Parcels - Bemyself

I'm trapped. I am trapped in a boot. I can free myself, free myself.

Album: Parcels [debut album]
Recorded: Berlin, Germany
Genre: Rock, Surf Rock
Album Release: October 12th 2018
Single Release: July 13th 2018 [2nd single]
Length: 2.27
Producer: Parcels
Vocalist: Patrick Hetherington
Label: Because Music

Live in Berlin from 2018


Live in Berlin from 2020

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: 8,800,000 +
YouTube Music: 275,000 +

Credits

Details

• Parcels had previously released two EP's.
  
• The song is about the search for originality. The singer is expressing a determination to "be myself" but he is having difficulty with it "I'll talk but you know there's no use, I can't hear myself." The band make music which is similar to The Beach Boys and early Beatles and have even gone as far as embracing the sixties aesthetic in their clothing and album art. Mimicing others is an essential part of human nature, it's how we learn, it's how small babies learn languages while adults struggle to do the same thing. Every musician who has picked up an instrument did so because they saw someone else playing it and became inspired.
  
  Parcels create a good Beach Boys sound but it's still a Beach Boys sound. Sometimes a band can become so synonymous with a genre that the two become indistinguishable. It could be that all surf rock sounds like The Beach Boys to the uneducated ear. Parcels did grow up in an Australian surfing community after all. That, however, wouldn't explain the clothing and album art. Ultimately I think that the band are a young band who are evolving and searching for their own sound. As of yet they haven't found it. Imagine how good they will sound when they do.
  
  
• The band formed while the members were still in high school.
• The band name comes from a sign found near one of the boys houses.
• The song is about a previous relationship that the singer remembers fondly. He is heartbroken that his lover cheated on him.
  
• Five boys who grew up in an Australian surfing town formed a band, packed their bags and moved to Berlin when they were 18. They hadn't booked any gigs and hadn't had any interest from a record label but they had was each other and that was enough.
  
  The boys from Parcels were friends first and a band second and their music has a youthful sense of adventure missing from more mature acts. They spent their first year in Germany living together in a one bedroom apartment. All five of them cramped into a tiny space. Living in close quarters made their bonds tighter and gave them a chance to focus on their music. They released their first EP 'Clockscared' one year after launching their German adventure in 2015.
  
  The titles of the bands releases are spelt inoneword because the spacebar on their computer was broken. It wasn't a meaningful artistic choice beyond the comprehension of us mere simpletons, it was just boys jumping in without looking and seeing what happened. While others would've cringed at the lack of professionalism Parcels released their music because why not? Surely it's the sound that really mattered. They were proved right when the French label Kitsune offered them a deal.
  
  
• "The city had a big influence on the album but it's hard to isolate what it is. Berlin has an isolating feeling" (Noah Hill, bassist, talking to epigram.org.uk in 2018)

Artwork