Never miss any of the fun stuff. Get the biggest stories and wackiest takes from the Daily Star, including our special WTF Wednesday email
Thank you for subscribing!
Never miss any of the fun stuff. Get the biggest stories and wackiest takes from the Daily Star, including our special WTF Wednesday email
We have more newsletters
Arlo Parks wants to collaborate with Frank Ocean and Burial on future tracks and has decided she's just going to "manifest it".
The 23-year-old indie songstress is soaking up the festival season after dropping her dazzling third album, My Soft Machine, back in May.
She just joined Holly Humberstone on the main stage at Reading Festival over the weekend and braved the rain for her own set at the festival.
READ MORE:The Amazons talk new album, Royal Blood collab, Maggie Rogers bond, Sigrid
Before that, she charmed Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire and Way Out West in Sweden's Gothenburg, her European tour kicking off in Dublin next month.
But it was backstage at Sziget Festival in Budapest where the Grammy-nominated singer sat down with Daily Star's Sam Huntley to chat about everything from her latest tracks to first dates and superpowers.
How are you finding Sziget?
âI feel good! We just got in yesterday from Sweden because we were playing Way Out West. Weâre coming to the tail-end of the festival season. Then when we were out there sound-checking. Itâs one of the biggest stages Iâve ever been on, probably in my life. I looked it up and the capacity is 60,000, which is pretty crazy, so Iâm excited.â
Any acts you want to catch while youâre here?
âI saw there was Baby Queen playing, Mumford and Sons are playing after me. My friend Kelly Lee Owens played last night at 3am, my friend Ella from Lorde is playing⊠all of my friends are sprinkled throughout this festival so Iâm going to try and run and hang out with everyone. I like how diverse the line-up is. Itâs cool.â
Congrats on the new album [My Soft Machine]. Thereâs a bit of rock on Devotion. Is that something you want to try more of in the future? Or any other genres that youâd like to give a go?
âYeah, I think for me it always happens quite organically. Even with Devotion, I didnât necessarily go into the album making process being like, âThis is something I want to pursue moreâ. I guess I was having a nostalgic moment in the car, almost, with my mates.
âWe were listening to like Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins and capturing that feeling and that sense of angst and distorted guitars brings such a specific kind of mood. I thought that was the only instrument that could do justice to this feeling.
âThatâs often how I go into new spaces where Iâm like, âOkay, I need to experiment or do something new and justify this new feeling,' and that happens naturally.
Would you say the way you write songs has changed in the last couple of years?
âI donât know. I think the way that I write songs has always been quite consistent, especially the lyrical side of it and the storytelling has always been something that I do in quite a solitary way, but I do think that moving to LA and working with other people and opening myself up to experimenting and to other peoplesâ wisdom and other peoplesâ processes has kind of moulded mine. But Iâm definitely a creature of habit, I donât think Iâll ever change it too much.â
Do you have any advice for singer-songwriters like myself who are disorganised and will write songs then leave them in their voicenotes?
âIâm also very disorganised! I always do the same thing with my voicenotes, but the way for me that I pick what songs to finish is that sense of that song thatâs spinning around in the back of your head and that you keep returning to in some way.
âI feel like if you write a song and you completely forget about it, it probably means itâs not quite right for now, but if thereâs randomly something that pops into your head, I think trusting that and knowing that you never really know when itâs finished. You know when you can just like feel it. No-oneâs gonna tell you, âOkay, itâs done, itâs perfectâ.
âI feel like everyone is kind of waiting for that pat on the head like where youâre like âOh okay, itâs done now. You just have to do it to your best and when you actually put it out it actually frees up space for you to make something from scratch, completely new that you can relate to more. I think itâs just like getting it as good as you can in that moment, putting it out and getting that sense of momentum, moving forward. Thatâs how I do it, really.â
Howâs the response been to these songs? Are there any tracks on the album that surprised you in terms of how well theyâve done?
âI feel like for me, the moments. like Devotion for example, where I felt people might be taken aback or felt it was a really big left turn, people did just embrace that I was doing something different.
