bio
Cale Parks became an icon of the underground as a founding member and the mystically expressive drummer of trailblazing art-rock heroes Aloha. But an abiding fascination with electronic music–from his childhood in Ohio, to years of touring, to his decade spent in New York City as an in-demand session player and DJ–constantly redirected his rhythmic flow into something more stylish, sexy, and deliberate. Through decades of refinement, Cale’s new work bridges a sophisticated-yet-primordial space between deep house, balearic, and lounge, while never compromising the sense of vibe for which he’s become so renowned.
Anyone following closely might have predicted his leap from hard-hitting drummer to a stalwart of dance clubs from coast-to-coast. It was a natural path for Cale, as a throughline of his myriad projects is an obsession with the body as an instrument of dance. From the wild drumming of Aloha’s early ‘00s releases on Polyvinyl (which did indeed become more refined as time went on) to the sleek composition of 2013’s N1–his first single for Justin Miller’s Have A Killer Time imprint–it’s a joy to follow Cale’s musical evolution, a journey that’s not only organic, but also quite obsessive. By the 2015 release of the Lagoon Fool EP, also on HAKT, the intention and deliberation behind every synthesizer beep and piano run had become obvious. A string of glittering and propulsive dance tracks began to appear to international acclaim and distribution, including the 2015 release for London-based Rothmans, the sold-out vinyl-only Diego Maradona EP. The remix of “9G” by Eddie C. would not be the last reimagining of Cale’s work; in 2016, the French band Paradis reimagined their N1 remix into the track “Contours,” for their major-label debut.
It was also in this period Cale became the drummer for Yeasayer, a gig that folded in his incredible talent as a percussionist with his new-found obsession with spinning at club gigs. He began DJing around Brooklyn, to fill in the gaps between tours. In that period, his orbit expanded from indie rock to disco and electronic. It was a time of on-the-job learning, where he crafted hours-long sets from the huge amount of influence he’d culled his entire life.
“I was in the high school orchestra scene, played in a basement rock band with friends after school, and would sneak to barn raves on the weekend with friends who could drive,” Cale says.
That sense of a sonic world without boundary pervades all of his releases. He reflects on an early trip to the corporate bookstore near his childhood home in Ohio:
“I walked out with a bag of CDs: Fugazi, A Love Supreme, and Underworld.”
His exodus from NYC to Kansas City to begin his family gave the multi-instrumentalist producer the chance to breathe, opening his practice to a sense of space simply not possible in New York. On recent releases, such as the 2020 EP Boards, for the Dutch label Whirling Wolf, the density of the production opened up to a sense of new possibility.
Still, being known as one of the most innovative and consistent drummers of his generation, Cale encounters some small resistance to expanding his practice.
“A lot of your good drummers play other instruments,” he responds. “A bad drummer doesn’t feel or hear the entire arrangement of the track; they only focus on the cool stuff the drummer does. An amazing drummer hears and feels it all: the emotion, the context, and knows the outcome. For that same reason, I want to create my own bigger picture.”
That picture is a glossy, polychromatic world where ultramodern production results in a timeless world where you can’t help but move.
Cale has performed live or in the studio with:
Yeasayer (Mute/Secretly Canadian)
Aloha (Polyvinyl)
Passion Pit (Columbia)
Joan of Arc (Polyvinyl)
Chet Faker (Downtown/Future Classic)
Tanlines (True Panther/Beggars)
Nicolas Jaar (Other People/Clown & Sunset)
Dave Harrington (Darkside)
Chrome Sparks (Future Classic)
White Williams (Domino)
Steve Moore (Kompakt/L.I.E.S.)
Chrome Canyon (Stones Throw)
Owen (Polyvinyl)
Cex (Tigerbeat 6)
Pit er Pat (Thrill Jockey)
Chin Up Chin Up (Suicide Squeeze)
Remix credits for:
The Who (Geffen/Universal)
Neon Indian (Lefse/Fader)
Crystal Fighters (Atlantic/PIAS)
Bear In Heaven (Dead Oceans)
Bear Hands (Warner Music)
Sun Airway (Dead Oceans)
Ra Ra Riot (Barsuk)
The Joy Formidable (Atlantic)