“When we use the PDX720 it’s just beautiful. Give me that mic on everything I sing, every day. I love it."
Sometimes finding your way doesn’t mean blazing new paths. Sometimes it means reconnecting with your roots, joining together with old friends and embracing your first love, but now enriched with the wisdom of life experiences you’ve gained along the way.
"Sometimes finding your way doesn’t mean blazing new paths". After years of navigating the world of acting, Merideth Parks has done exactly that with her debut album, Trying To Find My Way, produced by recording legend, Bill Szymczyk in collaboration with independent music company founded by Bill’s son, Michael and Meredith’s childhood friend, Evan Mathews. Integral to capturing the unique sound and emotional depth of this album was the extensive use of AUDIX microphones including the , the and the
Meredith, can you talk about your formative years. How did your passion for music develop?
“I'm from Gastonia, North Carolina. I grew up singing in church. I also did local theater. My grandfather was in a gospel singing group and had a bluegrass duo named Roy and Jack. They would perform in churches and bring me on stage to sing This Little Light of Mine. I did the whole thing, even choreography. So, my love for the stage began at four years old. My family is very musical. My mom loved Carly Simon and James Taylor, and my dad would always play Johnny Cash around the house. I was always surrounded by music and I fell in love with singing early on, but my journey as a songwriter took a little longer. It wasn’t until my college years that I started writing songs. Even so, I'd hum myself to sleep as a kid, so I think I was developing myself as an artist when I was younger, but just didn’t realize it.”
Your musical career took a significant detour. Can you talk about your creative journey into acting?
"I went to UNC Chapel Hill and started out as a vocal performance major, but I hated music theory and transferred to the drama department and loved it. From there I auditioned for local television and film productions, things were picking up in North Carolina and Atlanta, and I fell into acting opportunities. When I moved to L.A. in 2013 acting was where my focus was, but I wouldn’t say acting was a “detour” from my musical journey, I love it and still act. But here’s the thing, in acting you're playing a character and saying other people's words, but on my musical journey it took a while for me to not just find my voice but to also trust in my voice and home in on what I wanted to say as an artist. Then I needed to find the courage to put my original ideas out there."
Do you find anything helpful about having both experiences in your career?
"Absolutely! The two blend into each other. I think any time you're doing any type of creative pursuit and trying new things, they synergize. I've done that in so many different ways that I'm more assured and determined. I'm not frightened to be on stage when I'm performing. In addition, we're now working on several songs that aren't from my first-person perspective, so it's fun to get into the voice of a different character. The acting has definitely helped the music along the way."
And what called you to focus on your music?
Music is something that I've always wanted to do. I don't think it was ever a moment when I didn't want to perform music, but, for this particular project the time was right and all of the pieces finally fell into place. Evan and I grew up together, we're from the same hometown, and I met Michael in 2013. When Michael got married in 2023, I met Bill at the wedding and he asked about my music… from there it just snowballed into getting the pieces together. Michael, Evan and I developed our style working together on and off over the past decade, but I don't think that what we're releasing now would have been possible five years ago. I had started to find my voice. I had a number of songs from the new record in varying stages, but they weren't complete. That gave me a repertoire of things to bring to the table. Bill said, “let’s try working on this and that!” And here we are.
Tell us about Trying To Find My Way?
"Trying To Find My Way is fifteen songs that chronicle my personal journey, my ups and downs through creative career and personal life, moving from North Carolina to California and back again…they’re my diary entries, so to speak. The seeds for many of the songs began as early as 2014 and were sitting as voice memos on my phone for a decade. I brought them into the studio and we went from there. I wouldn’t call it a concept album, but it does tell a story about trying to find your way in life."
Michael Szymczyk: “Finding your way in life,” is a larger metaphor, something that everyone can understand and relate to, but it also has layers that apply to Meredith as an individual and us as a smaller team. From finding our way creatively to trying to find our way in a music landscape that is constantly shifting faster than we all feel we can sometimes keep up with. Everybody has access to being creative, making and releasing their art, but how do you sustain that? How do you get it out in the right way? How do you make a career of it? So, Trying to Find My Way can be taken at multitudes of levels.
Meredith Parks: "It even applies to trying to find my way in simply making music. It always seemed harder to make music than to be in the acting world. For acting, I knew the steps to follow. Whereas with music, it wasn't that clear to me. The musician’s path is not defined anymore. Finding collaborators that you trust is hard. Even if you’ve known each other for a long time, actually working together is a whole different thing. But we were able to develop that trust and make this what it is now."
