It Matters to Me

I am passionate about social justice. Growing up, I dreamt of solving huge world problems. I had small goals like ending world hunger, creating peace and stopping violence. Right now, I am writing from Washington D.C. where I am staying temporarily in order to do work with prevention and treatment of human trafficking. When I started making music, I thought maybe my music would help someone find meaning – or at least some comfort – when they were alone or afraid or depressed. I thought those were difficult but attainable goals.

These days, I think it’s a monumental feat when I feed myself for a week. Talk about managing expectations!

A lot of my recent music talks about the dissonance between who we are and who we thought we would be. It’s also about maturing into a more nuanced worldview, one that sees small tasks of kindness, even just to myself, as life-changing and world-saving. A friend recently told me of a Jewish saying from the Talmud; it’s something about if you save one person, it is as if you are saving the world. There is more to the quote that alters its meaning, but I really like that part. And what if that one person can be yourself? What if the act of being kind, generous, and loving, even in small ways, is what saves us all?

I have had many long conversations with friends and fans about wanting to lead a meaningful life – even about what a “meaningful life” really is. It Matters To Me was born out of those conversations, and that striving to get my youthful dreams of saving the world in line with my adult understanding of limitations – my own and others’. So maybe we cannot stop world hunger, but we can feed one person. Maybe we cannot stop human trafficking or violence altogether in this lifetime, but we can at least stand in the way of people who would run unopposed without our taking a stand. Maybe we are a molehill in the face of a mountain, or maybe being kind in our interactions chips away more than we think, and makes more of a difference. Molehills matter. Kindness matters. Your support of my music may not be stopping world hunger, but it matters to me. You matter to me.

IT MATTERS TO ME LYRICS (Kat Parsons, Wil Seabrook)
When you feel your fighting life’s battles
let down, broken and rattled
when you fear your voice is left shattered, to drown in the sea

it matters to me
it matters to me

when you feel your stuck in a downpour
and the weight is much more than you asked for
when you know there’s a heaviness in store that no one can see

it matters to me
it matters to me
when the skies are dark and you can’t find your way
searching for a spark, for a reason to stay
it matters to me
it matters to me

i’ve fought shadows before
they’ll swallow you whole
but i know that there’s more to be seen out here

it matters to me
it matters to me
when the skies are dark and you can’t find your way
searching for a spark, for a reason to stay
it matters to me
it matters to me

(If you haven’t heard this song, you can listen and get the album at the “listen/store” tab above.)
*oh, i get by with a little help from my friends: Thanks, as always, to Jodi Elliott for her writing and editing expertise.

The hope, when a relationship ends, is that we’ve learned something from it, that we’ve become better for having experienced it. And sometimes more than that, we hope that it has prepared us for the next love, the great love. Sometimes we have to tell ourselves that what comes next, unknown as it is, will be better than what we are losing; sometimes it’s so hard to say goodbye to what we have that we have to imagine what we are going to have.

But always, when we encounter all the pitfalls, potholes, and gasping chasms on the road to love, we have to remind ourselves that we’re going the right way. On the road to love, there are no wrong turns.

One Day (Kat Parsons, Libbie Schrader)

One day my love will come
And I’ll be glad that you let me go
He’ll see the light in me
I’ll smile and he’ll just know

Watching the ho-ur glass each grain of sand
Falls like petals from a rose.
He’ll look at me and he’ll know.

One day my love will come
And I’ll be glad that you let me go
He’ll whisper in my ear
“It was always you, my dear”

I’m looking through pictures and reading old letters and wondering why you ran
Someday I’ll wake deep in pillows beside him
and then I’ll understand
All that I’ve been has led up to this man.

Ooh ooh ooh
He’ll whisper in my ear
“I finally found you, my dear”.

Every step forward in love brings me closer to him
Even if my heart breaks, no there are no mistakes…in love

Isn’t life funny how nothing makes sense till it does
Even if my heart breaks, no there are no mistakes…in love

(If you haven’t heard this song, you can enter your email in box to the right of this post, and I’ll send you a free download of it.)
*oh, i get by with a little help from my friends: Thanks, as always, to Jodi Elliott for her writing and editing expertise.

I’ll Be Here

The day I started writing this song, I was walking along Venice Beach when I thought I saw my best friend from childhood buying ice cream. When she turned to face me I realized it wasn’t her, but that quick flash took me back to childhood and this friend, and I felt a rush of nostalgia and memories. I spent the rest of the day wondering about her – where she is now, whether she has kids, whether she ever traveled to Spain – something she’d always wanted to do when we were little. It’s so strange to me that I don’t know these things about her anymore – that I don’t know anything about her anymore. Isn’t that weird? – how we can so deeply love someone at some point in our life, and then later on we don’t know anything about them?

I thought about this all day, and then started to write this song about that feeling – that feeling of having drifted away from someone with whom I once felt such closeness and intimacy. I think a lot of childhood friendships are like that – very intense, because you are bonding together as you are beginning to learn about the world, other people, dreams, longing, and everything else that comes with growing up. It’s this weird path of self-discovery and world-discovery that you are sort of on with someone else because you are friends and doing everything together, but in truth, they are on their own path through all these things, too. It’s inevitable that we all grow up and often grow apart from the friends of our youth, but there’s just something about that bond forged with someone who helped you learn to run, fall, to love, to live. (dare, risk, dream???)

