ARLO PARKS
“There are ways to glow, ways to see what darts beyond your field of vision, ways to feel visible,” proclaims the affirmations section of Arlo Parks’ website. It’s the motto the U.Kbased singer-songwriter seems to live by. Parks’ second album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released last year to worldwide acclaim. Since then, she’s opened for Billie Eilish and Harry Styles, and was nominated for two awards at the 2022 Grammys, which she attended with her girlfriend, alt-pop singer Ashnikko. Raised in London by Nigerian and French parents, Parks grew up writing short stories and poetry, and names Radiohead, Joni Mitchell, and Sylvia Plath as artistic influences. In 2018, she began uploading demos to BBC Music Introducing, which led to signing with a manager and the 2019 release of her debut EP, Super Sad Generation. Parks’ newest album, My Soft Machine, was released in May—its latest single, “Pegasus,” features Phoebe Bridgers—and her headlining world tour kicks off this fall. She pens poetic lyrics interspersed with spoken word and sings about mental health, body image, and queer desire, but her own bisexual identity was never a source of personal angst. “I was lucky the people around me were also figuring themselves out and living their realities and going into relationships with whoever they pleased,” Parks told The Independent in 2021. “I never felt uncomfortable. I never felt like it was something I had to explain to them.”
