Twenty-year-old singer-songwriter Parisalexa strikes a '90s chord akin to Monica or Faith Evans with her sound. But it's her pen game that shows the type of promise that's already landed of her on some best-of lists. Following the success of her 2018 debut EP Bloom and recent streaming darling "Ballin," Parisalexa continues to flex her songwriting and production muscles with the botany-themed "Water Me," premiering on NPR Music.
Building on a simple piano and bass, Parisalexa sings, "Are you gonna water me? / Can't you see my falling leaves / I feel like I'm wilting."
The artist says she wrote "Water Me" after completing Bloom because she was getting out of a relationship and felt she didn't have anywhere else to vent about still needing that partner.
"I was trying to be strong and grow from the situation and I was really attempting to do it on my own, but I just needed a friend. But I didn't know how to say it," she tells NPR Music. "I think everyone can relate to that in some way. Sometimes, you're pride's too strong or you don't know how to form the words. But we all need a shoulder at one point."
Parisalexa's success so far shines a spotlight on a burgeoning scene in her hometown of Seattle. The R&B newcomer was born in New Jersey, but considers Emerald City her hometown. When the young talent first started to pursue music, she says she felt alienated by the city's music scene. It took her some time to find the bubbles of R&B and soul floating under the radar of what she describes as a rock-dominated landscape.
"I saw that as an opportunity for me," she says. "I decided to figure out how to creatively bottle the culture here. There's a lot of potential here that people don't think of. For a city that's known for grunge and for people to realize there's more here than what they're used to, I think it's been amazing to see and be a part of."
Parisalexa's upcoming debut album, 5, is due out later this year.
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