Brady Parks – The National Parks: A Interview

Brady Parks talks about the Past and the Future of The National Parks

Interview took place on January 10, 2018

By Daniel Locke

The National Parks  was formed by frontman Brady Parks in early 2013 in Provo, Utah. To date, the band has independently released two full-length albums (and a standalone single, “As We Ran”), which together have amassed more than 13.2 million Spotify streams and garnered praise from press outlets such as NPR’s All Songs Considered, CMT Edge, Baeble Music, and Pop Matters. The band’s self-booked touring began in the summer of 2014 and by 2016 the act was filling clubs in every region in the country while also performing at SXSW, Canadian Music Week, School Night at Bardot’s, Musikfest, Snowmass Mammoth Fest, and Make Music Pasadena. The National Parks is currently at work on their third studio album (Places) with the title track set to be released as a lead single in June 2017 via Rock Love Magic Records.

The National Parks at JD Depot

Unrated Magazine: How did you find each other? Tell me about the development of the band?
Brady Parks: started playing open mic nights in Provo, UT when I was attending BYU. Through those open mics, I was integrated into the local music scene and met a lot of talented people. Through mutual friends and the music scene, I was able to meet the band and it all came together in a really natural way.

How did you pick your name?
The biggest reason is because my last name is Parks and I started as a solo artist. When I moved to working with a full band I wanted the name to reflect that and this seemed to be a perfect fit with our music because we use nature as symbolism in a lot of our lyrics.

Tell me about your backgrounds?
I grew up in Denver and moved to Utah in 2011 for college. I started writing music when I was 14 and began performing when I was about 16.

You are from UT. Can you tell me about the music scene there? And what your favorite club to play in LA and why is it?
The music scene is awesome in Utah. If you Google the Provo music scene, I’m sure you’ll see news stories about a music venue called Velour and it’s owner Corey Fox. Corey is a staple in the music community who has helped bands grow from local to national acts. Velour is a special spot and we consider it our home venue. Other bands like Imagine Dragons, Neon Trees and the Moth & the Flame all have roots there, too.

As far as LA goes we’ve been fortunate to play at some really awesome venues like the Viper Room, Hotel Cafe and Resident DTLA. We’ve loved them all and hope to play the Troubador in the near future.

How do you describe your music?
Our music has evolved through the years. When we started, we considered ourselves an indie folk band. Now with our third album release, we have transitioned to a more indie-pop sound with folk influences.

What type of music did you listen to growing up?
I listened to a wide variety of music growing up. My parents always had classic rock playing in the car, so I listened to a lot of that in the early years. My dad had a lot of country music playing whenever we would drive places. All of my siblings are older than me so I also listened to a lot of 90s music when they were in high school. When I got to high school, I listened to a lot of bands like Brand New, Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World.

How are your songs developed?
I think they’ve developed quite a bit. In high school, I wrote a lot of sad and sappy breakup songs. When I got to college I started finding deeper meaning in lyrics and was intrigued by the storytelling of songs.

How does it feel to be a top 20 singer/songwriters on iTunes?
Very exciting! It’s always a great feeling to see your name up there with some of the greats.

Your band is NPR friendly. Have you looked into Tiny Desk Concert or the Mountain Stage?
It’s definitely a dream of ours to do a Tiny Desk Concert!

Is anyone in your band into camping and the great of outdoors?
Yeah, we all like getting out as much as we can!

In the video for “Ghosts,” why did you have a software developer (KD Rhodes) be the person in the video walking around?
She’s a good friend of ours and she was a perfect fit for the video.

How did you get the video “Helsinki” made? As I understand, it was done in Finland with Finnish actor?
We’re lucky to have some extremely talented friends in the video production world. This video was done by Jonathan Turner and a crew. They went to Finland, found the actors and location, wrote the story and made this video. We were blown away by it.

How did the tour this year come about with Ron Pope?
We have been fans of Ron Pope for a while so when he was looking for tour support we had our booking agency throw our name into the ring and we were really happy that it worked out.

