FEATURE:
Modern-Day Queens
IN THIS PHOTO: Hayley Williams in a promotional photo for Love Me Different, which is part of a new seventeen-song/singles projects/PHOTO CREDIT: Zachary Gray
Hayley Williams
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THIS is a supreme artist…
PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes
who I am a big fan of and someone who is an incredible role model. I have said that about a few artists recently, and I stand by it. When it comes to Hayley Williams, as a solo artist and lead of Paramore, she has been responsible for releasing some of the best music of her generation. Apart from the fact she is a music queen and I did not need an excuse to feature her, she recently released seventeen solo singles. Her first independent release, I am going to end with a review of it from NME. However, before that, I want to spend some time with some interviews. Nothing brand-new, though they are fairly recent. I want to start off with this interesting interview from l'Odet. There are some sections of the interview that caught my eye and I wanted to share. Aside from asking about Paramore, there was also a question around the website Midnight Woman, which is a fantastic anonymous submissions platform:
“Cariann Bradley: It’s this weekend! I can’t believe it, either. The owner, Sandra, is retiring. She’s in her seventies and this store is her baby. I hope she’s going to travel!
Hayley: Wow. That is crazy to think about, just in terms of where you and I are at now and what life might look like. At seventy it’s like, if there are things you haven’t done yet that you want to do, I guess you just...do them. Wow. Being in her position would be like me leaving the band behind. I can’t even imagine that.
Cariann: So you think you’ll stay in Paramore for a long time?
Hayley: Yeah. I mean, I don’t think it will look like it did. I don’t think it could look like it has looked, you know? There were just so many yeses to everything — especially when we were kids. When we were kids it was like, we’d never even seen or heard of some of the opportunities before. Half of it was curiosity and half of it was just wide-eyed ‘let’s see what this experience feels like.’ Obviously we wanted the band to succeed. But I don’t even know if we really grasped the concept of succeeding. It was more like we just went through the motions every day, and if the shows are really magical, then that’s why you do it, you know? Now — especially after this album cycle, too — I would never do things the way we did before "After Laughter". With "After Laughter", we kind of said no to everything.
Cariann: You seem like a totally different band.
Hayley: Oh, thank you. We wanted it to! Zac coming back was a big part of the aesthetic shift, but I think in terms of our business minds — you know, that’s the other thing — growing up in a band and it actually working out, it becomes less of a band and more of a brand. I was telling Zac this the other day. We were working on a collab with somebody and he was like, “Are we sure we should be doing this? Because we don’t have an album coming out.” The truth is there are two parts to the band. One part is what you wear on a t-shirt, which is basically the name. And the other part is the band, which is us! And the band is what it’s about. I told Zac that if all three of us feel good about it, we do it. In moving forward, if the three of us are happy, then we will just do whatever we want to do. If that means collaborating with each other, bringing other friends in to collaborate — there are seven band members when we tour. We’re all friends and we all make music in different parts, together. So I feel like, yes, I want to be in Paramore. I never want to have to put out a press release that says we’re over or that I quit or that we’re taking a hiatus, which is essentially a marketing ploy these days. I would rather it just be. It just is a part of each of our DNA. If we choose to move into it as a brand and put a name on these songs and make a new t-shirt, then awesome. But I’ve been in a band with them since I was 12; I don’t think the band is going anywhere. As long as we’re friends, the band just is. It’s just in us.
PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes
Cariann: I feel like [as women] we’re so used to people discrediting us. A lot of men, which is interesting, that I’ve talked to about this brand they sincerely ask if I will be doing fact-checking on the anonymous submissions I get. They say it out of curiosity; I know they don’t mean it in a harmful way, but that just goes against everything Midnight Woman stands for. That’s the entire reason this platform exists. The thought of fact-checking someone’s anonymous submission had never even crossed my mind, especially being a woman myself. We aren’t acting as any sort of authority on anyone’s story, you know? It’s why I’m careful not to rewrite anything that anyone trusts me with. Even with Sharon’s interview that I did last spring — I just transcribed it. And that will be it. I don’t feel comfortable contorting her words in any sort of story arc or hook lead. That’s always what I’ve loved so much about magazines is when you just get the cut and dry, question and answer. It keeps your voice in it. Not the writer’s.