What’s even stranger is that, if you were to meet each other for the first time now, you might not even choose to be friends; but because of that early, intimate bond you formed, you will always be there for each other. You would always answer the phone if she called. You would always be there if she hurt or if she needed you. There is always something of her in you, and of you in her – and because of this, seeing her is like looking into a compassionate mirror.

So I wrote this song to express that intimacy and closeness and nostalgia for the people that we both were when we were young – and compassion for who we are now.

I’LL BE HERE (by Kat Parsons, Leslie King, Rich Jacques):
it was simple then
you were my best friend
nothing in between
what we feel and dream

you would hold my hand
and we would understand
it was love
and it was enough

but now you’re far away
and we have less to say
we both left that life
and chased our highest heights

if I saw you in a crowd
would I know you now

and if it all breaks down
if darkness comes around
if all you counted on is gone
I’m still here
I’ll be here
I’m still here
I’ll be here

Now I’m in LA
the sunshines everyday
looking for someone
just like everyone

did you ever move to Spain
and drink champagne
did you find love
and is it enough

and if it all breaks down
if darkness comes around
if all you counted on is gone
i’m still here
I’ll be here
i’m still here
I’ll be here

all the moments left behind us
before the world appeared
there’s a tie that always binds us

i’ll be here
i’ll be here
i’ll be here
i’ll be here

** I get by with a little help from my friends- thanks to Jodi Elliott for sharing her writing and editing expertise.

Get this song here: http://KatParsons.com/shop

At my shows, I talk a lot about my family because they are a big part of my musical process. When I was young, my mom used to come home from gigs wearing zebra leggings and fishnet stockings on her arms, with her hair sprayed high and giant earrings. She looked so cool. I wanted to go to her gigs so badly. When my father finally took me I was awestruck. Her band, FoxxFire, even had choreography!

My mom wrote beautiful melodies that were fashioned into 80s pop songs, but eventually her heart led her to social work and music took on a different role in her life. But she still would play these beautiful melodies on the piano. For my birthday one year, I asked her for a song. During that process, we wrote “I Won’t Ask” together.

When we wrote it, I cried. When I sang it, I cried. The song moved me in a way that I had never before been moved. A friend put me in the studio with T-Bone Burnett to record the song and it was my first time in the studio where my instructions were to “not watch the clock” and not have an agenda, to just let the recording be what it would be. This was a tall order for someone who is extremely goal-oriented and is always trying to stretch recording money to the last cent. To put it frankly, up until this moment, recording had been a very stressful process in trying to match my vision with my budget. But to relax in the studio….wow! There were wine and music and experimentation. T-Bone taught me to sing quietly, to trust that I was communicating without having to “tell” the audience. It was so freeing! And the recording turned out to be one of my favorites: it is imperfect and human, and I love that. My friends, Dermot Mulroney, Keiran Mulroney and James Fearnley played cello, violin and accordion so sensitively. There was no metronome, no click track, and in fact, the piano is even a little out of tune.

This served as the foundation for the recording I am releasing now. I went to my friend, Paul Tavenner’s studio to record on his beautiful grand piano. Dave Eggar, who did the strings on Coldplay’s Viva la Vida, arranged and played the cello to the piano/vocal that I recorded with Craig “The Regulator” Frank.  Simple. Human.

I WON’T ASK Lyrics (Kat Parsons & Julie Parsons)
I will carry you in this heavy heart of mine
And I’ll wait until you are free
I will bury your secret deep inside
And I’ll hold onto this sweet dream

I won’t ask you now
What I already know
You love me, but you just can’t let it show
So I will do what’s right
I will let you go
And I will be the only one to know

I will look for you in every hand I hold
In every kiss, as it gently unfolds
Will the others know when I give them all I can
That you are the only one who touches my soul

I won’t ask you now
What I already know
You love me, but you just can’t let it show
So I will do what’s right
I will let you go
And I will be the only one to know

In my life, I’ve definitely subscribed to the theory that if I didn’t work hard for something than it probably wasn’t worth having. I’ve thought that if something was easy, I was missing some giant step that would teach me life lessons and make the struggle rewarding. But it turns out that sometimes things are easy and VERY worth having – they don’t require toil and striving and some monumental effort. Sometimes it just comes (and of course other times it doesn’t), but I don’t have to make it harder just for the sake of making it harder – just for the sake of proving something.

When I was young and went on group dates with friends, I would tell my girlfriends which guy I liked and to watch to make sure we were talking and if there was any pause, would they please interject? I was so scared of running out of things to say…which is ironic because I was the least likely of my friends to stop talking. I didn’t allow space for things to be what they were, to become what they could – I felt the need to narrate everything. I made it harder than it had to be.

