Rykarda Parasol spills her heart out with Blood and Wine

The San Francisco singer bares the dark shadows that influence her rich songwriting

By Katherine Hoffert
Published: March 27th, 2010 | 6:00pm

“I remembered reading Hamlet, specifically the part of the play when Ophelia gave away flowers just before she went insane,” says San Francisco’s femme fatale, Rykarda Parasol, as she discusses the significance of the poppies on the cover of her latest self-released album, For Blood and Wine. “I didn’t use the same type of flowers, but they all have meaning. That’s symbolism—I’m a sucker for it.”

Marking a return to California from Texas, Blood and Wine is embedded in milieu. A sequel of sorts to Parasol’s debut, 2007’s Our Hearts First Meet, Parasol’s latest draws inspiration from the rich literary history of San Francisco. As such, the songs instill a Beatnik spirit in Parasol’s signature “rock noir” sound accompanied by a heavy use of piano and organ, å la the Doors and Serge Gainsbourg. The album also looks to the Barbary Coast’s sordid past and sinful decadence. “The mystique and atmosphere are important,” says Parasol before expressing yet more symbolism. “If I cook a meal, I won’t serve it on a paper plate. How it’s framed won’t change what’s on the plate—the music is the music. But I like when all the sensory stuff connects—when the purse matches the shoes.”

Like her characteristic blonde/black hair, Parasol’s music is full of careful contrasts and balance—sorrow and joy, elegance and grit, femininity and masculinity. It’s also laced with death, absinthe, broken promises, and lily-white light. Wine inhabits the first half of For Blood and Wine in the form of debauchery. “Maggie,” a Black Sabbath/Elsa Beskow storybook–inspired song, has references to heroin, as does the beautifully haunting acoustic ballad “Hold Back the Night,” on which Parasol plays piano and guitar. And, “A Drinking Song” is the ultimate ode to carousing, as well as a personal declaration to life: “Raise a glass and laugh a laugh / Ha! / And let it splash in death’s wretched visage.”

Then, midway through the album, something breaks: a violin comes in with the instrumental “For All Men Kill...” and makes way for Blood, which symbolizes human-to-human contact and relationships. The two themes mix in the opiate clouds of “Covenant”: “He placed me on the bed / Pushed his hand through my hair and said / Blood and wine are both red and neither do a thing for me at all.” It’s a song that references Oscar Wilde’s poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, written in exile after his release from prison.

It’s no coincidence that literary devices and references bleed into Parasol’s music and album art, since Parasol’s background is in literature and fine arts. “My poor parents,” she jokingly laments of her career choices. Parasol also studied screenwriting, which is shown in her music’s cinematic behavior (“I love Quentin Tarantino’s dialogue”), as well as opera—ironic, since it’s a deviation from her gravelly, gin-soaked lower register. “It always interested me that Picasso studied Realism and then moved into his own sort of voice,” she explains. “He showed me that you can have all these tools and interchange them. So I decided to study opera.”

For Blood and Wine also has dark shadows that are deeply contextual and personal. As Parasol describes, “I come from a Scandinavian background, so my mother’s stories were always ending in tragedy. She loved to talk about the Titanic, and then it was like, ‘Okay, go to bed.’ Because of this, I had insomnia for most of my life!” What’s confounding is Parasol’s ability to face this tragedy head-on. “I don’t want to be scared of it,” she says straight. “If I see a problem, I want to go right through it. My father is a Holocaust survivor and is a prime example of that mentality.”

In the end, the songs are souvenirs of Parasol’s own personal survival. “I’ve had such powerful experiences, and they weren’t always pleasant, but I wanted to capture and remember them because they were challenging—it’s painful, but somehow you’re expanding by doing it,” she resolves.

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