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The many faces of Wes Parker

Wes Parker, standing center frame against a blue door, looks into camera
Paloma Vazquez
/
Artist

The Richmond musician discusses his solo Splinter EP and the art of juggling selves

Wes Parker wears a lot of hats. A veteran of the Richmond music scene, he’s been playing in local bands since he was in high school — particularly Camp Howard, which mixed hazy surf rock with driving grunge before breaking up in 2021.

That’s where Parker’s character "Skunk" came in: a viral comedy persona he describes as an “amicable crust punk” who he came up with as a creative exercise after a sketch writing class. Skunk won people over with his affable grossness — and in the meantime, Parker developed his solo music career.

Now, Parker's just released his debut EP Splinter — which draws from influences like Radiohead and Rufus Wainwright — and is gearing up for a release show this Friday at Gallery5. I caught up with him about the new music, the hint of humanity in cringe, and finding a balance between comedy and vulnerability.

Editor's note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and style.


Annie Parnell: So, you were born and raised in Richmond not too far from where we're sitting right now.

Wes Parker: Very close. Like, across the street. I grew up in a little neighborhood called Greenfield, and yeah, I mean, I would play in the woods right here next to the radio station. It's nice to be back.

And you’ve also been involved in local music here for a long time. Can you tell us a bit about your work so far?

I started playing music when I was young; I'm from a musical family. My older brothers and my dad have been playing music my whole life. In high school or thereafter, I started a band called Camp Howard and we played together for a long time. That was kind of my career band for a while, we did national touring. That band broke up during the pandemic.

I was scared to start a solo project for a long time, but about this time last year was the debut of Wes Parker as it is now.

You’ve got a new debut solo EP, Splinter, that just came out.

Yeah! It's six songs. It is the first group of songs that I've released outside of singles, because everything's now so bite-sized, whether it be videos or music.

I wanted to release more music because I was kind of having stuff pile up. There's only so many songs that people knew at live shows, so I wanted to get more music out so people would know the songs when we come and play a set, versus just knowing this single or that single.

What were some of the influences on the new release?

A lot of people will say it sounds like Radiohead or MUSE, or Rufus Wainwright, which are definitely artists that I did listen to growing up. But yeah, nowadays I listen to all types of stuff. I'm listening to Rachmaninoff. I don't even know how to pronounce that. I'll try to listen to things that are very much not what we're releasing music-wise, to try to broaden the palette.

I don't listen to a ton of indie rock, per se, and yet, that's what I end up releasing. 

Have you mostly been listening to classical music right now?

WP: Yeah, honestly, it's been classical lately. I will say, there was this album, Hot Saki and Bedtime Stories by this band called Catherine, very much '90s rock, which I think people would probably think has worked its way into my music. But that was more recent listening.

A lot of the songs on Splinter are pretty old because, like I said, I had things stockpiling, and it was time to kind of get things out so I could focus on new music. So I'm not even sure what influenced these songs, because it was so long ago now that I wrote them, I can't remember what I was listening to.

What's the oldest song on the EP?

It might be “Deadbolt,” which is the twangier one with pedal steel. That definitely was written during the pandemic. So, like, four or five years ago, it's only just now seeing the light of day.

That’s something I do notice about the EP: There’s this brash ‘90s rock sound, but then there's this romantic folk and country element happening on it. It's an interesting contrast.

I will say there are a lot of nights in my kitchen drinking beers, or whatever it is that we're drinking, and listening to old country music. I think it's definitely working its way into not only my music, but so much music now. MJ Lenderman is really popular. Angel Olsen did a twangy record, which I'm obsessed with, called Big Time.

That is honestly something we listened to a lot when I was writing those songs: The Louvin Brothers and Waylon Jennings, stuff like that.

There's a sense of vulnerability and grit in the lyrics of Splinter, too.

Sometimes I get caught in the cycle of writing about the same thing or the same situation or the same story in my head. I think that I've just had to do the uncomfortable thing of trying to turn and look at my present life and my present emotions.

I don't think artists have to write about their own selves all the time, and I definitely write about other people in my life, and they don't know it. But I will say that with this group of songs, it definitely was a little more like, “All right, I'm gonna put some uncomfortable things in here, things I'm uncomfortable with.”

If people that are close to me listen to them, some of them will very clearly know what it's about, or hear a situation they might have been in. It’s pretty on the sleeve this time around, which is uncomfortable, but I feel like people respond to that.

What are some of the uncomfortable things you're confronting?

Oh, gosh, wow. I'm like, almost scared to even say, because it really is very personal. But I mean, generally speaking, my relationships. People close to me and their relationships, family, my close friends and watching their personal dramas. My own big mistakes in life, and situations where I've hurt people or been hurt. This one's pretty personal to my life.

It’s not surprising to hear that you’re pushing yourself to confront those things in your work now, because there's also this sense of warning or foreboding in the lyrics, this threat that something dangerous might be about to happen — and living in that moment.

I feel like maybe a lot of musicians feel that way, that something dangerous or bad is about to happen. But that's the career we choose as artists, I guess. And that's a joke about being a musician! [Laughs]

You've also got a new music video for “Splinter,” the title track on the EP. It was directed by Colin Earner, who also directed the music video for “Tattoo,” which came out last summer.

You will not catch me talking about this music video without pouring out so much praise for Colin and Kyle and this incredible team that is willing to sacrifice their time and energy and resources to make such a beautiful video.

