yeah

lyrics:
give up
give a little time
waste it
as if it wasn't mine

and when you stack up all your yesterdays
and your hands grow older than your face
is it fine? can you read the major lines

sell it
like i was never there
harmless
as long as you don't stare

and when the sea gets covered by growing vines
and my phone sings me to sleep at night
am i fine? can i write a better life?

and i thought i saw you on a railway
but the station's closed on snowy days
it's true
i see you all the time
and i'm stuck for months in a seaside town
reading the signs in growing frowns
it's you
writing off deadlines

Nazca

parkerlee.bandcamp.com

extra vox on 'luna' by sofia harmonywoods.bandcamp.com

art by elizabeth goman and isobel howe

maybe what i need isn't a cog in a machine
but a step in right direction back to you
your footsteps followed suit over a better thing to lose
and you know it's such an awful thing to know

give it all to me. i am the pipes beneath the streets,
redirecting all your fears to somewhere new
it's easier like this, i'll take the burden if you wish,
and set it off when all your sails come to shore

sometimes i expect the moon to fall out of the sky
and crush me while i'm standing next to you

Luna

parkerlee.bandcamp.com

extra vox on 'luna' by sofia harmonywoods.bandcamp.com

art by elizabeth goman and isobel howe

call it off if you're still down to talk
can you read my letters upside down

because i'm hanging from the ceiling always
my shoes above the door
i've got friends who see me
and friends who i ignore

and a parking lot is hard to walk upon
when the concrete cracks the same way every day

and i'm drawing a map despite this
respite - i'm here to talk
the pain in my feet there always
shaving off my thoughts

see, all the books i read make no difference in between
a stray dog in the street and in this dark
i think she's lost

Size Nines

engine, forgive my sins
carry them up in dashboard heat
swallow the things i couldn't keep to myself
MI is cold as hell
and the snow stacks two feet deep
so my shoes can't carry me to your house

panic, still in my mind
treating your skin like real estate
something to keep the rain away from my head

do i really need an escape, do i really need fake convalescence
do i really know your face, and do i take the second train home
draw the cracks in my forehead, line them up and fill them with your own thoughts
it's the things i recognise that i have trouble spinning lies towards when i'm lost
i need a panic button to call to waste my stupid time
and i need a twin sized bed to lay that book you wrote for me down to rest

right hand, drawing lines
paint out cities in your palm, show me what the future holds across town
left brain, analyse my crimes
show me all the things i need to keep balance between me and myself

do i really need a slow pace, do i really need to bring myself down
will i ever see you again, walking past or driving back to my house
wrap the wires round your wrists, and call it off while i'm still second guessing
it's difficult to say these things when i'm not really sure about what i mean
i need dividing lines to make some sense of where this died
and i need a ballpoint pen to write it out across the notebook in your eyes

i'm gone on the side of a road
i'd sooner stop for you than figure out where to go

Michigan

saw you in a bathroom in a cafe in atlanta
you were crawling up the walls behind my spine
painting freckles black, taking nothing back
you were cold and poisoned, slipping through the cracks
this pointlessly planned attack made me aware of things i lacked
a suitable defense against the rain and feathered backs
still, i let you wait your turn - you're always slow at first
i know you'll bring down the mountains if you try

drip into something more comfortable
just be sure to keep the well-worn pages dry
there's no room for any growth without a little pain
after all, what's the shower without the drain

Waterworks

outside of office hours, soliciting a distressed caller
the power it's been out since late last year
and i still know this is where it ends,
while i'm stuck behind a fountain pen
and it's sixteen hours til i can get home

smashing up high rise apartments, i find excuses in the moment
something past high maintenance design
and chloe's supposed to call, i've been slowing my stride to just a crawl
the subscript in my teeth is running dry

i'm in bristol, i'm in boston, geneva flights keep me bound to motion
cross-continential job's a bore
oceanic green in an airport screen, it's telling me which time to leave
i'm still packing away my things from last night

i'm on shore leave, i'm surely thinking of all the things i couldn't be
in detroit lights, drowning in gutters, no support, no guarantee
nobody asks for my opinion, i'm just significant to me
i'm dead and gone in iron sights, dreaming of someplace where i can sleep

