Hayley Williams Drops Solo Single "Simmer"

Hayley Williams has given the first listen of her upcoming solo material with “Simmer,” the lead single from her debut solo album PETALS FOR ARMOR. Produced by bandmate Taylor Yorke, the Paramore frontwoman steps away from the guitar-driven sound we’re familiar with and enters a sonic space where she’s free to experiment and discover musical combinations.

Fans who have followed Williams and Paramore’s journey in the last decade or so might be surprised by the absence of belted high notes the singer hits in this track. Instead, she opts to blend her voice with soft reverberated synths and a purposeful bass line, creating a dark but danceable tune that reveals a type of vulnerability unseen since her entrance in the industry.

“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 favorite musicians so I never really feel the need to step into a role as a player when it comes to Paramore records,” Williams said in a press release. “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.”

Stream Hayley Williams’ “Simmer” on Spotify and Apple Music below, and watch the official music video above. PETALS FOR ARMOR drops May 8 via Atlantic.

Elsewhere in music, Billie Eilish has dropped an “everything i wanted” music video.