Paramore vocalist and straight-up songbird of our generation, Hayley Williams, has followed through with teasers of solo material, today releasing the first offering from her eponymous project, ‘Simmer’, alongside news of an impending full-length record.
Throughout her career, Williams has earned a reputation of being creatively unpredictable – whether it’s redefining the notions of pop punk with Paramore, being completely ethereal with American Football, or her output as a silo on the Jennifer’s Body soundtrack with the rough and tumble jam ‘Teenagers’. So, in that sense ‘Simmer’ isn’t much of a departure at all given that it’s another entirely unpredictable offering.
‘Simmer’ begins with Williams literally breathing life into the track, and from there its own heartbeat kicks into action and we’re taken on a woozy, fever dream of a journey with the Warren Fu (think Daft Punk, The Weeknd, A Tribe Called Quest)-directed clip as our guide.
In an official statement, Hayley Williams also confirmed Simmer is the first in a series of upcoming releases which will accumulate in PETALS FOR ARMOR, her maiden solo record:
“I’m so ready and so incredibly humbled to get to share this project. Making it was a scary, empowering experience. Some of my proudest moments as a lyricist happened while writing PETALS FOR ARMOR. And I was able to get my hands a little dirtier than usual when it came to instrumentation. I’m in a band with my favourite musicians so I never really feel the need to step into a role as a player when it comes to Paramore records.
This project, however, benefited from a little bit of musical naïveté and rawness and so I experimented quite a bit more. I made this with some of the closest people to me. Their respective talents really shine bright throughout the record. I like to think we all make each other better and the result is something that sounds and FEELS exactly as I’d hoped it would. Now that it’s time to put it all out there, I can finally exhale. I’m excited to let people in to experience a different side of myself that I’ve only very recently become familiar with.“
In a separate, more endearing quote, which those who sign up to the Hayley Williams mailing list will see, the singer reveals, “For the last 11 months, I’ve been quietly writing and recording a collection of songs I could’ve never imagined would come to exist. It’s a scary thing to plant a seed and not know what may bloom..Well. No going back now. Let’s see what happens.“
The record will hit shelves -both digitally and otherwise – as early as Friday, May 8. Until then, find yourself a quite 5 minutes, focus on your breathing and take a moment of self-care with the below. God knows we deserve it.
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