man, you know, yeah, it's just a scary thing. Yeah, it is scary, But at the same time, I don't know, I feel like when I have that little kind of nudge of fear, internally, I'm like, Okay, I'm like preaching new ground here. It feels scary, but that means I'm doing something that is beyond what I did before. How do you balance moving to new place like la, writing a record, touring, like just like the responsibilities that come with being a working artist, the press stuff like today, you know, having to come do this. I feel like I am someone who thrives in like how urgent this lifestyle is. Like I feel like I find it really hard to slow down, and that's something I actually have to practice because I'm working every day pretty much and I feel like I have to kind of really work at resting because I know that I'm always like moving and have quite like a frenetic energy. So I really want to do things that are like active rest, whether it's like cooking or going for walks or stepping outside of things. But I think because I love what I do so much and it kind of just soaks into everything that I do, I find it hard to kind of step away and find balance. And I think there are some things about being an artist that I really love and things that I feel find a little bit more challenging. I think I love being in the studio and being around people and collaborating and you know, being a creative soul because that's what I am. But I think sometimes having to explain the music coming to kind of break down my identity and why I made certain creative choices and who I am, I think that can be a little bit more tricky for me. And just to be perceived like that, like I just want to be a little permit. You only want to be able to kind of like put it out, Yeah, exactly exactly, That's what I want. That's my dream. Maybe that can happen. I feel like, you know, there's been artists over time, some of my favorite artists, like I mean Prince, you know, just like I think it's interesting though, because I remember my friend Ocean was talking about this where it was like, no, no, Ocean, wrong, he's like a writer. But yeah, my friend Ocean no, um, yeah, Ocean was talking to me about the idea of prayers and I was asking if he enjoyed it, and he had a really interesting perspective on it, where he was like, Okay, it can be draining and tiring, but I like the fact that I'm given the opportunity to kind of set up the context for what I did and what I meant, rather than have someone come in and do it for me if I'm silent and I don't explain it at all. And I was like, I do actually like the idea of being able to stay what I wanted to do with my work, what I'm talking about, rather than having somebody come in and maybe just take things the wrong way or twist things or explain it in a way that I don't like. So I'd rather be there saying it. I guess that's a fair point. You're not allowing other people to sort of make determinations for you. Yeah, exactly, it's frustrating as setting the records, having to do it or needing to do it. You're like an indie artist from the UK. Now you're like, do you find that the pressures of the industry can be like a little stronger or the currents can be a little stronger here? Then, I don't know. I feel like I'm quite good at just creating a little island of people around me, and I don't really know what's going on outside of that. I think, you know, obviously there's always a sense of pressure, but I kind of like the fact that I'm in this kind of new space that I'm navigating. I don't really have that much awareness of like whether it's like certain clicks or like how people work, or like what's the right thing to do or cloud or whatever. I just don't really know what's going on. So I'm just in my own little way moving through the city, and I just feel like I've been lucky, Like I've just found a lot of good people, I think, who even if I do feel that sense of pressure, I can talk to and like feel accepted by and we can just sit down and have a coffee and if I do feel like I'm under pressure, i'm burning out, Like there are a lot of people that are here to listen, and I know not everyone has that, So yeah, I'm happy. Do you find your parents kind of understand what you're doing over time, because it's been like five years now. Over time, I've managed to kind of try and explain the framework of what it is that I'm doing, but it's so hard to understand it from the outside, like even the idea of a photo shoot or traveling or all of these things. Like it's really difficult to explain what it is that I do all day, Like I just like talk and sing and like fly around, and you know, it's just like really hard to explain it unless you're doing it. And I think that's why it's good to have people who are both outside of the world completely where you can just hang out with them and they just don't really know what's going on and you can just be And then also having friends who are kind of embedded in that same world and you can understand each other. That seems pretty healthy. So you can get the kind of the perspective moral support from the people who know what you're going through day to day, but people are just like humbling, yeah, okay, well, yeah, that's great. How do your parents like, do you do you is there a line are they allowed to talk to you about like you know, you meet like or do you kind of just like it is what it is and I think it, Yeah, it kind of just is what it is. I feel like they just have this really strong understanding of the fact that like, yeah, I just kind of like write about what I need to get out and I show them the music and stuff and they're fans of it. But there is that like healthy boundary if they just kind of like let me say what I need to say without asking too many questions or being too involved exactly exactly. That's great. Well, thanks so much for playing and for talking. Yeah, for playing and talking in dissecting your music, of course that's having me. Thanks to Arlo Parks for talking through the inspiration for her new album, My Soft Machine. You can hear all of our favorite Arlo Park songs on a playlist at broken record podcast dot com. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash broken record Podcast, where you can find all of our new episodes. Broken Record is produced with help from Leah Rose, Jason Gambrell, Ben Taliday, Nisha Vencut, Jordan McMillan, and Eric Sandler. Our editor is Sophie Crane. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus. 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