Melt Exclusive: Parke

Parke, the rapper and producer formerly of the name Dominsquis, has broken ground with his new album, Zombie, compounding the dynamic blend hip-hop, rock, and punk influences that he began exploring under his old alias into a thrilling blend of tracks that not only amp up the sonic pressure from his previous projects but also serve, in a way, as their ultimate fruition, representing a near-perfect execution of the remarkable vision he has displayed and attempted to curate for years.

Centered around a violent character named Dame Armand, Zombie alternates between hauntingly cynical and outwardly sanguine, pushing Parke’s emerging voice and artistic vision into an echelon all its own.

The interview below explores the motivation behind Parke’s name change, the development of Zombie as a project, and what this new era represents to him.

The transcript below has been edited for the sake of brevity and clarity.

Why did you decide to change your name to Parke? What convinced you to move on from Dominsquis?

Anytime I would tell or talk to someone about it, I’d have people say it was unique, but it's like, if you want to be like marketable like that and actually advance and have people know you, you can lose people just trying to type up your name, you can lose people's attention that quick. So it wasn't really working anymore, and, plus, I felt like it was kind of a weaker era I was in for the longest… It was probably a couple conversations with people that literally were the final push, and then at that point, I was like, ‘Yep, Parke’. I'm just gonna do that. And it worked out really well. I think it looks sick whenever I see the song title next to the name.

What does Parke and, by extension, this new era signify for you?

Parke is actually my last name. I don't think I wanted to do my whole name. I’d rather have my artist name be just one thing as opposed to my full name, Julian Parke. It also feels really authentic to me because another thing with strengthening ties to Parke is my father who had died when I was 12 of colon cancer. And so these things are like bonds, you know. I have a tattoo of the name; tattoos are protections. So that's really my reasoning.

Did it feel like a fresh start for you, or a new era of your creativity, when you changed your name?

It felt like a fresh start, felt like a new era. Same with this music; I didn't put a single out, it was just the album went straight to it because I think I'm just an album person. I think it's more interesting, but it just felt nice and literally like a refresh, like I just showered and just came out.

When you went to approach your work under Parke, was there any difference in the sound you were looking to pursue from under what you did under your old name and your old project?

No, honestly.  It wasn't consciously happening that I was like, ‘Oh, this got to sound different’. I was just going with how I've aged and how I've evolved, and I think that also makes Parke make even more sense because now it's like a name that's actually me.  I was talking to my friend and he was like, ‘Yeah, this sounds more like you than you've done before. It sounds like you really stepped in, and the ideas you were trying to execute before you just said f*ck it and stopped trying to make it as accessible. Instead, you just leaned fully into it.’ And so I think, by also changing my name at that same time,it works perfectly because it's like I'm really leaning into me now, actually, just like jumping into it rather.

Were there any influences, then, that had a greater bearing on this project?

Yes, actually; I was talking to my partner about this yesterday.

My favorite song ever is “Ballroom Blitz” by Sweet. I think “Wildest Kush” and “London:, those two songs on the album, they feel like the closest to that song to me, and I know that “Ballroom Blitz” is just inherent in me. It's almost like I was born with it, and so, even if it's not conscious that I'm trying to make something like that, it's never, it just gravitates towards that way.

The Ooz by King Krule, that album is insane. I love it. “Half Man Half Shark” is probably another one of my favorite songs ever. It has some surf rock tones, and, in “London” there's a bit of some surf rock tone that I realized I had put into it at the end.

Another thing, there’s a manga called Blue Period. It’s about this dude who likes painting, and it really changed a lot of the ways I actually think and helped me finish some of the songs, too. 

Also Adventure Time and Regular Show because last year I realized that Adventure Time is crazy with music, so I was kind of studying the music of Adventure Time. 

There's also this artist called Liv.e; I have an admiration for her art. I definitely take inspiration from her art, but I can't really pinpoint a place on the album where it shows.

