\n\t\tne day in 2013, Jack Antonoff<\/a> was sitting in a car in Los Angeles with his friend Hayley Williams<\/a> when he decided to play her a new song. Back then, Antonoff was best known as a member of the band Fun., and he hoped to release the track, \u201cI Wanna Get Better,\u201d as the first single for a new solo project, Bleachers. The song \u2014 a \u201cfucking life story in three minutes,\u201d as Antonoff has called it <\/a>\u2014 defiantly addressed a series of personal traumas that shaped his identity. Getting Williams\u2019 seal of approval was a big deal.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0Jack Antonoff and Hayley Williams photographed in Queens on July 29, 2025<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt was one of the first songs that I really loved that spoke to mental health in the way that it did,\u201d Williams recalls. \u201cI needed to say [what the song said], but someone else had to say it for me, in a way.\u201d As she relates the memory, she and Antonoff are sitting across from each other in a studio in Queens one July afternoon, just days after she joined Bleachers<\/a> onstage at the Newport Folk Festival.<\/p>\n \n\tThe pair have been in each other\u2019s lives for two decades. Antonoff saw Williams\u2019 band, Paramore, play its first festival show, at New Jersey\u2019s Bamboozle (formerly Skate and Surf) in 2005. Williams was a fan of Antonoff\u2019s band Steel Train; she even wore one of their buttons in a photo shoot back in the day (\u201cMy biggest button,\u201d she notes). After the first Fun. album came out indepen\u00addently in 2009, she sent it to Fueled by Ramen co-founder John Janick (now running the powerhouse label Interscope Records), who later signed the band. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that,\u201d Antonoff says when she mentions this. \u201cI don\u2019t get to be anywhere without that move.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFun. opened for Paramore in 2010, just as the headliner\u2019s latest album, Brand New Eyes, created a massive pop-crossover moment. During that tour, Williams would spend time with Antonoff at the catering table, avoiding the drama brewing behind the scenes within her own group. \u201cOur band was super fun to hang out with then,\u201d she says sarcastically.<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cYou were fun to hang out with,\u201d he says. \u201cWe just thought you were super friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn each other they saw an immediate kinship: Both had cut their teeth in DIY rock scenes, learning how to play, write, and build community in Franklin, Tennessee (for Williams), and New Jersey\u2019s Bergen County (Antonoff). Both have come a long way since: Paramore became one of this century\u2019s biggest bands, and Williams\u2019 powerhouse stage presence and voice have inspired everyone from Billie Eilish to Lil Uzi Vert. With Paramore on a break, Williams, 36, self-released an excellent raw solo album this summer, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party<\/a>, which arrives as a physical release on Nov. 7 with two additional songs, for a 20-track album.<\/p>\n \t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff, 41, has become one of the most prominent hitmakers on the charts, working on everything from Taylor Swift smashes to Kendrick Lamar\u2019s GNX<\/a>; this year alone, he was instrumental in Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s Man\u2019s Best Friend and Doja Cat\u2019s Vie. With Bleachers, he\u2019s collaborated with heroes like Bruce Springsteen while turning his band into a live juggernaut. Coming off the success of last year\u2019s fantastic self-titled Bleachers LP, Antonoff has never felt more sure about who he is. (In addition to this story, you can also catch Antonoff and Williams at Rolling Stone\u2018s Musicians on Musicians: Live event<\/a> at the Beacon Theater on Oct. 23.)<\/p>\n \t\tWatch the video interview below\t<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: When you were playing \u201cI Wanna Get Better\u201d at Newport, I felt so emotional about it. It\u2019s such an introspective song, but it\u2019s so triumphant-sounding. I got really emotional thinking about where you were at in your life and your career when you [first] showed me that, versus what I\u2019ve watched you do [since].<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n \n\tWe\u2019ve been able to grow through so many seasons of our careers. I feel like I\u2019ve gotten to watch and have you support me in these ways. Even though \u201cI Wanna Get Better\u201d wasn\u2019t the first Jack song I ever heard, it\u2019s the one [where], to me, you really put a stake in the ground.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It\u2019s the first song I wrote where I was like, \u201cMan, you can all fuck off.\u201d What\u2019s the first song you wrote where you were like, \u201cThis is it\u201d? Like, \u201cIf you crack me open, this is the music that would shoot out\u201d?<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I had a lot of those moments when I was writing [Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party]. And some of that is because I would write the lyrics and feel really uncomfortable about it, but then the processing all happened a lot quicker for me this time around. I would look back at three weeks ago and be like, \u201cOh, my God, that\u2019s what that meant.\u201d \u2026 I had that with \u201cWhim.