PARIS RABONE IS WRITING FROM THE MARROW

WORDS ALICE LAMBERT - PHOTOGRAPHY MOLLY DANIEL

Growing up in his family's record store, Paris Rabone’s life has been soundtracked by great music. Now, the emerging talent is bringing his own sound to the table, with his debut single ‘Marrow’ releasing on 9th January. 

The London-based artist's first track is a raw and enchanting documentation of a break-up, with a spacey saxophone section, warped sounds and lyrics that cut deep. At its core, it’s jazz, but drawing inspiration from a lifelong love of '60s and '70s harmony groups and a childhood obsession with Aaliyah means his sound is woven with soul, R&B and hip hop influences. 

Erykha Badu called him a new artist to watch, and with a big project on its way this spring, we’d have to agree. He talks to F Word about what albums he’s reaching for, why his music is about getting ‘through’ it and how emotion will always be at the core of his work.

Alice Lambert Paris, welcome to F Word! I’m going to launch right in, tell me about your early music memories. When did you start writing?

Paris Rabone: Music was always around, because my mum had awesome taste in music, always playing great '70s and '80s soul music. I'm lucky enough to say that my bass line was just really good taste in music. I remember being really young, maybe like six, and seeing Aaliyah on TV for the first time. She was performing live, and I was transfixed. From that point on, I was just obsessed with music and sound. 

I think the first time I started writing, I was about 11. There's a local music tech shop near me, and I kept bothering the people that worked there. They ended up giving me a trial version of a music recording software, and a really dodgy mic. I started to just write little jingly things on my own. I don't know where they are now but that was my starting point.

AL: Your family owned a record-shop in London — what was it like growing up in that environment? 

PR: I loved the shop. It was on Berwick Street in Soho. The shop specialised in Black music and largely stocked independent artists. Everyone that worked there was either really into music or an artist themselves. I think being immersed in that environment really rubbed off on me. Always hearing something fresh, something new. Just being around people that were just really into music really sharpened my ear.

AL: Any favourite memories?

PR: On the weekends I was always in charge of setting up the window displays. I loved picking what records I wanted to be in the window — looking through all the artwork and new releases and finding ways to present them in the front of the shop. That was my favourite memory of it.

AL: We’re in the record store, what albums are you reaching for to play? 

PR: Monastic Trio by Alice Coltrane. It's just gorgeous. Spiritual kind of spacey jazz music. Mama's Gun by Erykah Badu because that's my absolute favourite album. I'm really into '70s girl groups so Innerful Bloom by The Marvelettes. I turn to it a lot. I feel really inspired by the vocal performances and the arrangements in the album. And then Aaliyah by Aaliyah because I just think that's such an incredible album. 

AL: Your latest single Marrow is about to come out, can you tell us a bit about the single and the inspiration behind it. 

PR: I've been sitting on it for a while. It centres this breakup that I went through a few years back. There are three distinct sections of the song and that was my way of trying to express how the separation felt. The beginning section of the song is kind of like the crumbling stage, the start of the breakup. The kind of questioning stage. Then the middle section is supposed to feel like the chaos of the split, of the separation. It's largely instrumental and chaotic with these saxophones and synths making quite a lot of noise. And the last section is when I was starting to feel like I was gathering myself more and could see a bit clearer. The whole song is essentially inspired by that experience and it's about moving through that breakup. Each layer of the song felt like an honest expression of what I was feeling. 

AL: Is there a story behind its name? 

PR: So the opening line is “the truth rang in the marrow of my bones”. I was trying to say that I could really feel the changes that were happening, even though there was some denial present. It was my way of saying I feel it in my bones. 

AL: Do you have one word you'd use to describe Marrow? If you had to distill it into one thing. 

PR: Oh my god. Let me think. One word. This is a good question. Through, maybe? 

AL: How does it feel ‘through’? What does that kind of encompass? 

PR: The song makes me think of a tunnel. So like you're coming through it, journeying through something. It’s about how sometimes it's not always super clear, or sometimes you don't really know what you're doing, or how you're feeling, but you really don't have a choice but to move through it.

AL: With the song being about a break-up, emotion really is at its core. Do you think emotional transparency in music is still seen as a risk for male artists?

PR: I feel like emotional transparency isn't fashionable right now in a lot of music. The standard is a lot more emotionally removed for male artists. But then I look through music of different times, and so many male artists were encouraged to be emotional. I think about a lot of the '60s music I listen to, and a lot of those male artists were singing about love, heartbreak, they were pining after their lovers. Smokey Robinson, D'Angelo, Prince and Luther Vandross. These artists were writing about love and breakups and their feelings in emotional and sometimes romanticised ways. But I feel like nowadays a lot of music feels quite defensive. 

But then I think about how with so many queer artists, and queer male artists, their music tends to lean a lot more emotional. They seem to allow themselves to explore emotions with a lot more nuance than a lot of other artists. 

AL: Is this something you want to keep central to your music?

PR: Definitely, I feel like I kind of don't have a choice. I'm such an emotional person. I'm always trying to check in with how I'm feeling, and that guides me through most things in my life. When I'm writing music or I'm playing with chords, it's an expression of something emotional, so I feel that it's always going to be the centre point of my music.

AL: You’ve said that Marrow is about “trying to trust you’ll be stronger once you get through the sting” — who or what in your life makes you feel stronger? 

PR: Music. I feel like I turn to music oftentimes to affirm me, or to re-centre me when I feel like I've swayed off. But also my friends. I know that's a cliché thing to say, but I've got some really wonderful, affirming and emotionally in tune friends around me that are a wonderful support system. Hearing the way my best friend talks about his emotions inspires me and makes me feel stronger. 

AL: If this single were a place, rather than a song, where do you think it’d be? 

PR: Really, it's North London. I wrote it in Finsbury Park, East Finchley, Turnpike Lane and Wood Green. Because the relationship that I was writing about existed in those places. 

AL: You’ve described making music as “contorting sounds until they’re weird but still make sense” — is there a point in Marrow that came about this way? 

PR: The whole song really, especially in the middle section. I really wanted that part of the track to feel chaotic and the turmoil of a hard breakup — to feel like you’re becoming undone. There's all these noisy and glitchy sounds that I was warping and trying to sound really angry and really scared. My friend Matthew who played the saxophone parts, did a really good job in his solos conveying the kind of chaos and the mess that I wanted in that part of the song. 

AL: What do you hope listeners take away from your music? 

PR: When I think about the music that I love and that I listen to, it becomes a real part of my life, you know? There's certain songs that are etched into my experience. I’ll look back at a year and there's a specific song or album that roots me in that time. That's really cool to me, and I would love it if my music could be that for somebody. 

AL: What are your plans post-Marrow?

PR: Marrow is the first song from a larger project that will be coming out in the spring. I plan on dropping a few more singles before then, maybe performing live too. 

AL: Are there other genres you see yourself experimenting with in the future? 

PR: I really want to write a soul song that literally sounds like it's from 1967. Soul is a huge part of what influences me. Maybe something that sounds sonically like the '60s, but then I want to find a way at some point in the song to kind of distort it back into today. That's what I want to work on next. 

AL: And finally, what is your favourite "F" Word? 

PR: My favourite "F" word is a swear word. It's a Caribbean word. It's fuckree – the Caribbean version of fuckery. 

FOLLOW PARIS ON INSTAGRAM