In his most personal song to date, the multi-platinum-selling singer and songwriter Parson James is back. “‘Little Fires’ is a song that I wish I was able to hear as a kid,” says James. “I have not been shy in sharing the struggles of my upbringing and I find it important to take any opportunity I can to speak to the experience in case there is someone like me who needs to hear it.” The South Carolina-born singer is ready and excited to wear his heart on his sleeve as he prepares to embark on this new chapter.

Having had an unimaginable amount of success in the music industry, James’ career has spanned several record deals, massive collaborations, and of course solo releases, making him one of the most dynamic and unpredictable artists to date. We spoke with the singer-songwriter about the new music, as well as what manifested it.

Mathias Rosenzweig: Give me a bit of background on this song. Where were you physically and mentally during its creation?

Parson James: I had just moved to Nashville within a month or two—it was 2021. I had already been in LA for 4 years, and when 2020 came around I was having a really tough time and a lot of things were surfacing. The pandemic was just especially heavy on me. I tried to play it off at first, but me being a hypochondriac at all times the pandemic was my biggest nightmare. So of course, all of that added extra anxiety, like everyone had, I got to a place where LA was too heavy for me. I had a difficult relationship with LA and so any complications or problems I had with the city were amplified. 

I got the opportunity to seek treatment at a trauma facility in Tennessee. While I was there, I got the chance to spend a few days in Nashville, and I started to put out into the universe that I should relocate here. Sure enough, I got the opportunity to get a place and I moved.

MR:Had you spent a decent amount of time in Nashville prior to this stint? Have you ever gone there to record or was it pretty new to you?

PJ: I was down there twice prior to moving, maybe more. All in all, it was still pretty new to me and I think that’s what was exciting because it would be completely different—a complete change of pace with new people. I had this friend group, another queer artist named Fancy who used to live in LA, welcomed me into the city of Nashville. So, I had this nice friend group and a good unit to start with. 

I was in Nashville going back and forth to LA. It felt like when I moved to Nashville, everyone wanted me for sessions in LA. In doing so, I met someone named Pete Winfield, artistically known as Until The Ribbon Breaks, and he was looking to collaborate with new people so he suggested we get in a room together and we did. The first day we did was when “Little Fires” was written. 

MR: Did you go into that session with an idea of that song or any of the lyrics? What was the first building block that you had?

PJ: At that time I was a bit discouraged because I had been through a record deal prior and I had just signed a new deal and it was going sour. Eventually, this label would crumble and fold and you could feel the weight of that happening as it was processed. So I was idea’d out. I didn’t know what else I could say. All the music I was making was seemingly not going to come out. When I went in with Pete, I kind of had no idea. He is alternative and was opening for Lorde for a long time so he’s definitely in a different direction or lane than I am. I had no idea what we would do. 

When I got there, we talked for the longest time and immediately bonded over our childhood—we had very similar childhoods, very similar struggles with substance, very similar openness and empathy—we are just so similar. It was an immediate spark. He was playing chords and he had a file name in his computer called “Little Fires” with this mumbled idea of something. There used to be this opening sequence from a movie that says something along the lines of “because you’re great, because you’re beautiful, because of this and that” and it was this beautiful encouraging clip, but the lyrics weren’t there. As we started talking, we started talking about therapy work and how the inner child is the first thing you’re encouraged to reconnect with. You are encouraged to find where that joy lied and the things that happened to that version of yourself. We started talking about me growing up and remembering the spark and light that I had before I really started to care or notice that, you know, people didn’t want you to be too much or that fact that I was a little too different or that I knew that I was gay from such a young age. 

I remember Pete saying that it’s so sad because children’s joy and bewilderment with the world is one of the most beautiful things and we lost that at some point. That’s when I realized we had to write in that direction. We wanted to create an encouragement song for the kid that is five years old and wants to twirl in the middle of Walmart and wear bright colors. Or a kid that has a really insane, out of the box passion about something that they are embarrassed of because of society. That’s where the ideas started to form. One of the first lines we said was “baby, don’t you lose that flame” because that magic we all possess at some point can be muted. The song just started to write itself at that point. In two or three hours, we knocked it out. 

MR: In the time you and I have known each other, gay rights and how people are treated has changed so much. A lot of it has been for the better, but I don’t feel like I’ve heard a song or spoken to someone specifically about the topic of knowing you were different or eccentric. There’s a point where you are so innocent that you don’t even think about other people judging that whatsoever. Then it ends up getting weaponized against you. You’re kind of just told that you’re wrong for being this way. There’s 5, 6, and 7 year olds that it happens to every day. It’s such a heartbreaking thing.

PJ: It is very heartbreaking and I think that’s another reason why taking this direction and this message is so important. I used to hate looking at pictures of myself where I was deeply closeted and struggling a lot but I was pushing through in high school. I can’t really remember not overthinking or what my body looks like or what I walk like or any of that stuff. I was just acting really well.  Now I have this little sister who is eight with developmental issues and she has this energy that is so magnetic and so silly but I get this shackling fear that she’s going to go to school and someone is going to tell her that she is strange or weird and then that energy is going to be gone. I had her in my mind a lot while writing this. 

