We're Having a Quickie with Nicola Parr

Nicola Parr shot to stardom with her hit single "New Rules", just as her private life was heating up. The twenty-three year old songstress was linked to Paper Sea's Andy Sutcliffe for a year before their relationship came to a screeching halt. Just days after an engagement announcement, the ever-fickle Sutcliffe chose to publicly humiliate his rumored fiancee by restarting his relationship with ex-girlfriend, Rainbow singer, Harlowe Montauk. In spite of all this, Parr has continued on a career high, selling out shows at every turn.

Thank you so much for making time for this interview. I know your schedule is crazy. You were just doing Lolla, and now you're doing shows all over Asia for the rest of the month.

So many people I know hate them, but I love interviews. It always seems a bit ungrateful, to be unwilling to talk to the press. You play such a big part in all of our careers.

Are there any questions you don't like answering?

Andy [Sutcliffe] questions are always a bit complicated. He wasn't the first person I loved, nor will he be the last, but it was ... difficult to process how that all ended. I thought we'd be together forever.

And then he married Harlowe Montauk.

And then he married her instead. I'm so wonderfully happy for them, if that's what they want -- I sent them a wedding gift -- but I do worry. I think I've an instinctive desire to protect other people, and I'd hate it if anything happened to either of them. She and I are not quite friends, but I know what it would do to him.

On the subject of the Montauks, is it true that you had a revenge fling with Harlowe's brother?

[Laughs]. That's not quite what happened. [Alex] was in a creative rut, having been tossed off his sister's tour, and I saw helping him as a way to help my friend. Andy and I are friends, you realise. Or, I consider him a friend, at least. It hurts my heart to think he could believe that nonsense.

Does that mean you keep in touch?

We're both so busy, we don't really have the time to chat the way we'd like to, but we'll text when we can. He's only called me one time? Maybe even two times. Don't think it was three times, but who knows.

Are you implying that--

I'm not implying anything! It's flattering to finally have a song written about me, but -- you've got to let people sort out their difficulties on their own, and let things happen naturally. What I don't want is someone to feel blindsided by deception. Setting boundaries is important; otherwise, you've got people thinking you're "best mates" whilst you're secretly hooking up for years. That's how relationships, and marriages, end, and I'd never want to be the other woman. Other people seem to quite enjoy it. I just want to stick to making music that makes people dance or cry, and whatever happens, happens.

Speaking of your music, you have another album coming out this year, don't you? What's going to be on this one?

It's the expanded edition of the self-title album, with the new songs we've done with Calvin Harris and Silk City and that lot. I think the next proper album will come next year, after I've had a chance to stop touring for more than a week. I love it, but it's exhausting. I'm constantly mindblown by artists who are able to record things between gigs. You want to hop inside their brains and figure out how it works.

So, if you could choose your dream team of collaborators on album two, who are you working with?

God, I really wanted to avoid talking about them, but I'd kill to do something with Paper Sea, honestly. They're so good, and Andy and Alan [Cross] have such an ear for backing tracks. The stuff they've done for No Rome is particularly brilliant, and I know Alan did the beat for Ocean Wisdom's Revvin and Brick or Bat and I love nineties hip hop. Um, Skepta, James Blake, Gorgon City, Billie Eilish. There are too many to name.

We'd kill for a collab, too, Nicola. You can catch her next live show at Dr Sun Yat-Sen's Memorial Hall on Tuesday, September 11.