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GRAMMYs

Paramore's Jeremy Davis, Hayley Williams and Taylor York

Photo: Christopher Polk/Getty Images

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making-paramores-aint-it-fun

The Making Of Paramore's "Ain't It Fun"

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Hayley Williams and Taylor York recall the creative process for their first GRAMMY-winning song, including an unexpected emotional element
Hayley Williams
Taylor York
GRAMMYs
May 7, 2015 - 3:08 pm

(The Making Of GRAMMY-Winning Recordings … series presents firsthand accounts of the creative process behind some of music's biggest recordings. The series' current installments present in-depth insight and details about recordings that won 57th GRAMMY Awards.)

(As told to Chuck Crisafulli)

Taylor York: This song was a complete surprise. I came up with a lot of ideas that I thought sounded like what we were supposed to write — big rock guitar riffs that would have fit on our earlier records. As I played each idea for Hayley she'd say, "Yeah, that's cool but what else do you have?" I went through everything I had until I got to the last idea — one that I wasn't planning on showing her because I thought she'd hate it. But it was all I had left. She got excited about it and from there the song just built organically and naturally. It all came together in a sound and a style that we had never really explored. The fact that "Ain't It Fun" came together so easily and worked so well really was the turning point for the writing process of the whole record, and it helped us fall in love with the writing and recording process at a new level. The music was something that I had felt connected to, but I didn't think it was Paramore. It turned out that whatever we feel connected to absolutely is Paramore.

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Paramore: Ain't It Fun [OFFICIAL VIDEO]



Hayley Williams: I remember walking into Taylor's hotel room one of the first days [after] our move to L.A. to make our next album. He played that little marimba part on a loop. I thought it was so cool — I went straight back to my room to get pens and a notebook. By the time I got there I already had a melody, and by the time I got back to Taylor's room I already had the first few lines of lyrics.

We started demoing vocal parts in Taylor's room and when we got to the bridge we felt like we needed to hold on a root note and let the tension build with a lot of voices. Taylor and I stacked our voices about 10 different times and it sounded unbelievable — but not in a good way. We decided that we needed really good singers to come in and get it right. A couple of months later we're recording at Sunset Sound and a local gospel choir comes in, and by the second practice run-through it was perfect. I welled up with tears because I've loved gospel music all my life and to hear a choir singing our parts — belting out that harmony — it just felt insane to be in a band that could have that kind of amazing moment as part of our song. All of a sudden we felt big, like we had really made it. Yes, we've got a gospel choir on our record. This is really happening.

(At the 57th GRAMMY Awards, Paramore's Hayley Williams and Taylor York won Best Rock Song for "Ain't It Fun," marking the first GRAMMY wins of their respective careers. Paramore are scheduled to kick off a U.S. theater tour on April 27 in Augusta, Ga.)

(Chuck Crisafulli is an L.A.-based journalist and author whose most recent works include Go To Hell: A Heated History Of The Underworld, Me And A Guy Named Elvis and Elvis: My Best Man.)

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57 fun facts about the 57th GRAMMY nominees mary-j-blige-katy-perry-57th-grammy-nominee-facts

Mary J. Blige to Katy Perry: 57th GRAMMY nominee facts

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Dig deeper with 57 fun facts about this year's class of GRAMMY nominees, including Iggy Azalea, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Taylor Swift, Pharrell Williams, and more
Tim McPhate
GRAMMYs
May 15, 2017 - 2:36 am

By now you've seen the full list of 57th GRAMMY nominees. But with 83 categories, it's a lot of information to absorb. We've dissected the list to bring you factoids about this year's nominees that are sure to make you the star attraction at your group GRAMMY viewing party. So dig in with our list of 57 Fun Facts About The 57th GRAMMY Nominees and mark your calendar for Music's Biggest Night on Sunday, Feb. 8 from 8–11:30 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. 

Sam Smith is nominated for each of the "Big Four" awards — Album, Record and Song Of The Year and Best New Artist. At 22, he's the second youngest artist ever to achieve that feat. Mariah Carey was just 20 when she was nominated for all four awards 24 years ago.

Female artists account for four of the five Record Of The Year nominees. It's the first time in 16 years — and only the fourth time in GRAMMY history — that women have dominated the category to that degree.

"Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX is just the second all-female collaboration to receive a Record Of The Year nomination. The first was "The Boy Is Mine," the 1998 smash by Brandy and Monica.

"Shake It Off" is Taylor Swift's third single to receive a Record Of The Year nomination. The sassy smash follows "You Belong with Me" (2009) and "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (2012).

Sia's "Chandelier" is the year's only work to be nominated for both Record Of The Year and Best Music Video.

Pharrell Williams is competing with himself for Album Of The Year. He's nominated for his own album, Girl, and as a co-producer for both Beyoncé's Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran's X.

Beck is nominated for Album Of The Year for Morning Phase. He's the first artist to be nominated in this category in each decade from the 1990s through the 2010s. He was previously nominated for Odelay (1996) and Midnite Vultures (2000).

Beyoncé is nominated for Album Of The Year for the second time, for Beyoncé. She was nominated five years ago for I Am… Sasha Fierce. Beyoncé has amassed 53 GRAMMY nominations, more than any other female artist.

Ed Sheeran's sophomore album, X, has the shortest title of any Album Of The Year finalist in GRAMMY history. The old record was held jointly by James Taylor's JT, Peter Gabriel's So and Adele's 21.

Another album titled X, by Chris Brown, is nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Brown won the 2011 award for Best R&B Album for F.A.M.E.