\u201d That song explains so much about how I view relation\u00adships, and I think my downfall in them and the tendency to sabotage. I saw the lyrics printed on something recently, and I was like, \u201cThose could go on my epitaph, and I\u2019d be OK with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff:This whole new album feels like being in a room with you more than anything else you\u2019ve ever made.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: That\u2019s the coolest compliment.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It feels very conversational. That\u2019s the hardest thing to do. I think it\u2019s very easy to be unclear. There\u2019s so much armor in being unclear.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I think that\u2019s why, in my mind, I wish I was more poetic in this or that way. Because the thought is I will feel like I\u2019m cloaked in something but maybe still get to be cool-artist vibe. But I think it\u2019s just not natural.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The whole album, there\u2019s so many moments where I\u2019m like, \u201cWhoa, she said that.\u201d It\u2019s what it\u2019s like to actually talk to someone, which, I think, is something we\u2019re all reclaiming.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: We\u2019re saying nothing if we\u2019re not cringing a little bit, saying the uncomfortable thing.\u2026<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The album gave me this feeling which I\u2019ve been having about music. In this hellscape of only marketing, marketing, marketing, it\u2019s become very clear what matters and what doesn\u2019t. [The album] made me feel happy.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: That\u2019s so sick. Thank you. We got to experience this coming from the scenes that we came from, and the kind of music that really kick-started us. It\u2019s so communal, and you\u2019re always being fed by and feeding back into the community. When the world feels the way it does, I find myself wanting to plug back into what\u2019s local. I\u2019m wanting to go to smaller shows. I\u2019m wanting to feel like I can see the blood and the bone.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t Jack: Jeans by Bottega Veneta. Shoes by Mephisto. Vintage tee
\n\tAntonoff: Yeah, this is our version of every motherfucker on Earth making sourdough and trying to find a yard to plant stuff in.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: The modern world drives you back underground in a weird way.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: When I was younger, we were like, \u201cTV rots your fucking brain.\u201d Now it\u2019s quaint. If someone was like, \u201cYou wanna watch a movie together?\u201d I\u2019d cry. Watching a movie with someone at their house would be equivalent to the Sixties version of lying in a field \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: \u2026 like, line dancing. Especially sans any other screens.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Dude, I\u2019m only happy if I have something on TV, something on my laptop, [and] I have my phone. My partner [Margaret Qualley] meditates and stuff. She\u2019s not sick that way.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I hate to say I\u2019m with you. I really romanticize the version of myself that is not like that.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: When you\u2019re [onstage], you\u2019re fulfilled.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I am fulfilled. But I think that my extracurricular activities \u2026 I\u2019m starting to see the rotting effects. This is where I have to decide that if I want to be a musician for the rest of my life, I have to be like I was at 16 and just practice more and hang out in my room with my instruments more and not rot away.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It\u2019s really fun to rot.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: But I\u2019m tired of the news. There\u2019s days you\u2019re just like, \u201cI have to get away.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: That\u2019s why I go to the studio so much, because it really \u2014 I\u2019m not thinking about anything else.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: You\u2019re locked in.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Where do you lock in?<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I lock in when I\u2019m writing. It\u2019s nice because we\u2019ll start a lot of times by digging through my notes and seeing what unhinged shit I wrote down when I wasn\u2019t thinking about it. I really enjoy it as a writing prompt, almost.\u2026 When there\u2019s a thread that you start to pull and there\u2019s something there, there\u2019s a purity that I\u2019m always chasing. I haven\u2019t really found it in any other hobby or passion. Do you ever feel ashamed of that?<\/p>\n \u201cGood things are made by a tiny group of people seeing the same thing together.\u201d<\/p>\n JACK ANTONOFF<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I used to feel more. But it\u2019s been my whole life.\u2026 It\u2019s just what I do, it\u2019s what I think about doing, what I look forward to doing, and it\u2019s what I spend my time trying to preserve [so] that I can keep doing it. Which, on one hand, it\u2019s the most glorious thing. It\u2019s also kind of pathetic to not have a well-rounded life.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I feel that way too. Zac [Farro, Paramore\u2019s drummer] is so good at tennis. It\u2019s a secondary passion he thrives in the way he thrives in music. I admire it so much. There\u2019s nothing [else] that gives me that feeling.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I think it\u2019s OK. Sometimes it\u2019s about breaking it down in the simplest sense, which is: That\u2019s just what you do. And if you spend your life doing that, that would be a life worth having been lived. It gets bad if you start to distort. If you\u2019re spending a certain amount of time in the studio or on the road and that causes you to take too many drugs or isolate or hurt your brain or body \u2026 But you\u2019re one of the more functional people I know.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Huge compliment. I don\u2019t feel that, but \u2026<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tAntonoff: I think feeling it is the first step to being an actual fucking insane person. \u201cI am functioning\u201d is, like, one minute before you walk into the water [laughs]. Also, I think this comes from the scenes we were raised in, but not everyone plays like it\u2019s their last fucking night on Earth. But I see that [in you], and it reminds me of being a kid at the Wayne Firehouse [a DIY venue in New Jersey]. And it\u2019s like, \u201cThis is the last show on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Every show really does feel like [it could be] the last one.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Me too, which is really hard on my body.\u2026 I\u2019ve talked to Springsteen about this because he plays it like fucking last night on Earth every night. And he can still do it.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: He\u2019s ripped.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I\u2019m not gonna age like that. You will.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: No, no, no. I\u2019m a twig. I\u2019m gonna just disintegrate into thin air.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Not how I see it. But we were talking about deep jealousy of people whose job it is to hunch over the piano and make everyone weep. It was interesting to hear [Springsteen] say, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s not fucking easy,\u201d because I look at him like a brick wall. But it\u2019s so painful to play like that. It always has been! It\u2019s not an age thing.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: It\u2019s traumatizing, unless you\u2019re used to it. The biggest and hardest lesson has been when I have to recover my voice. The body stuff is one thing, but as long as I\u2019m moving and sleeping, I\u2019ll be OK. My voice though, oh, my God.<\/p>\n \n\tThis just sends me into an entirely different direction, and I want to know: Do you feel disconnected from your body a lot as an artist?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I have no connection with my body, besides a really strange relationship to food, which I also think is birthed from touring. Zero connection to my body. And I get hurt a lot when I play.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be in 100 bands before I die. I like that feeling of being in a room with people.\u201d<\/p>\n HAYLEY WILLIAMS<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: You live up here [points to her head]. Everything\u2019s kind of going on up here, whether it\u2019s creativity, worry, all of it?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: A lot of gut. I live heavily here [points to his stomach]. I feel kind of like a question mark in my gut.\u2026 Do you have that?<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I do think that I have a neurotic connection to my body where I will start to stress about something and it will instantly show up in my throat or in my stomach. It\u2019s like when good things are happening\u2014<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Other shoe dropping.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: The piano falling from the sky.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: And not a Jew, which is interesting because that\u2019s a big thing in my culture.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: For me, my connection to it is sort of skewed. I have food stuff too. I\u2019m always interested in this with artists because we actually have access to such a great release for our energy. That could be through writing lyrics. It could be through moving the way we move onstage.\u2026 I think that\u2019s energy moving through us.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tAntonoff: That\u2019s a way bigger [release] than I\u2019ve ever gotten from trying yoga or things like that. But then I get in trouble, because after I play, I feel like I\u2019ve conquered the world, and I eat everything, and then I get really sick.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I want artists to talk about that stuff more. My mom teaches about this kind of stuff at Belmont [University] in Nashville, and it\u2019s a lot about emotional intelligence and awareness in other ways. I\u2019m always really interested when she talks about the body. Anything in my life that happens, it\u2019ll show up as acne, as nausea, it\u2019ll show up as [pain in] my shoulder. I think those are just messages, right?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: We grew up in a very similar way. Do you ever feel like your origin story gets rewritten [by others]?<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Yeah \u2026 I don\u2019t think anyone has ever gotten the story \n\tAntonoff: Same with me. I feel like we can relate to this because you make a few pop records and all of a sudden it\u2019s like, \u201cNo, you didn\u2019t grow up in that place. You didn\u2019t grow up playing [American] Legion halls.\u201d I just did! I\u2019ve been honestly writing about it for the first time.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: It\u2019s far more interesting than being in the pop world.