SOMEDAYS – THE DEBUT SINGLE BY TESS PARKS – WILL BE RELEASED BY ALAN McGEE’s 359 MUSIC NEXT MONDAY. ITS HYPNOTIC 60s-TINGED LOW-FI PSYCH IS FIRST BITE OF THE CANADIAN’S FORTHCOMING ALBUM, BLOOD HOT.

In this Q&A with The Mouth Magazine Tess discusses her move to London, aged 17, her interest in photography and its relationship to music, pre-359 solo days on the capital’s gig circuit and a fateful first meeting with Alan McGee, the man who discovered the band which first inspired her to make music. Now returned to her native Toronto due to the expiration of her UK visa, Tess has put together a mighty band to pump the “lo-fi alternative drone with a hypnotic vibe” of album BLOOD HOT, a record she describes as “the project my whole life has been leading up to”…

YOU MOVED BACK TO TORONTO AFTER LIVING HERE IN THE UK FOR A WHILE – BUT WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO LEAVE CANADA IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Well, I moved to London to get the fuck out of Toronto, really… To get as far away as possible to somewhere that seemed like a better place. I went to University of Arts London to study photography for a year – but then dropped out and just stayed in London for another three years after that. I moved back to Toronto because my UK visa had run out and I’d overstayed my visit… amongst other things…

WHAT WAS GOING ON IN MUSIC WHILE YOU WERE HERE?
Hmm… I’m not really sure what was big when I was there. I wasn’t really paying attention to the new stuff. I cared much more about the music that had come from Britain before.

SO WHAT TRANSPORTS YOU, WHAT INSPIRES YOU? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE YOUR REFERENCE POINTS FOR YOUR OWN MUSIC? 
I love Oasis… Brian Jonestown Massacre, Spacemen 3, Velvet Underground, the Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane… I love Patti Smith, love Elliott Smith…. Lots of 60s psych music. IF LOVE IS THE DRUG by Brian Jonestown Massacre transports me… haha. What else? There’s so much! But it was Oasis that inspired and empowered me to make music. One hundred percent…

YOU SIGNED TO 359 AS A SOLO ARTIST, A SINGLE AND ALBUM NOW ON THE WAY… BUT BEFORE THAT WERE YOU IN BANDS?
Yeah. I played my first show with one of my best friends, Annie, when we were in high school. Thomas – who’s the drummer of my band – was playing with us that night too, actually. We did a cover of YOU AND WHOSE ARMY? by Radiohead (from KID A). Annie and I went on to start a band called Pretty Penny. We only played a few times, but we wrote a few songs together and she gave me courage to start performing on my own…

… AND YOU PLAYED SOLO WHEN YOU WERE LIVING IN LONDON…
I played a lot of shows by myself when I moved to London. I’d play several times a month all over London. Then I got discouraged and stopped playing because I was playing shitty gigs to empty rooms. So disheartening. The sound guy would be the only person in the room. When I moved back here to Toronto, I asked Thomas to help me record some songs… and I met my bassist and guitarist and we started jamming – and it just sort of happened. Really naturally, very fast. Such a turn around from what my musical experience was in London… Life is very circular and strange.

AT WHAT POINT HAD YOU THOUGHT “THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO”..?
I saw Oasis when I was eleven, and that solidified what I wanted to do with my life. Completely. But I never ever ever ever thought in a million years that I would ever get signed to a label. And I never ever ever ever  thought it would be by the man who had signed Oasis…