Office Hours

my sensation of selfishness took a long time to go
poor decisions from loneliness cutting me deep to the bone
and as i'm walking past station hotel, i try to breathe
knowing if someone finds me, they'll just see what's underneath
i'm a proponent for being loose
i'm axiomatic clues

the change in my back pocket took me wrong turns for days
i'm trying to express myself in a thousand ways
making small talk and mixed drinks, i barely manage to save face
under long hair and lenses i want to cut away
i'm a disaster, a broken fuse
comfortable under no roof

my, how everything's better with your back against the wall
biting as it sounds, i will soon be drowning in calls
unpacking boxes and locking the door into my old room
i feel i could stay here, lie down and avoid the news
i'm the needle against the bruise
i've got a thing for being used

Station Hotel

produced by Harry Volker and Jowan Mead
Jowan Mead - vocals, guitar
Annie Prior - drums, guitar
Harry Volker - bass, synth

antlers held tight
he crawls across the night, looking for a comfortable fence
to lean on as he smokes his last pack of pretty words
can't come on too strong, or be unheard

between my knees
head sets my discord free
i keep it cool and hold it still
heavy, it gleams; black light between the trees
shoots out a warning, and i seem

to see this place for all its selfish ways
and i write my name until the words sound
over, and over, and over again
i get real helpless when i think about the things that i've said

so i reach around and find that awful sound
playing out, and set the record
ever and ever, and ever so still
i can't compete with all the bitter things i tell myself

Fencer

a song for a friend

oh my, i've been waiting for a reason to get drunk again
could i fall asleep right next to you and feel the same?

i've been counting all my evenings, and exactly where they've gone - i don't know

sometime you could stitch me up and smoke me like i'm paper thin
should i be so bold and kiss you like we're not quite friends?

i've been counting all my evenings - 
an abacus of moving on
while your eyes roll out their sockets,
i'll be looking. where they've gone -
i don't know

would i, if i heard you laughing, sink into your arms?

Drunk (Bedroom Version)

'Size Nines' from "if you're not serious, don't say it", the debut album from Parker Lee out june 18th 2019.

https://parkerlee.bandcamp.com/
call it off, if you're still down to talk
can you read my letters upside down?

because i'm hanging from the ceiling, always
my shoes above the door
i've got friends who see me
and friends who i ignore

and a parking lot is hard to walk upon
when the concrete cracks the same way every day

but i'm drawing a map despite this
respite, "i'm here to talk"
the pain in my feet there always shaving off my thoughts

see, all the books i read make no difference in between
a stray dog in the street and in this dark
i think she's lost

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
lost in a metro, when you rear your head and talk
tell me something sweet, tell me anything you want
straight line knife-edge, you can fit anywhere at all
but it's probable you'll settle on my bathroom floor

and the trapped nerve knows its place in a quiet radio
where we can sit, we can let transistors give a subtle glow
chewing chalk, you spat out something dark and tall
under mottled pendulum, you swing into your fall

forgive me if i seem serpentine or uneasy

go home alone, i'll stay and feel umbilical
crossed a bridge, then everything got very cool

Irene Hixon Whitney

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
maybe what i need isn't a cog in a machine
but a nudge in right direction back to you
your footsteps followed suit, over a better thing to lose
and you know it's such an awful thing to know

give it all to me, i am the pipes beneath the streets
redirecting all your fears to somewhere new
it's easier like this, i'll take the burden if you wish
and set it off when all your sails come to shore

sometimes i expect the moon
to fall out of the sky and crush me while i'm standing next to you

