Just a few days out of his first semester of senior year, singer-songwriter Jonny Parks released his fourth album, proving you can have the best of both worlds.
Parks, who has been producing music since 2014, said that he’s successfully managed to find a balance between his academic studies and professional career as a musician, even if it means compromising on his sleep schedule.
Parks has one semester left at SUNY Purchase, where he is pursuing a B.A. in literature. He explained that the only thing standing in the way of him and his degree is his senior project, which involves an analysis of the folk music scene in the 1960s.
“I just wanted to pick something musical,” Parks told the Review in an interview this week.
Parks came to SUNY Purchase in 2014 after leaving SUNY Fredonia. He explained that he chose to attend Purchase because he wanted to be closer to his home in White Plains.
White Plains is where he began working with Rich Fabrizio, an engineer and producer at Frequency Recording. The two have worked together since Parks’ first EP “DrugFall” in 2014.
“[Jonny Parks] is one of the best singer-songwriters I work with,” Fabrizio said.
Fabrizio explained as they’ve continued to work together, he’s helped convince Parks to get more into production, and added in bass, drums and keyboard to his other albums.
“We basically built a band around his songs,” he said.
Through this process, Parks has been able to take genres like rhythm and blues, jazz and soul and turn it into his own unique sound.
He explained that when in the studio, “I have this mindset of, ‘this has to be perfect because it’s on record.’ So I’ll end up re-doing the vocals like 10 times.”
Parks began working on his fourth album in fall 2015, and says that it was influenced by his job at a country club and its wealthy members.
His most recent album features 14 songs originally written, of which he said his favorite track is “Reprise (From Heaven).”
He explained that the creation of this song involved rewriting and reproducing one of his old songs.
Parks has been writing his own music and playing guitar since he was in high school.
He explained that John Mayer was a big influence for him when he first began pursuing music.
“[Mayer’s] a brilliant writer, so I just [tried] to emulate him,” Parks said.
Only a few weeks into the release of his latest album, Parks is happy with the positive reaction that it has received, especially after the self-doubts he experienced during the year-and-a-half-long creation process.
He said he was worried about the reaction to his album because, “[it’s] not the same as a typical pop singer.”
Parks went on to explain that his sound isn’t something you would normally find on a Top 40 chart and that throughout the process of creating his newest album, “I thought, ‘maybe this is a little too unique.’”
He said he spoke with one of his friends, who helped him realize that his particular style was something he should be proud of.
“The Portia LP” at Frequency Recording in fall 2015. Photo/Taylor Brown
Parks publishes some of his lives performances and music videos on his own YouTube channel.
Accompanying one of the tracks, “Smoke and Mirrors,” off his new album is a music video, which was filmed, directed and edited by Parks’ long-time friend, Steven Ferri.
Parks and Ferri first met in eighth grade, but only three years ago did the two begin to work together on Parks’ music.
“The way he is with his music, that’s kind of an extension of who he is,” Ferri said.
He explained that the only difficulty they’ve had working together is having time in between school to do it.
“[We] don’t like to rush anything,” he said.
For his next album, Parks said that he has some idea of what he wants it to look like.
“Each project [I work on], I want it to sonically sound different,” Parks said.
Parks’ latest album can be found on Spotify, iTunes, Google Music and Tidal.
