Interview by Alli Lindsey
Photos by Kristian Engelsen
For most people, space is a negligible series of compounded elements – indiscernible atoms and molecules that border our material possessions. Nothing more. No questions asked. For Resa Saffa Park, however, space is everything. Space is a vacant garden primed to bloom, evolve, die, and begin again. Space is failure, passion, and where creation exists and consciousness begins. Materializing her fascination with space and how it intersects with human connection, Resa Saffa Park just unveiled her seven-track EP Spaces. A cinematic triumph traversing indie-pop soundscapes and emotional lyrical prose, the multi-talented artist distances herself from the character she plays in Netflix’s Ragnarok to embody the spirit of musical poetry. With intuition, cosmic wonder, and 23-year-old tendencies, Resa Saffa Park opens up about what Spaces means to her and how career titles won’t define her.
Tell us about the most emotionally moving space you’ve ever existed in.
When I lived and studied in Liverpool which is a quite harsh looking, but jolly city with a lot of history, I would walk through the rough streets, but walk past people who take the time to greet someone, “good morning love,” if you’d make eye contact. I have wonderful memories of the feeling of gratitude of walking through that environment and up to my university where choir would be the first class of the morning, and spending the first hours of the day singing in harmony with my peers. I think of those times as the most romantic of my life.
While your EP Spaces explores the beauty and wonder of human connectivity, it also surveys the harrowing nature of loss. Describe a space that would make someone feel uneasy, unnerved.
I think that one of the most heartbreaking realities we as human beings need to accept is that everything we embody or have will at some point have an end. Eras, relationships, the high of falling in love, your parents presence, youth. And I think we live life forgetting that everything is temporary, and maybe that’s necessary in order to live, but I have felt that some of my most unnerved and uneasy emotions have been the times when I am reminded of just that.
For many of us, bedrooms are sacred spaces to reflect, unwind, and let go. What are some essential items that take up space in your bedroom?
Overthinking. Unfortunately.
“I think that one of the most heartbreaking realities we as human beings need to accept is that everything we embody or have will at some point have an end. Eras, relationships, the high of falling in love, your parents presence, youth.”
Do you ever feel confined to one medium of creativity? Is it difficult to move from acting into songwriting?
Yes, I sometimes feel confined to one creativity, being acting, because the most known identity attached to my name and face is through the character or me as an actor. When I am trying to communicate as myself and as a musician I have found it’s hard when the replies of my communication have been replies to my character or me as an actor. But of course, I understand why and what we identify with ourselves dont always align with what others identify us as, and I guess that’s just how it is, but I have sometimes thought about if acting is destructive to my music. But I have concluded that I love both arts and I am just as much, if not more so a musician, so I’ll just have to show them.
Do the characters you play on TV and in film exist in your music?
No, but personal experiences from the time of recording exist in my music, but I have not yet written any music with the perspective of a character I’ve played. I might one day, but I don’t think it will be any one of the past characters I’ve played.
Where in space do those characters exist after you have stepped out of a role?
I think that every actor needs to find a common thread or understanding of the character they play in order to play them right, so I think that some of the qualities dug out to play a character will stick somewhere in oneself after playing them.
“I can feel very distant from the world sometimes, and sometimes very close and in sync with it, but it fluctuates and I can’t take either for granted.”
If space is everything, what is the opposite of space?
Time. Because every space we live in is robbed by time.
Spaces also touches on themes of distance. What role does distance play in your life?
I can feel very distant from the world sometimes, and sometimes very close and in sync with it, but it fluctuates and I can’t take either for granted. Plus, I think that distance in many forms and contexts can make a person more reflected towards life, space and distance itself.
What gratitude do you have for distance and what about distance do you struggle with?
Distance is reflection, distance is the opportunity to realise, and distance itself can also work as comfort. For me at least.
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