Arlo Parks

photo credit: Alexandra Waespi

Arlo Parks Releases New Song “Caroline”

Debut Album Colapsed In Sunbeams Out January 29th Via Transgressive Arlo Parks released new single “Caroline” alongside a lyric video. The Discussing the song, Arlo offered track is another gorgeous offering from the following. “Caroline is an exercise her her highly-anticipated debut album in people watching and seeing situations Collapsed In Sunbeams - due on January unfold without context. It’s an explora29th 2021 via Transgressive Records. tion of how something once full of Premiering as Annie Mac’s ‘Hottest healthy passion can dissolve in an Record,’ “Caroline” once more offers instant.” another insight into the beguiling sound of Arlo Parks - an alternative love song “Caroline” follows “Green Eyes” laced with her trademark breathy vocals, (https://arloparks.ffm.to/greeneyes) and atop lamenting guitar licks and a the recent hit singles “Hurt” (https:// euphoric heartbroken chorus. ffm.to/arlo-parks-hurt) and “Black Dog” 34 Rock and Blues International • August 202050 Rock and Blues International • December 2020 (https://ffm.to/arlo-parks-black-dog), both of which were playlisted simultaneously on BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music A-lists and have amassed millions of streams worldwide. Arlo also recently lent her vocal to the Glass Animals single “Tangerine,” and Fraser T. Smith’s latest track “Strangers In The Night” with the pair recently performing together on Later With… Jools Holland.

2020 continues to see Arlo ascend, as she adds a starring role in the recent Gus Van Sant directed campaign for Gucci, alongside Billie Eillish, Harry Styles, Florence Welch and more, to her accumulating accolades. Recent press features have seen Arlo grace the cover of Evening Standard Magazine, Rollacoaster Magazine, NME and Dork Magazine as well as being included on the 2020 Dazed 100 List (https:// www.dazeddigital.com/projects/article/ 48866/1/arlo-parks-musician-biographydazed-100-2020-profile). Arlo was also recently named the winner of the BBC Introducing Artist Of The Year Award.

Arlo has also been named an ambassador for the British mental health charity, CALM. Whilst her songwriting has seen her gain new fans in Billie Eilish, Florence Welch, Michelle Obama, Angel Olsen, Phoebe Bridgers and Wyclef Jean, amongst many others.

This is all whilst performing standout shows for the revered COLORS and NPR’s Tiny Desk series - plus being one of only three artists to perform at Glastonbury this year.

On a personal level, Parks struggled with her identity growing up; a self-confessed tom-boy who was super sensitive and “uncool,” she says it was like “I’m a black kid who can’t dance for shit, listens to emo music and currently has a crush on some girl in my Spanish class.” By the time she reached 17, she shaved her head, figured out she was bisexual and produced/wrote an album’s worth of material.

Growing up in South West London, half Nigerian, a quarter Chadian and a quarter French, Arlo Parks learned to speak French before English. A quiet child, she’d write short stories and create fantasy worlds, later journaling and then obsessing over spoken word poetry, reading American poets such as Ginsberg and Jim Morrison and watching old Chet Baker performances on YouTube. These days she references Nayyirah Waheed,

Hanif Abdurraqib and Iain S. Thomas as her favorite modern poets, and it is clear that their works are as influential on her song-writing as any musician. Books too, such as The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Parks says, “the way Murakami writes in that book is how I aspire to write my songs; gritty and sensitive and human.”

Fela Kuti’s Water and Otis Redding’s Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay sound tracked Arlo Parks’ childhood, but it was aged around 13 that she discovered King Krule; an artist who would heavily influence the music she writes today. Later listening to more hiphop (from Kendrick Lamar, MF Doom and Earl Sweatshirt to the more confessional sounds of Loyle Carner) and rock (Jimi Hendrix, Shilpa Ray and David Bowie), as well as the subdued, pained sounds of Keaton Henson, Sufjan Stevens and Julien Baker, Parks explains, “I would write stories so detailed you could taste them, while maintaining the energy and life of the hip-hop I loved.” There’s a visual, almost cinematic quality to her writing too, which is born from her love of horror films, streetwear and abstract art.

Speaking about her debut LP, Arlo says “My album is a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding my adolescence and the people that shaped it. It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia - I want it to feel both universal and hyper specific.” Collapsed In Sunbeams will be released on January 29th 2021 on Transgressive Records. The album is available to pre-order on limited edition vinyl, CD and cassette at https:// arloparks.ffm.to/collapsedinsunbeams

Arlo Parks Collapsed In Sunbeams Transgressive January 29, 2021 Arlo’s recent UK tour announcement saw tickets sell out in under an hour. Further dates at independent records stores around the country have now been added, with Arlo’s full schedule as follows:

Upcoming Tour Dates 2021:

4/9 - Brussels, Belgium @ Le Botanique, Orangerie 4/10 - Luxembourg, Luxembourg @ Rotonde 4/12 - Hamburg, Germany @ Mojo 4/13 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Hotel Cecil 4/14 - Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Theater 4/15 - Munich, Germany @ Ampere 4/17 - Zürich, Switzerland @ Mascotte 4/18 - Milan, Italy @ Magnolia 4/20 - Lyon, France @ Ninkasi 4/22 - Barcelona, Spain @ Apolo 2 4/24 - Madrid, Spain @ Independance 4/26 - Bordeaux, France @ I.Boat 4/29 - Paris, France @ Trabendo 4/30 - Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg 5/1 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg Oude Zaal 5/2 - Cologne, Germany @ Gebäude 9 5/3 - Tourcoing, France @ Le Grand Mix – SOLD OUT 5/25 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds – SOLD OUT 5/26 - Leeds, UK @ Belgrave Music Hall – SOLD OUT 5/29 - Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms – SOLD OUT

Photo Credit Luca Pierro oto Credit Luca Pierro oto Credit Luca Pierro oto Credit Luca Pierro oto Credit Luca Pierro5/30 - Bristol, UK @ Thekla –SOLD OUT 6/2 - London, UK @ Village Underground – SOLD OUT 6/3 - London, UK @ Village Underground – SOLD OUT

“A minor key moonbeam” NPR

“Her songs are the results of an alchemy that combines shiver-inducing highs with sweet, molasses-coated lows” W Magazine

“gritty, visceral storytelling that shines through her songwriting” Pigeons & Planes 1.Collapsed In Sunbeams 2.Hurt 3.Too Good 4.Hope 5/12 - Manchester, UK @ Gorilla –SOLD OUT 5/18 - Edinburgh, UK @ Mash House – SOLD OUT “Arlo Parks gives teen angst a human face” The FADER 5.Caroline 6.Black Dog 7.Green Eyes 8.Just Go 5/19 - Glasgow, UK @ St. Lukes –SOLD OUT 5/21 - Brighton, UK @ Chalk –SOLD OUT Arlo” “Arlo Parks is sooo cool. I love Billie Eilish 9.For Violet 5/22 - Dublin, Ireland @ Whelans “She’s an incredible poet” “Caroline” - Phoebe Bridgers LISTEN: https://arloparks.ffm.to/caroline WATCH: https://youtu.be/T4kYkFRYbaU “Obsessed” Florence Welch PRE-ORDER: Collapsed In Sunbeams https://arloparks.ffm.to/collapsedinsunbeams December 2020 • Rock and Blues International 51