New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Parson
James is back with the official music video for "Dirty Laundry," a special collaboration with GRAMMY-winning artist, JoJo. The video, debuted today on PAPER Magazine, was filmed on location at "Elsewhere" in Topanga Canyon, CA and directed by Alfredo Flores, offering an intimate look at their longtime friendship.
"
Dirty Laundry" was recently hailed by Billboard as "a tender-yet-swaggering love song," praising the duo's "stratospheric vocals," with V Magazine lauding the track as "emotionally freeing" and "a pop jam that easily melds R&B and soul to create one confection." The duet marks the first offering of new music from Parson
James in 2021.
Speaking about the new song, Parson reveals, "I can't believe this song is actually out in the world. It holds such a special place in my heart and it's taken such beautiful shape over the last year. I originally wrote this about a guy I was seeing in quarantine. He struggled so much with his sexuality and accepting himself & felt ashamed and it really was affecting him deeply. I wanted so badly to let him know that he should feel safe around me, that there was zero judgement and that I knew how he felt and wanted to be someone he could fully be himself around. His washer/dryer had broken so he was bringing laundry to my house a lot so the idea of "dirty laundry" came from that. There's no such thing as dirty laundry when you have your person."
On having JoJo join him on the song, Parson explains, "It felt so natural after writing it to ask Jo to be on this record. We have such a deep and meaningful friendship where it's exactly that. We know each other in and out and have experienced extreme hardships together. I wanted to normalize platonic love and show an example of a gay man and his best female friend fully having each other's back. It's something that isn't seen enough in my opinion."
Speaking about her involvement, JoJo unveils, "When Parson played me this record I immediately knew I wanted to lend my voice to it! He's such a special human being and artist and we'd been talking about singing together for years. So I'm glad we were able to bring this song to life together."
"
Dirty Laundry" is the first bit of new music to come from Parson
James this year, and serves as the follow up to his song "High Tide Low Tide."
Parson
James also recently announced an upcoming live performance as part of Outloud's Raising Voices festival, taking place in in Los Angeles from Friday, June 4th through Sunday, June 6th and live streaming exclusively on Twitch.
Raising Voices' mission is to "promote love, acceptance, inclusiveness, identity and support while bringing people together in a colorful celebration of community." The event will take place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and will include performances by Parson
James alongside Daya, Mykki Blanco, Hayley Kiyoko, Kim Petras, Sam Sparro, Sofi Tukker, Vincint and more, plus Adam Lambert, who also serves as curator for the event. Tickets are on sale now. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.weareoutloud.com.
With his cathedral-size vocal range, confessional lyricism, sharp sense of soul, and pop ambition, South Carolina-born, multi-platinum-certified singer and songwriter Parson
James transmutes trials and tribulations into inspiration. Now, with "
Dirty Laundry" out in the world and more new music on the horizon, Parson
James is ready to wear his heart on his sleeve yet again, as he embarks on this next chapter.
