Nearly four years since the release of their dystopian concept album, Inertia, Portland, Oregon’s We Are Parasols returns to their storytelling roots – using sound design and powerful lyrics to discuss politics, sex, and power. After a steady stream of EPs, singles, and remixes, the band offers a new stand-alone single, “Feels Like I’ve Had Enough”. The track, inspired by the events of 2020, the pandemic, and the American political war zone, is a powerful statement of emotionally hitting critical mass via the soulful, if unconventional lens of pure, undistilled ’80s R&B influence.
“With that as a starting point, the rest of the lyrics took a more personal shape with a focus on our daily life in quarantine, grappling with our emotions and anxiety, always with the looming global situation over our shoulders,” says the band. “We strove to maintain and even accent the pop-core of the song…we made sure to fill out the final arrangement with the processed guitars, noisy synths, and abstract textures more common in our production. Like the vast majority of D’s vocal demos, the melody was fully formed – but the lyrics were just random sounds that felt good to sing.”
With Feels Like I’ve Had Enough, We Are Parasols no longer lurk behind concept records and sci-fi narrators; they instead focus on the personal: their own lives; their everyday anxieties. The release also marks the official beginning of the band’s next phase, which will include a series of non-album track singles and remixes leading up to the release of their new, most intimate and human album, Body Horror.
Watch the visualizer for “Feels Like I’ve Had Enough” below:
The band formed in 2010 when Jeremy Wilkins (Rosewater Elizabeth, underwater, Allegra Gellar) began a solo project named simply, Parasols—the name inspired by a passage from Joan Didion’s memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking. In 2011, after he and D began a relationship, he suggested D become part of the project, turning Parasols into a duo. After some personal growth and changes, they recruited Alec Yeager. The new trio decided to change their name to We Are Parasols to signify a new level of partnership and commitment to the project and each other.
We Are Parasols began as an indie-electronic, shoegaze band, semi-jokingly referring to themselves as “post-goth.” While the shoegaze elements have remained a touchstone for the band’s sound, the trio continue to expand their sound through blending in industrial, metal, choral, hip-hop, and pop elements.
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