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It was the most interesting thing in the world.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I still die on the sword of the way we grew up, the scenes we grew up in. Even if I kind of hate so much about it.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: There\u2019s so much I hated about it. I was talking with someone in their early twenties and I was like, \u201cThere was so much messed-up stuff when I grew up, but I also had so much to push against.\u201d You didn\u2019t go to a show without a can of food. Everything was Food Not Bombs. It was so early [to be introduced] to the concept of activism and music and all this stuff.<\/p>\n \n\tI love the idea that we listen to young people more, but it also must be so hard to be an angry 15-year-old and an adult\u2019s like, \u201cWhat do we do with the Indigenous?\u201d You\u2019re like, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do!\u201d A lot of people I know have kids that are teenagers, and they\u2019re demanded to have answers on things that robbed them of the opportunity of being kind of a little bitch.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like I always got blamed for the shit that would go on in our band.\u201d<\/p>\n HAYLEY WILLIAMS<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: What an important time of life, just to get to be a little bitch. I saw the Linda Lindas [L.A. punk band that ranges in age from 15 to 21] play in Nashville \u2026 and I was like, holy shit. What would it have been like to be that age and have my parents understand everything that I\u2019m talking about?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I was so angry.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Yeah, me too.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: But also, not to knock anything they got going on, but having that subculture was my whole feeling.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: It\u2019s the whole foundation to \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: \u2026 push against.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I watch what you do and you\u2019re involved in so many different things. I always can feel the same heartbeat in it. I stay so proud watching you because I know a lot about where you came from and what that feels like, and I can still see it in every move that you make. I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for all over the place in our industry. Right now, we\u2019re in such an interesting time to me, that there are so many artists that are having a moment that have been around for so long. Charli [XCX], Turnstile. I feel like I\u2019m getting to watch my favorite movie.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The stuff we always thought would live under the surface has totally broken through.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: It\u2019s influenced pop culture in such a way. When I was at the Turnstile show at Under the K Bridge [in New York], I had this moment like, \u201cHardcore kids are running the music industry, and I\u2019m in love with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The last time I saw them I was like, \u201cThis looks like a Kid Dynamite show.\u201d The way everyone\u2019s moving is really remarkable. The aesthetic of real artists or a real band is so back, which is sort of a funny concept, but it leaves a lot of space for people who can actually do it. I meet so many people [where] the aesthetic of a band is interesting to them, but a band is a very long thing.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: We could talk about that forever. I\u2019m on the opposite end, feeling out what it means to be someone that only ever wanted to be part of that, not for the aesthetic, but because of the safety of it.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The safety is the best. You move as a unit. You\u2019re like a gang.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I don\u2019t know how to live any other way.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: But you kind of are a band even when you\u2019re solo. The feeling is very communal.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tWilliams: There\u2019s no point to me otherwise. I made this record, and it kind of feels like it just exploded out. It does feel right to put it out under my name. But I think I have to exercise saying that I feel like it\u2019s the last record I\u2019ll do under my name, and I feel proud of that. I want to be in 100 bands before I die. I like that feeling of being in a room with people and something that didn\u2019t exist becomes a thing that you\u2019re all holding.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Yeah, the one plus one equals a million [thing]. Why I like producing records is the idea that two things come together and then something new happens. I don\u2019t understand why anyone argues in the studio. Just leave. I think of it like flying a plane. We can\u2019t be arguing.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I agree. You know our band [Paramore], and you grew up around us. We\u2019ve had more than our fair share of drama. Our manager would always be like, \u201cCommunication is the most important stuff in any rela\u00adtionship.\u201d He\u2019s been saying that to us since we were 16. When you think you\u2019ve figured that out, a few years go by and you have to refigure that out.\u2026<\/p>\n \n\tThis is insane to bring up in an interview of this magnitude. But I genuinely felt like I always got blamed for all the shit that would go on in our band, and I never knew if it was [because] I\u2019m the singer. But also at the time, I\u2019m a young girl, and people don\u2019t understand young girls.