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
on a parkside bench besides the end of all the rest
there'll be drawings of hands all on the floor
and we're arguing over the size of your plans
and the size of the stars between steel bars

on a loose end, poor excuse for regiment
do you wanna be lined up on a wooden floor?
biting that someone you once called friend
could take a second chance to leave a second scar

maybe this is a one-time thing
i'm clinging to my hopes that you can set aside your knives for now
never cared that much for what you say
asking questions about where i want to be
can we exclude the future for a while?

and i'm with you in boston, i think you're getting dressed
i hear you on the phone

you're sounding like a magistrate,
tossing words through an understanding that i don't know
i'm out of change, i can't swallow this kind of change
i'm not made for digging holes all on my own

despite the things i said, i am missing you to death
so leave a message, i'm coming home
i'm a skeleton at best - i don't need you in my chest
just another organ that i can't call my own

and i'm with you in boston, i think you're getting dressed
i'm with you on the phone

you're sounding like i'm becoming second best
i don't need a contender to hold my own
give it a rest - take it to sundays past
when i was still around and you were worth the show

Boston

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
your stepfather gave to me a collection of his old CDs
that were gathering dust on a pinewood shelf
at the centre of the earth that was your house

remember you in your room
irreverent in your self-inflicted wounds
and the guesture of you turning away
diffused our moods, it gave our bones some space
you always needed more than me

i see you move with me -
you fold a faded "Heroes" sleeve
into something blunt, something to take away
an object monolithic in its power to absorb names
and i hated it, the way you spoke,
i found solace in your teeth and my ingrown clothes
so take them away with the driver's seat
i was saccharine green, you were expertise

it's my duty to pull the black card twice
it's all i can take in sheet mental ice
it's a gating system that pulls away
while all i do is shout for someone else's name

nothing i ever said was anything but an arrow towards your head
and everything you hate, there was so much more
spread out into a red target on your bedroom floor

Faded "Heroes" Sleeve

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
is it safe to say i'm sorry for what i've done?
lying down on a slated floor, my wrist begins to run
i was coughing out my ribs after just a couple hits
of every small aggresion i've known taken at once

is it cool to stick around for the lights-off?
come and see me in my room, always speaking off the cuff
and just like children build toy houses out of plastic blocks and boxes
i'm just looking for a refuge to call my own

but it's cool, and it's calm - it's difficult outside
and the fear stacks in twisted assembly lines
ecstatic gears, and wasted years, lack of willingness to grow
but it's still cool to be here, romanticised or no

is there a bullshit mathematic for where i stand?
fingers crack to spinal tap, and my doubt's gone with the lamp
so follow me to the ceiling at the apex of your breathing
i've got with me every single thought i need

try to regain some duplicity
like amelia earhart disappeared in ciphered breeze
difficult to find the place inside the atlantic where it was made
but it's still you in that blank haze

Amelia Earhart

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
i feel you're wasting your time here
i can see it in your stride as you walk on by
i think you've had enough to drink,
repulsive things you say get more and more refined
you say it's fine

but i'm getting sick of this east-west divide
divining what you say from where you stand,
and not the letters that you write
there's a lot to do, so do it - i'm not pushing you this time
i trust you have the strength for just a few lines

Horizontal

"if you're not serious, don't say it" is the new album from North Yorkshire based indie rock quartet Parker Lee, released independently on June 18th. Stream and purchase at the link below;

lyrics:
give up - give a little time
waste it as if it wasn't mine
when you stack up all your yesterdays
and your hands grow older than your face,
is it fine? can you read the major lines?

sell it like i was never there
harmless as long as you don't stare
when the sea gets covered by growing vines
and my phone sings me to sleep at night,
am i fine? can i write a better life?

i thought i saw you on a railway
but the station's closed on snowy days
it's true - i see you all the time
and i'm stuck for months in a seaside town
reading the signs with growing frowns
it's you - writing off deadlines

Short play version of Luna, from our debut album "if you're not serious, don't say it".

