Luke Farmer became pregnant in late 2006 after having sex with his Casio Walkman which, at the time was playing some right dirty loud electro-bizness. The baby plopped out and the proud parents named it 'The National Parks'. Soon, however a nasty band from the USA had a right go and said 'Oh. My. God. that's our babies name! get your own or we'll sue your ass. Though we just LOVE London...'
So Luke thought for a bit and then changed the name to 'The Parks Dept', which is much better anyway so there...
Luke first came to prominence on the music scene in 2001 as one quarter of indie-rock band Kapowski. After 5 years of touring and a release with Fierce Panda, a change of direction was required. Having always been involved with the production side of Kapowski, there had always been an interest in electronics and sound engineering.
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;The development of The Parks Dept. had in a way already begun before I realized, because I'd been producing my own music at home which always had a natural leaning towards other influences such as electronica and electro house".
This in mind, Luke began noodling about with electro noises and wrote some proper tracks, the results of which were heard by Kooky Records, who signed The Parks Dept soon after, and released the debut EP, 'The Weekend Starts Round Here'.
Soon Luke began thinking about playing live using laptops, loops and keyboards and asked former Kapowski bandmate and Yeltsin guitarist Kev Clayton to make some noises on his axe - which he did to marvellous effect.
Towards the middle of 2008, they began to think of expanding their sound, and at a gig met Rory Webb - the drummer of local band Sympathy State, who offered himself as the rhythm section for The Parks. They all agreed, and soon after gained the services of ex-Squid (of whom Luke was also a member) Stuart Fraser on keyboards. The line-up was, for the moment complete and they began to gig quite intensely in the local Midland area and North London.
After successful shows up and down the country, The Parks Dept began to realise that perhaps there was something missing from their live experiences. Too much swapping of instruments and messing about trying to plug gaps was going on. In order to realise the full potential of The Parks sound, more members were needed!
Rory said he had a mate from college called Josh Pullen (formerly of Coconi) who would be up for a bit of electro jiggery-pokery, so he came along to practice one day and everyone thought - 'Aha! This is what we need! - let's get MORE people in the band - woop!.'
Very soon after, Steve Fiske (formerly of Jagged Alice) joined on guitar; switching Kev to bass. Steve had once filled in for Kev on guitar duties while Kev was busy eating chips (with no salt or sauce on), so he was the natural choice, especially with his alarming array of pedals which make all sorts of funny noises.
And thusly - The Parks Dept was complete! Well, for a while anyway - oh yes - after many gigs and jolly times, Rory decided to leave and join Man In A Box with long-time collaborator Dave (also of Sympathy State), which left us one man short! 'What shall we do?', everyone said. And then - bingo! One of Stu's best mates was a drummer! AND he lived with Luke! Ah! The perfect answer! Right under your snout.
So, Duncan Coverdale (of Cave & The Predecimals) joined on drums and bugger me if the sound isn't as big as a really fat bastard. Phew! Now we are one!
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