Hayley: Sure — I think I would be nervous to do it, too. I think there are certain moments where it can be authentic and respectful, but I totally get that. It’s why I don’t really sing other people’s songs. The “Stay The Night” song I did was half-written by, I’m almost certain, Nate from Fun. [Laughs] He put it under a fake name, but that’s who I recorded it with. He still won’t confirm it, but I know he wrote it. Thankfully, the writer left a lot of blank verses and I got to do that. I really don’t like the experience of singing other people’s words or the idea of giving my words to another person...maybe if I really loved them a lot. I like to sing my stories. I think if you thought you could write something with respect to that person or artist, then I think you’ll know. Just like “Stay The Night,” I was like wow, I’m going through something just like this. I get to put my piece in it too. That felt right in the end.
This tea is really good, by the way. [Laughs]
Cariann: That was actually one of the questions I was going to ask you today — kind of in that realm, anyway. What would you say to someone who is nervous to share their story? What would you say to the apprehensive Midnight Woman contributor?
Hayley: I mean…the only way that we move from one point in life to another is by action. I think action can be physical movement or can be recurring thoughts, patterns, dreams. My weapon of choice is always words. It’s what has simultaneously shielded me and also whacked down weeds for me as I’ve tried to get through life. If you can share your story just enough to find that spark of action where you’re telling someone what you’ve gone through, or you’re looking at your words in front of you — when you can look at them and know that they’re going to meet someone on the other side — if you want to get anywhere past it, the only thing to do is move. Words might look small and black and white on a page but, to me, that’s one of the biggest things you can do. Some of the most powerful movements in my life have just been sentences, sometimes not even to melody. Even though I’m in a band and all this stuff with Paramore, sometimes it’s not the stuff I write in songs, it’s what I’m telling a friend late at night or writing in a journal that no one will ever see. Even though sometimes I’m like, “I’m going to die one day and someone might find this shit; it better be good.” [Laughs]”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Peyton Fulford
Even though the interview was a couple of years ago, I want to come to The New Yorker and their words. It was an interview that was partly in promotion of the most recent Paramore album, This Is Why (2023). I am bringing in these interviews, as we get to see different sides of the amazing Hayley Williams. She is this artist that I am compelled to write about following the release of these amazing singles. I am not sure if I can do her justice but, when thinking about the most influential and incredible women in music, Williams’ name is near the top of the list:
“You were just fourteen when you signed a production deal with Atlantic Records, which means you’re coming up on nearly twenty years in the music business—in fact, this new record is the culmination of that deal. Are there things you wish that you could tell your younger self about how to navigate the strange and treacherous waters of the record industry?
Yeah. And about so much more than just the business! That deal was the very first three-sixty deal in . . . history. We didn’t know anything! My family didn’t know anything. The guys’ families didn’t know anything. My mom and I didn’t really have much. She would babysit, and then I would be, like, “Well, I’ll go sing a country demo.” I was taking writing gigs and demoing gigs just to make extra money. The very first song [Paramore] wrote was called “Conspiracy.” I wrote it about finally feeling like my dreams had come true, because all I wanted as a kid was to meet music people. Then, the next thing I know, everyone wanted to draw me out of the band setting. I chalk that up to what was working in pop music at the time: the Avrils, the fact that Kelly Clarkson was making a pop-rock album. We didn’t only meet with Atlantic Records. I mean, God, I met Clive Davis, L.A. Reid. It was such a whirlwind. “Conspiracy” was about my parents telling me that these great opportunities are coming to me, and I might have to make sacrifices. And I was thinking, I just don’t care if we never play a show as long as I can play music with my friends.
