- We launched the
Stay Insider Sessions to connect with artists while the world practices social distancing. - Next up,
Tayla Parx reveals the real-life inspiration behind her sparkling new single, "Dance Alone." - "You know that moment where you're, like, 'Ooh, who is that?' It's literally about the moment when I saw the person who I am currently with, and I just wanted to dance with her."
- Parx's forthcoming sophomore album, "Coping Mechanisms," will explore the nuances of falling back in love, feeling secure after heartbreak, and letting go of fear.
- Parx also opens up about the evolution of her friendship with
Ariana Grande — who she met when they were both teenage actors on Nickelodeon — and cowriting five songs on her Grammy-nominated album "Thank U, Next."
Insider launched the Stay Insider Sessions to connect with musicians while they, like many of us, are grappling with isolation and unprecedented downtime. Next up: Tayla Parx.
If you don't know Tayla Parx's face, you almost certainly know the words she helped write: "One taught me love, one taught me patience, and one taught me pain. Now, I'm so amazing." Does that ring any bells?
How about, "I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it?" Or, "Had to have high, high hopes for a living?" Or, perhaps, "Tell me where your love lies?"
I've seen YouTube comments and tweets that compare Parx to the puppeteer behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz." Others dub her the "secret weapon" behind radio's top 40. That you almost certainly knew every song I just listed, without providing any artist names or track titles, proves there's some truth to that.
But although Parx has cowritten some of the most popular songs from the past few years, it's also inadequate to describe her as anonymous, masked, or secret.
Truthfully, if you don't know Parx's face by now, you're behind the curve.
Although she wields immense power as a songwriter, the 26-year-old has been in the spotlight since her star-making turn as Little Inez Stubbs in the 2007 film "Hairspray," and her infectiously funky solo work sounds a lot like the future of pop
"That's actually one of my favorite things — when people start to tie in, like, 'Wait a minute. She's also done this, and this,' and they feel like they're in Narnia or something," she tells me during a recent Zoom call, laughing. "It's hilarious, and it's been a really fun experience to have this evolution."
Yes, she embodies all those clichés that are springing to your mind: Renaissance woman; jack-of-all-trades; she wears a lot of hats, and looks good in every single one.
It took some time for Parx to break out of the 'child actor' box — but she says her career is better for it
As a child, Parx was discovered by legendary choreographer, director, and modern "Grey's Anatomy" matriarch Debbie Allen. For three years, she performed onstage for Hollywood icons like Denzel Washington and Steven Spielberg — although she always felt like "the singer who could dance, never the dancer first."
Indeed, when she booked "Hairspray," Parx was minimally stressed about fraternizing with the likes of John Travolta or Queen Latifah, and far more concerned about convincing the audience that she could win the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant on the fictional "Corny Collins Show."
"At the time, I didn't even realize. My mom was like, 'You know, that's John Travolta, he's an icon!' And I was like, 'I'm 13. I just saw "Grease" last week,'" she laughs.
"Obviously, I knew who Zac Efron was. I had a massive crush. I knew 'High School Musical.' I knew things like that," she continues. "But I was definitely more like, 'Woah, I am surrounded by these incredible dancers outside of the main cast and I'm supposed to be winning the 'Corny Collins Show' competition and I have to make sure that I'm prepared.'"
Little Inez's piercingly confident verse in "Run and Tell That" was the first time Parx professionally recorded a song. It was also, casually, her first time being involved in a Grammy-nominated project — though certainly not her last.
Parx notes that launching her career as a child actor felt like a "hindrance" at first, because industry executives wanted to keep her in that box.
"Once they see you as one way, it's really hard for them to believe — like, 'Woah, she can sing, she can dance, she can act, but now she's going to produce and become a publisher and write pop songs?' People have all of these boxes that they've created in their own minds," she says, her voice colored with both exasperation and sympathy.
"But you know what? It ended up turning into something that helped me, because I realized that my acting experience was the thing that allowed me to really get into character, which is what I like to call it when I'm writing with an artist," she continues.
"When I'm really taking on and embodying them — I dive into their lives, I dive into their stories, and we write albums together. Not just one-off songs and singles."
As a teenager, Parx went on to land a reoccurring role in Nickelodeon's "True Jackson, VP" and a small part in "Victorious," where she met a 16-year-old, red-haired Ariana Grande.
Parx cowrote five songs for Ariana Grande's Grammy-nominated album, 'Thank U, Next'
Although the two girls clicked right away and remained friendly after moving on from Nickelodeon, they hadn't seen each other in years when they met up for a studio session in late 2018 — when Parx got into a booth and began singing the word "needy" over and over.
That riff would become the tender heart of Grande's best album to date.
"I think that me and Ariana have been able to build a level of trust throughout the years — going from Nickelodeon to transitioning into music, to now living in it and being a part of this industry in a completely different way than we both entered it," she explains. "We've always had that mutual respect, even if we weren't consistent collaborators."
"I usually bounce around with a lot of different artists, because I like to keep it fun and to keep it fresh, but I think that that was also the thing that allowed me to look at Ariana with fresh eyes," she continues thoughtfully.
"It's nice to be able to take a step back, then come back and pick up right where we left off, which we've always been able to do."
In fact, it was Parx who encouraged Grande to explicitly name her ex-boyfriends in the opening verse of "Thank U, Next," which became Grande's first-ever No. 1 single and nothing less than a cultural touchstone.
