Musician Sudan Archives explores non-western string traditions

Musician Brittney Denise Parks, better known by her stage name Sudan Archives, is on a mission to show the violin in a different light. The 29 year old violinist singer-songwriter recently performed on the West Holts Stage on day 4 of Glastonbury music festival in the UK. 

Her music is an exploration of non-western string traditions, unconventional pop and R&b melodies, as well as rap inspired by her boyfriend and collaborator, rapper Nocando.

The artist's breakthrough album "Natural Brown Prom Queen" was released in 2022, with her track Homemaker even making it to Barack Obama's favourite music of 2022 playlist. 

The L.A.-based Parks taught herself the violin as a child, learning how to play by ear at church. 

"I just was really into fiddle music. So I started like just trying to learn fiddle music," she recalls. "And there was an after-school program called Fiddle Club, so we learned a lot of Irish music and stuff, but when I moved to a different school, there wasn't an orchestra or any after school program. So I just taught myself more in church how to play by ear. And then since I didn't really have any training, I didn't really have the training and skills to like, pursue college and go to school like that. But I basically started to incorporate electronic music with the violin."

The artist describes her music as "soft punk". 

"People always when they try to put you in a box, it's like you shouldn't take it like negatively because they're just trying to understand what's going on. So that's their way of just basically trying to understand what you do, but I feel like, you know, I don't really care what they call it as long as they like it."