Arlo Parks says earning 2 Grammy nominations for debut album is like being 'recognized for being myself'
"To be recognized for this record feels like to be recognized for being myself."
British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks only just released her debut album in early 2021 and is already nominated for two Grammy awards.
The 21-year-old independent artist is up for best new artist and alternative album for her album, "Collapsed in Sunbeams," which she dropped in January.
It's been a whirlwind year for Parks: her album peaked at No. 3 on the charts in the United Kingdom, she won the 2021 Mercury Prize for the project and received the breakthrough artist award at The BRIT Awards, and she had her first North American tour, among other highlights.
Parks said learning of the recognition from the Recording Academy when nominations were announced in November was momentous. At the time, she was on tour in Cologne, Germany, staying off her phone for the day, when her guitarist told her the exciting news and she started shouting in excitement.
"I was just calling my parents and it took me a second to process it, I feel," she told "Good Morning America." "With these momentous moments, career-defining ones, almost, it's hard to know how to react in the moment, but I was just really happy."
Parks earned praise from critics and fans alike for her vulnerability on "Collapsed in Sunbeams," as the project contains personal tracks about everything from depression, to love and hope, to identity and finding oneself.
To be recognized for this record feels like to be recognized for being myself.
She said that opening up on this level was "rewarding" for her.
"It was rewarding in terms of encapsulating the way that I was feeling and having an outlet, especially in a time when everyone felt very kind of isolated and in their own little islands," she said. "I felt there was a way to connect to myself better and to connect to others."
And because she put so much of herself into this record, the singer says winning a Grammy Award would be even more meaningful.
"It would affirm me in the fact that being myself and creating music that kind of defies genre in its own way, and that is kind of sensitive and personal, and that I made in an apartment in East London -- that that is enough and that I can just be that," she said.
"To be recognized for this record feels like to be recognized for being myself," she added.
The nine other artists in the running for best new artist include Olivia Rodrigo, Glass Animals, Arooj Aftab, Jimmie Allen, Baby Keem, FINNEAS, Japanese Breakfast, The Kid LAROI and Saweetie.
Parks' emotional lyrics, along with the poetry and references intertwined within the tracks, have struck a chord with many; she said she was inspired by the works of Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Eileen Myles and Maggie Nelson while making the project.
Although many have drawn their own connections with her words, Parks she doesn't set out with that intention while creating and also avoids considering how her songs will be received.
"I try and just think about how it feels to make it and what I want to say, and I think keeping the process small in that way allows me to connect," she said.
"If I tried to make something that felt universal, or that felt, you know, relatable, then that's when maybe it would fall flat," she continued. "So I'd like to think that it's because of the honesty with which I approach things that people feel like it speaks to them."
Parks said she admires many artists, from late singers Elliott Smith and Nick Drake to recent stars like Phoebe Bridgers and Billie Eilish, who she says possess incredible transparency in their music.
"I started making music to work through difficult things, and that's kind of my instinct so I kind of never really filter myself," she said. "And I think that you should have a little bit of nerves when you put out a song -- it should feel a little bit close to the bone, because then it means you're saying something real."
One song in particular of hers that garnered a large response was "Black Dog," a song about depression that she wrote when she was 18 for her best friend Alice, who was struggling with their mental health.
"I felt quite helpless, I think as a friend, so I tried to write it out, and what started off as kind of something that just documented our friendship and her struggles turned into something bigger," Parks explained.
She said she released it during lockdown in the U.K. and that the track then "took on almost this whole different meaning."
"I had people messaging me saying it reminded them of their dad or their brother or their boyfriend and helped open up conversations in their own lives," she said.
"I think that's one of the things I'm most grateful for -- that something that is so personal to me can then turn into something that feels that personal, but to like thousands of other people," she added.
The 64th GRAMMY Awards will take place on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022.
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