Feat. vocals by Jordana Nye
https://soundcloud.com/jordananye

Lyrics:
Maybe what I need isn't a cog in a machine
But a nudge in right direction back to you
Your footsteps followed suit over a better thing to lose
And you know it's such an awful thing to know

Give it all to me, I am the pipes beneath the streets
Redirecting all your fears to somewhere new
It's easier like this, I'll take the burden if you wish
And set it off when all your sails come to shore

Sometimes I expect the moon
To fall out of the sky
And crush me while I'm standing next to you

Luna (Radio Edit)

Clean version of 'Amelia Earhart' from our debut album "if you're not serious, don't say it".

Lyrics:
Is it safe to say I'm sorry for what I've done?
Lying down on a slated floor, my wrist begins to run
And I was coughing out my ribs after just a couple hits
Of every small aggression I've known taken at once

Is it cool to stick around for the lights-off?
Come see me in my room, always speaking off the cuff
And just like children build toy houses out of plastic blocks and boxes
I'm just looking for a refuge to call my own

But it's cool, and it's calm, it's difficult outside
The fear stacks in twisted assembly lines
Ecstatic gears and wasted years, lack of willingness to grow
But it's still cool, it's still cool to be here, romanticised or no

Is there a [Paper Planes gunshot] mathematic for where I stand?
Fingers crack to spinal tap and my doubt's gone with the lamp
So follow me to the ceiling at the apex of your breathing
I've got with me every single thought I need

Try to regain some duplicity
Like Amelia Earhart disappeared in ciphered breeze
Difficult to find the place inside the Atlantic where it was made
But it's still you, I love you, I love you in that blank haze

Amelia Earhart (Radio Edit)

Leather, the new single by Parker Lee, released Feb 7th 2020

Engineered, mixed and mastered by Annie Prior
Joey Donnelly - bass
Adrian Maidman - drums
Jowan Mead - vocals, guitar
Annie Prior - guitar, mellotron, percussion
Sofia Verbilla - vocals (harmonywoods.bandcamp.com)

parkerlee.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/parkerlee.band
twitter.com/parkerleeuk
instagram.com/parkerleemusic

Lyrics:
The leather speaks in the middle of a street-side diving unit
And it seems I've turned my back on what the truth is
Can I fault the beat of slurred speech seeping out towards the music, when my dreams consign a new ways to be lucid?

You show your teeth with a little bit of bite to curb your fuming,
Writing creed as a worry heavy wolf inside the margins
And I stop the clock like God, locking your hand to mine and crooning
Something sweet on the merit of a french exit-esque movement

And it's all I see, I can't deny the way it seems
The ritualistic third degree
The kitsch, the heat, another body in the street
I'm on my knees again, talking as a TV friend

Can't stop running round
Hang hyper-cardinal crowns
Fix my initial point and
Draw back into

Can't leave on my own
Habit always takes me home
You're full of severed thought,
You are less than enthused

Leather

'Drunk' by Parker Lee, from the EP 'Scrundle', released September 4th 2020.

Jowan Mead - songwriting, vocals, guitar
Annie Prior - engineering, production, guitar, bass, synths, percussion
Adrian Maidman - drums

Lyrics:
Oh my, oh my
I've been waiting for a reason to get drunk again
Could I, could I,
Could I fall asleep right next to you and feel the same?

I've been counting all my evenings
And exactly where they've gone - I don't know

Sometime, sometime
You could stitch me up and smoke me like I'm paper thin
Should I, should I,
Should I be so bold and kiss you like we're not quite friends?

I've been counting all my evenings
An abacus of moving on
While your eyes roll out their sockets
I'll be looking, where they've gone - I don't know

Would I, would I,
If I heard you laughing, sink into your arms?

Scrundle

Drunk

'Stitch In Time Saves Nine', from 'Scrundle', the new EP from Parker Lee. Released independently Sept 4th 2020.

