The Parkington Sisters Talk Belly, Babies, and Bringing on the New Year
From the moment I watched the Parkington Sisters step onto the stage at Gramercy Theatre in early October, I’ve been spellbound by their sirenesque harmonies and vibrant, rootsy folk songs.
The band, fronted by sisters Rose (piano, guitar, vocals), Ariel (violin, viola, vocals), and Sarah Parkington (violin, viola, vocals), commanded attention as they clutched their instruments, luring in listeners who’d purchased tickets to see headliner Belly in New York City.
As it turns out, the show was a monumental capstone to a busy year for the sisters who hail from coastal Wellfleet, Mass. In September, they released their full-length album, Collide — a ten-track body of work highlighting their unique blend of percussive folk, lush vocals, and a touch of heel-stompin’ rock n’ roll. A bit of a sonic departure from the punk-rock-sea-shanty songs of their earliest band formation (with sisters Lydia and Nora), Collide is sweeping and evocative. My favorites, besides the title track, are the emotive piano ballad “Alaska” and the spirited “Live Wire.”
[SEE RELATED: TANYA DONELLY ON BELLY’S REUNION TOUR AND NEW ALBUM (IN 2024)]
The show was also the tail end of a musical babymoon of sorts for Rose, who played all of Belly’s East Coast tour dates with her older siblings while eight and a half months pregnant.
Fortunately, I managed to catch up with the sisters just a few hours before Rose went into labor. In an animated conversation with Ariel, Rose, and Sarah, I learned a bit about how they balance parenting four (and now five) young children, why 2023 was so rewarding — and what’s next for 2024.
Marisa Torrieri (Rockmommy): So how did you become a musical sisterhood? Did your did your family give you violins in the nursery?
Ariel Parkington (violin, viola, vocals): Both of our parents are musicians — they met because my dad saw my mom carrying a guitar around. Our dad played violin. Sarah and I are older so we started on violin, like our dad.
Sarah Parkington (violin, viola, vocals): Yeah, and even our aunts played, who lived around the corner in the neighborhood [in Wellfleet, Mass.] and I remember being in kindergarten, being surprised that everyone didn’t play violin.
Rose Parkington (piano, guitar, vocals): I’m a bit younger. So growing up, I would kind of be falling asleep to Sarah and Ariel practicing their violin and they were pretty good at that point. I decided to play piano because I wanted to sit down. I tried some violin but it wasn’t for me. We got started when Sarah, who was in high school, got a street permit and a little card that said, ‘musical circus.’ So she and her friends went out and played on the street in Provincetown and she just had such a blast and came back and was like, “Guys, you’ve got to do this!”
Sarah: When I moved to New York, and I was playing [in] lots of bands … I remember just being like, “my sisters. are really badass, like, we need to do something.” And we had already been playing together in the streets in the summers, doing DIY shows, libraries, really anywhere we could play, and it progressed.
Rose: Yeah, you skipped ahead. We got our start playing on the streets, “La Bamba” and Beatles songs because I was like, early on the guitar … and then we started learning some Radiohead and instrumental covers. And then we just roped in [all the sisters] and we’d play Irish jigs and like, Pachobel’s Cannon. And then it branched out from there. We started playing some shows.
Ariel: After we’d clean some houses, we’d go to the streets and make money.
Rose: We were cleaning houses together on Saturdays and we’d go after.
Rockmommy: Who are each of your influences?
Ariel: We definitely have different tastes for sure, but we’re united when it comes to our songwriting. You know, I lean a little more country.
Sarah: I lean weird, I think.
Rockmommy: How did you meet Tanya Donelly, who you recently toured with?
Rose: We met her at Hot Stove Cool Music in Boston. She’s got the biggest heart of gold.
Ariel: She was so sweet. I remember we were kind of dealing with some music business stuff and she was so generous. She said if we ever needed advice, we could call her!
Rockmommy: How did your 2020 album with Tanya Donelly come together?
Rose: Tanya reached out she had been approached by American Laundromat to do a covers record. And so she reached out to see if we would want to do that with her as her band.
[SEE RELATED: TANYA DONELLY SHARES HER POSTPARTUM JOURNEY THROUGH MUSIC, PARENTING, AND A NEW RECORD WITH THE PARKINGTON SISTERS]
Rockmommy: That must have been difficult putting out that album — and because it was 2020, just not getting to tour.
Ariel: It was kind of a tricky time, too, because we had actually been working on our own record, and then had the Tanya record and I had a baby. In our heads, we thought things were going to be a lot more achievable with just one kid.
Sarah: We’re like, ‘nothing’s going to change!’
Ariel: Well, I was trying to do a show a week before my due date … and then of course, the baby came early!
Rose: There were shows that were in the works and things that had to get canceled due to the pandemic and it definitely was a bummer, because you don’t get to fulfill that side of putting out the music, which is connecting with people and playing the songs live. But also, you know, what can you do? It was just such a crazy time that we just kind of accepted that and then that became a time of many more babies.
Sarah: I had a baby in 2020. I think the record came out and my firstborn was two weeks old … it was okay for me just to kind of have some downtime.
Rockmommy: So can you tell us about how the recent tour with Belly came together, along with your album, in 2023?
Rose: We had been wanting to put the record out. We’ve had the record done for, you know, a few years but with all the kids and COVID it just wasn’t lining up for us to put it out. And so when Tanya and Belly reached out to see if we would want to do this tour, it was finally the perfect timing and everything came together.
Rockmommy: On your new album, there’s definitely a feeling of place in songs like ‘Collide’ and ‘Alaska.’
Ariel: I think you’re totally right! With ‘Collide,’ Rose had this really pretty guitar part that she was playing. And I remember hanging out trying to, you know, come up with a melody and we needed a lyric. And so I started looking through old notebooks of mine from when I used to live in Tucson. So it started with this vision of, like, the desert a little bit, too, you know … the mountains of Tucson. And also Rose wrote ‘Alaska.’
Rockmommy: What is the best and the most challenging thing about playing with your own sisters?
Ariel: I would say the hardest thing is when you are pushed to your limits in sort of, like, exhaustion and all of these things and trying to still not cross sister boundaries, right?
Rose: When you don’t get space because you’re constantly together, you can fall back into those childhood patterns of getting snarky with each other.
Ariel: With other bands, you know, you’re kind of on your best behavior.
Sarah: Like Rose is saying, we can be really brutally honest with each other, and you know, I think sometimes that’s the hard part, too, creatively.
Rose: On the flip side of that there’s just such a deep connection. They’re my best friends. All of my sisters. It’s not something that everybody has.
Rockmommy: What are your plans for 2024?
Ariel: I think we’ll probably do shows when Rose is feeling up for it. Then probably start working on whatever the next project is.
Sarah: I think this will be an interesting time for us to see how we will be writing. With Collide, we were really writing together and in person [with fewer kids in tow]. I think that’s one of the pros of being moms now. It’s just kind of like, let’s cut to the chase!
Marisa Torrieri Bloom is the editor and founder of Rockmommy.