Hozier, a Song Of The Year finalist for "Take Me To Church," was born in Bray County, Wicklow, Ireland. Other Irish songwriters that have been nominated for this top GRAMMY include Gilbert O'Sullivan and U2.

Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass," which is nominated both for Record and Song Of The Year, is not the first GRAMMY-nominated song to celebrate a woman's "bass." Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" won for Best Rap Solo Performance for 1992.

Brandy Clark, who is nominated for Best New Artist and Best Country Album, received her first GRAMMY nomination a year ago for Best Country Song. She was a co-writer (with Shane McAnally & Kacey Musgraves) of Miranda Lambert's hit "Mama's Broken Heart."

Haim, comprising sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim, are the first sister trio to receive a Best New Artist nomination.

Two all-female collaborations — "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX and "Bang Bang" by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj — are competing for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Either would become the first all-female collabo to win in the Pop Field since "Lady Marmalade," the 2001 smash by Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink.

Tony Bennett is vying for his 12th award in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category. He's nominated for Cheek To Cheek, a collaboration with Lady Gaga. Bennett is by far the most frequent winner in the category. Michael Bublé is second with four wins.

With Cheek To Cheek, Lady Gaga is vying to take best album honors in a third genre. She previously won for Best Electronic/Dance Album for The Fame (2009) and Best Pop Vocal Album for The Fame Monster (2010).

Johnny Mathis, nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Sending You A Little Christmas, received his first GRAMMY nomination in 1960, the third year of the awards. His classic rendition of "Misty" was nominated for Best Vocal Performance, Male — Single Or Track.

Miley Cyrus received her first GRAMMY nomination for Bangerz, which is a finalist for Best Pop Vocal Album. Her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, received a 1992 nomination for Best New Artist.

Coldplay, who are nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album for Ghost Stories, have previously won for Best Alternative Music Album (twice) and Best Rock Album (once).

Katy Perry is nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. This brings Perry's career total of nominations to 13. She is looking for her first win.

Deadmau5 is nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for the third time in the past four years. The Canadian musician is nominated for his seventh studio album, While (1

Mary J. Blige is nominated for Best Dance Recording as the featured artist on Disclosure's "F For You." The versatile singer has won nine GRAMMYs in four distinct genres: R&B, rap, pop, and gospel.

Slipknot, nominees for Best Metal Performance for "The Negative One," won the 2005 award in this category with "Before I Forget."

Two tracks from a tribute album to the late Ronnie James Dio are nominated for Best Metal Performance. They are Anthrax's "Neon Knights" and Tenacious D's "The Last In Line." Dio died in 2010.

The Black Keys, nominated for Best Rock Album for Turn Blue, won in that category two years ago with El Camino. Their album before that, Brothers, won the 2010 award for Best Alternative Music Album.

U2's 13th studio album, Songs Of Innocence, is nominated for Best Rock Album. All five of the band's studio albums since 1994, when this category was introduced, have been nominated for this award. U2 have amassed 46 GRAMMY nominations, more than any other group.

Jack White, nominated for Best Alternative Music Album for his second solo album, Lazaretto, won three times in this category with the White Stripes. If he wins again this year, he'll become the first four-time winner in the category's history.

St. Vincent is vying to become just the second female solo artist to win for Best Alternative Music Album. Sinéad O'Connor won the first-ever award in the category for her 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who rose to fame on "The Cosby Show," is nominated for Best Traditional R&B Performance as a featured artist on Robert Glasper Experiment's "Jesus Children." (The track also features Lalah Hathaway.)

Love, Marriage & Divorce by Toni Braxton and Babyface is nominated for Best R&B Album. It's vying to become the second collaboration to win in that category. Wake Up! by John Legend and the Roots took the 2010 award.

Robert Glasper Experiment are vying for Best R&B Album for Black Radio 2. Their initial Black Radio won the 2012 award in this category.

Two tracks from Lecrae's seventh studio album, Anomaly, were nominated in very different categories. "All I Need Is You" is a finalist for Best Rap Performance. "Messengers," featuring For King & Country, is nominated for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song.

With The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Eminem is vying to win Best Rap Album for the sixth time. Eminem's five previous wins make him the category leader. Kanye West is second with four wins.

Schoolboy Q was featured on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' The Heist, which was last year's winner for Best Rap Album. This year, the Los Angeles rapper is nominated in that category with his own album, Oxymoron.

Childish Gambino, nominated for Best Rap Album for Because The Internet, is the musical persona of actor Donald Glover, best known for his role on the TV series "Community."

Neil Patrick Harris received his first-ever GRAMMY nomination this year. The actor and frequent awards show host is nominated for Best Musical Theater Album for Hedwig And The Angry Inch.

Keith Urban, nominated for Best Country Solo Performance for "Cop Car," amassed four GRAMMYs for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in a six-year span (2005 through 2010).

"Meanwhile Back At Mama's" by Tim McGraw featuring Faith Hill is nominated for Best Country Duo/Group Performance. It's their sixth nomination for vocal performance as a team.

The Band Perry are vying to become the third artist to win a GRAMMY for a recording of "Gentle On My Mind." John Hartford (the song's composer) and Glen Campbell both won 1967 GRAMMYs for recordings of the song.

Paul Epworth is vying for his second award in the category of Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical. He won three years ago, chiefly for his work on Adele's 21. This year, his projects included Paul McCartney, Foster The People and FKA Twigs.

Swedish hit-maker Max Martin is nominated for Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical for the first time. In addition, he's nominated for both Record and Song Of The Year for his work on Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off."

Current nominees Beck and Jack White are among the artists who will perform at the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year tribute gala honoring Bob Dylan on Feb. 6.