MR: It’s such an interesting way of looking at it. If you have sort of a let’s say flamboyant acting child, I think they have a fear of that kid going to school and getting made fun of. Then it becomes a thing where they say ‘I don’t mind gay people’ but I don’t want my child getting picked on. So essentially, they encourage their kid to tone it down. In your case, it’s not that at all. You don’t want your little sister to be less weird so she isn’t picked on, instead you’re saying that you’re scared school is going to take that away from her. We all just get a little bit hardened as we grow up and I hope her generation has more flexibility than we have. 

PJ: Definitely. I do have faith in this generation. I think kids are growing up in a completely different way obviously because the world is a completely different place. The first line of the song says “they try to love you, malice in their heart. Little fires don’t know what they start” and it basically talks about these kids wanting to be their true authentic selves but other people causing such an uproar about it. It’s just devastating. 

MR: Tell me a bit about the music video and the visuals in particular. Obviously, the song came first but then you also worked with him on the video. 

PJ: He is just so brilliant. I think it’s also beautiful how somebody that comes from such a different world of creation and style of music could find as much synergy as we did, even down to the aesthetics. Image is a big thing for me and he totally understood me. It was my 30th birthday and we had gone over treatment and he was very dedicated to keeping it simple. He had an idea of me being on the beach and very stoic staring into the camera singing this song. He also had a specific location which is way down the PCH passing Malibu. But on my birthday, Adam Lambert threw me a 30th birthday party rager. It was pretty insane, Billy Porter came to the party. At the party Pete wanted me to get as drunk as possible for our 3:00 AM call time because he wanted me to look super emotional. I went and I enjoyed this birthday party and I went to bed for maybe 40 minutes. 

My manager and I got to Malibu and we shot for a few hours. He’d known when the light was going to be at its bluest and the video doesn’t even look real to be honest it looks like I’m on a green screen. Then with some CGI for the fire behind me, the video took a few weeks or a few months to be delivered. I didn’t have a release date because the label situation was so bad. Pete took his time but the anticipation was nuts. I had friends over at my house and he sent it and we saw it on my TV and I noticed my moms voice. I didn’t know but Pete had reached out to my mom via Instagram and told her to just freestyle for two minutes about me. I was completely surprised. Then I saw the first cut of the video and I was like whoa. 

I am a huge Lana Del Rey stan and I communicated to him that I loved the “Blue Jeans” video and the “Video Games” video with all of this nostalgic footage that is interspersed between the actual shots. And so he gave me my Lana moment.

MR: I can feel that vibe in the video. It’s so well done. I didn’t think of Lana necessarily when I was seeing it, which I think is good. 

PJ: It’s just been sitting around for two years. I lost that record deal and I had this. I’ve been writing every day. I’ve created an EP that comes out next year, but losing that record deal was such a stab to the heart which was after we shot “Little Fires.” Your biggest dream comes true and then everything crashes. So I was just like what am I going to do? Will this song ever see the light of day? 

The reality is timing is everything. I’ve changed and evolved stylistically in those two years. But when I was in negotiations to sign a new deal and I did, my gut knew I had an EP and I should put it out right away. I feel like this is such a great introduction or a re-introduction to Parson in the way that I want the world to see me. 

MR: Well that’s kind of the most important thing, right? That’s why you get into this type of career. You get to put out the kind of thing you’re passionate about and not what you’re feeling forced to by a label or whatever else. 

PJ:  I got a text the other day from an artist I admire and he asked me “how do you stay hopeful?” It hit me in the chest. There’s no one way to say that but I said that I struggle with that constantly. I try to start affirmations and I try to be present. I’m still creating—and what a gift that I’m able to do that—and someone is hearing it. It might not be 1 billion like who hear the Kygo song, but someone is hearing it. Staying hopeful is a day-to-day struggle that you have to kind of always be on top of figuring out or finding small nuggets that can remind you of gratitude. But there’s no one answer to that question. 

MR: I think as an artist it’s so hard to not care what people think because you’re putting out your work and you want it to be consumed. I spoke with Maggie Rogers and she told me yes, you can see the streaming numbers but what you can’t see is how many people had their first dance at their wedding to that song or how many kids had their first kiss at my concert while I was playing that song. Data gets thrown at everybody but you never really know the emotional attachment people have had to a song. 

PJ: That’s a perfect way to describe the situation. It’s easier said than done, but where I’m at in my life is that those things are much more powerful to me. I had this fear at the show I played in Atlanta that nobody was coming and I had to sit with myself and say “If no one comes, or if 10 people come, are you going to alter your performance and give less because there’s not enough people there to receive it? Or are you going to give it your all because somebody needs it there because they came and decided to show up?” In a world of people on social media who have no idea how the music industry works and are so quick to call someone a flop because they only sold half of the venue, it is so hard to not have that fear of what people think of you. At the end of the day, if those people are speaking that way, they’re not rocking with what you do for your art, so that is not the demographic you should be focusing on.  There is no way I am flopping if I’m singing to someone who has had the worst day ever and left my show renewed.

Below, you can find the “Little Fires” music video: