Thomas Parrish talks indie inspirations and the songwriting process of his latest single, ‘there was something here once’
Thomas Parrish is an up-and-coming indie folk artist from Los Angeles. In the lead-up to the release of his new single, there was something here once, we spoke to him about all things music.
If you haven’t already listened to his newest song, you can find it on Spotify…
…or check out our Song Review of there was something here once.
Thomas Parrish has amassed over 3,300 monthly Spotify listeners with 9 released singles, one of which is a cover of Ethel Cains’ song, A House in Nebraska.
Thomas released his first single, by the fire, on February 14th 2022, but his most popular releases are the songs: Spit Me Out, Best Friends and Scared of the Cold.
Reminiscent of fellow indie artists like Searows and Phoebe Bridgers, Thomas Parrish is a gifted storyteller. His songs are hauntingly imaginative and strung together by soft guitar melodies. They have an essence much like coming-of-age movies, navigating the changes that come with growing up and apart from people or places.
You can listen to Thomas Parrish’s discography through his Spotify playlist below:
Thomas’ 9th single, of course, is his new track, there was something here once. This is his first collaboration with Faith Zapata, a fellow indie singer-songwriter from California.
Much like Thomas, Faith is a poetic songwriter who built an online platform by posting acoustic covers of her music. You might have seen her on TikTok, where she posts about all things indie music for her 92,000 followers.
Faith and Thomas even duetted each other to promote their new song:
The pair announced their new single on April 24th, and you can check out Thomas’ Instagram post below:
Fans eagerly awaited this collaboration, and VoiceNoted were lucky enough to hear it before the release day on May 3rd.
We also had the pleasure of talking to Thomas Parrish, asking him about his songwriting process, inspirations, and ambitions for the future…
Artist Interview
We first asked Thomas Parrish how he would describe his music. He noted the importance of emotion, and how as an indie artist he wants to not lose sight of the feeling of music. Thomas said: “In my music, I try to convey an emotion and make the listener feel it as strongly as I can.”
We then talked about writing with an audience in mind and how that has influenced his sound:
“I fell into the trap of writing for what I thought the audience wanted to hear when I first started. [But] you’re never going to write the best product if you write for what you think other people want to hear. When I wrote for my personal experiences, it ended up being what other people wanted to hear.”
Thomas discussed his early experiences with music, saying: “It takes forever to figure out what you want to sound like. I’ve only recently dove deep into what I want to write about.”
He mentioned his song, by the fire, saying “when I listened back to that, I thought this is what I want to sound like. Indie folk is the vibe I wanted to go for, and it took a while to find that.”
In light of his collaboration with Faith Zapata, we asked Thomas how they met, and what it was like collaborating:
“She followed me on TikTok…and eventually we started sending music to each other. We became pretty good friends through music. I’ve written songs with other artists before, but this was the first song with both of us writing and performing on the same song.”
Thomas explained that he wrote there was something here once entirely by himself, but that it felt like it was missing something. “I sent it to Faith, and she said it was missing Faith background vocals. So, we took it one step further and she wrote an entire verse and the bridge.”
Thomas explained that the “moving and impactful” verse was written by Faith in about 5 minutes, and they agreed that it was perfect for the song.
In fact, Thomas and Faith just created a playlist so that listeners can see what music inspired the writing of there was something here once:
We delved a little deeper into Thomas’ songwriting process, asking if he writes lyrics/melodies first, or uses a notes app to jot down his ideas:
“I always do chords first. I usually have my guitar in open D tuning and I kind of mess around and play random chords until I find one I like. Every one has a specific mood to it, so I then write based on that mood and whatever I’m feeling.”
“Sometimes I do it differently. I’ll randomly come up with song ideas and I’ll jot it down in the notes app. I have a note with song ideas that are lots of random thoughts. So then, what I’ll do is I’ll take that chord progression and then I’ll go through the notes app and find what thought matches up with it.”
Interestingly, there was something here once was not written this way. Thomas explained that:
“I actually wrote a poem first. I was really proud of it and originally didn’t think it would be a song, but I came up with the chord progression and it fit perfectly.
So, we asked him more about his favourite lyrics from the song, and Thomas explained how he loved the line in the chorus: “You were my shelter, but a house is not a home if it can’t be lived in”.
When Thomas played it to his mum, she interpreted it literally as the house he grew up in, but he explained:
“When I wrote the poem, it was about a relationship and how there was love somewhere once and now you’ve moved away. That’s the hook of the song.”
“But my favourite part of the whole song is the bridge. It’s like that ‘call and response’ that Bon Iver and Taylor Swift do in their song, Exile. I ask a question: ‘How long will I try to hold on?’, and Faith sings ‘You let me wait for you too long’”.
Returning to his artistry as a whole, we asked who Thomas Parrish’s biggest inspirations and supporters are as a writer.
“My parents have been super supportive of my songwriting…and since moving out to LA full time last May, I’ve made some close connections to people in Hollywood. They’ve been big inspirations to me based on how they write and how passionate they are about music.”
When asked about how he managed his college degree alongside music, Thomas said “I didn’t do a whole lot of my own music until the very end of college”, adding that his college acapella group was a “big musical outlet” for him.
From this, we asked: Do you feel like your academic background in science informs your writing? Are you inspired by that? Thomas said, “Yeah, it’s given me an appreciation of what goes into creativity and music. I wrote an essay for undergrad admission about why music is scientifically so impactful.”
As an artist, one of the best ways to engage with your community is through live performances. Speaking with Thomas about the shows he’s played, he said:
“Live music is the main reason I wanted to do music. Whether it was acapella in college or playing violin in high school, playing live was always my favourite thing to do.”
Thomas recently performed in his favourite venue yet, Cabin Creek in Santa Monica. You can watch a clip of his performance here:
“I just started performing live for the first time in last October. So far, I’ve been able to play at the Viper Room and Genghis Cohen in LA.”
Thomas also has some bigger venues coming up that are a surprise. So, if you’d like to see him perform live, keep an eye out on his Instagram for updates!
And as for upcoming projects…
“I have way more songs right now than I can put out so there will be a lot of music coming. I’m going to keep putting out singles and there’s some of the best songs I’ve ever written. I can say that the vibe will match the season.”
So, with the warmer weather coming up, we can hope that Thomas’ next single will be the ‘song of the summer’!
Here at VoiceNoted, we want above all else to promote the artists who really deserve it, so check out Thomas Parrish on Spotify and don’t forget to follow him on Instagram and TikTok. With his talent, passion, and incredible songwriting ability, we can’t wait to see what else is in store for him.
You can listen to his music on Spotify here…
…or find it featured on our VoiceNoted playlist, ‘Got the Memo’:
