Hayley Williams announces the release of her solo debut, unleashes its first single

Sorry Paramore fans, but it looks like frontwoman Hayley Williams will be taking a step back from the band for a bit. But there’s some good news; Williams will be releasing her debut solo album later this year!

On Wednesday (Jan. 22), the musician finally confirmed what all the teasers on social media have been about. Taking to the same platform, the songstress revealed plans to unleash her debut studio album in May. Titled Petals for Armor (like all her teasers had stated), the album is due out May 8 through Atlantic Records.

“I’m so ready and so incredibly humbled to get to share this project,” the musician writes in a press 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.

She continues: “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. 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.”

To coincide with the new album announcement, Williams released the first single from the album, a track titled “Simmer.” Instead of collaborating with new partners on the original tune, Williams kept things in the “family” by enlisting Paramore bandmate Taylor York to produce “Simmer.”

Because both the new song and studio effort weren’t enough, Williams has also unveiled the music video for “Simmer.”

Watch the Warren Fu-directed clip above.

“Simmer” is Williams’ first new track since the release of Paramore’s last studio album, 2017’s After Laughter.

This isn’t Williams’ first time releasing solo music.  She contributed a song titled “Teenagers” to the “Jennifer’s Body” soundtrack and covered Tegan and Sara’s “Nineteen” for the sisters’ Tegan and Sara present The Con X: Covers album.