Deeply candid, most of the lyrics came from poems that she wrote in her bedroom to help her make sense of the person she was becoming. Parks was still just a teenager when she released her debut EP, Super Sad Generation, in 2019. I go for little walks to get a coffee and I try to spend as much time in nature as possible, even if it’s just sitting in the park.’ ‘I work out almost every day, which I find super grounding: sometimes I’ll be in the venue doing it with my guitars, and we have battle ropes and weights on the bus. ‘When I’m on tour, I spend a lot of time reading,’ she says. When the shows resumed, she made sure to prioritise her mental wellbeing. ‘I don’t take decisions like this lightly,’ Parks shared in a note on Instagram, ‘but I am broken and I really need to step out, go home and take care of myself.’ Having toured Europe and the US extensively, in September she cancelled a run of American dates, citing mental-health concerns. ‘I was giggling the whole time,’ says Parks, though her schedule ultimately took its toll. She left the Eilish show to return to Glastonbury and perform two more sets as a guest with her friends Phoebe Bridgers and Lorde. I felt like a student watching that show.’ ‘It was incredible – her command of those stages is unparalleled. There was little time to take it all in: she left straight away to play a set at Glastonbury, before travelling to London to support Billie Eilish (who has described Parks as one of her favourite artists). Last summer, she supported Harry Styles in Dublin, which was the first time she’d set foot inside a stadium, let alone played in one. Her career has escalated in the years since the Great Pause, in tandem with the world’s re-awakening. She says the experience of sitting front-row at SS Daley, Ahluwalia and JW Anderson felt worlds away from 2020, when she virtually attended her first shows at Valentino and Dior during lockdown. Parks is speaking to me from Paris, where she’s just flown to attend the Acne Studios show – her last of a packed fashion month. It wasn’t even something I was secretly crossing my fingers for – it was a complete surprise.’ ‘The highest honour you can receive as a musician is to be nominated for a Grammy,’ she says. And she was nominated for two Grammy awards: Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album for 2021’s Collapsed in Sunbeams. A native Londoner, she moved from Hammersmith to LA. It had been a landmark 12 months in myriad ways. Towards the end of last year, Parks celebrated her one-year anniversary with her partner and fellow musician, Ashnikko. It’s about light and shade: you grow together, while allowing each other the freedom to be their own person, to have their own dreams.’ It’s moving through life with somebody and feeling understood by them. ‘I want someone in their sixties to listen and think, “Oh my god, I remember the first girl I fell in love with!”’) But it’s also in her voice today – softly-spoken but assured – as she contemplates what love means. (‘I really wanted to hold up a mirror to people,’ she says. You can hear it in the gentle juxtaposition of sultry, daydreamy pop and unexpected rock-infused moments that permeate her second album, My Soft Machine.
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