… AND YOU WERE AMONGST THE FIRST HANDFUL OF ACTS McGEE SIGNED… PRESUMABLY IT WAS WHILE YOU WERE LIVING IN THE UK THAT YOU FIRST MET HIM, OR DID YOU SUBMIT A DEMO WHEN HE ANNOUNCED 359?
I first met Alan on the set of the film SVENGALI, at 12 Bar on Denmark Street. I used to work at 12 Bar. I got sacked after three weeks there but I’d made good friends with the talent booker, Andy Lowe. Bless that man… He called me literally three hours before Alan was going to be filming there, because he knew how much I love Oasis… He was, like “You gotta come play tonight after they wrap up filming – he might stay to watch you play”… I hadn’t played in ages, actually, but I went down there anyway. I ended up getting to be an extra in the film. I went up to Alan after they finished filming – I was shaking! I handed him my demos and just blabbered at him, telling him he was one of my heroes and if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t make music… And so, yeah, we ended up keeping in touch after that. And he actually did listen to my demos! I never thought that would happen. He started the 359 label about a year later and he asked me if I wanted in… Like, what ..?!

HOW DOES McGEE’S APPROACH TO MUSIC, TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, AFFECT YOUR OWN? I’VE SPOKEN TO THE OTHER ARTISTS HE’S SIGNED TO 359 AND IT SEEMS TO ME THAT HE’S A “FRIEND”… PERHAPS EVEN A “BIG BROTHER” FIGURE… REALLY AVAILABLE AND SUPPORTIVE…
Yeah, Alan is entirely supportive. He nurtures creativity. He is totally encouraging. He lets all of us be who we are. He’s the most legit man in the whole of the music business. Arguably one of the most legitimate of all time… If Alan McGee thinks you’re good, it’s the biggest honour. I never had any confidence in what I created until he said he liked it…

… IS MUSIC MORE OF AN EMOTIONAL THING OR INTELLECTUAL FOR YOU, AS A WRITER? AND, AS A LISTENER, ARE YOU MORE AFFECTED BY THE STUFF THAT GETS YOU IN THE GUT, OR YOUR HEAD?
I’m affected by all of it. I listen to lyrics pretty intently – but also there are certain chords, when they go together… It’s intense. It gets to me. Music is a pretty emotional thing for me, though. Writing it especially.

YOU’RE ALSO REALLY INTO PHOTOGRAPHY – AS YOU SAID, YOU STUDIED IT FOR A WHILE WHEN YOU WERE LIVING IN LONDON… DO YOU HAVE VISUAL IMAGERY IN MIND WHEN YOU’RE CREATING MUSIC? AND, CONVERSELY, WHEN YOU’RE TAKING PICTURES CAN YOU HEAR SOMETHING IN WHAT YOU’RE SEEING?
Writing music and photography are definitely so connected… I have a need to document everything in words, but also a need to have the pictures to prove it happened. A lot of the songs I’ve written correspond with photos I’ve taken. Or the images I’ve captured have inspired songs… I don’t understand it when people travel and they don’t take a single photo or keep a travel journal or anything…

WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT FROM YOUR DEBUT ALBUM, BLOOD HOT?
It’s really hard for me to say! These songs mean a lot to me… It’s really intensely personal for me. It’s like someone raiding your room and going through every drawer and seeing everything you own and then reading your diary and publishing it… But I’m ready for people to hear it and hear what I have to say, and I just hope it resonates with people. I think that are a lot of nice messages behind the songs.

YOU WROTE SOLO, BUT RECORDING WITH A BAND I IMAGINE EVERYTHING TOOK ON A BIGGER SOUND… HOW WAS THAT ADJUSTMENT?
Playing with my band, who are very very dear friends of mine, is just the best. If Andrew is doing a guitar solo I can’t help but look at him and smile and think, “Wow, I get to play music with this guy”… It’s a bigger and better sound, and it’s just what the songs needed to come alive and have impact.

YOU’VE DESCRIBED THE ALBUM AS “THE PROJECT THAT MY WHOLE LIFE HAS BEEN LEADING UP TO”. VIVID TIMES…
Yeah! I’m pretty much in shock of everything that’s happened in the past year of my life. I don’t really believe that any of this is real. I don’t think I ever will…

Tess Parks’ single SOMEDAYS is out on Monday 28th October, and 11-track album BLOOD HOT is set to be released on 25th November by 359 Music through Cherry Red. The CD edition can be pre-ordered from Cherry Red here, and download from iTunes here.