variety.com
31.05.2023 / 18:13
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Arlo Parks on Collaborating With Phoebe Bridgers and How Writing Her New Album Was Like Speaking to a ‘Best Friend or Therapist’
Ellise Shafer Arlo Parks’ sophomore album is, in some ways, accidental. “I started listening to everything I’d collected, and I was like, ‘Whoa! I pretty much got the raw material for an album here,’” she tells Variety. “I tricked myself somehow.” This helped the 22-year-old London native avoid some of the pressure that often accompanies an artist’s second LP — especially if they’ve had an ascent like Parks’. After building a loyal fan base in the U.K., she released her debut album, “Collapsed in Sunbeams,” in January 2021. It went on to win the prestigious Mercury Prize and earn Parks best new artist and alternative album nominations at the 2022 Grammys. But all of that success didn’t come without a cost: After opening for Harry Styles, Clairo and Billie Eilish in the first half of 2022, Parks canceled part of her U.S. tour later in the year, saying her mental health had “deteriorated to a debilitating place.”