It feels like everything within the music industry is accelerating at an alarming rate, and as difficult as it may be for most artists to make the constant adjustments needed to keep their names in the conversation, imagine how tough it is for an independent artist who’s just getting started. “I was 23 and thrust into an abnormal, chaotic, and very public way of living immediately after graduating college with an underdeveloped support network,” explains Pictoria Vark (a.k.a. Chicago-based songwriter Victoria Park), looking back on the release of her debut album The Parts I Dread from 2022. “Focusing so heavily on playing live shows—these things with very explicit end dates—made me question if I was right to center my life around something so fleeting, until I realized everything is fleeting.”
Naturally, this line of thinking resulted in a follow-up LP, titled Nothing Sticks, which sounds as musically confident as Parks’ lyrical musings may seem uncertain. One of the record’s two lead singles, “San Diego,” perfectly demonstrates the cool, jangling rhythms over which the songwriter displays her unsuspectingly existential—not to mention purgative (“I blacked out swinging this fist”)—lyrics. “This album is a reflection on the way all things end through the lens of being a musician,” she adds, elucidating on the postcard she’s shared from Southern California as well as the broader project it neatly fits within.
Check out the Syd Ostrander–directed music video for “San Diego” below, which sees Park enjoying a carefree day at an amusement park. Nothing Sticks is out March 21 via Get Better Records.
