Back in July, Record Weekly became officially acquainted with John Parry. Almost two months on, it’s time for his next release to surface, so it seemed like a good idea to catch up and get the insider scoop…

If your dream came true and you ended up on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, who would be in the jungle as your fellow contestants? 

As this dream draws ever closer to coming true, I must be careful to keep up the façade of actually caring about my music and not just using it as the way I get into the jungle. So you’ve put me on the spot here and I must answer wisely…

First off, it would have to be Derren Brown, because my bassist is in love with him and I imagine it would be the only opportunity I’d ever have to invite him to my birthday party. The rest is difficult really because I don’t care about celebrities. I don’t think the average person admires who I look up to. But I’d say Joe Talbot, Mike Skinner and Paul Weller, for sure, though I don’t reckon my line-up would be good for the jungle’s viewership. 

A healthy exercise routine is a big part of my life and you’ve mentioned previously that it’s become the same in yours. What are your top tips for getting into good habits? 

It’s great that it is, even though I feel it can be difficult sometimes. My advice to others is sort of immediately thrown out the window, as I usually smoke a couple of cigs before I go out and run a 10k, so take this with a pinch of salt.

For me, drinking was a big factor of being unfit and I found that I could undo a lot of good after a sip of that tenth pint. I came to realise that, if I made myself accountable I wouldn’t flop, so biggest tip would be to make yourself accountable, too. Generally speaking, people themselves are the main reason behind them not being healthy. But it can be difficult when we’re our own worst enemies. 

When you’re in the studio, are you quite serious or are you pretty chilled and just go with the flow? 

It’s a mixture really, but it’s a good reflection of my personality. We’ll sometimes sit down for two hours and talk about the inner workings of society and whether we should indeed eat the rich. Other times, I’ll really want to get a vocal down and will need the lighting to be just right. 

My music is usually based on real life stories and I deem myself more of a storyteller than a songwriter. So, sometimes, tunes can be silly but they’re still real; a moment that happened in time. But for some of the more hard-hitting tunes about domestic violence, drug use and depression, I take them very seriously, as I or someone close to me went through it. At this point, the lights definitely need be right, and I have to feel like I’m in that moment. It’s as though I need to embrace or harness that pain to ever release it. Jesus, I sound like a w*nker…

You can only eat three meals for the rest of your life — what are they? 

Easy, I don’t even need to think. Spag bol, avocado and eggs on toast, and chicken chow mein. 

Talk us through your next release. We want to know all about it… 

OH MY GOD! Well, I’m very excited about it. These tunes are my best pieces of work I’ve ever released. ‘Beautiful Day’ is a sick reflection of my sound going forward, with a few surprises in the bag, too. I listened to a few of them the other day and I realised that, all bar one or two, they follow quite a similar theme of being absolutely done with life and just wanting to push against the norm. 

Two tracks are quite serious though: one talks about drug addiction and another is about a manipulative d*ckhead… But it’s all good though, hey? Big things from here? We hope!

So, there you have it — a bit of an insight into the mind of John Parry himself. While it’s all fun and games chatting about reality TV and all-time favourite meals, Parry’s punchy tracks are underpinned by themes of genuine life issues that he’s grappled with. We know we’re really excited to hear his new material and all that it navigates.

Can’t wait until Friday to get hold of the first of his upcoming tracks? The official ‘Beautiful Day’ video is up now. You can keep up with his antics over on Facebook and Instagram in the meantime, too, but Spotify‘s the place to be when the new tunes drop.