This song was inspired by an email my mother sent me when I was going through a phase of making everything hard for myself. She knows how much I sometimes struggled not just to get through something, but to find the transformative moment or the silver lining. It’s like I was doubly hard on myself – struggling to get something done and then struggling to find the lesson in whatever I’d just done (or not done).

Sometimes you need that outside perspective to make you aware of what you’re doing, and to help you find that space into which you can step back and breathe, and take a break from yourself. The hope, of course, being that you can then step back into yourself with a little more perspective, and with it, compassion.

LYRICS: (Kat Parsons)
Why do you have to make it harder than it is
Baby just let it go
You might learn things, you never know
Because you’ve got your eyes closed

You’ve been working this old land
Rubbing raw your own bare hands
Every day, every night
You devoted your life

Don’t miss the forest for the trees
Pick your battles more selectively
Let me unravel that knot
That’s been pulling you tight

Bridge:
You always did what your mama said
But baby baby  You don’t have to pay to get saved

Have a little faith
In yourself
Baby make a little space
For something to grow

La la la la…
Why do you have to make it harder than it is?

**I get by with a little help from my friends: thanks Jodi Elliott for editing and focusing me.

If you haven’t heard this song, get it here: http://KatParsons.com/shop/

Do you make it harder than it is? Leave a comment to let me know you’re here and what you think….

Inspired by the upcoming release of my new album “It Matters to Me”, I started thinking:

What matters to YOU?

YOU matter to ME. Here’s something else that matters to me:

Right now I am writing from D.C. where I am working in the anti-human trafficking
movement. I’ve had the honor of working with survivors, who despite the
heartbreaking nature of their circumstances have taught me so much about resilience.

Is there a cause or organization that you feel passionate about? Some way of life
you love?

So, while I contain my jitters for a week anticipating the release of the
new album, I’ve created a page SOLELY for raising awareness for
what matters to US!

Leave a comment with a link, a cause, whatever you like. It doesn’t have
to be something huge- a smile can matter to you! And SHARE the page on
facebook, twitter, email, etc. to raise awareness for what matters to US.
I’ve started it below!

I’m really looking forward to hearing from you.
With love, Kat

FUN FACT: Hudson, the kitten/cat from the “Love Changes Everything” music video, was dropped off with three other stray cats on the doorstep of my brother’s firehouse. My brother brought Hudson and the others home. Hudson was near death and I took him (illegally) into my apartment for a few weeks and was able to help nurse him back to health and now he is, according to my brother (Hudson lives with my brother’s family as I can’t have pets in my apartment :(), the most social and annoying cat ever! I love him so much!! 🙂 Free single here: http://KatParsonsMusic.com/: Album out 4/9!

I love him so much!

I made you a present for the holidays. I recorded Joni
Mitchell’s “River” with my mom. Do you know the
song? Do you like Joni Mitchell? Have you heard
her version of “Both Sides Now” from Dreamland? I
love comparing it to the version she sang when she
was eighteen. You can hear the life she’s lived in the
later version- I find it very moving. Let me know
what you think.

In an effort to spread the word, I’m asking that you
share on FaceBook or tweet on Twitter to get the
song. Hope you don’t mind and it means a lot
when you spread the word – it’s how I make a
living. So, thank you. If you don’t have either,
shoot me an email and I’ll reply with the mp3
attached.

And here’s the song!!

What are you listening to right now?

Big love,

Kat

A year and a quarter ago, I went into the studio to record my FIRST EVER happy love songs. (Not counting the one I wrote for the stranger when I was on that MTV show….and many of you know how well that went. (Not Well.))

I was determined to be able to dance at my live show. I have some serious moves and it was not fair to deprive the world of the booty shaking with which I grew up in University Park, MD. While many of you were listening to your parents record collections of Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell and Rolling Stones, I was singing along to musical gems like “…let me lick you up and down, till you sing stop…”, way before I realized he was not talking about sharing a lollipop. My dial was firmly set on WPGC 95.5 “Slow Jamz” where I would dance to other romantic songs like, “Feels like your dancing kind of close, feel a little poke coming through…”

All this to say in ONE MONTH on OCTOBER 9, I will finally be releasing my FIRST EVER happy boppy love songs (and some fun bonuses!!) and I couldn’t be more excited. Watch this video for a sneak peak and behind the scenes look at recording my first reggae(!!!) song, “What’s Wrong?”. This video just gives a very small taste of how awesome this song will sound when you blast it through your speakers and do YOUR moves.

Click below and leave a comment to let me know you you’re here! Big love, Kat

Thanks to George Reasner for making this!

PS. Just posted this lyric video for “Differently”. It is so strange, it’s funny. I love the puppet that sings about the “glass slipper”…who would’ve thought he would be the one looking for it.

Join me on Facebook & Twitter for more fun insider content!

It started with my Grandparents Band,
The Melodiers. My Grandpa, Randall, is on the upright bass.
My Grandma, Agnes on vocals, and my Great Uncle Chester on banjo.

My parents met in college when my Dad, asked my mom

for a “guitar lesson”. After school, they moved to Vienna,

Austria where my dad was on scholarship to study and sang at the

Vienna State Opera House.  There, my mom released her first record.