Child Of Parish - New Music

CHILD OF THE PARISH / NEW SINGLE ‘MIDAS TOUCH’ /UPCOMING SECOND EP

Child of the Parish unite the experimental psychedelia and electronica of brothers Tom and Ben Vella with intense visuals courtesy of ‘Stranger Things’ graphic artist Pius Bak. The project was introduced with the independently released debut EP ‘Make It Better’, which has exceeded 5 million streams. It attracted radio support including Jack Saunders’ Tune of the Week at Radio 1 and Lauren Laverne’s While You Were Sleeping feature on 6Music, and they diversified their following with the help of an inclusion on an official FIFA soundtrack.

Child of The Parish next look ahead to their upcoming second EP by sharing its first track ‘Midas Touch’. The song finds the duo expanding the audacious scope of their sound, laying up their electro-psych core with rapturous reverb-heavy harmonies, baroque-tinged flourishes, and more than a hint of ‘80s extravagance with its dramatic drum fills and searing, climatic solo. It’s a track in the lineage of leftfield artists with wider pop appeal, from Tame Impala to Bowie via Beck, M83 and MGMT.

Ben Vella says, “It’s fair to say my range of inspiration shrunk a bit during lockdown, trapped in the house in the middle of the countryside, but actually writing about the pandemic felt like the last thing in the world I wanted to look at, so the music and themes came back to good old escapism.

I love playing poker with friends. When we were allowed back into each other’s gardens we’d huddle round in big jackets with some beers and play poker till the early hours. We only play for peanuts but it’s easy to imagine the stakes being higher and getting sucked into a disastrous losing streak. This is what ‘Midas Touch’ is about, someone in a spiral of bad luck they can’t get out of, praying for the next hand to bail them out of it.”

Key to the Child of the Parish project is the accompanying graphic novel, which was written by Ben Vella and Richard Brown with art from Pius Bak. The novel serves as the origin story for the project’s central character Jacob. It starts in the rural village of Otherley in 1630, where the consequences of the witchcraft trials end up reverberating again almost 400 years later. Jacob is a difficult, unsettling, silent infant and grows increasingly dangerous as the years pass - posing a substantial risk to this otherwise tranquil middle class town.

The tale is inspired by the folklore of the small town in Hertfordshire that Ben relocated to. It draws similarities between the witch hunts of the 17th century and the trail by social media that’s prevalent today.

Ben and Tom Vella have spent recent months working on their upcoming EP, which was written entirely during lockdown. They’ve also been plotting their live show, a mash-up of rock intensity, dance euphoria and theatrical set designs inspired by the aesthetics of Pius Bak’s visuals, sonically fleshed out with the addition of a live drummer and keyboardist.