Hayley Williams: “It wasn’t time to make another Paramore record, but I had a lot of sh*t to say”

After recently confirming that Paramore have not broken up, Hayley Williams has again gone into detail about the status of the band, and why she needed to release her brilliant new album Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party as a solo artist.

In a deep-dive new interview with The New York Times’ Popcast, the singer says of the status of the band: “Paramore’s not ever going away. If I woke up tomorrow and hated it and was like, ‘Fuck Paramore,’ it’s not going away. But it’s my favourite band. And I think we need breaks. I don’t get to say, ‘Well, this is exactly what we’re going to do next.’ Because, like I’ve been saying my whole career, Paramore’s a band. Like, I don’t get to decide.

“And it wasn’t time to make another Paramore record, but I had a lot of shit to say, so I’ve done what I’ve done for myself and made this record. I’m finally willing to, like, let that happen. And it’s okay that it’s me by myself and not Paramore right now. Paramore will always have its time because it’s just what we do. We cycle back in and out of it. We resent it one minute. We wanna, like, wear matching clothes in the next minute.”

Detailing her life’s journey and coming to terms with everything she’s been through, and how that ties into her career with Paramore, she continues: “While I was deconstructing my faith, and my religious upbringing from around age 19 to forever, I didn’t realise how much of Paramore for me was a religious experience, a God, a pillar in my life. You gotta deconstruct this system that you’re a part of on multiple levels. Like, I gotta tear down Paramore, the same way I had to tear down my evangelical upbringing. I have to do it for me to grow up, because I don’t wanna be stuck in a traumatised 18-year-old’s headspace for the rest of my life.”

Check out the clip below:

And now watch the full interview:

In our 5/5 review of Ego Death…, Kerrang! said: “Marking her first release outside of Atlantic Records, Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party is the most vast summation of Hayley’s story so far. A musical purge of trauma patterns, depression, love, loss, and of course, ego, the wit and honesty of Hayley’s lyricism is the shining star of this work. It’s an unboundless exploration of a life lived under the scrutiny of misogyny and in the public eye from one of our time’s most creative and fearless artists.”

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