Arlo Parks has depth. And not just that wise-beyond-your-years depth (though she has that too), more than the depth from growing up in a cultural hub like London. It’s the depth that comes from being musically gifted. And it’s certainly apparent in her career’s crescendo.

Parks arrived on the scene in 2021 with a heavy beat drop, with her debut project Collapsed in Sunbeams receiving critical acclaim. It peaked at number three on the U.K. albums chart, garnered her multiple Brit Award nominations, and won the Mercury Prize for best album. And she’s been on a journey of discovery ever since.

“My first few songs and my first EPs, sonically, I was really inspired by music that had, like, a minimal quality and felt quite sparse in a way that was really intentional, like honing in on each instrument and making the part perfect and leaving a lot of space,” she says. “There were a lot of influences that had a sense of melancholy, a bitter sweetness, and had a minimalism that was very much the sense of identity that I, like, connected to the most. And I think you can hear that in Collapsed in Sunbeams—also like, it’s very stripped and quite simple.”

She fell in love with music, she says, as a progression of her love of language and self-expression. “The first song I remember hearing was “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding, and I just remember the sound of the waves and the simplicity of the guitar and the vocal. And there was something so moving to me about it,” Parks says. “I was a little kid and on the way to the grocery store or something with my dad, and I do remember that moment of being like, ‘Oh, this moves me. I want to understand how to do that. I want to understand what expression means.’ And I just loved how simple the language was. And I was like, I wish I could put something such a complicated feeling into such simple language.”

Learning to do it on her terms, then, unlocked a world of possibilities, and picking up a guitar was an endless chamber of sounds that could convey her inner thoughts and melodies. “There was definitely a real power to it, this sense of being in control of the way that I could express things, and it being this quite private personal practice,” she says. “I could kind of put whatever I wanted into language and music.”

And as she’s grown and discovered more about herself, she’s also settled into her style, personal and musical. The 25-year-old’s upcoming album, Ambiguous Desire, drops on April 3 and is an exploration of herself and her identity, a time capsule into this version of herself: the melodic, drive-on-the-waterfront-with-the-windows-down electronic tunes with personal, vulnerable lyrics, almost like understanding every shade of a multicoloured soul. It’s a cohesive piece of work, each track building on the next like an audio diary of her reality.

“I’m really proud of the fact that I’ve always managed to stay really true to what music means to me. Like, I’m always very in touch with my purpose and the fact that I always remember why I started doing this,” she says. “I’ve just lived so much life in between. In 2021, I was at the verge of something. I had no idea how big things were going to get, and how things were going to take shape.”

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Parks says she is at a time in her life where confidence and self-knowledge allow her to feel more settled in herself. “I feel like I’m the happiest that I’ve ever been, and the most excited about my music that I’ve ever been, because I have the confidence to take risks.” —Arlo Parks

 

She feels the same about her personal style. Hailing A$AP Rocky as her biggest fashion inspiration because of his authenticity, Parks has leaned into letting her look be a further reflection of herself and, by extension, of Ambiguous Desire. “The whole palette, visually, of the record is quite metallic, and kind of murkier blues and greens, and I’m wearing a lot of kind of silver, and I’ve got a diamond tooth, and I’m wearing chunkier jewellery,” she says. “So it’s kind of mixing technical wear, because I get a lot of my trousers and shorts made, so it’s a lot more nylon materials and chunky belt buckles, and that’s kind of my everyday thing.”

But the nature of self-discovery through music is that it’s ever-evolving, that it evolves as you collect more worldly experiences. And Parks embraces the concept of learning about herself through art in every form. “I feel like I’m always able to take something from everything. And it’s so grounding as well. Like I feel the most myself when I’m just, like, with a good book or watching like a weirdo art house film. That’s where I really thrive,” she says. “I think that’s where genuine style comes from—truly just being yourself—because that’s how you create something that feels really idiosyncratic and true to you.”

Photographs by Sully.

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