Aloe Blacc received his first career nomination for Best R&B Album for Lift Your Spirit. Blacc is among the artists who will perform at Lean On Me: A Celebration Of Music And Philanthropy, the 17th Annual GRAMMY Foundation Legacy Concert taking place Feb 5.

Taylor Swift is the lone nominee who is the subject of a current exhibit at the GRAMMY Museum. Featuring personal photographs, handwritten lyrics, tour costumes, and more, The Taylor Swift Experience is on display through May 10.

Iggy Azalea is nominated for Best Rap Album for The New Classic. Should she win, Azalea would become the first female solo artist to take home the award.

Tom Petty's nod for Best Rock Album for Hypnotic Eye with the Heartbreakers is his 18th career nomination. Petty won his first GRAMMY for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal for 1989 for Traveling Wilburys Volume One. The Traveling Wilburys featured Petty and, among others, George Harrison, who is one of this year's Special Merit Awards recipients.

Paramore's Hayley Williams and Taylor York are up for Best Rock Song for the group's "Ain't It Fun." This marks the second time the two musicians have received a nomination in a songwriting category. They were previously nominated for "Decode," which was a 2009 finalist for Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media.

English rock group Bastille are among this year's nominees for Best New Artist. They are vying to become the first English collective to take home the honor since Sade won the award for 1985.

Former President Jimmy Carter is nominated for Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling) for A Call To Action. If he takes the award, Carter will become the third former or future president with two GRAMMY wins, joining Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Carter is scheduled to present the award to Bob Dylan at the 2015 Person of the Year gala.

Gloria Gaynor's We Will Survive: True Stories Of Encouragement, Inspiration, And The Power Of Song is also nominated for Best Spoken Word Album (Includes Poetry, Audio Books & Storytelling). At 35 years, Gaynor has the longest gap between nominations of any current nominee. Her last nominations were for 1979, including a win for Best Disco Recording for "I Will Survive."

Ziggy Marley and Anoushka Shankar are nominated for Best Reggae Album and Best World Music Album, respectively. Both artists' fathers — Bob Marley and Ravi Shankar — are GRAMMY winners and Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.

Kendrick Lamar's "I" is the lone song with a one-letter title to be nominated this year. It's up for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.

"The Monster" by Eminem featuring Rihanna is among the nominees for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. The two stars received a 2010 nomination in this category for "Love The Way You Lie."

"Weird Al" Yankovic and Louis C.K. each received nominations for Best Comedy Album. Each has previously won in the category: Yankovic for Poodle Hat (2003); Louis C.K. for Hilarious (2011).

With six GRAMMY wins, Carrie Underwood has the most GRAMMYs by an "American Idol" alumnus. She's up for two more this year: Best Country Solo Performance and Best Country Duo/Group Performance.

What do Arcade Fire, Tony Bennett, Glen Campbell, Alison Krauss, Barbra Streisand, Taylor Swift, and U2 have in common? Besides all being current nominees, they've all released albums that have won Album Of The Year honors.

(L to R) Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck of R.E.M.

(L to R) Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck of R.E.M.

Photo: Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images

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New Comp Benefiting Voter Rights Ft. R.E.M. & More rem-hayley-williams-tegan-and-sara-my-morning-jacket-phoebe-bridgers-and-more

R.E.M., Hayley Williams, Tegan And Sara, My Morning Jacket, Phoebe Bridgers And More Contribute Unreleased Recordings To All-Star Compilation Benefiting Voter Rights

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The 40-track compilation, available exclusively on Bandcamp for 24 hours only starting Friday (Sept. 4), will benefit voter rights organization Fair Fight
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Sep 4, 2020 - 11:16 am

R.E.M., Hayley Williams, Tegan And Sara, My Morning Jacket, Phoebe Bridgers and many others have contributed unreleased recordings to Good Music To Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy, a newly released all-star compilation benefitting Fair Fight, a voter rights organization founded by former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams that "promotes fair elections around the country through voter education, election reform, and combating voter suppression," according to a press release announcing the album. 

The 40-track compilation, which features never-before-heard new songs, covers, remixes, live versions and unreleased demos, is available exclusively on Bandcamp for 24 hours only starting Friday (Sept. 4) as part of the online streaming platform's Bandcamp Fridays initiative.

See the full track list and artist roster below.

Highlights from the Good Music compilation include a newly discovered Beverly Glenn-Copeland song from 1977; a cover of U.K. experimental rock band Broadcast by Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams; a demo collaboration in progress between Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard and Tycho; and a cover of The Cure's '80s classic "In Between Days" by The National leader Matt Berninger. Other artists featured on the compilation include Flume with Eprom, Sudan Archives, Helado Negro, Jeff Tweedy, Sharon Van Etten and many others. 

Read: How Bandcamp's Fee Waiver Days Are Supporting Musicians In The Pandemic 

Author Dave Eggers, along with artist managers Jordan Kurland, Darius Zelkha, Christian Stavros and Barsuk Records label head Josh Rosenfeld, executive-produced the compilation; Good Music marks the fourth fundraising project around a presidential election from Eggers and Kurland. 

Acclaimed street artist and fashion entrepreneur Shepard Fairey created the compilation's cover art. Bandcamp is also selling limited-edition signed screen-prints of the artwork; proceeds from the sale will benefit Color Of Change, the nation's largest online racial justice organization.

Read: The Recording Academy & Color Of Change Team Up To Promote Positive Change In The Music Industry 

"It's going to come down to bringing out and protecting the vote this fall, so the work Fair Fight does is crucial," Eggers said in the press release. "Jordan and I figured a painless way to raise some money would be to ask musicians to donate unreleased tracks, people pay a few bucks for them, and maybe we can edge toward a functioning democracy again."