Meredith, do you have a favorite AUDIX Microphone?
"When we use the PDX 720, it's just beautiful. Give me that mic on everything I sing, every day. I love it. I'd like to take it home, but they won't let me. [laughs]"
Bill, how has your experience working with greats like the Eagles or B.B. King benefitted the project with Merideth?
Bill Szymczyk: "With every act I've ever worked with over the last 60 years, I’ve learned something new and filed it away in this old cranium of mine. It’s cumulative and every new act benefits from the experiences I’ve had. This record has benefitted from everything that came before it."
Michael Szymczyk: "It’s been amazing to have my dad as a mentor. I grew up with musical history happening around me. Learning specific approaches to things and not just from him, but all the great musicians, songwriters, producers and other engineers that were his friends. When I started to figure out what I wanted to do musically I had all these brains I could pick…I could talk to Willie Weeks about rhythm section details, I could talk to Stuart Smith about being a professional…Joe Vitale was my drum mentor. Honestly, it was such a privilege, such a rare thing to have access to that kind of knowledge. I tried to soak up as much of it as possible and not take it for granted. That’s part of my inspiration for Head in the Clouds Music. I was so lucky, why should I hoard this for myself? Applying what I’ve learned is my way of giving back. It's not just about passing on knowledge…there’s playing too. Dad’s gang are such a close-knit group, they’re like family. When we told them about the record, they said they’d chip in. Willie Weeks is the bass player on this record. Kenny Passarelli played on a track. We called Joe Walsh and he said, “yeah, I'd love to play on a track.”
Meredith Parks: "From my perspective, it's absolutely surreal. I mean, just unbelievable. Joe Walsh was recording guitar for MY record! I was like, “Is this actually happening?” Working with Bill, he puts so much faith in you as an artist. Knowing he’s done so many great things and then hearing him say, “You've got this. You know what you're doing. Just have fun,” was such a relief for me. Not just Bill either, the entire team, having them help foster me through this entire process, the first time I've done it, has been invaluable to me. I felt so taken care of and validated."
What advice do you have for independent artists trying to find their way?
Meredith Parks: It's so cliché, but really, just believe in yourself. If you have the desire to write, sing, act, anything, just go for it. Put yourself out there and believe in yourself.
Michael Szymczyk: "You also need to absolutely grind on it until you feel like it's worthy of putting out to the people that you're trying to reach. There's eight billion people in the world, that means there's a sustainable audience for everybody. Now go find your way to your audience."
Meredith Parks: "But don’t forget it's a marathon, you need to prepare yourself for the long haul."
Michael Szymczyk: "That leads into the only consistent advice I've ever received: don't quit. For as long as you can possibly hold out, don't quit. Eventually you'll do something that you're really proud of or it will lead you to something else, maybe that you never thought of, that you can be really proud of. So just don't quit. And on your way, find the people that help you do your best work. Know what your strengths and what your weaknesses are, and like my dad says, “hire the best and get out of the way.” You don’t have to do everything but try to be diverse in what you can do, because that helps you recognize others’ talents and offerings. So, find your people and stick with them."
Evan Mathews: "A personal anecdote that ties into this record is “know when to let go.” Before I moved to Los Angeles, growing up in North Carolina, I wrote songs that I knew would never see the light of day. One of the tracks that ended up on the record was something I’d written when I was 20 years old. I believed in it and had been holding on to it for all that time, but somewhere deep inside, I knew it wasn't for me. In finally letting it go and having Meredith do it some 15 odd years later, I was relieved that it had finally found its place. We're real proud of it."
Bill, you've seen a lot of changes in the music industry, but what do you feel hasn't changed? What's still important today?
Bill Szymczyk: Words and music. Everything after it comes out of the singer's mouth has changed in 60 years, but you still need to have a song. If you don't have a song, you're dead in the water. So, tell a story!
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What didn't I ask that you feel would make this a more compelling story?
You didn’t ask if I’ve found my way. And to be truthful, I haven’t, I’m still looking…so to be continued on that one. [Laughs]
When and where can people hear the new material?
Michael Szymczyk: Trying To Find My Way is now available on all streaming platforms. You can learn more about Meredith, other artists, and the work we do at