The National Parks (credit: Justin Hackworth}

The song “Places” is very catchy. Can you tell me more about the writing process behind it?
I wrote “Places” thinking about where I am in life and where I came from. “Places” is about the relationships and friendships that I’ve had, the places I’ve lived and experiences that have shaped me into who I am today.

Why did you pick Caitlyn Cutler to do the video? Aren’t they a wedding videographer? How did they come to you about how the video was going to turn out?
Caitlyn does a pretty wide variety of work. She’s a close friend of the bands and has been doing most of our videos since 2013. She is crazy talented so we picked her because we knew she’d do something great.

For the video “As We Ran,” you donated some of the earnings to the National Parks Conservation Association, which was a great idea. How did it go? I see on Youtube you have over 100,000 streams.
It went great. We loved teaming up with them! “As We Ran” is one of our most popular songs to this day.

And you have over 320,000 monthly listens on Spotify. In less than one month, the album had been streamed more than 1,000,000 times on Spotify, and getting close to a million views on Youtube. Wow. How does it feel?
It feels great to know that people are listening! We truly have the best fans in the world and it’s a surreal experience to see the monthly listeners climb.

Getting back to “As We Ran,” it has the feeling of 1960s 8mm films. And a family vacation film where they left the camera out in a hot car. How did you get that look and who did it?
That was also done by Caitlyn Cutler. She makes the magic happen.

A lot of your music sounds like it could be in movie soundtracks. Any deals coming up?
I’d love that!

Who influences you and why?
Very much influenced by bands like Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Bon Iver and the Killers. They all make music that takes me places and makes me feel different things. They are all very inspiring!

Any endorsement deals yet?
We’re lucky to be endorsed by Teton Guitars from Idaho Falls, ID. They are the best.

Places will be re-released on February 9th, 2018 as a deluxe edition. Why did you decide to bring it back?
The deluxe edition will have 5 additional tracks and we wanted to give our fans some more music to listen to!

You are from Provo, UT. What is your favorite club there to play?
Velour Live Music Gallery

How did you get signed to the label?
We are actually fully independent. We released our song “Places” with a singles label called Rock Love Music Records but the rest of the album has been on our own, as with our past releases.

What year, make and model of instruments you guys play?
My guitars are all new. I think John Hancock (electric guitarist) might have some retro ones though!

What type of clubs have you played in (size)?
We’ve played everything from living rooms to arenas! It’s been a wild ride!

What music fests would you like to play in?
Would love to play at Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Coachella and the list goes on and on.

I see you did Musikfest last year. How did you get on the bill and how was it?
We’ve done Musikfest a couple times now. It was a blast!

How was SXSW? How did you get picked for it and what was the best thing that happened to your band during the week?
SXSW is great because you get to go from being a performer to being a fan over and over again. It’s a blast being surrounded by so many talented bands in one of the coolest cities in the U.S.

You have listed some very big shows: CMJ Music Marathon, Canadian Music Week, MusikFest, Make Music Pasadena, Snowmass Mammoth Fest, Oyster Ridge Music Festival, School Night at Bardot’. You are getting a lot of fans. How does it feel?
We love getting out and playing for more and more fans!

What is your feeling of Vans Warped Tour since 2018 is the last year for it?
I’ve actually never been but I’ve heard amazing things. Sad to see it go.

How would you explain your live performance?
We love being energetic on stage and giving the crowd a memorable performance.

If someone was listening to you for the first time, what 3 videos or songs would you tell them to look/listen to and why?
I would say listen to “Currents”, “Monsters of the North” and “Ghosts.” That’s one track from each of our albums so it will give one a sense of the variety over the last 3 albums!

How do you see your band in the next 5 years?
We hope to keep growing as much as possible!

Any guilty pleasures your fans would be surprised you listen to?
T Swift.

What is on your bucket list?
To play Red Rocks!

What are you currently listening to?
The National, ‘Sleep Well Beast

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