Being fourteen and feeling like an adult decision was looming was really scary. I wish I could just go back and just tell Little Me that a lot of my gut instincts were right. Even though I was really young and didn’t have a lot of experience, I knew what I was O.K. with. I constantly felt at odds with my own leanings or proclivities toward certain things, because I wasn’t an adult. That being said, if we hadn’t done all of that, who knows where we would be? They wanted to sign me, but I still got to bring my friends along for the ride, and we ended up making it what we wanted in the first place. It just took a lot of trial and error. I think I would just want to hug that person, because she was so confused. She was, like, fuckin’ little girl in a big city. I was just trying to figure out the world while also getting my homework done by Monday.
There’s a particular tension on the record that I think of as Home vs. Not Home, for lack of a better way to put it. I’m curious how you think about the idea of home, both in a literal sense—buying and furnishing and living in a house—and then the broader, more spiritual idea of finding your place in the world.
I think that’s my favorite thing I’ve ever been asked in an interview, because it’s my favorite thing to talk about. Anyone who grew up in a chaotic home environment and has trauma around that would understand why. Brian [O’Connor], who I run a hair-dye company with, he’s my best friend—we talk about this constantly. All that he and I have wanted, our idea of success consistently throughout our life, has just been having a home. A home that is the same place every time. Whenever I’ve had to move, I really go through a lot internally, because it’s tough. I did a lot of moving as a kid, and I don’t like that kind of change. Even just going back and forth from your mom’s and dad’s when they’re divorced . . . it feels easy when you’re in it, but as an adult I’m realizing, Oh, there was never one place where all my things were. And so that’s the way I think about it. It’s all the things that bring me peace and comfort. And I can decorate, too. I love story; I love textures; I don’t need things to be really nice. When I got a divorce, I moved into this shitty little house that was infested with bats. I had to do quite a lot of work to it to make it feel really mine, and cozy—but, oh, my God, if I could have stayed there for the rest of my life, I would have been fine. Loved my neighbors, my tiny little yard, and my dog Alf just barking at everyone who walked by. I don’t need a lot—I just need consistency. I love shopping for vintage shit, because it has a story. I love scuff marks; I don’t need things to be pristine. That’s why I love that you have a pencil sharpener on the trim of your door. That looks like my idea of home. You’re, like, The smell of freshly shaven pencils brings me something that a super expensive vase—which might be beautiful, and you might really appreciate—can’t. It doesn’t give you the same sense of peace, of being known like that. I feel very known when I’m at home. I’ve got to get used to the discomfort of pushing myself to be more social, because I’m realizing that I’ve isolated myself for a really long time. Now I’ve got to live—I’ve got to see my peers again, I have to be willing to be uncomfortable, at least for a little bit of time. Because I love home that much”.
Paramore has had an unusual trajectory, in some ways. You saw a resurgence of interest in your work when the band was technically on a hiatus; Paramore suddenly got swept up in what’s been called a pop-punk renaissance. What do you think led people back to your music? “Nostalgia” seems like too simple of an answer.
I don’t want it to be that, but I was just reading an article about why people in my age group, in our thirties, want the comfort, or the dopamine hit, of good memories. I agree with you—I don’t want it to be that simple. I want there to be other threads to pull. But, you know, for better or for worse, there’s just a lot of really unique angst in the music of that time period. We had the Internet and we had social media coming up. There were a lot of different ways to express and connect, but there were still a lot of frustrations. This was obviously not too long after 9/11, and pop bands were making political records again. Then again, more recently, people finally had time for the conversation around racial injustice, after George Floyd’s murder—I think it was just a perfect storm, right? We were all stuck, and the nostalgia probably felt great, too. People were uncomfortable and anxious and angry. I don’t know. But it is interesting to kind of feel like this is the first time in our career that people have said, “Oh, they’re this kind of band—they’re an emo band.” Back when it was all happening, nobody knew where to put us. I think it kind of feels better not knowing where to be placed than to be called emo because, as much as I can get really nerdy about that whole subculture, I don’t really want Paramore’s artistic legacy to be pinned to that word. I don’t think it’s accurate. Even the people who were around when it was coined didn’t like it”.
