Paramore’s Hayley Williams experiences a metamorphosis in the new video for “Leave It Alone,” the second single from her upcoming debut solo album Petals for Armor, out May 8th.
Directed by Warren Fu, who also oversaw lead single “Simmer,” the clip features Williams as an insect waking up in a cocoon. “Don’t nobody tell me that God don’t have a sense of humor/ Cause now that I want to live,” she sings before strolling through the woods. “Well everybody around me is dying/ Now that I finally want to live the ones I love are dying.”
“It really sucks that you do have to dig through the dirtiest shit to find like the diamonds,” Williams recently told Zane Lowe of the track. “Like you’ve got to burn all of it off.” She also explained the struggles her family has gone through recently, such as her grandmother falling down the stairs and suffering head trauma. “The weirdest thing is that she got better, but it prolonged the grief because she’s not really here with us,” she said. “She doesn’t really remember everything. Thankfully she knows who I am, she knows who my mom is, but she really doesn’t.”
“It was so tough and felt like there was a lot of death at the time,” Williams continued. “And I just thought like, what is the point of loving people? Like why? Even in the best case scenario, I fall in love, we have a life together and then we lose one or the other. It’s terrifying. The more you love, the more you stand to lose… I struggle with it all the time.”
Williams announced her debut solo LP last week. Her most recent album with Paramore, After Laughter, was released in 2017. That album marked the return of original member Zac Farro on drums after the departure of bassist Jeremy Davis. Last year, Williams told ET that she was uncertain of the band’s future plans, noting, “I really don’t know what’s next for Paramore.”