Meet & Greet: Liam Parker of My Fair Lady

How does one go from being a quiet theatre kid, who loves Green Day, to being the face for fishnet clad, ear drum shattering, cover band?

Liam Parker is the driving force and most consistent member of the Peterborough 'Slut Punk' band, My Fair Lady. The Pulse had the chance to meet with them and speak about their music journey and upcoming show on April 20.

Liam Parker of My Fair Lady, at The Pigs Ear Tavern
Photo by: Luke Best

What is your history with Peterborough?

Oh God, I have lived just outside of Peterborough for most of my life. I grew up in Ennismore, about 25 minutes out. When I was 19, I moved into the city and have lived here ever since. But being so close, I've always gone to live music in Peterborough, pretty much since I was able to get into bars. I've been playing music since I was 17. So I have a love-hate relationship with Peterborough. I love it a lot, and a lot of that reason is the arts. I’d love to get out, but then I always know that I'm going to end up back here someday.

You touched on a little bit there, can you talk about your background with music?

So, the first time I started playing music, my dad gave me an acoustic guitar for my birthday at 12. My cousin taught me how to play guitar, and I never really did anything with it until high school. When I moved from PCVS (Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School) to TASS (Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School) because I was a musical theatre kid. That was my, like, really foray into singing at least. When I moved to TASS, I met a couple of guys and we were in high school, so of course we were like “We should start a band!” and we started a band, and we sucked. We played our first show at The Spill. (RIP)

I've kind of danced around the punk scene since 17 in different capacities and forums, and I've done everything from rhythm guitar to bassist to a lead singer. The only thing I've never touched is drums because I suck at drums.

Liam Parker at The Pigs Ear Tavern
Photo by: Luke Best

Has the punk genre, or the realm of punk always been your go-to genre?

Always has been. Yeah. I was relentlessly made fun of in high school for being Green Day's biggest fan and looking back on it, I'm like “oh, that sucked” but they were kind of right. I listened to nothing else. I just loved the over-the-top nature of punk rock, where you see these guys pulling crazy stage stunts or wearing crazy outfits. They didn't care what anybody really thought of them. It was like whatever crazy thought you had in your head for your band, you could just do. So I kind of grabbed hold of that, and it's taken me a long time because I had a lot of shame in myself. I'd had a hard time branching out. And it's funny to say that, you know, the shy kid is now running this band that is the definition of shameless, which is really interesting. I've always been drawn to punk rock just from how purely authentic it is, whether it's through its music or through what people are doing on stage.

You mentioned being a musical theatre kid, can you talk about that at all?

I originally got into PCVS for the drama program because I was really into performance, and like playing parts and all that stuff. For a long time it was what I was known for in Peterborough. I played The Big Bopper in a Buddy Holly Show production. I was in most of the Trent stuff. I ended up playing Christian Slater's character in Heathers: The Musical. I had really gotten a reputation in Peterborough as a musical theatre person and I did music on the side. So when My Fair Lady first started, it felt like it was kind of natural. Where I could take the parts I like about theatre and the parts I love about playing music and just make them happen. It definitely taught me the performance side of music. It's like, you don't know how to play guitar very well, but it doesn't matter when you're a lead singer with a musical theatre background, right? Like, you could just be an idiot so long as you can sing well and have a commanding presence on stage.

Liam Parker at Sadleir House, during Heartbreakers, Dream Makers 2
Photo by: Luke Best

You've sort of blended those two passions together to make My Fair Lady. Can you talk a little bit about the band itself, and even just the name of the band name coming from theatre.

In 2019, I was directing a production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Theatre on King and we had a fundraiser for it. If you know anything about that show, everybody in our cast was a talented musician, and we all also played music, so we were like “why don't we do like a house band kind of thing?” and anyone who knows Hedwig knows that it's all about gender identity, queerness, and all that kind of stuff. So we thought, “what if we all like, dressed in drag and covered musical theatre songs?” The question came of what should we name it? And I had just been thrifting and had a button from a production of My Fair Lady that I had found, I looked down and I went “guys, it's My Fair Lady.” You know that scene in The Simpsons? “We need a name that's witty at first, but seems less funny each time you hear it.” It just kind of stuck. We never really decided to change it. We played exclusively musical theatre covers. We did, like, Mamma Mia! and Hedwig and Rocky Horror Picture Show, and that was fun for a time. We kept that up for a little bit, but as it evolved, I kind of moved away from the theatre aspects. I realized that I wanted the band to go in a direction that was more rooted in just feminine identity rather than musical theatre kid-core. And so, I made that shift to your Chappell Roan, your Sabrina Carpenters, but also Joan Jett and Debbie Harry. So, the core of performance is still there, but it's more rooted in fem identity rather than just like, “look at us. We're doing this thing.”

You mentioned a couple of different bands and artists, when it's time to plan a show, how do you decide what the set list is going to look like, and how do you pull that out from different genres?