I am going to end up with a review from NME. They sat down to assess Hayley Williams’ latest project. With no tracklisting and this sort of independent and free approach that harks back to the earliest days of the Internet or something bygone, I wonder if other artists will follow her lead:
“Hayley Williams’ hair company Good Dye Young launched a new product last week, a vivid marigold shade created “in the heat of the moment” that “channels the fleeting energy of warm summer nights, golden hour and missed second chances”. The limited-edition dye was named EGO – which is also the title fans have been giving the Paramore vocalist’s new surprise collection of 17 solo singles.
The rollout began when ‘Mirtazapine’, a scuzzy love-letter to antidepressants, was shared last month via a homemade CD single given to Nashville radio station WNXP. Last Monday (July 28), Good Dye Young customers were given early access to the entire project via a noughties-inspired website, and encouraged to share the link with friends before all the songs were unleashed on streaming services at the end of the week.
Adding to this community-first approach, there’s no official tracklist for this project. Williams has encouraged fans to chart their own journey through the hurt, fury and uneasy peace, depending on what they need from these powerfully vulnerable songs.
This release reunites Williams with Daniel James, the co-producer of her first solo album ‘Petals For Armor’. That 2020 record was an experimental electronic album with hushed poetry about feminine rage, depression and longing. This collection is just as sprawling but far more noisy. The snarling ‘Ice In My OJ’ makes a barbed dig at life on a major label as she calls out “a lot of dumb motherfuckers that I made rich”. Over the twinkling emo of ‘True Believer’, Williams wrestles with her own faith and the hypocrisy of Christian America. “They say that Jesus is the way but then they gave him a white face / So they don’t have to pray to someone they deem lesser than them” is one hell of a lyrical mic-drop.
The hurt doesn’t stop there either. Williams is at the end of her tether on the haunted ‘Negative Self Talk’ and the visceral ‘Kill Me’, while the sneering ‘Hard’ is a deliciously direct guitar anthem about always expecting the worst after a lifetime of let-downs. The wonky, poppy ‘Glum’ is about as devastating as breakup songs get.
Despite all the heartache though, Williams is never hopeless. Both the frustrated, angsty ‘Brotherly Hate’ and the dreamy ballad ‘Blood Bros’ keep the door open for eventual make-ups while the chirpy ‘Love Me Different’ cradles a spark of self-love and the tiniest hope for the future. It’s the closest this project gets to sounding like Paramore.
Self-released and distributed via Secretly Distribution, this project is Williams’ first independent output. Paramore signed the music industry’s first ever 360-deal 20 years ago, and have since become one of the biggest, most influential and beloved rock groups around. But they’ve had to fight for every win”.
Following the expiration of that record deal with Atlantic Records in December 2023, Hayley Williams is taking great pleasure playing with her newfound freedom. ‘Discovery Channel’ features a surprisingly moving interpolation of Bloodhound Gang classic ‘The Bad Touch’; ‘Brotherly Hate’ has Lenny Kravitz-inspired guitar licks from Paramore touring member Brian Robert Jones. Each song sees Williams fearlessly stepping between familiar and fresh influences. It seems less about playing with expectations and more about what feels the most visceral. The smirking name of her own label? Post Atlantic.
As with almost every era of Hayley Williams’ career, this new release has come with questions about the future of Paramore. The determined lyrics on the tender ‘I Won’t Quit On You’ should be all the reassurance worried fans need, but if that’s not enough, there’s plenty in this brilliant, swaggering new chapter to be excited about. These songs might be about missed second chances, but Williams is certainly making the most of hers”.
I will leave it here. An opportunity to feature a couple of interviews with Hayley Williams and some praise around her new project. More than that, I hope it opens Williams’ music to people who may not know about her. Or they might know Paramore but not her solo work. An artist that I have huge admiration for, her newest work shows she is one of the world’s…
MOST compelling songwriters.
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