Parking Lot Funeral is a Knoxville, TN based project that was put together by Henry Pack in the late summer of 2020. Pack is a Knoxville native and played in bands: Hellaphant, Mark, Discotelle, and Velvetgut Parry. Parking Lot Funeral is the culmination of a decade of experimenting in the studio. Pack provides all the instruments, mixing, and mastering of the project’s dynamic catalogue ranging from shoegazey ballads to bedroom punk noise. With the help from his friends in Knoxville party punk band Appetites, he is able to bring that sound to the stage.

What accomplishments do you see yourself achieving in the next five to 10 years?

Touring has always seemed fun to me. I haven’t had the opportunity to go many places around the country so that would be an added bonus to playing music outside of Knoxville.

What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?

I have always been around it, it just has always been a part of my life. I remember going to bed as a child above my dad’s rehearsal space and falling asleep to that. It wasn’t until I started playing and writing music that the passion presented itself to me. Sharing the idea, working with someone on an idea, recording it, preparing it to perform, how an audience receives it is exhilarating to me. The process of making music is addictive.

Describe your style of music to those that may not have heard of you.

I would describe the style for the first record as a popish shoegazey bedroom punk pile of noise. However as I continue to grow forward in my own music I find that the upcoming record and Ep will still have those elements while getting a little heavier and more produced in the realm of synthesizers and electronic drums. An eclectic mess. 

What Does Your Band Name Mean?

The name Parking Lot Funeral came about during the height of the pandemic when I found myself doing the sound for funerals in parking lots. I work as an audio engineer around town so when everything closed down I found myself out of a lot of the freelance jobs I was doing. There was something about people gathering in a parking lot to have a memorial service that stuck with me, especially as an outsider seeing people adapt the way they mourn a loss. 

Who Are Your Biggest Influences?

Fortunately I grew up in a musically charged environment with my father and all the people he played music with. I was introduced to punk and what I knew just as college rock through 90.3 The Rock at an early age with bands like Descendents, Guided by Voices, and Jawbreaker but also local Knoxville rockers like Superdrag, Mic Harrison’s solo work, 30 Amp Fuse, Pegclimber, and The Judybats. I do enjoy a lot of other music and it has definitely guided me, but I consider these groups my biggest influences because they made me want to make music before I even picked up an instrument. 

What’s Your Songwriting Process like?

I spend hours by myself up in my studio space demoing song after song. A lot of the songs I enjoy the most are ones that had no initial inspiration and were just exercises to figure out how to use a microphone a different way or a new software plugin. They feel like someone else wrote them to me because I was focused on something else and didn’t overthink the actual writing process. For the most part I just like drinking an absurd amount of coffee and seeing where that takes me when I sit down at the end of the day. I guess the writing process for me is always changing so I don’t burn myself out. 

What message do you want to send to your fans?

Keep moving forward, continue to grow, be uncomfortable, enjoy everything you can, and don’t be afraid to rest.

What band or musician would be your dream collaboration?

David Lynch would be wild to work with musically, I love his production and compositions. Crazy Clown Time and The Big Dream are two of my favorite records.

What song of yours would you say is your favorite?

I really like To Try. This was the first song I wrote for the record. It was the only song I finished in one session. I feel like it perfectly reflects my life around July/August last summer where I was working 60 hour weeks to get by. It is a bittersweet motivational track about being stuck between giving up and powering through for the ones you love.

Are you working on anything currently?

I have the second album almost completed however I don’t see myself releasing it until early next year due to current work obligations. However I do plan on releasing an EP of sorts midway through December to bridge the lack of releases this year.

What new music are you listening to currently?

Indigo De Souza’s Any Shape You Take LP and Usually’s Somewhere Out There Ep has been stuck on repeat for the last month or so for me.

What changes would you like to see made in the music industry?

More power to the artists. Better streaming payouts, especially for self published musicians.

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