Parle Of Wisdom

A little over six years ago, things could hardly have looked any better for Luan Parle. Barely 20, the Wicklow singer-songwriter was signed to Sony Ireland, and had arrived in LA to collaborate with Billy Steinberg, composer of such classics as Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’, The Bangles’ ‘Eternal Flame’ and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colors’.

She soon found herself in a studio in Mendocino, Northern California, working with Bill Bottrell, the hottest producer around. As well as producing and writing regularly with Michael Jackson, he had overseen the Grammy-winning Tuesday Night Music Club album for Sheryl Crow, and had just scored a Grammy for his work on Shelby Lynne’s acclaimed I Am Shelby Lynn.
“It was an incredible experience,” Parle recalls. “Here I was, making an album with the same musicians who had worked on Tuesday Night Music Club. The sessions were going really well and everyone seemed to be happy. I think Bill saw me as his next Sheryl Crow-type project.”
After nine months in the studio, the album was finally completed and she returned to Dublin to hand the finished product to her label. That’s when things started to go wrong.
“They wanted a more commercial sounding album for Ireland and they didn’t think this was it. As far as I was concerned it wasn’t meant to be an Irish album. It was an international album. They had the opportunity to release it in Ireland and it was a back door into America, which is what I thought was going to happen. It came as a big shock to realise it was never going to be released.”
Sony suggested Parle assemble a more ‘commercial’ album using a couple of the Bill Bottrell tracks and some newly recorded material. Not surprisingly Bottrell vetoed this plan.
“It all got messy with lawyers,” Parle explains “Bill didn’t want the tracks to be used individually with other stuff that he wasn’t involved in, which I can understand. There was a lot of time wasted – you lose momentum and you lose heart. I had already gone to the press about this American album and people were beginning to think I had made it all up.”
In the meantime she recorded a new more pop-oriented record entitled Free without the Bill Bottrell material.
“It had a more Fleetwood Mac vibe – it was more pop,” she reflects. “It was released here and I toured it and there were a few gigs over in London with James Blunt who was just about to be launched. And we both supported Elton John which was amazing.”
Things looked more positive for Parle when she scooped a Meteor Award for Best Irish Female.
“I thought things might take off again, finally. Then, I was told that the album had gone three times over budget and at that point they pulled the plug. It was another huge shock. I’d booked a Crawdaddy show which was going to be the big Dublin showcase and I ended up having to pay some of the band to fly over from London.”
However, even though the relationship with the record company had ended, Sony agreed to let her release one track, ‘Ghost’ as a digital download. It went in into the charts at No. 10 and the album went back on the shelves. She toured extensively on the back of the success of the album and single and, as she puts it, “I had got my profile back on track.”
Since then Parle has gone it alone, record company wise. Her latest album Full Circle was made with long-time collaborator Gavin Ralston, sundry former members of Picture House and guests such as Fiachra Trench and James Delaney.
“It was great to have access to these guys,” she enthuses. “The photography was done by a friend of mine. Even Heaton’s supplied the fashions for the cover shoot. Financially, it’s definitely harder to do it on your own. It’s like a big hole that you keep throwing money into – if you thought about it you probably wouldn’t do it. But I’ve kept hold of my publishing and I’m living on that but I’m delighted to have got to this point.”
The Full Circle includes one of the Bill Bottrell tracks ‘Why Baby Why’ and Parle is confident that the “American album” will eventually be released.
“I heard it recently and it stands up very well. Bill was so good at capturing the mood though, there might be another explanation for that mood. There’s a lot of strong weed in the Mendocino area and everyone smokes it! I can hear it in the album, that very, er, laidback groove (laughs) and my voice sounds incredibly laidback. I’m sure I was inhaling it because they were all smoking around me and unknown to myself I was consuming it in the form of cookies – hash cookies They only told me at the end that there was hash in the cookies but they were lovely!”
The immediate future looks bright for Parle. Her profile at home has never been higher, a UK tour is booked for next April and she plans to head back to the US.
“I feel like it’s a big achievement to finally have the album out,” she concludes. “It’s a good position to be in.”

Luan Parle’s album The Full Circle is out now.