Paramore's Hayley Williams releases 'scary, empowering' first single 'Simmer' off debut solo album
Paramore‘s lead singer is striking out on her own. Hayley Williams has just released the first single off her debut solo album Petals for Armor, and fans can watch the rage-filled music video for “Simmer” above.
“I’m so ready and so incredibly humbled to get to share this project,” Williams says in a statement. “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 favorite 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.”
The single is full of fiery lyrics touting the virtues and dangers of giving in to rage that culminate in the line, “If my child needed protection / from a f–ker like that man / I’d sooner gut him / ‘cuz nothing cuts like a mother.” The video features Williams running through the woods in the dark, trying to escape a shadowy figure chasing her down. When she finally gains the upper hand and knocks out her pursuer, she realizes it was herself all along.
The music video for “Simmer” was directed by Warren Fu, who has collaborated with Paramore in the past, along with The 1975 and The Strokes, while the single is produced by Taylor York. “I made this with some of the closest people to me,” Williams says. “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.”
This is the first solo project from the longtime lead singer of the Grammy award-winning band Paramore — and the first new music from Williams since the release of Paramore’s 2017 album After Laughter. “Simmer” is now available to stream and download here, and the full Petals for Armor album is due out May 8.
Related content:
