Will Parker shares new single ‘Bury The Hatchet’
Rising singer-songwriter Will Parker releases new single ‘Bury The Hatchet’. A big-hearted anthem about forgiveness, the track puts Parker’s raw and soulful voice front and centre, building from understated guitar into a soaring, cinematic arrangement of brass.
On the single, Will says: “Bury the hatchet is a song about coming to terms with an addiction and the moment you get to when you realise it needs to stop. Whether it’s relationships with people or substances, these addictions can become so hard to break. Growing up where I did, these experiences can be all too common”.
‘Bury The Hatchet’ follows Parker’s debut EP Same Old Paradise, out now via Capitol Records UK. The project has picked up support across BBC Radio 1 and BBC Introducing and has now surpassed 300,000 total streams, introducing Parker as one of the UK’s most exciting new voices. 21 year-old Will was handpicked by Sam Smith to support them in Manchester earlier this month, as part of a BBC Introducing initiative designed to spotlight emerging talent from across the UK. Speaking about the experience, he said; “The opportunity to open for Sam Smith was one of the most surreal experiences. Getting to debut ‘Bury The Hatchet’ in such a special venue and for it to be received so well by the audience was genuinely crazy, a moment that will stay with me forever.”
The show marked a major milestone for an artist who, not long ago, was singing between shifts on a building site working as a bricklayer with his dad. It was there that his voice first reached a much wider audience; his dad posted a TikTok of Parker singing while working, captioned “POV: your apprentice can sing”, with Will perched on a ladder, power drill in hand, belting out a cover of Teddy Swims’ ‘Lose Control’. The clip went on to rack up almost three million views. For Parker, though, singing on site was nothing unusual; “I’m used to, like, old boy John on-site and he’s singing a bit of Shania Twain.”
Will then signed to Capitol Records UK, and last month put out his debut EP. The EP is, in many ways, a love letter to Parker’s hometown of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Across five tracks, he explores the complicated relationship he has with the industrial town that raised him: the people, family and community he loves, alongside the feeling that there might be something more waiting beyond its limits. Every song captures “Scunny” from a different perspective, from the numbness and frustration of working life to complicated relationships, family and the pull of home.
With Same Old Paradise introducing Will as a singular new voice and today’s single ‘Bury The Hatchet’ heralding the next chapter, Will is playing a sold-out hometown show at Cafe Independent in Scunthorpe before a date in Manchester, with more live shows to be announced before the end of the year.
See Will Parker live:
September 29th – Scunthorpe, Cafe Independent (SOLD OUT)
September 30th – Manchester, Deaf Institute (The Lodge)
Follow Will Parker: