Tess Parks shares “Happy Birthday Forever” from new! album!!!!

OMG. I love Tess Parks so much and was literally just thinking that I wish she’d put out something new (her last full-length solo album was released in 2013) and bam! And Those Who Were Seen Dancing is out May 20th on Fuzz Club and we’re so pleased to share the first single today and Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada. Tess’s smoldering, bewitching voice and her brilliant musical intuition promise listeners that the new album was absolutely worth the wait.

“Happy Birthday Forever” was the song that encouraged Tess to seal the deal and finish the record.

“In my mind, this album is like hopscotch”, Parks says: “These songs were pieced together over time in London, Toronto and Los Angeles with friends and family between August 2019 and March 2021. So many other versions of these songs exist. The recording and final completion of this album took over two years and wow – the lesson I have learned the most is that words are spells. If I didn’t know it before, I know it now for sure. I only want to put good out into the universe.” A growing and more than understandable disillusionment with the state of the world paired with an injury that stopped Parks from being able to play guitar and piano for months meant the album was nearly shelved for good.

“I really felt discouraged to complete this album”, she recalls: “I stopped listening to music for honestly about a year altogether and turned to painting instead. I really had to convince myself again that it’s important to just share whatever good we can – having the faith in ourselves to know that our lights can shine on and on through other people and for other people. The thought of anyone not sharing their art or being shy of anything they create seems like a real tragedy to me. Even if it’s not perfect, you’re capturing a moment.” Recorded over two years but with songs, lyrics and ideas dating back over a decade in some form or another, ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ is an album full of such moments, people and places. 

Taking its name from the Freidrich Nietzche quote “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music”, Tess Parks has returned with a collection of sublime psychedelic pop that doesn’t just welcome you into her world with open arms but also carries the sort of optimistic, inspiring message we so desperately need in our cursed times. “That quote has really resonated with me for years”, she says: “Perception is everything. Peace is this moment without judgement. Even if this album isn’t what it could have been, it’s music to my ears… I’m dancing.” From May 20th, when ‘And Those Who Were Seen Dancing’ will be released into the world via Fuzz Club Records and Hand Drawn Dracula, we will all be dancing right there alongside her.

Pre-order the album here.

Press photo by Luz Gallardo.