Logan J Parker – Sweet Songs of Love

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

Q) How would you best describe your sound?

A) My sound is original to me, classic, romantic and charismatic. Sonically, it’s a blend of soul, blues and rock n’ roll. I’m a singer-songwriter, so the songs are often auto-biographical. I see it as a yin and yang painting, there is darkness and there is light and everything is just in balance. It all just makes sense if you know what I mean.

Q) Who are your top three greatest musical influences?

A) I would say Memphis Minnie, Billie Holiday and Amy Winehouse.

Q) Tell us the story behind your track “Sweet Songs of Love.”

A) I was dating this guy from Dublin and he was constantly playing Irish music to me. He loved singing too, so he would often very casually serenade me. I used to love that. One day he left me, and I wrote “Sweet Songs of Love.” His absence made me very sad. I remember it was Christmas then and it was just heartbreaking. This is the reason why I chose to release this song on Christmas Day, especially because of this COVID era we’re going through now and so many people all across the world were spending Christmas away from their loved ones. “Sweet Songs of Love” is a distance shortener tool I created to make myself feel better during a very difficult period in my life. I guess music helps me. Maybe it will help other people too.

Q) For the music video you directed, edited and co-filmed the music video. How did being so hands-on help you in developing the concept for the video?

A) I guess when you do things yourself and you get deeply involved into something it’s both good and bad. It’s good in terms of honesty. Whatever it is you’re working on it will be closer to the truth because, after all, you’ve lived that story – it is part of you. The downside is that it gets harder for you to be objective and critical about your own work. Anyways, I got a pretty decent gut feeling and when my gut tells me something is right, I’ve learned from my own experience it’s best to follow it no matter what. On the other hand, I really like choosing outfits, directing people and editing the video. I must confess, I like being in control of my artistry. I have been discovering a very industrial side to me I didn’t know existed. It’s funny how tough times challenge you and make you discover things about yourself you didn’t know about. I have been learning so much. I can’t forget I had help doing this. Also, my friends Brian Stewart and Elodie Fromenteau have helped me with the filming and lighting respectively. There was also a fabulous football player and actor Mustafa Teriaki who has lent me his beauty and charisma and I’m forever thankful to him. There were two amazing camera operators, father and son Shean and Kalin Roberts, in the Premises Studios who did an amazing job filming me performing the song. If you watch the video, you’ll see two girls cheering over me and Mustafa’s little street dance scene and that happened spontaneously. So, I guess a big thanks to Phoebe Hardman and Millie McLoughlin for being so wonderful. If I gotta thank someone, it is Bohemian Guitars who have given me the greatest oil can guitar ever. It has such a unique sound! In the end, I think it is good to be part of a team. It’s bad to be alone doing everything. It is mentally draining and physically exhausting, so I dream of the day I’ll have a film crew to help me bring these music videos to light.

Q) Is “Sweet Songs of Love” a standalone track or part of a new album in the works?

A) It is definitely part of my debut album and it will be out later this year.

Q) What do you hope fans take away from “Sweet Songs of Love?”

A) I wished this song would instigate romance into their hearts. I think romance is somehow in danger in our society. I feel like everyone needs to prove themselves emotionally self-sufficient nowadays and I think that is wrong. Emotions are to be shared. We have to accept our vulnerabilities because they are just beautiful and without them there would be no spiritual growth.

Q) On social media sites such as Instagram you have done some live stream performances. How has continuing to share music and connect with your fans virtually helped you through this time?

A) Oh my God, live streams saved us all. It has been the only way we artists have to connect with our audiences these days. It is not the same thing as a real gig, obviously, but it is something and as we all learned this past year: we gotta treasure the small things haven’t we? Also, personally, my live streams really helped me build up my online presence. I must confess it felt a bit odd in the beginning, but now I really learned to love it and I am always looking forward to it. Here’s an invitation to everyone: I do two live streams, one on Facebook every Monday at 7 PM GMT and another one on Instagram every Sunday at 3 PM GMT.

Q) What do you miss most about live performances?

A) Oh, I miss everything! Even packing up which is usually something I hate doing. So, you can see how badly I miss gigging! The thing I miss the most is to see people’s joy, their reaction to the music, their faces lifting, their smiles and their hands and feet clapping. I miss that contagious energy.

Q) What song is one of your favorites to perform for fans?

A) My original song “We’ll Be Gone.” Every time I play it there is an odd silence in the crowd. Everything goes really quiet. It’s almost like a religious silence. When I play this song, I feel there is more than the words and the chords of my guitar, there is something else, something very powerful indeed.

Q) Which artists have you been listening to recently?

A) The Teskey Brothers. They are amazing!

Q) What would you like to share with your fans and supporters of your music?

A) I would like to share this thought of love, that even though it feels like we are alone, we are not. We’ve got each other. We can trust each other, we can share the load, we don’t have to carry it alone. Life can be very sad at times, but we are nothing by ourselves. We need to be part of something bigger, we need to belong, we need to love and be loved. I would like everyone to believe that music can bring us together and I wish it would be mine that would do this trick of magic because there is nothing that I want more in the whole world – I want to bring people together. I want to spread the love.