By Maggie Tweedie
Photo: Supplied
Brittney Denise Parks - aka Sudan Archives - spent hours in her studio basement during several lockdowns working through angst and turning it into music to dance to.
The Ohio-born, USA-based singer, songwriter, violinist, and creative visionary released her latest album, Future Brown Prom Queen in November 2022.
Park's musical start was momentous. Her widely celebrated self-titled EP Sudan Archives was hungrily devoured by music lovers across the globe. A short six years on and she’s continuing to explore her love of the violin and craft unique and complex music.
“With everything that's been going on, Covid and racial injustice…. It's made everything go by faster”.
Natural Brown Prom Queen pushes back on societal expectations of women and felt cathartic to make.
“The whole album was like a therapy session, all I could do was sit in my basement and write”.The name felt ironic too because she was never invited to Prom. “So it was kind of like me representing everyone who felt left out. I was literally someone who didn’t have someone to sit with at lunch.…but whatever, I'm still a queen!”
At the heart of her music is the violin, an instrument she was introduced to in the fourth grade and one she expertly weaves throughout her compositions, pushing its scope beyond conventional classical traditions.
“When we left the school that had the orchestra, it made me want to dive deep into studying the origin of where it came from because it resonated with me so much”.
When Parks began researching North African playing styles of the violin, the strings on her bow finally came together. “They had such beautiful melodies, they looked like me, and the way they played it was so wild”
Her first trip to Africa was while filming the music video for her famous folkish single, Come Meh Way. “I want to go back to Africa for my birthday. My sister and I took a DNA test and found out we are Nigerian. So we would be stoked to go there”.
This was her first time working with a large team on any album, a process she loved.
Which enlisted a series of famous producers including MonoNeon, Simon on the Moon, Hi-Tek, and Nosaj Thing, and invited her family members to contribute lyrics and vocals
“It was a great experience… they were helping me evolve it beyond where I could take it”.
Creating beats is still a passion, a flare we hear continues through this album.
“I love incorporating live percussion in the sound, I love the moments people think they're hearing a drum but it’s really just me tapping on my violin.
Parks says she is excited to head to Aotearoa for the first time and see “the music inspire people to want to have fun and get out of their comfort zone”.
Sudan Archives will perform her sprawling and inventive new record at Auckland’s Power Station on Thursday, July 20.