My Fair Lady will never play an original. That is what I've said to everybody in the band who joins. Basically what I like to do is, I like to kind of pay tribute to either the powerful women or powerful queer artists, and just powerful theatrical performers in general. I talk about it with Colin [Chepeka] a lot. We have a formula that we call “divas, old-school, and modern-day.” We try to pick at least something from each of those three genres. Using Heartbreakers Dream Makers 2 for an example, we got some Bonnie Tyler and Madonna, for the Divas. And then for old-school stuff, Green Day, Blink-182 stuff like that, and then for modern-day my biggest well to pull from right now, is Olivia Rodrigo because she's basically like a punk artist disguised as a pop artist, and she's really fun to work with. But we've done Chappell Roan and we have plans to do Sabrina Carpenter. Even lesser known ones, like Peach PRC. That's where I've been having the most fun, is looking at the modern stuff.

We’re called slut punk, but it's not even as punky as it used to be. It's just giving songs a different spin. It becomes just this kind of like an experimental performance of what can we do with the song and change it in a way that you can dance to it a little better, or you can be more engaged in it than if we were just straight covering it, right?

With such a wide variety of musical styles and artists that you play, when you're on stage and you look out from the crowd, what type of people do you see out there?

My god, all kinds, like. I remember the first big show we did, Heartbreakers, Dream Makers, I looked out at the crowd and I'm used to seeing all of my friends and I didn't recognize a single person who was there. We really tapped into the Trent student crowd and a lot of young gay kids who don't have anywhere else to really feel like they can fully be themselves. Our first show, we had so many kids showing up dressed in these awesome outfits, and just like rocking out, and I was like, “I'm so happy that you guys heard about this, but also like, who the hell are you?” Most of our band's parents come out to watch us and recognize the songs and have a good time. It's like anywhere from a Trent student to somebody in their 40s or 50s, has shown up, and I think that's really cool to see because even though our music is loud, there are still people who want to see it because it appeals to them. It's the beauty of covers that, you know, people have something that they can kind of attach to and recognize.

The crowd during Heartbreakers, Dream Makers 2
Photo by: Luke Best

Speaking of a wide variety of both music, and audience members, I guess we could turn it to the band itself. It seems like every time you guys perform, there's a new or different band member on stage.

That's because there is. I call My Fair Lady less a band, more a queer art collective. In the sense that, we have a pretty ever-growing roster of people, who this will never be their main gig. Except for me. I offer it to people, like, “hey, if you're musically inclined and you want to have fun, turn your brain off and not have to worry about writing a new song or getting that riff down. Here's a list of nine songs that you already know, come hang out with us and have a great time.” We've had musicians from all over, like VANCAMP is one of our drummers and we've got people from emo bands, from folk projects, we've got classically trained pianists who come because they really enjoy getting to explore this part of themselves that they don't get to in their normal projects and endeavors. It's being the biggest version of a musician that you can be and not have to worry about, like, “oh, I'm putting my whole thing on the line to do this” because that's my job, is to put my reputation on the line because I'm the most consistent member. I present myself being like, “hey, this is no risk for you. This is a chance for you to just have fun. I'll make the thing flow. I'll build the set list. I'll get that all ready to go. Just come and be good.”

The past couple of shows you have played have all been quite packed. Obviously, that is a portion because of My Fair Lady itself, but can you talk a little bit about the bands that you choose to work with?

We always try to feature at least one other music act. Typically, we try to actually avoid someone in the same kind of vein as us. We want it to kind of hearken back to old-school variety vaudeville shows. We want it to be a collection of all these different things. Tapes In Motion has opened for us. Babe Chorus has opened for us. The Boo Radley project out of Guelph has opened for us. If I put them all in the same bill, you'd be like, “that's really weird.” But in a sense it's almost like an appetizer, right? Where there's this really cool thing, that these really cool people are doing, so let's kind of show them off first so when we come on, it is almost like a punch in the face when the crazy stuff starts. That could not be done without help.

Typically for our bigger shows we have a fellow by the name of Ash, who does all of our visual projections for the shows, and we have Tai Timbers does a huge lighting show for us when we perform. It really is starting to become more and more that My Fair Lady isn't really the band that you're going to be the last-minute opener on a bill. Because we're so committed to making every kind of thing a bit more of a spectacle. That's why we play so infrequently because it's so much work to build it up and make it happen.

That's kind of where I land on it. Showcase something different. We are supported and loved in this community, and so we're happy to showcase these different genres, and then we're also going to melt your face with what we've got planned. I think it's great. Anyone who's ever heard of Colour TV In Every Room, because they used to be a band way back in the day, it's still the same kind of trancy post-punk kind of vibe, and I think it's going to be a really cool transition into us.

You mention Colour TV In Every Room. Can you tell me about the show coming up with them?

We do April 20, 4/20 baby! Also Easter Sunday…which was a crazy decision. If Easter Sunday wasn't 4/20, it wouldn't have happened. It just felt like the stars were kind of aligned. That whole coincidence is a spectacle in and of itself. And so, we needed to capitalize on that kind of spectacle as well. Chicks and Bunnies, We've got games. We've got special guests. It's going to be crazy because you take as big a risk as playing on a Sunday in general, let alone an Easter Sunday. You have got to amp it up in any way you can.

And it’s at the Pigs Ear Tavern which usually isn't open on Sundays either, is it?

No, they did that just for us, which was very sweet of them. They're one of the best venues in this whole freaking town. If not the best for sure. But it's going to be good. I'm nervous for sure. But it seems to be going well. People seem to be interested!

You can see My Fair Lady and Colour Tv In Every Room perform on April 20 at the Pigs Ear Tavern. Tickets are $5 at the door.
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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.