CMU Approved

Approved: Tess Parks

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 10 March 2022

In recent years, Tess Parks has toured and released two albums in collaboration with Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe. Now she’s preparing to release her first solo album since ‘Blood Hot’ in 2013, ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’. The latest of those preparations comes in the form of new single ‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’.

On it, a hypnotic, looping psych-pop groove, offset by wailing guitar, underpins Parks’ spoken word delivery. Alongside the warped pop of previous single ‘Happy Birthday Forever’, it begins to build a picture of an intriguing album.

“In my mind, this album is like hopscotch”, she says. “These songs were pieced together over time in London, Toronto and Los Angeles with friends and family between August 2019 and March 2021. So many other versions of these songs exist. The recording and final completion of this album took over two years and wow – the lesson I have learned the most is that words are spells. If I didn’t know it before, I know it now for sure. I only want to put good out into the universe”.

On ‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’, she adds: “We were recording at Rian [O’Grady]’s house and the guys started playing this music which had Francesco [Perini]’s Ray Mananzarek Doors’ sensibilities and Mike [Sutton]’s Neil Young-esque guitar, and then I started reading this poem I had written which pieces together definitions of words I found interesting and had written down. The title is thanks to Ruari [Meehan] who kept saying this over and over and we all thought it was the best thing we ever heard”.

‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ is set for release on 20 May. Watch the video for ‘Brexit At Tiffany’s’ here:

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