You mentioned some other genre undertones, but it seems like Zombie also leans much more heavily into some of the stuff you were doing under the umbrella of the recent work of Tyler, the Creator and Travis Scott. Do you consider this a separation or a continuation of what you were doing before?

I feel like it might be a little bit of a continuation. I feel like I've done stuff like that, but it's definitely an evolution of it. I think I just keep aging up, especially in terms of production. It's bouncy and I feel like it's very much an evolution; I think it's a huge step forward. I think every time with a new project, I keep making a huge step forward, especially with a certain type of idea. And I'm slowly getting to mastering that idea.

What motivated or inspired the aesthetic of Zombie?

So the whole thing is based around a character called Dame Armand. I only said the name once in the project, but it was a world building around that.

That character came about through a joke between me and my friend. I had a picture with me in one of my sister's mullets. She had a mullet wig, and then I took a picture of it. We came up with the name Dame Armand, and I never let it go. 

So, last year, I'm making music; I'm chilling, just really just trying to learn about myself.

And my sister had told me, ‘Yo, your voice sounds like it'd be perfect for rock’. The only song I had that was kind of like that was “WHERE YA MIND AT”  So I was like, ‘Alright, let me go see.’ “Zombie” was the first song that I really made like that. This character felt like it was building up, building up. It feels grimy. It feels dirty. It feels like someone who punched somebody for speaking on some sh*t that they shouldn't be.

I kind of re-invented what the word Zombie meant to me because I feel like a big thing people need to do in order to advance themselves is have their own definitions of words. What is an artist to you? Who would you like an artist to be to you? And so I asked myself, ‘What is a zombie to me?’ A zombie is an unrelenting martyr for their cause. They keep running for something even beyond their death, which in their case is food, how they're depicted in the media. So I was like, ‘Alright, we're going to spin it,’ and I made my sound around that.

The character, with the songs that kept being made, just kept progressing and kept becoming more.

“Zombie” was the first track that made you feel like the project had a specific direction. What specifically about the track indicated to you that you were headed in the right one?

When I made it, I was at my mom's house because it was summer break. I was in the room, and the window was foggy. It was nighttime but like orange nighttime, and it was crazy. It was the most dense in terms of musicality I've ever done on a song’s production, and I impressed the hell out of myself.

I knew it was going to definitely be something, and so I really stuck with it and really worked it and worked it and worked it. And for a while I was like, ‘Damn, I don't know how I can progress it’. Then I got with my friend Jackie, who was the person on the song, the girl singing.

I was so impressed with the production, how deep I was able to do it, and that ended up making way for everything.

What are you most proud of with Zombie as an album?

I think my execution on my idea is something that I'm very proud of. I think I executed what I wanted to and said what I wanted to very well. Several people have told me that it’s dense material. It's hard to digest, and I'm actually proud of that because I really love fiction books and I really love stories that are dense: ones you have to pick through. I'm so proud of that, especially since there's also no samples. The production is just me. I actually collabbed with people. I got a mastering engineer for the first time.

Honestly, it was the most serious I've taken this craft: just the whole world building and the execution of it. I think I really ate that down.

Finally, now that you’ve successfully accomplished this transition to Parke, what’s next for you?

I want to tour the album with a live band, and I know you need to have a bunch of numbers and for people to actually go to it. But that's my overt goal, because I need to hear it. I got to give it the justice of that. I got to get it in front of people; I want to perform it live so badly.

“London”, I need to do that with a live band. Are you kidding me? I'll be screaming on that stage. So that's my main goal.

But really, my focus is on promoting the album and getting a lot of people onto it and getting my feet real, real, real in the mud: getting on the floor, talking to people every day. I really want to not be a social media kind of artist; I actually want to have something real and tangible with people. 

I see that it's really easy to get that diluted with online and social media, but then sometimes it doesn't equate to real people and real-time supporters. So I'm actually going to be pushing myself to do all that and get real in the dirt.