"As in our previous election-based projects, Dave and I were looking for a relatively simple platform for artists to get involved in the political process," Kurland added. "Seeing how impactful Bandcamp Fridays have become, we felt this was the perfect way to create urgency by releasing new music from a collection of amazing artists for a very short window of time."

Soul Clap Wants You To Rave The Vote This 2020 Election

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Hayley Williams

Photo by Lindsey Byrnes

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Hayley Williams On Going Solo & Trusting Her Body hayley-williams-going-solo-alanis-morissette-trusting-her-intuition

Hayley Williams On Going Solo, Alanis Morissette & Trusting Her Intuition

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To coincide with the release of her solo debut, 'Petals For Armor,' the Paramore performer spoke with the Recording Academy about learning to trust her body’s intuition, trying to make friends in adulthood and establishing boundaries on social media
Nina Corcoran
GRAMMYs
May 8, 2020 - 9:00 am

These days, nothing is going as expected, especially for Hayley Williams. The GRAMMY-winning Paramore frontperson is stuck at home in Nashville tending to a house full of plants, her bright-eyed dog Alf and the near-weekly release of singles from her debut solo album, Petals For Armor. With quarantine lockdown intensifying her already isolated headspace, Williams has ample time to stress about the release of a record she never planned to make in the first place. 

When talking about it over a weekday phone call, she sighs and laughs simultaneously. "Weird times," she says. "Today I’m PMS-ing, but I’m fine. It’s fine. It’s totally fine!" Usually a string of reassurances like that would strike as self-deprecating or tongue-in-cheek. For her, right now, it actually reads as honesty.

For starters, Williams has nothing to hide anymore. After concluding a string of tours in support of Paramore's synthpop full-length After Laughter and divorcing her longtime partner, she returned home only to discover it was time to address her struggles with depression and anxiety more formally. At the suggestion of her therapist, she began penning songs as a form of musical journaling. The results were passionate and transparent, the type of tracks where raw energy pulses through them, and Williams realized she had unintentionally created a set of songs worth sharing. Her bandmates suggested she turn it into a proper solo album. As an artist who was signed to a major label at age 14 where she established she would only record music with her friends as a proper band, not as a teenage pop star, the idea felt inconceivable—every song she had written for the past 15 years had been released through Paramore, save for one-off collaborations—until she decided to wing it and see what happened. When you’re Hayley Williams, an unintentional origin story can result in a pop album as creatively diverse and empathetically rewarding as this one.

To coincide with the release of Petals For Armor today, Williams spoke with the Recording Academy about learning to trust her body’s intuition, trying to make friends in adulthood and establishing boundaries on social media.

Petals For Armor opens with a pretty spot-on assessment that "Rage is a quiet thing," which reappears later in the album as well. In cultural conversations, rage is always addressed as a physical, visible, loud thing and never as something discrete or hidden. Looking back, do you remember the first time you felt truly overwhelmed with anger?

Oh, wow. Goodness. How deep do we want to get? I think I felt it in a few different iterations from a really young age. As you get older, you learn how to articulate some of those feelings in new ways. For me in my early years, I isolated a lot, I was very confused about my parents' divocre, and I was also confused about my mom’s second marriage and the abuse that happened there. I wasn’t a witness to it as much as I felt it. It was an uncomfortable time in life. For me, the way anger manifested was like heat in my body, almost like a blackout where I wouldn't remember the last few moments. You sort of dissociate in a way that doesn’t feel all that weird until you get older and, in hindsight, realize your body was trying to tell you something.

Absolutely. For whatever reason, I seemed to grow up without ever getting really angry. I would get upset or frustrated, of course, and certainly would debate with friends or family. But I never felt genuinely angry until I was in my mid-20s and experienced that full-force realization of, "Oh wow, women experience so many horrible things that men thankfully don't have to go through, and we’re just supposed to deal with it, to keep up with everyone else despite having unique setbacks." It’s weird to realize how long you’ve been carrying a silent rage before it finally boils over.

Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. In a way, I wish there would’ve been a way for me to understand what it was that was happening in my body and in my brain. But at the same time, you have to wonder, you know, our bodies are so intelligent and maybe they were protecting you and I from something we just weren’t ready to feel, in whatever ways that looked like for each of us. Now that I’m older, and now that you’re older, you recognize it. Hopefully that has taught us something that helps us move forward and grow. Some days I feel like I haven’t learned sh*t though.

While listening to this album, I’ve been thinking a lot about artists who sing about their anger or depression, especially in the '90s with Fiona Apple and Alanis Morissette, and how it defined their career almost to the point of redirecting their own narrative. For a lot of women I know, seeing that resulted in this impulse to be like, "No, I'm not like them. I’m a tomboy. I don’t let my emotions consume me." What those musicians were getting at, though, is ultimately how their personal experiences funnel into a larger desire for reparative justice and long-overdue equality. 

Thankfully people have a lot more space and empathy and understanding now for these types of things. People like Fiona Apple or Alanis Morissette—and the thing about Alanis is she had such a massive moment in the ‘90s that was defining for women in rock music and alternative music—were suddenly accepted and then immediately were pushed away. That momentary acceptance that we all had culturally for someone like Alanis Morissette definitely faded into this fear of hysterical women. Our anger can so easily be misconstrued as hysterical. It’s as simple or as insidious as someone being like, "Well, are you about to be on your period?" And you know, that doesn’t have to be offensive because, yeah, sometimes I am about to be on my period and I want to rip your face off. But other times, we've let that become the reason that women shouldn't be taken seriously when it comes to our emotions. Your point is so, so valid. They were talking about so much beyond anger. Anger is just the cap, it’s just the surface of so many meltier, slimier feelings that are harder to explain—and that’s why anger is our go-to. It’s covering insecurities and other feelings that can be tough to explain. 

