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Thrill Jockey Records, Fall 2005
Cover by Michelle Henning.
"Unsurprisingly, when he broods, particularly on the slow-hand strut of
'Boxers', Parish is as mean and moody as they come, but it's the
lighter moments that surprise, such as the piano plonks of
'Kansas City Electrician' and the celebratory slide & strums
of 'Even Redder Than That'. Entirely unassuming and all the
more enjoyable for it."
"Most famous as the man who injected some of the thrashy vitriol
into the career of Polly Harvey, West Country gun-for-hire John
Parish is a seasoned collaborator. However, as his third solo
album - largely conceived and recorded in Italy - proves, he's
a dab hand at his own slick-haired, Oxfam-suited brand of indie
Bohemia. Spiky but with a soft underside, if you like Nick Cave
enough to buy a record by a man who probably knows where he
lives, it's a done deal."
"The songs on Once Upon a Little Time bloom as slowly as
lotus blossom, their graceful colours and subtle variations
revealing themselves gradually. Given time to breath they lodge
themselves gently into your psyche and refuse to let go."
"A very accomplished album."
"It's a good thing that John Parish has finally come out
of the closet as a solo artist."
"Parish lets loose on the twanging 'Kansas City Electrician'
and the romping 'Even Redder Than That' (included in both
mandolin-fueled acoustic and raucous electric versions), but
Once Upon A Little Time revels in little, everyday
details conveyed in quiet, understated songs."
John Parish, Marta Collica, Jean-Marc Butty and Giorgia Poli.
John Parish’s How Animals Move was released on Thrill Jockey Records in 2002. The final show by the band who played on How Animals Move took place in May 2003 at the Primavera Festival in Barcelona. Parish started thinking about his next record. He wanted to do something different. Something intimate, intense, sometimes serious, sometimes frivolous, sometimes beautiful, sometimes ugly. Chance & circumstance were largely responsible in finding the right people to help him realise this. In 2003 Parish made his first Italian record, travelling to Catania in Sicily to produce Cesare Basile’s (Gran Calavera Elettrica). "I immediately related to the place, and the way of working down there. The casualness, people dropping by the studio for a glass of wine, some olives, maybe play a little guitar or something. The opposite to that sterile studio situation you often get where everything is under control & as a result it’s kind of impossible to do anything genuinely inspirational" said Parish. While in Catania, Parish met a range of interesting musicians, including Marta Collica. He liked her voice & her unique keyboard style, stumbling unpredictably between delicacy and distortion.
Several months later in January 2004, Parish traveled to Rome
to produce an album (Tutto L’amore Che Mi Manca) for
Nada, the Italian Marianne Faithfull. Growing more
attached to the Italian music scene with each new introduction,
Parish built a relationship with bass player, Giorgia Poli
and engineer Marco Tagliola. Once Upon A Little Time was recorded by Marco Tagliola over four sessions in the second half of last year. The first two sessions took place at Marco’s Perpetuum Mobile studio in Nave, Italy. The third and final were at Toybox in Bristol and Sun Studios in Copenhagen, respectively. Some friends including Adrian Utley (Portishead), Jeremy Hogg (PJ Harvey) and Hugo Race (Bad Seeds, Sepiatone) dropped in to add their own personal touch to the record, but Once Upon A Little Time is really a band record. The core group of John Parish, Marta Collica, Giorgia Poli and Jean-Marc Butty developed a musical vocabulary and conversational tone that only a band can have. Most of the tracks were cut live in the studio & you can hear the trust the four have in each other as they waiver between intense emotional fragility - ‘Choice’ - & recklessness - ‘Even Redder Than That Too’. Once Upon A Little Time is Parish’s first record with vocals for fifteen years. Parish began his career as singer with cult band Automatic Dlamini - who released two albums in the late 80s & whose line-up included Polly Harvey. But by the beginning of the 90s he’d grown uncomfortable with the role of front-man & opted instead to play side-kick/collaborator with amongst others Eels, Giant Sand & most famously, PJ Harvey. Apart from Kevin Hunter’s ‘Somebody Else’, all the songs on Once Upon A Little Time are Parish compositions. "Water Road" is an arrangement of a piece John originally wrote for American director Jennifer Houlton’s film Water. "Glade Park" was written when John visited the titular Colorado National Monument. He was told it was beautiful, though he wasn’t able to see it because on the first day Parish contracted a serious bacterial infection in his left eye. He narrowly escaped losing it altogether and had to stay there a week while it was treated. "I couldn’t stand any light, so I could only go outside in the middle of the night, crunching around on the snow with really blurry vision. It was like being on another planet. Oddly enjoyable." Once Upon A Little Time is a title inspired by John Parish’s youngest daughter, Hopey. Hopey used to begin all of her stories with this phrase and it resonated in Parish’s mind as he liked the combination of the epic and intimate. (It should be noted that aside from inspiring the title, Hopey also makes her recorded debut on this album. She wandered into the studio while Parish was recording a vocal and started playing the organ. It sounded good, so Parish stopped singing, held the mic over the organ speaker and left the tape running.) Once Upon A Little Time is an epic & intimate record. It talks about the heroic struggle of everyday life. It talks nonsense. It’s a stand against the myth of choice. It’s a grown-up record for people who loathe music for grown-ups. It’s out in September.
For further information on John Parish, please contact Thrill
Jockey Records.
Picture by Roberto Cavalli.
Records
JOHN PARISH & POLLY JEAN HARVEY - Dance Hall at Louse Point Scores
ROSIE (Dir. Patric Toye) - Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Bonn International Film Music Biennale. Bands
Guitar/drums/backing vocals with PJ Harvey 1994-1999
WHAT THE PRESS SAID ABOUT HOW ANIMALS MOVE: "a subtle but potent mix of sonic textures" (****) - The Times "its charm just keeps on growing" (****) - The Guardian "a remarkably coherent & elegant record" - Time Out "a slow-burning, understated gem" - Billboard
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