Paramore singer Hayley Williams posted on Substack, “my manager texted me a link last night to a live production by The Berklee Paramore Ensemble. up til that point, i wasn’t aware that there was a credited course at Berklee College that focuses on Paramore’s music / career. it really made me emo to watch students perform our music. the bit i caught was songs from our last album, This Is Why, which had it’s 3 year anniversary just yesterday, so that made it all the more sentimental. they did such a great job playing and singing together. it made me feel a lot of hope that there will always be young people who want to pick up instruments and make noise. and those young people will go on to make art that could just as easily end up inspiring another generation.
man, i do wish there was that same amount of access to equipment/etc and music education/mentorship for any young people interested in learning and playing. this year, there are proposed federal budget cuts that would do away with music and arts education. this reality, humming along in the background of the headlines about the soon to be completely botched Kennedy Performing Arts Center our president has become obsessed with. fascism hates art and expression because art and expression signal all sorts of freedoms. art cannot be controlled or contained.
since releasing This Is Why, our country / our world has gotten harder to live in, not easier. least of all for me, a white woman who’s had over 2 decades of success in a career i chose. i feel really grateful to have a platform and to have the freedom in my job to express myself. as i was listening to the band play our songs last night, i remembered what a learning curve it was to be more publicly political during the This Is Why cycle, at times opening myself up to some pretty cringe ridicule from people who’s values seem to differ starkly from mine, whether FOX news pundits or Elon Musk himself. i remembered how i had so much hope back then that we’d beat Trump at the polls. while recording This Is Why, Roe V. Wade was overturned, and i can vividly remember getting out that day to get away from the TV and the scrolling. it was at a cafe in East LA that i caught myself looking into the eyes of women who i didn’t know, searching and finding the fury in them that i felt in myself. i took all that fury, and fear, on the road with us and it coursed through my body like a virus. i didn’t know then how much i still had to learn about anger as a power fuel, and how to distill it down to it’s most useful parts.
the last show we played for that album was a radio show that was live-streamed. not my idea of a perfect send-off but a great opportunity to speak up. a last ditch effort to rally anyone who might be listening before Election Day.
in 2026, Trump, our president once more, still shits his suits and lies through his teeth about everything. in 2026, Project 2025 is 51% complete and we’re now talking about a Project 2026. ICE (f**k em), Epstein (f**k em), cities who mismanage and put profits over people (fuck em) , multiple genocides (F****K em)— only a few of the huge issues dominating the news cycle and our collective minds. it’s an exhausting time to just be human, especially if you are a human on the side of liberty and justice for ALL.
the career i’ve chosen allows me to engage with a lot of people directly, through art and through live events. this year, i’ll be even more outside than i was last year, seeing the world over, up close. i still feel very lucky that, as someone who struggles dearly with my mind and a hyper-vigilant nervous system, i get to spend a lot of time together with the people in some capacity. i get to partake in the much needed catharsis live music offers us and to connect with other humans. it’s kind of the only way i see myself staying remotely hopeful in the face of… everything.
on a more personal note, since This Is Why was wrapped up, i feel like my relationship to the memory of that album suffered greatly. it has only been recently that i’ve heard a song or watched a video and realized it was indeed our best work (it took the crown and the cake from After Laughter, which i thought would be my favorite of our albums forever and always). everyone did their personal best work as Paramore for that album, we played many shows that were career best. there was a lot to celebrate all the time actually, whether we did or not. i was able to live up to the personal mission of using our platform to speak to issues that were most pressing in that time. i’m so grateful for everything i learned about the band, myself, and what i do and don’t believe in just in that brief period. it feels like 3 years on, i finally have new perspective on what the album – and all it entailed – actually meant to me as a person and not merely a performer. might as well add here that i believe “Thick Skull” is the most important song we ever made.
thank you to the fans and online outlets who acknowledged the anniversary of This Is Why yesterday. and thank you to Berklee College for acknowledging our work and honoring it through a tribute like the Berklee Paramore Ensemble. def the closest i’ve felt to acceptance at a college. congrats to the students on what looked and sounded like an incredible show. keep playing. “play” is the antidote to trauma and it tells our bodies that we can be safe. dancing, singing, gathering together as a community, for joy, is not a frivolous thing. joy is still a worthy cause because it is what will sustain us for any fight ahead of us. i am looking forward to having many opportunities to play this year and to be reminded, up close, once again, that the power is with the people.
lastly, just want to say my heart is with the people of Minneapolis right now who are leading by example to show the rest of America what patriotism and “loving your neighbor as you love yourself” actually looks like.
sorry for the ramble, thanks for the time. see some of you soon.”