How would you define your rage here? And do you feel like you're being heard now that you've shared some of it through this album?

Oof. I think there are still mornings I wake up where I’m a little nervous about certain things that I mention on the album. Today, the single "Dead Horse" is coming out and I woke up excited because it’s something new I get to release into the world like a child, you know? But I’m very nervous because you’re not in control of other people's perceptions, ever. It doesn’t matter what you do; you just can’t. You can only speak honestly about your experiences and choose whether or not you’re going to magnify that and let the world in. For me, it’s so second nature because I’ve been putting albums out for so long now—you know, this is what I do, this is how I get the full-circle experience of healing and expression—but it has been intense and wonderful to feel that I am basically serving justice for my own self in my own way. It’s very individualized and very, very personal. The things I’m talking about on the first EP have a lot to do with the generational trauma and abuse that was in my family for multiple generations. I wasn’t aware of it so much as I could hear it, like a low hum in the background, until I was able to name it and ask my mom direct questions about these things she’s experienced that basically every woman on her side of the family has experienced. 

I feel a sense of relief and I’m proud of that, but it comes with knowing that not everyone will understand this when listening to the album. Like yesterday, I posted a very passive-aggressive thing that allowed me to find humor in the fact that there are a lot of men on the internet who try to mansplain how to put out an album when they’ve probably never even made an album in their life. You get polarized responses. You get people who are cheering you on and then you get, "Oh man, she’s a man-hater now." And honestly? Yeah! Maybe both! Maybe I’m all of it and every shade in between. That’s the problem with any type of public domain. You're allowing other people to define you and you're also kind-of having to consent to it. I can’t direct it, but I’m certainly still in it and I want to be expressing myself in these ways. 

Speaking of "Dead Horse," you’re digging deep into your past experiences on this album in a very transparent way. I've always thought one of the most common tragedies of life is when people feel locked into an unfit relationship, whether that relationship is emotionally abusive, mentally draining, or just profoundly boring. It sounds like your marriage was disillusioning at best, but you tried to make it fruitful despite that. What were some of the signs that you knew your relationship was no longer the right fit? One time my friend said the moment they realized they weren't in love anymore was when they no longer enjoyed their partner's scent. 

Yeah, that’s so real. That's very animal isn’t it? That's such a real thing though. That’s a great place to start any response that I might have to say about this. Our bodies do not lie. I don’t know if it’s cultural, but over time, who we are in the present day is very disconnected from our bodies. We're so cut off from our animal instinct. I do think there’s something to the fact that people who have been close to one another and there’s something pleasing about the other person’s scent is so… I mean, I think the only reason it even feels awkward or silly to talk about is because we’re so disconnected from our bodies. That is, for me, what I noticed for years. Things weren’t right. There wasn’t a congruence with my mind, my heart, my spirit, and my body. That’s not to say that I’m some evolved, perfectly balanced human right now, because I’m not, but I can check in now and slow down and ask, "What does this mean to me? How do I really feel about this and not deny obvious truths?" My stomach just hurt all of the time. It hurt all of the time. I don’t know how else to put it. I didn’t feel comfortable yet I also felt like I was owed some sense of normalcy and also I owed it to my family or the world. I tried to create that by settling for something that ultimately did not feel right. 

It’s heartbreaking to think that we do this, though. I’m from the South and there’s this whole idea of what the church says is right and wrong, and how we view marriage through a religious lense. I don’t subscribe to that. I don’t really think you can adhere to all of those rules and be a healthy person and a good person. Look, I believe love is hard. Love is a choice that we continue to make. I’ve been married to Paramore since I was 13 and it’s been a f**king hell of a rollercoaster, but I'm in it and I reap the emotional benefits of the commitment that I've made. I know it’s possible to stick it out in relationships. My grandparents have been together for 55 years. I see it in the world and I know that it’s real, but I didn’t have it and I tried to force it to be that.

In a New York Times interview, you said you were "scared of losing access to [your] sadness" at one point. What is it about that vacancy that feels alarming? 

I’m not making a blanket statement about everybody, but for me, for my personality, for my identity, I actually enjoy romantic, tragic beauty. I find a lot of comfort in stories like that, in twisted narratives, and it adds meaning and depth for me in a world that, if everything were perfect and sunny, would be so boring and disenchanting to me. Everything would be too shiny. I really wanted to treat my depression and take it seriously. I was fine going to therapy, but when it came time to consider medication, that was my one and only hesitation. I get through this life by writing and expressing. So much of that comes from the dissonance that I feel. What happens if this medication numbs it all? I’ve heard friends talk about that with ADD medications or depression medications. For creatives, that’s a really valid concern. There’s the argument that you don’t have to be sad to make art. I guess I believe that, but I do feel like I have to be able to access all of my emotions to live. So far, what I'm taking makes me feel like I do still get depressed, but the difference is that it no longer feels like my identity is the depression. I don’t feel stuck to the bed like I don’t want to get up anymore. It’s some weird in-between. I'm still trying to figure it out, but I’m thankful that I went for it and decided to start acting on it.  

Oftentimes you hear people say the hardest part of dealing with any problem is realizing that it's a problem in the first place, but I think the hardest part is realizing that you need help dismantling it, that it’s unrealistic to do it on your own. Based on previous lyrics, you've always been open about grappling with depression. So what changed? What helped you realize that checking in to a therapy retreat for your depression was worth trying?

Oh boy. Ooof. 

We can skip this if you want! 

