For freshman theatre arts major Bethany Parks, partcipating in extracurricular activities in school has come to mean a strong devotion to her guitar. While getting into college is a big moment for anyone, another great accomplishment for Parks will be marked this March when an EP of her own music, titled “Bethany and the Guitar,” will be released.
The EP will contain five original songs that were written, produced and recorded by Parks. Also featured on the EP is her older brother, Kurtis Parks, who helped out with different duties. Kurtis is a graduate of Virginia Tech and an aspiring musician.
Though it’s only her first year of college, Parks has been busy recording and trying to find outlets for her music at local venues such as Attitudes. She is also currently attempting to secure a spot during Relay for Life at Virginia Tech.
Parks sat down with the Collegiate Times to talk about her music and her budding career as a songwriter.
CT: How are you enjoying (the theatre major)?
PARKS: I really like the theatre department and it’s very close knit. The teachers have a lot of experience and I just declared the major so I haven’t taken many classes yet. ... I’m thinking of trying out for “American Idol” over the summer. My older brother tried out the year that Carrie Underwood won, season four. He got to Hollywood and made it to the rooms where they split them into the four rooms and decide which two rooms get to advance. He got to meet Carrie and hang out with her, and he has a picture with her, but this was when neither of them knew that she was going to get that far. I feel like it’ll be really good way to get my name out there even thought I might not get very far.
CT: Have you been preparing yet?
PARKS: I sing all the time and I play guitar a lot. I’m just going to go and do it because I don’t want to be too nervous, but I probably will be.
CT: When did you first start playing music? Or discover your passion for singing?
PARKS: I started playing around with the guitar probably three years ago and I had no idea what I was doing, and I kind of taught myself. I took a class in high school that taught basics with chords, and I’ve always liked to write — mostly short stories or poems. Then once I started playing around with the guitar, I experimented with songwriting. The more I wrote, the better I got with it. My brother helped me a lot with that. I actually was just really nervous to sing in front of anyone. I didn’t know if I was good or not and then I tried out for the youth band for my church and no one really said, “You’re not good.” I sang more and more as the months went by. In the beginning, my voice was shaky, but I improved a lot so they kind of promoted me to the main band on Sunday mornings. Then I had a lot of people come up to me and say how my voice was good ... Singing solos helped me get more confident with my voice. I always got so nervous of my brother’s opinions because he is a musician, but he pretty much encouraged me and helped me write. I started recording to try it out and realized that this could be something that I wanted to do.
CT: Has music always been a part of your family, or did it start with you and your brother?
PARKS: It started with my brother and we all grew up in the church because our dad is a pastor. He helped lead worship because he’s always been interested in music. I’ve always loved to sing, but I’m not sure where I got it from. He is a definitely a totally different style than what I like to do. He’s more Christian rock and writes for any genre. He helps me write for my style, which is more folk and acoustic.
CT: What is the story behind your name, “Bethany and the Guitar”?
PARKS: Actually there was not much to it. My brother was trying to make a music Myspace and all the names were taken for Bethany Parks, Bethany Parks Music and he suggested, “Bethany and Guitar” which sounded robotic so I added the “the” and it worked. I looked up “Bethany and the Guitar” and I realized I really liked that name a lot. It sounded like a storybook title and had an indie vibe to it.
CT: I know you told me your brother is your manager. How does that feel? Are there any big problems or difficulty with that?
PARKS: He does everything for me. We record together and he helps me write when I’m stuck on the song. I’ll send him a YouTube video of me singing and playing the guitar saying, “These are the chords and lyrics and this is the melody basic framework of the song,” and he’ll take it, record and add in all the instruments like the drum track. I think on almost all of the songs we have the violin and that’s one of his friends in Nashville. He gives me suggestions and he kind of mentors me and lets me take it in the direction that I want to take it. If I don’t like the song, I’ll tell him, and he’ll take my opinions seriously.
CT: You have an EP coming out on iTunes. You must feel like a true artist now. How does it feel?
PARKS: It’s crazy because it happened so fast. My brother right away encouraged me and every time we saw each other we would record or write and so it’s been a really exciting with iTunes. Pretty much anyone can do it; anyone can pay a fee and it’s a long process, but I’m really excited about it. Another thing that is interesting is instead of releasing a new album every year, we’re just going to keep releasing five song EPs every six months. That way, if I get a following of fans they won’t forget about me. Especially with the way me and my brother write, we can crank out songs in 15 minutes. He is moving to Washington, D.C., soon so he’ll be a little closer to me.
CT: How long did it take you to make the EP?
PARKS: About six months. We started over the summer and now we’re here and we already have four or five songs that we’ve written together and we’ll probably release those in the summer.
CT: You guys release songs pretty quick.
PARKS: Yeah. The fact that we’re brother and sister, we sort of think the same way and we help each other if we’re stuck.
CT: Every artist has some kind of message or story behind each of his or her new releases. What is the story behind yours?
PARKS: My goal for the songs is to have a light, happy, carefree message because I’m a really an optimistic happy person and I don’t get depressed often and I want to have a happy kind of message. “I’m The Sea,” is more somber, but it’s probably the darkest that it would get. I feel like these songs will help them feel better and give a message that no matter what happens everything is going to be okay in the end. My lyrics say that for “In The End,” and I definitely get that message from my Christian faith.
CT: Do you have a favorite song out of the five?
PARKS: “Careful with Me,” is my favorite because I had a crush on the same guy for three years in high school and it was kind of a geeky, girly crush and I’m very outgoing, but I couldn’t talk to him. I just could never forget about him and this past summer he told me he’s liked me this whole time and I was ecstatic and I had to write a song about it.
CT: So are you guys going out now?
PARKS: Yes and it’s really good. He loved the song and he was really emotional. He shed a little tear. It’s funny because he’s very manly, but our relationship became really serious really fast because we liked each other for such a long time. We were like kindergartners around each other.
CT: Who are your musical inspirations?
PARKS: Ingrid Michaelson, I really love her and going to her concert made me realize that I could make this a career because she engages in the crowd and has so much fun on stage. Colbie Caillat, but not as much anymore, but she definitely influenced me to be an artist.
CT: You have a pair of red boots that you seemed to love and were wearing on your Myspace photo. Is there a story behind that?
PARKS: Not really. It kind of sounds silly, but rain boots represent childhood and being carefree so I just liked the outfit with the rain boots because it seems very innocent and that is what my music is about. I felt like that this was a good way to represent myself.
CT: What makes you stand out among the many mainstream artists these days? What do you hope to convey as an artist through your music?
PARKS: I feel like artists who come out on the scene when they’re young, I started when I was 17, are usually influenced by mainstream and at that age you haven’t really found yourself. I knew I didn’t want to do mainstream, poppy music and I don’t know many indie artists this young who know what exact message they want as soon as they go for it.