In eighth grade, Connor Parent had an epiphany.
The singer-songwriter and guitarist sat down at a middle school lunchroom table with friend Elliot Walker and pulled out his composition notebook.
“I said, ‘All right, we’re gonna make an album, and it’s gonna be called Everything Outward,’” said Parent, who hails from Walled Lake, Michigan. “It really just came to me.”
Parent spent the next eight years writing and recording 15 tracks for what would become his debut album, Everything Outward, under the artist moniker Sonic Distance.
“I started writing at the age of 14, going through high school, even a bit of college,” he said. “Those are the ages when your mind expands, and you’re learning a lot about the world. I’m still learning a lot, and I feel like I do have more to say.”
What resulted is an introspective alt-rock album that explores the quest for finding one’s purpose and understanding the world around us.
“When it comes to this collection of songs, the sequencing is very intentional. It tells the story from start to finish of a character who starts out angry at the world. The track, ‘Fire Trail,’ takes a spooky, haunting turn to the album,” Parent said.
“It has these mood swings to it, and then it goes into a silly [section] with ‘Chicken Fight,’ ‘Avenue,’ and ‘Jet Lag.’ Then, you get into the introspective meat of the album with the last three songs. It has this personal resolution at the end. A lot of it is fictitious, but a lot of it did come from [real life].”
I recently spoke with Parent about the inspiration behind Everything Outward.
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