No, it’s okay! These are actually the conversations I like to have, it’s just that normally I’m having them in my bed on the phone with a friend or my mom. I think I’m good to answer this. So, when we came home from After Laughter, life was a lot better than it had been before After Laughter—or at least seemingly so. I had been busy for years: touring, hanging out with my friends every night onstage, hanging out with them backstage, doing cool sh*t like going to a Broadway show and seeing Japan. Life was very sensational. Then you come home. 

I missed home so bad, but I got here and it was quiet and still and there wasn’t a schedule, no dates in the distant future. It was pretty sobering. Suddenly I had no company but my own, unless I wanted to be a freak and go out every night as if I'm in my early 20s. I just realized that I needed to handle some sh*t. I needed to figure out my dog and if I was going to be able to take care of him full-time now that I’m not touring 75 percent of the time. I needed to hunker down more in my house and try to make whatever necessary adjustments to it to make it liveable on the regular. But I also wanted to be in a relationship. I wanted to be able to date, to be able to experience partnership, and to do that in a healthy way—but I was so far from healthy that I kept sabotaging any good opportunity for any relationship, really. That's one of the first lyrics I wrote for the record, actually. In "Why We Ever," I talk about me trying to sabotage this great relationship. It’s me being like, "Okay, I’m ready to move forward into my adult, human woman life. I’m not going to make the same mistakes I made before, blah, blah, blah," but then I became hypervigilant and had to go back to the beginning to figure out why. That was what did it. I realized my depression spills out onto anyone I care about. It’s not just about me in the back of a bunk crying after a show. It’s real life, and if I want to take part in it and be someone’s partner, then I have to take responsibility for myself.

Gosh, that was a long answer. Sorry. I think it’s because I’ve not really talked about this and it’s kinda hard.

Oh, it’s such a long process to understand yourself, nevermind to explain it all to someone else. Are there any exercises or phrases from therapy that have since stuck with you? 

I did a type of therapy called EMDR, which I still am not sure if it’s something a lot of people are aware of or if it’s obscure. But I’m now a year and a half into it, off and on. It’s not something you should do all of the time because it’s heavy. It helped me to go back into memories that, as an adult, I probably perceive a lot differently than I experienced them as a child. It’s about being able to comfort yourself and protect yourself. That’s where the line in "Simmer" comes from: "Nothing cuts like a mother." My mom, by the way, is a fantastic, strong, insanely independent woman. She’s been through so much sh*t and she’s come out of it so strong. But at a certain point, we all have to learn to mother ourselves. That was one of the biggest lessons for me: She can’t always give me every security that I need. She was dealing with her own sh*t, not that it was my fault or even her own. That’s just how life goes. We need to learn how to self-soothe. In a lot of ways, I’m still learning how to do that. The basic sense of what that feels like is at least a little more comfortable for me now. I’ve been able to work through some traumatic sh*t because of it. 

Petals For Armor is divided into three sections, and you can hear the musical and lyrical shifts as each third starts. It almost sounds like different mindsets of the healing process. Was that intentional? 

It wasn’t intentional, but I do think it’s because healing from any sort of trauma, addiction, or whatever is universal. It’s like how writing about love will resonate with so many different types of people’s experiences with love because it’s a universal thing we all experience. I didn't intend on it while writing, but I did know that I was going to seperate it. I could feel how songs from early on in the songwriting process felt darker and aesthetically belonged together. In a lot of ways, I know it’s dumb to answer any question like this in an interview, but it just happened. It felt like it was supposed to happen. Whether it was me writing with Joey [Howard], Paramore’s touring bassist who’s an incredible talent, or in the studio with Taylor [York], things just came up that felt right. I knew they were right when they happened. I just had to get out of the way to keep the space clear for that. 

After Laughter was such a colorful, buoyant musical shift for Paramore. Did that album act as a creative springboard and loosen your creative expectations for Petals For Armor? There’s such a wide range between the lovely Radiohead-like production of "Simmer" and a club-ready song like "Sugar On The Rim."

Yeah, the way Paramore has moved has been so half-hazard. Whatever we felt like, we followed it. We didn’t really let outside opinions dictate where we should go in our career. It would have felt very inauthentic to follow Riot with another scene-sounding emo album. We weren’t even that band by the time the last single came out. I remember us struggling about getting popular off a song like "Misery Business" while already looking and being different people by the time "That's What You Get" came out. That’s how we've moved through everything. By the time we got to After Laughter, we were so overdue for a shakeup and to feel out on a limb again. I was so proud of it and it felt so liberating to talk about these things. I don’t even think I was aware that I was writing about my depression until afterwards when speaking about the songs, because at the time of writing I didn’t know I was depressed. It created incredible conversations that challenged me to heal—some of that happened very publicly and some of that happened over champagne in a hotel room with Zac [Farro], Taylor, and I crying about sh*t that’s ancient history. That album was a massive gift to each of us as individuals and as a band.

Petals For Armor almost plays out like an exercise in self-love: from learning to admit your troubles, to breaking them down, to recognizing your strengths, to expressing gratitude. Out of all the songs, which one are you most proud of? 