"So I think releasing that and Weightless and stuff and that peoplesâ expectations of me were a lot more flexible than I had thought maybe. And feeling that being quite elastic, and people just adapting to the fact that I love music so much that Iâm always going to be going left, right and all over the place.
"So I think generally people accepting the album with open arms and change was nice.â
Would you say your confidence has grown as a performer over the last couple of years?
âYeah! I think so. The more you do something, the more you can really sit in just performing. I talked to my friend about it, heâs an actor, itâs that sense of when you know the lines perfectly, thatâs when you have space to actually act and improvise and just be free in it.
âBecause I just know every note, Iâve done it hundreds of times, so now Iâm just free and I donât have to think about that. I can just be completely expressive and that feels good.â
If you could go and talk to your 18-year-old self, what would you tell them?
âI guess I would say, all the sense of doubt, the sense of not quite knowing if things are gonna work out is just part of that process. And to savour the time that you have where youâre working and nobodyâs really listening, because thatâs when you actually get good at what you do and you can make mistakes without having everyoneâs eyes on you.
âJust to keep going. I wouldnât try to change my trajectory. Especially when youâre that age you feel so tender and so uncertain about what your place in the world is and being an artist feels like this impossible dream. Part of getting there is having those moments where like nobody really cares, and that sounds mean but nobody really has their eyes on you so you can just be creative and be hungry and build a little world for yourself and yeah, just work hard I guess.â
Have you had a chance to step back and enjoy these songs as a listener?
âHmm, I donât know if itâs ever possible because obviously Iâve made the song, and then thereâs the recording process and then thereâs like the mixing process, and te mastering, and by the end Iâve just listened to it so many timesâŠ
âI do think that sometimes, like âOh imagine if I could listen to my music but have complete amnesia and come to it with fresh ears as I do with songs that I fall in love with, but itâs impossible!â
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
âTo be able to teleport, because Iâm always late and I just want to go wherever I want. I just want to go to the beach for like five minutes. A little tiny swim.
Iâd have to have a cool-down period because Iâd use it too oftenâŠ
âThatâs true. I would definitely abuse my power.â
Advice for someone going on a first date?
âOoh, gosh! General advice. I think the best advice you can have is that you do just have to be completely yourself, because if you go there trying to be different or whatever, even if that person ends up liking you, they donât know the real you.
âThereâs nothing better than clicking with someone that likes the weird things about you that only you cared about or only you knew about. I think thatâs when you really gel with someone.
âAnd just like be honest! All these games and stuff just goes out the window when you really like someone.â
Your dream collabs? I know you worked with Phoebe Bridgers on this album.
âI have like several different answers for different reasons. I really like the idea of meshing with a genre that is outside of my own. Doing something with like Burial or like Jamie XX, do you know what I mean? Something in the electronic or dancy world.
âIn terms of my all-time favourites I do think something with Frank Ocean would be amazing. Like Frank Ocean, Tyler and that Odd Future world was everything to me when I was growing up. I was so inspired by them growing up.â
With collabs, you want to get the best out of yourself and the best out of the other artist, but I guess you can also use it as a chance to exploreâŠ
âEven when you think about Phoebe [Bridgers], the fact that she can be on a song with The National and Taylor Swift, but also can do Kid Cudi, I think you can bring different facets of yourself to collaborations. I think itâs a space to be playful, because you are singing over chords that youâd never choose yourself or singing over production that has someone elseâs taste.
âBurial would be so good⊠manifest it! Are you listening?â
It's the 30th anniversary of Sziget next year and there will be a flash sale starting at 7pm BST on Thursday 17th of August 2023 until 7pm (BST) on Saturday 19th of August via www.szigetfestival.com/en/tickets
2024 Ticket Early Bird prices:
- 6 days general admission at 239âŹ
- 6 days VIP at 459âŹ
- 6 days for 21 year olds & under at 179âŹ
- Instalment plans are also available
Sziget festival will come back to the Island of Freedom, Budapest between the 7th – 12th of August 2024.
- Exclusives
Source: Read Full Article