About
Will Parker is Folk Punk Dad. Inspired by his dad, Parker began playing music and writing songs when he was eleven years old. Early on, most of what Will played were songs his father wrote in high school and Bob Dylan covers, as well as the beginnings of his original material. Highly prolific, Parker has written over a thousand songs throughout the last twenty years. While most of his recent professional focus has been on writing songs for young kids, many of the songs he writes are better suited for an older audience. Parker is now making an effort to share his work which often openly relates his real life experiences and struggles.
Parker’s most intense mental health challenges began in high school near the first anniversary of his best friend’s death. He experienced intense depression, and during this time he realized how helpful songwriting could be in expressing feelings he couldn’t simply speak. Since then, through more loss of loved ones, overcoming addiction, and successive bipolar episodes of depression and mania, Parker has continued to use songwriting as a tool for navigating life’s peaks and valleys.
Parker plays dynamic, high-energy shows that feel also intimate. At one moment, he is fast-rapping lyrics like manic pressured speech and the next he is getting the audience to sing along on a rousing chorus of resilience. Strongly influenced by the Mountain Goats and WHY?, Parker channels much of his creativity through his distinctive lyrics. He has shared the stage with Days N Daze, Apes of the States, Ceschi, RENT STRIKE, Michael Jumpshot Touchdown Pass, Doom Scroll, and many more fabulous artists and friends.
Parker has a number of projects in the works of varying lengths and styles, including BlueRaspberry, an anti-folk duo project with his wife, Cecelia Bellomy Parker.