Goodness. It’s hard to pick a baby. I think that today it would be different than tomorrow and tomorrow would be different than the next day. But if I’m answering for today, I would say a song called "Crystal Clear," which is the last song on the album. It was very accidental. I had been begging, begging Taylor for music that came from him first. That’s typically how we write Paramore songs, but that’s not how we wrote a lot of songs on Petals, even the songs written by the both of us didn’t start in that way. So I had been begging, like, "Hey, let’s do the ol’ razzle dazzle! We’ve been doing the whole ‘me’ thing and now I want to hear you!" I wanted to hear what he had been feeling like in hopes that it would take me somewhere new. He showed me the beginning of "Crystal Clear"—at that point, all he had was the beginning of it and it had a lot of Phil Collins drumming to it. We wound up finishing the whole song that day. Not every song is a gift that is that smooth and simple, but it felt so right. I loved what I learned from writing it. I loved the lyrics because I was able to tie in some references from After Laughter that have to do with love and bring people up to speed with how I’m viewing it today, which is that I feel afraid, but I’m diving into it again anyway. I’m proud of it and scared of it, but I love that song. There is a special guest on it, but it’s very personal and I don’t know if he’s someone who's ever had a song on the radio or anything, but I’ll be able to talk about it more when we get closer to its release. 

Reading through other interviews, it sounds like there was some very reasonable fear about going solo—not the act of making music outside of the band, but by releasing these songs publicly not as a band. What helped you realize it's okay to release solo material? 

It was two conversations. One was a conversation that had happened so long before we had even come off the road touring behind After Laughter. We were making the "Rose-Colored Boy" music video and our manager took us out to dinner. It was a really emotional conversation. Taylor’s family had just lost a loved one. We were in the middle of an album cycle that was deeply personal to us. There were a lot of good things happening, and I think when good things and growth are happening, there’s lots of growing pains. We were trying to make sense of how we could be in this wonderful moment in our career and this beautiful moment in our friendships but also could feel sad. The truth is we were tired as f**k, which is not a big deal if you really think about it—of course we were tired, we had been playing music since we were 13. But Taylor mentioned to us, "I really think it’s time, when we wrap up After Laughter, to take some real time off. Not to throw away what we’ve done and what we’re doing now, but to give ourselves space and to find ourselves outside of Paramore." What if we just want to relate to each other as people? What if we want to know what it’s like to go to another country but not be on tour, just go see it, just to go walk around? Not to walk around and then return to soundcheck depressed, or be in London for five hours for a photoshoot and then leave? What if we just want to find ourselves outside of the band as adults? What if I want to learn how to cook something? Little did we know we would be stuck at home. [Laughs.] But I really felt every word he was saying because we had a conversation two years prior about me wanting to quit the band, before we wrote After Laughter. He said, "Look, we can stop or we can keep going, but I’ll support you either way. If we decide to keep going, we can look out for one another in a better way than we have in the past." So I made good on that promise and really backed him up and Zac did as well. He was right. It was time for us to go home for a little while and trust that we would know when it was the right time to make another Paramore record. 

All that said, fast forwarding to whenever I started making this record, I knew that this did not belong to Paramore. I really wanted to make good on my word that we all deserved time away from it. When I realized I was writing more than I thought, there were two options: sit on this stuff to see if it would work for a Paramore record eventually, or I can ask for help now and see how I feel when I’m done. By the fourth or fifth song, it was obvious that this was an expression that was necessary. Taylor really encouraged me to release it as an official project. When I told Zac about it, he said the same thing. I just saw his text the other day while scrolling through pictures because I took a screenshot of it for myself. He was like, "Dude, you've got this. You gotta do this." Taylor was the one who told me I needed to tell our manager so I could have that support system ready to go too. He kept reminding me that it was real. I would deny it and he would say it was real because I had already written the songs. And he was right!

Such good friends! That’s how you know, such genuine support.

Right? They’re the best! It’s been a really good time for us. Not only did Taylor produce it and he grew so much just as a musician. He became such a force and I don’t think I fully realized all that he could do. And Zac is absolutely killing it. He moved to L.A., he started a record label, he’s producing his own albums. Everyone is really flourishing. It’s a sign. It’s that thing we were talking about earlier. You feel something in your body and you can either listen to it or ignore it. I think we’re seeing what happens when we really listen to our guts and respect one another. Now we’re all having this really special moment. It won’t last forever, but it will definitely have a lasting impact on who we are. 

Petals For Armor is peppered with all these nice friendship moments, too, thanks to cameos from Paramore members and friends like Boygenius. It feels like receiving a big, communal hug. Were those organic to weave in?

Yeah, totally! The only contributions that I think people would qualify as a feature are the Boygenius song and the guitar player of my favorite band, mewithoutYou, his name’s Mike Weiss, he played on "Creepin'." There was no reason to seek out a feature-heavy record. I feel like we’re inundated with them. That’s fine for people who feel like they thrive creatively in that setup, but I don’t think I do. I thrive with people in my intimate circle of friends. Every now and then, if it feels like it came about natural and feels right, I’ll have an opportunity to collaborate with a new friend or someone I look up to. I really like how this one came about. I ran into Julien [Baker] at another friend’s show in Nashville. She was hanging with Lucy [Dacus]. Phoebe [Bridgers] was meant to come in the next day because they were working on… something. Maybe they were each working on separate things. But that was so kismet. It turned out mewithoutYou were playing a show in Nashville which we planned on going to anyway, but when I realized what that could mean I realized I had to ask Mike if he could stop by the studio. I think it happened in one day where everyone was in town. We did all those tracks—Mike’s guitar and the girls’ vocals—in one day because they all hung out together in the studio. It feels natural because these parts are from friends or people I already know.

Since taking a break from touring, it seems like you've been investing lots of time in cultivating and nurturing friendships, old and new. I recently moved to a new city and work from home, and it’s surprised me how hard it is. There's not really a guide for how to make friends in adulthood, especially when you're not someone who holes up at bars. What's been the hardest part of that process for you?

