...Winning a country music award was a surprise to Parsons, who doesn’t see herself fitting into the genre. The subjective Venn diagram of genres such as “folk”, “alternative folk”, “country” and “singer-songwriter” used to frustrate her, but over the years she has loosened the grip on how her music is defined.
“It used to really piss me off, the whole genre thing,” she reflects in 2021. “But now I’m just like, whatever people want to call it is fine, I’ll just let the publicist deal with it, it can be whatever they decide. Because that’s all genre is, isn’t it? Putting the music in boxes so it’s easier for people to find.”
While touring in Canada, Parsons spent time with Ron Sexsmith, and their conversations had a big impact on the direction of her next album, Glass Heart. He recommended she work with Mitchell Froom, the prolific American producer and musician who has worked on albums for Sexsmith and many other big-name artists such as Randy Newman, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Rufus Wainwright. Froom also has a strong New Zealand connection, being the keyboardist for Crowded House, and the producer of their first three albums, and Dave Dobbyn’s Lament for the Numb...
...Parsons stopped by Froom’s Los Angeles studio during a solo US tour in 2016, and after a successful test session they decided to work together when their schedules could next align. When the time came, Parsons had a “tough call to make”, leaving her band at home to record in Santa Monica. Froom would only work with known quantities and assembled a band of his regular studio musicians. Recorded live in five days, most of the final vocals were first or second takes, with no overdubs. It was quite a change from Drylands, which used a lot of vocal dubs and comping.
Despite the new setting and support, 2018’s Glass Heart was not a significant departure from Parsons’ discography, but an organic and celebrated progression. The single ‘Just ‘Cause You Don’t Want Me’ was a Top 20 Finalist for the APRA Silver Scroll, while the album was a finalist for the 2019 Taite Music Prize and Parsons won Best Folk Artist at the 2020 NZ Music Awards.
“Something you could say in the Red Grey Blue era, I was probably still quite fixated on it sounding really perfect. As time goes on, you realise that your favourite thing about a song might be the way the vocals are slightly pitchy in a certain bit, which gives us a bit of a rub and a special sound … as soon as things are perfect, it’s harder for people to connect to.”
Alongside touring the new work at home and abroad, the years following also included a lot of collaboration for Parsons. She supported The Proclaimers for their New Zealand tour in 2019, joined Liberty Stage’s Come Together tours, which included tributes to Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms in 2020, followed by Neil Young’s Live Rust and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 2021. Parsons also contributed to the Mansfield album, interpreting the poem ‘There Was A Child Once’ into song. When live performance was halted in 2020 due to COVID-19 related restrictions, it was a major lifestyle change for Parsons.
“It’s probably good for me really, to be on an enforced break from the road. For a few years there I would arrive home, basically wash my things, put them back in the suitcase and get back to the airport. It can be pretty punishing.”
“I feel lucky that I’ve done a lot of touring, I’ve spent a lot of time overseas, and played thousands of shows. I know I will get back to that at some point.”
Parsons enjoyed the time with her family, hunkered down in their Lyttelton home. Her current band line-up is Aaron Stewart on bass, Jed Parsons on drums, and Josh Logan on guitar. Past members include guitarists Andrew Moore and Gerry Paul, as well as drummer Nick George.
Throughout the pandemic, Parsons and Logan have been tinkering on a new album which “has been in the pipeline for a while”, and is set for release in 2022. Logan is not only credited as co-producing but co-writing, a first for Parsons who is usually the sole writer. Singles ‘Carry On’ and ‘Already Gone’ have already been released, and when AudioCulture spoke to Parsons in late 2021, the full record was in its final stages. This flexibility and freedom to write and record how she wants, when she wants, is not lost on her.
“Independence has been awesome for me, and it means I’ve got full control over everything. I realise it’s also dangerous, that you can get stuck in your own thing, but I feel like I’m pretty open and still well-connected with the industry, and it helps that other people are working on things with me.”
Perhaps even more satisfying for Parsons is the ability to pay it forward to other musicians, after she received such great guidance on her early years of being a do-it-yourself artist.
“I’m really grateful actually, for having to be forced into that, to have to do that. Because now I feel like I’m in a position where I can help other people, and not from any great point of success, but just in the sense that I’ve managed to make it work. It’s one of the great things about doing it yourself … the understanding of how everything works.” - audioculture
trax:
1. Blame 2. I Got The Lonely 3. Glass Heart 4. Just 'Cause You Don't Want Me 5. Deadwood 6. Dream Find 7. Breaking 8. Come Over Lover 9. Bottom Of The Street 10. What Would You Change
…served by Gaius…
Forbidden Dimension started out in 1988, just as Jackson Phibes's (aka Aleister Hexxx) previous combo, Color Me Psycho, was calling it quits. It was initially conceived as a one-man one-off project, sonically in the Chrome / Metal Urbain / Roky Erickson / 60s punk / proto-metal mode. Thematically, it was (and remains) dedicated to illustrating a world where Coffin Joe and Julian Karswell run a Rest Home for the Terminally Bewildered in the Old Dark House on Spider Baby Hill. After 19+ years of slogging it out on the Western Canada dive bar/punk club circuit and leaving a small trail of cryptic (yet, as they say, rockin) recordings with various line-ups, labels, etc., Phibes figures there still ain't no end in sight. BEVARE!
trax:
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