Born African and Mexican descent and raised in California’s Bay Area, Donnie Parker has had music streaming through his blood from the beginning. His mother, obsessed with soul and RnB, surrounded her family with music, singing along with anyone else that would care to take part. Parker’s father (although not fully present for his younger days) was the lead vocalist of Gary, Indiana soul act The Lost Boys. Now, together with long time producer HellaMelody, Parker is ready “to bring his own, hip-hop inflected modern take on the music he could sing before he could write,” titled the New Blues.

New Blues is Parker’s debut, yet it’s also the album that he’s “always wanted to release.” Three years in the making, the finds Parker crying his confession to the microphone, reminiscing on past love and indulging in fantasies over a whirlwind of instrumentals. The release, according to the label, is “an autobiographical snapshot of the last four years of Parker’s life.”

Available to download below is “New Blues” the song, a cut that is about “being in love with someone who is ideal on paper in every way,” Parker says. “Imagine falling in love with someone that is you ideal both physically and mentally, someone who is strong, independent, and trustworthy,” he elaborates. “Yet you’re torn between this human love and another passion—in my case the passion for creating music. It drove a wedge between us, and I hid from the in music; which just drove us further apart. I think the title is very fitting.”

The New Blues album is scheduled for February 10 release.

New Blues