Hayley Williams was named the Artist of the Year by Alternative Press with a new photoshoot taken by Zachary Gray and an interview Anna Zanes. What 2025 means to Hayley? How does she work and what Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party really is? How does she feel working with friends under her own label? Click HERE to read the full text, and see more photos. Click HERE to grab your physical copy.
Lyrically, you can see the motifs that go through all of your work, like water, but the more recent projects dig more into feelings, and anger, like you said. I do remember, when I talked to you [and the guys] around This is Why, and you said, “This is the first time we’re getting so [lyrically] political and touching on these other new themes.” So it totally makes sense to me. You were getting there. Also, I’m interested in your coming back to Nashville, and that shift of perspective — as someone who has also moved to LA and home a few times.
It is tough. I kept thinking the last time I was in [LA], “This is me trying to go back to someone that I know is not good for me.” That’s what LA feels like. I mean, I’m going to work there if I’m doing music, probably a lot, but I think I wanted to stake a claim there and be like, “This is home. This is me, independent from everything I grew up around.” I think it held a lot of amazing memories, but I know in my gut it’s not home, and Nashville is. I’m open to looking elsewhere as the world fucking falls apart. But I really think that places like Nashville and the surrounding areas also need locals to stay and to try to pitch in more or just be part of it.
I feel like that’s pretty evident as a listener, or maybe it’s because I know you well.
Thank you. That’s affirming. It’s been such a big part of my own story as a writer because people know me as… There’s an image of me with a microphone, and I got a mad face on. If you looked me up in the dictionary, that’s what it would be. That also comes with being a woman. You can’t show any emotion without it being hysterical — but you know what? Every time I’ve had a very revealing moment with myself that involved my anger, like Brand New Eyes or my first solo album, it actually changed the chemistry of what was going on in the moment. Without that anger, I don’t know what Paramore would’ve done during Brand New Eyes if I hadn’t been able to write that and get through it, and us actually have conversations about it. So it’s a push and pull of learning the value of [anger] and learning to not be ashamed of it — and then also learning to move through it. Maybe quicker, hopefully.
That’s just making me think about your leaving LA, coming back to Nashville, trying to, like you said, get your hands dirty and engage in community. That’s not necessarily making your world smaller, but maybe it’s more like being in the world and not your world.
Totally. That’s a great way to put it. I really do feel like I’ve been the most outside since I was in my early 20s, and I do think it’s been going and singing onstage with friends. That is not really a work trip for me. It’s like I get to let out this teenage version of me that just loved going to shows. I got on Substack earlier this year. I posted these photos I randomly found of being 14 or 15 at church camp, and I was like, “This year is for her — because this was probably the last normal year of this person’s life.” The shows and all that extra being outside stuff really has fueled the work and made the work feel… it takes the sting out of the bad days of a job that can be hard.