It was the same thing with “Tattoo,” I was completely blown away. Everybody was super proud, the team was super proud, Colin was proud of the first video, but I still wasn't sure if he was going to say yes to doing another one, because it's such a large undertaking on their part. And he, surprisingly, said yes, he would do it again.

In terms of the process, this time, he had a lot more time to prepare, whereas “Tattoo” was whipped together very fast and filmed and edited in two or three days and then released, which was just insane. This time he had a few months or so.

They do everything. Colin comes up with the concept entirely. I just step back and I just say yes to everything, and I think it's so much more fun than if I was trying to come up with the concept. It's fun to see someone else's visual interpretation of the music, so much more rewarding in that collaborative way. He has really strong vision, and he's really good at bringing it to life. And Kyle Brady, on the production design, is just one of the most talented and smart people I've ever met.

It's like theater. I guess it's film, but it feels like theater when we're there. You can lose yourself in the in the characters that they set up, because the worlds are so elaborate.

Well, speaking of both theater and film, I do want to spend some time talking about your comedy work. To me, your TikTok persona, Skunk, seems very in conversation with your music.

A lot of people will just call me Skunk or know me as Skunk. During the pandemic, I basically decided, “OK, I'm gonna stop shunning TikTok and just try using it,” because my band had broken up and I didn't know what to do with myself.

I hadn't started the solo project yet, so I just did what I felt like I knew how to do best, which was make some comedy stuff. I had just left a virtual sketch writing class, and just started writing that character, Skunk, and other characters from the music scene that I had seen or experienced over the years. Skunk was the most popular — this amicable crust punk.

There's an interesting arc to Skunk. He starts off as this oddball butt of the joke, but it seems like he ends up in a pretty tender and vulnerable place.

One of the things that I read in this book called Comic Toolbox was that one of the elements of all comedic characters is humanity. You want a human trait that makes you like them. And when I originally wrote that character, his trait was that he really just wants a friend.

That really took over the whole character, because he's so gross and unshowered and stinky-looking, and odd in so many other ways that maybe would put you off. But yeah, it really is that human trait that I think draws people in so much — that, the nostalgia of house shows and DIY music culture.

I will say balancing these comedic characters, and this audience for the comedy, and the audience for the music can be sort of a challenge. At the beginning of January, I released a song called “Salute (The Show),” and there was a great response to it. My routine is to post a little bit of comedy throughout the week, intertwined with the music.

But it almost felt weird. I had this spike of followers coming in for the music, and it was weird to then be this cringy goofball on purpose, on video. Can you listen to the music seriously after seeing me just be so incredibly cringe on purpose? I don't know. I honestly don't know, but it's so much fun, and it really does bring in a lot of new listeners to the music.

People will find the videos and then be like, “Oh, and he's a musician.” So it's hard for me to just stop doing that, even though I've been advised by multiple people high up in the music business that are like, “Hey, you should do less comedy and more music. You want to brand yourself more as a musician that does comedy versus a comedian that also does music,” if that makes sense.

But it's just really hard to listen to that, because comedy is so much fun, especially in these times. You know?

That’s interesting, the question of how these two things coexist: the comedy versus the music, which by definition is very sincere — and as we've been talking about — very vulnerable.

I think if it was straightforward pop or dance, I could even be a comedic persona as a musician, but I don't feel like it works with this type of music. So it's weird, and I feel like, going forward, I'm going to be more sincere, and it's going to become farther away from dance and pop.

We expect pop stars to have personas, right? But when it comes to the indie rock space, the “persona” is supposed to be very real. The expectations are different.

Totally, and you only see so much of the actual person, you know what I mean? You're seeing the tip of the iceberg, so of course, they're going to dress it up a little bit.

You're never going to really see fully who they are, or know fully who they are, unless you're in their life. So it's weird trying to balance.

Yeah, I have two faces on my iceberg, and they both are wearing different hats. [Laughs]

Going back to this idea of writing about people in your life: how do you juggle getting real in your work when the people who you’re singing about might be in the audience, or know that you're putting out music about them?

A conversation I had with my partner early on was like, “I'm a musician.” I didn't have to set a standard, but I felt the need to, very early on in our relationship. Writing music or making any art is hard and vulnerable, and it takes a certain amount of focus to be able to relax enough to let it out.

And so I said “I just want to say now, I hope that none of the lyrics that I write or anything like that will ever be an issue, because it's really hard to be vulnerable and honest.” And my partner has always, always, always been completely supportive and never, ever made me feel weird about a lyric.

You don't get to have that conversation with friends or other relationships in your life. It may be weird, but I think there's a certain level of understanding. People are going to draw on their own life, because that's what they know. And I think it's the job of the artist to accept the fact that they're going to be a little uncomfortable whether that be in a grand scheme or what they're observing.

In addition to the EP and the music video, you've got a release show on Friday at Gallery5. Tell me a little bit more about it.

I'm excited, because normally we play pretty bare bones as a three-piece, and in the past I always wanted to stay as a power trio, but we're adding Ava Coles of the band Bucko. We're going to play the EP straight through front to back, and she sang harmonies on the record, so she's going to hop up onstage and sing also for the song “Splinter.”

We're also gonna have the two dancers from the music video join us onstage. No idea how it's going to go: They're super talented, but I don't know if the stage is big enough. We'll see. It's just gonna be fun and whimsical: we're gonna play the tunes, and I think it's going to be a really fun night. I think it's gonna be really special.

Wes Parker performs at Gallery5 on Friday, Jan. 31 with support from Opin and Sun V Set. Doors are at 7 p.m. His EP and the music video for the title track, are available now.