First of all, I really feel you on the new town and having the kind of work situation where you’re not regularly meeting new people at. For me, moving to Nashville during my divorce, I didn’t really have any other way to be other than incredibly vulnerable. I didn’t have any energy to fake it or be animated. A lot of times when I’m out in public, I’m an introvert, but I really care about making people comfortable. I go out of my way to make others comfortable because I was the kid who was always uncomfortable growing up. That makes people think I’m extroverted, but really I just don’t want other people to suffer by feeling the anxieties that I feel. All of a sudden around my divorce, I lost the energy to act that way. If somebody asked me how I was doing, they better buckle in, because I was going to tell them how I was doing and I didn’t give a sh*t if we were in public. I don’t recommend this for everyone, but I met some of my closest friends in adulthood in that way. I was at a party at Zac’s house for someone’s birthday. His wife and I got to talking when I met her that night. We were in a corner of Zac’s house just, like, meeting each other for the first time and asking each other questions. It turned out we had both been through similar divorces, both had been in similar living situations after, and it was like, sh*t, I don’t have to go out of my way to make people comfortable. I just need to rest in this moment and trust that if I'm meant to find new people, then I’ll find them or they will find me. All I need to do is own my story and be present for it.

You’ve established a relatively healthy relationship with your fans on Twitter and Instagram while still making yourself available, whether it’s sharing memes of yourself or embracing accidental typos. You also know when and how to take a break from social media, which is equally important. Do you have any advice for artists who are struggling to find the right balance between the two? 

Oh man. Social media is so hard. It’s not going to get any easier either; it’s only gonna get harder. That’s where I’ve had to implement those lessons of listening to myself, to that very small voice that’s generally wiser than I am. I get to a breaking point where it either turns into anxiety or some type of jadedness where I need to forget my phone exists and only talk to people I know in real life. If it’s advice for other artists, I would say, we’re taught to believe that if it’s not out there it doesn’t exist, but you definitely still exist. Even if you’re not posting some probably bullsh*t thing, you definitely still exist. I have to remind myself that all the time. I exist far more in real life than I do on my phone. We’re just accustomed to seeing people through a screen now but that doesn't mean it’s a reality. 

Tori Amos On Maintaining Faith, Vision & Conviction In Troubled Times

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Paramore's Hayley Williams performs at Bonnaroo 2018

Paramore's Hayley Williams performs at Bonnaroo 2018

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival

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Paramore's Hayley Williams Announces Solo Tour paramore-singer-hayley-williams-announces-first-ever-solo-tour

Paramore Singer Hayley Williams Announces First-Ever Solo Tour

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The 22-date trek, running mid-May through late June, is in support of her forthcoming debut solo album, 'Petals For Armor'
John Ochoa
GRAMMYs
Mar 5, 2020 - 2:56 pm

Hayley Williams, the GRAMMY-winning singer-songwriter best known as the frontwoman for pop rock trio Paramore, has announced her first-ever solo tour. The 22-date trek kicks off with a run of European shows in mid-May followed by a series of performances across North America through late June. The tour, which will wrap with a homecoming show in Williams' hometown of Nashville, Tenn., will feature support from The Ninth Wave on select European dates and Arlo Parks for the North American leg. 

https://twitter.com/yelyahwilliams/status/1235587974110285825

intimate shows. been craving the closeness a long time.

love to @theninthewave_ for joining me overseas and to @arloparks for coming with me stateside. 💐

tix go on sale next friday, 3/13 @ 10am local. https://t.co/hdIjfLstFb pic.twitter.com/ee1QP8rXa4

— hayley from Paramore 🌺 (@yelyahwilliams) March 5, 2020

The tour is in support of Williams' forthcoming debut solo album, Petals For Armor, which drops May 8 on Atlantic Records. The album features the singer's debut solo single, "Simmer," among other new tracks.

"Wow. I am going on tour. Myself. It's not Paramore and truthfully, it's just a little terrifying," Williams said in a statement announcing the tour, as reported by Rolling Stone. "But if I know anything, it's that there's no safer place (besides at home with my dog) than to be in a room, on a stage, in front of the people who I've grown up singing my lungs out for. There was a time I thought I wouldn't tour Petals For Armor. What a joke. I must."

Read: Taylor Swift, Halsey And Tayla Parx Lead First-Ever All-Female Lineup At 2020 Capital One JamFest

The upcoming tour will take Williams to smaller shows in more intimate venues, according to her posts on social media. She tweeted, "intimate shows. been craving the closeness a long time." She also wrote on Instagram, "i crave INTIMACY. these are small shows - i've been wanting to do this for a long time."

In her tour announcement, she gave more background about the forthcoming shows. 

"This is a brand-new adventure," she said. "It's important to embark on something new every now and then just to show yourself that you can… The first run of shows is going to be hot, sweaty and intimate. My brand-newly-formed band and I will be playing rooms that Paramore outgrew a decade ago. It's going to be so satisfying to feel the energy of a crowd that close again, especially while performing songs that feel so vital for me, songs I have never performed before for an audience."

Ahead of the release of Petals For Armor, Williams last month (Feb. 6) dropped her Petals For Armor I EP, which featured the singles "Leave It Alone" and "Cinnamon."

Petals For Armor follows Paramore's 2017 album, After Laughter. The group has received two GRAMMY nominations across its 16-year career, including a Best New Artist nod at the 50th GRAMMY Awards, held in 2008. Williams, along with bandmate and co-writer Taylor York, won her first and, so far, only GRAMMY at the 57th GRAMMY Awards, held in 2015, winning Best Rock Song for Paramore's "Ain't It Fun," a single off the group's 2013 self-titled album. 

In September 2019, Paramore went on hiatus, noting that they were "taking a really nice break after grinding away for nearly 15 years!"

Interview: Hayley Williams Is Still Into Paramore

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