"I knew that she had a good relationship with everybody that she mentioned in the song, and so it was one of those things of, 'OK. If we're going to be big girls about it, approach everybody, let them know this is what's going down. Feel it out,'" she explains. "And she did that, and was really respectful of those previous relationships and it was awesome."
"I think it turned out exactly the way that it was meant to turn out. It all goes back to what she was trying to portray with the whole album: that she's been responsible with her emotions, taking grasp of them, and being unapologetic about it, which was a really, really fun process to be a part of."
Parx grins widely when I tell her that "Needy" is my favorite song on the album.
"Honestly, it might be my favorite as well," she nods. "It was something that was so real, and something that came from seeing the way that somebody really is, and loving it. I really, really respect that about her. And I can be that way as well — and so could, I think, anybody that was in the room that day. We've all felt that emotion."
But Parx didn't stop at just two god-tier songs in Grande's discography.
She also cowrote the fan-favorite "NASA," the aforementioned smash hit "7 Rings," and the weighty, emotional deep cut "Ghostin." In fact, she says there's even a sixth song they worked on together, "which me and Ariana still love," but it was left off the album.
"It just wasn't right for the project," she muses, "but it's still a dope song, so who knows? Maybe one day, something will be figured out with how to release it."
—TAYLA PARX (@TAYLAPARX) January 18, 2019
Indeed, it's not unusual for a single tracklist to boast multiple "TaylaMade" songs; Parx often becomes deeply involved with an artist when she's enlisted to help bring an album to life, so she tends to be "very choosy" with who she works with.
"I've been working since I was 9 years old," she says. "I'm 26 now and I value my time."
"I mean, hey. When you're wasting somebody's time or somebody's money, it's a big deal," she continues, putting her hands up and shrugging her shoulders. "It doesn't matter what I've done, the same way it doesn't matter what you've done. If we're walking into a room together, I expect us to have the same mutual respect and for us to just have fun."
"I don't really care how good you can sing. I've worked with some of the best singers in the game. Or how good you can write. That's awesome, too. I care that we can have fun doing this and that we can possibly create something refreshing."
With one hand on the wheel, Parx has managed to tease sincerity and openness and visionary albums out of pop veterans like Christina Aguilera ("Liberation") and Janelle Monáe ("Dirty Computer").
"It's one of my favorite parts about being a songwriter: taking more of an executive producer approach and saying, 'Look. Let's talk about what you're trying to portray here and what you're trying to do with this era, because it allows me to write better songs for you,'" she tells me. "When you do songs with a one-off approach, I think it's hard to find cohesiveness."
She adds: "Even with my own album, I try not to [involve lots of different people]. I try to keep it very focused and strong with collaborators because, if not, then everything kind of becomes muddy."
Parx's glittering new single, 'Dance Alone,' explores the surreal euphoria of an instant connection
Parx has been taking advantage of solitude during the coronavirus crisis, using this time to mix tracks for her forthcoming sophomore album, "Coping Mechanisms."
"It's been refreshing because I'm a big fan of collaboration and I'm usually always collaborating," she tells me. "I started off writing in my bedroom by myself. And now, I've kind of gone back to those days."
Parx is currently isolated at home with three dogs and her girlfriend — who inspired her album's lead single, "Dance Alone," which dropped on Thursday.
Parx wrote the funky song while she was on tour with Lizzo last year. One night on the road, she was out dancing with a group of people when a woman caught her eye.
"You know that moment where you're, like, 'Ooh, who is that?' It's literally about the moment when I saw the person who I am currently with, and I just wanted to dance with her," Parx tells me. "We ended up dancing for hours, just having an amazing time. And I mean, like, a sweaty type of dance. Like, we should stop. We should sit down. But when you're in that kind of atmosphere..."
She trails off, beaming. "Dance Alone" effortlessly embodies that discoball-induced euphoria — as if it was torn straight from a rom-com set in the late '70s, with Parx playing the starry-eyed protagonist.
It's almost the antithesis of her 2019 debut album, "We Need to Talk," which explored Parx's first major heartbreak and the aftermath of "craving love."
"With this new album, you'll hear me transitioning: having to pick myself back up, to, 'You know what? I got this.' I'm in a healthy relationship now and this is what we're going through," she explains. "So I think you'll be able to hear me being a little less afraid."
"It's me acknowledging, 'Hey, look. I'm coming with a little baggage because of my previous situation and hopefully I don't mess this up. Bear with me.'"
"You'll hear that I'm comfortable with where I am right now," she adds. "I'm usually very private about my relationships. I've never actually said that [I have a girlfriend] in an interview, until right now."
"But I just assume that people will hear it in the music anyway, you know? You hear it in the music. That's usually where I like to keep it. But I'm excited for people to hear my story this time around."
Fans can still expect "Coping Mechanisms" by the end of 2020, despite some setbacks due to the coronavirus crisis
The songs are all written and the tracklist is cemented, Parx says, but now it's about "fine-tuning" the production and overall effect of the project.
And based on our conversation, I feel confident predicting a thorough, unflinching, kaleidoscopic listening experience — one that's going to inspire fans to do some serious soul-searching.
"I've definitely been having a lot of time to make another evolution. It's exciting because [this downtime] is coming at a point when I have this new album and I'm discovering a new me," she tells me.
"I know [the pandemic] is going to affect a lot of musicians in good ways and bad ways, but I think both ways make for great music," she continues. "I think that anytime when it's like, man, you can't stand to be alone with yourself for long periods of time? That's a problem."
"I've had time to be able to say, 'You know what? Let's enjoy hanging with yourself and finding out even more who you are.'"
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