Early Hours can mean a few different things: Are you winding down after being up all night, or are you just rising to meet the sun? To introduce the Early Hours DJ mix series, Arlo Parks took the former route: “I envision this as winding down at the end of the night with a cup of tea and some popcorn,” she tells Apple Music. “You’re reflecting on the day that's just passed and dreaming of what's to come.” To assemble such a set, the London singer-songwriter gets herself into just the right frame of mind. “I light a candle, I meditate, I go down some YouTube wormholes and try and mingle rarities with more familiar songs,” she says of her wide-ranging selection of laidback tracks, spanning Ben Folds Five and Radiohead through to electronic experimenters Vegyn and Dean Blunt. “The aim is to soothe, so I have to enter into that headspace myself. My taste is always evolving, so I approach each mix as completely fresh. Each mix is very much spontaneous and heartfelt. It's an expression of my new discoveries of that week.” Of a couple favourites, she says, “I chose 'Holding On' by Tirzah because there's such a warmth to the drum palette and her voice has this very particular emotional nonchalance. Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou’s ‘Homesickness’ is a song I'll put on on my way back from the studio, and I always feel like I'm floating away when I hear those chords.” So put the kettle on, fire up the air popper, sit back and enjoy her seamless 45-minute mix.