Lyrics:
Look out, I'm moving again
Can't make my mind up which means to end
So I stop, take in the new
Subscribing my mindset to the busy truth

Forget how often you've said
Beyond your betters and forevers, there's a chalkboard task in red
So start writing slow
I'm wearing your jacket with the zip down low

And you're sweetening your kills, and cheapening your thrills
Let niceties consume your haboured reeling doom
Resume, and hope this curve rings true
So slide your issues here, and sink another beer
Bad habits come to roost and fall into abuse
I thought I knew the concept of you

So I try to get along
Take lessons from my dog
She doesn't know what's going on
Seems happy laid out on the lawn

Jowan Mead - songs, words, vocals, guitar
Annie Prior - guitar, bass, synth, vocals, percussion
Adrian Maidman - drums

Recorded by Annie Prior and Jowan Mead at The Fungalow.
Produced, mixed and mastered by Annie Prior at Red Chilli Recordings. Art by James Baily, @jamesmbaily on Instagram.

Stitch In Time Saves Nine

'Bullpen' from 'Scrundle', the new EP from Parker Lee. Released independently Sept 4th 2020.

Lyrics:
Watching the bullpen shake its way crosstown
A one inch punch brings in the crowd
Some good intentions could miss their mark again,
If we made up like dying friends

But all my tides could never be
The longest break of a wave at sea
The best damn friends we would ever be

Hearing the corners my friends left out to me
I jig-and-saw the finished piece
Flatline of letters spelling out a need:
"I should go - or you should leave."

But both my eyes could hardly see
The darkest crack of a trench at sea
The best damn friends we would ever be

Keep those hands in front of me
A simple plan and a master key
A knife-like wound and it looks like me
The best damn friends we would ever be

Jowan Mead - songs, words, vocals, guitar
Annie Prior - guitar, bass, synth, percussion
Adrian Maidman - drums

Recorded by Annie Prior and Jowan Mead at The Fungalow.
Produced, mixed and mastered by Annie Prior at Red Chilli Recordings. Art by James Baily, @jamesmbaily on Instagram.

Bullpen

Reasons by Parker Lee, out February 5th.

Jowan Mead - vocals, guitar, bass
Annie Prior - guitar, synth, drums, percussion

Recorded by Annie Prior and Jowan Mead. Produced, mixed and mastered by Annie Prior.

Lyrics:
Before you arrive, I want things to be right.
To feel my eyes dilating with the night.
The air cracks, and so it goes - 

And always, I know the feeling that's at home - 
The warm light, the bed made, the reasons I don't stay.

So I'm wailing in the corner - I'm liquid in the door,
And just like all good gauntlets, fit just right.

And always, I know something that you don't:
The bloodlust, the decay, the long night in my veins.
And always, I know the one thing that you don't -
The bullseye, the refrain. The reasons to get made.

Something good is coming from below -
Is hanging on the pine tree.
Watch it as it goes.

Reasons

lo-fi for the dividing nights
jowan (they/them) // Annie (she/her)

Parker Lee are a garbageshop quartet that got caught in the magnetic field of a blue velvet lounge in North Yorkshire. Since their inception, they have been a plasma physicist, a series of kinetic knitwear, hairy, hairless, a video camera, a friend to crabs, and creators of the hit TV series 'Come Dine With Lee'. All these walks of life come together around the introspective songwriting and mouth sounds of Jowan Mead to write rock songs for day-to-day catharsis, tying up lyrical themes of self-indulgence and primal fears into a neat little package of good old-fashioned drive and math influences.

Since their first full-band gig supporting Big Thief in 2017, Parker Lee have released several EPs and their debut album, 2019's forgiveness rock record If You're Not Serious, Don't Say It. These first steps earned the band attention from Tom Robinson and Jericho Keys at BBC 6Music and Introducing, and comparisons to Pavement, The Smashing Pumpkins and Cloud Nothings.

Their latest offering is 2020's late summer sojourn Scrundle, a relaxed 3-track EP covering themes of loneliness, closure and foundational loss. Hushed vocals sit upon nonchalant guitar arrangements and atmospheric sound design, taking you to busy streets and underwater suites by way of Elliott Smith, Courtney Barnett and Alex G. You may ask what Scrundle is, but what's important is how it makes you feel.

Parker Lee

Popular tracks