<\/p>\n \u201cLive music is bigger than ever. People are fucking going to shows.\u201d<\/p>\n JACK ANTONOFF<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: And the only girl the whole time, right? You never had another woman in the band, right?<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Maybe randomly for live stuff, but no, never in the band. At times, I wore that like a badge of honor. \u201cI can handle this, and I want to protect the whole.\u201d But my attitude, whether it\u2019s in the studio [or] the live setting, is I know what I like, and I want to contribute that to it. But I also just love when the vibe is good and everyone\u2019s happy.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It makes so much better work.\u2026<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I do have a question about working alone, or how you know when something is for you versus how you delegate it to a collab\u00adorative setting. I\u2019m still kind of figuring that out because, like I said, I would much rather be with other people.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Most of the time [when] I\u2019m working with other people, I\u2019m just coming in and working on their stuff. I\u2019m always working on my own stuff. Once in a while, I\u2019ll be working on an album, and have an immediate gut reaction, which is: Would I be sad to lose it? And if the answer is yes, then it\u2019s mine. And if the answer is no, then it\u2019s a cool thing I made that\u2019s not attached to anything.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: You ever give something to someone and then take it back?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: No \u2026 Oh, yes! Too salacious to get into.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: OK, wow \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: But I also don\u2019t really do that. When I say \u201cgive something to someone,\u201d I\u2019m talking about a chord or production idea. I\u2019ve never written a song and been like, \u201cHere.\u201d Because I wouldn\u2019t be able to really finish the song if I wasn\u2019t gonna sing it myself. And also, I don\u2019t work with anyone who isn\u2019t a songwriter.<\/p>\n \n\tOne of the funniest things about my job is this total distortion of how it works. People have this idea of how records are made. I think it\u2019s at once hilarious, but probably mostly rooted in misogyny, because I notice the differences of who I\u2019m working with and how people interact with me about it.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It\u2019s insane, because I\u2019ve never seen so much passion about something. I know firsthand \u2014 you weren\u2019t there. There were three people there. I\u2019m doing a thing with me, Laura [Sisk, his engineer], and then usually one person or two. It\u2019s the most tiny space.\u2026 It\u2019s so odd to me how everyone has such a clear assumption on how it happened, and [they] weren\u2019t there. No one was there. When I eat something amazing, I\u2019m not like, \u201cHere\u2019s what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s been the weirdest experience of my life to go to a place every day and to do a thing almost like a meditation and to have the story of that thing be completely untold, which is how I like it. I don\u2019t want it told. The truth is incredibly uninteresting because the magic is kind of within.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tWilliams: I feel that way too. I try to film as much as I can. I like to open my computer and have Photo Booth running when I\u2019m writing something, especially if I\u2019m making something with a friend. But I\u2019m still really new to it. You just launched yourself into collab\u00adorations with a lot of different people, and it always felt really true to you. Whereas I would say no to every opportunity to co-write for the longest time. I just didn\u2019t want to leave the bubble that we had created with Paramore.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the same time, now I\u2019m 36 \u2014 20 years or so into my career \u2014 and I\u2019m realizing I don\u2019t actually have much experience collaborating outside of this world. There\u2019s a hungry part of me that I\u2019m definitely willing to feed and try, but it comes with so much self-doubt. Do you still get terrified?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: If it\u2019s my music, it\u2019s terrifying. But then when you find those people that see the thing you see, it\u2019s like this magic connection. When I work with other people, it\u2019s so obvious if it works or not. The work is incredibly intense.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Every relationship in my life is a slow burn. I made this album with [producer] Daniel [James].\u2026 When I finally decided to try this, it was such an instant [feeling of] \u201cThis is safe.\u201d And also, \u201cWe\u2019re the same. We\u2019re the same kind.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The only way good things are made is by a tiny group of people seeing the same thing together.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I\u2019m feeling that so much around working on this project because it came from me not really being in a great place.\u2026 A few friends became a better label experience than I\u2019ve ever had. And this is the first time I\u2019m not on a label.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I let almost no one in, because it\u2019s such a vulnerable state. Doesn\u2019t matter who or what you\u2019ve done in the past. All irrelevant. Every songwriter thinks they\u2019ve written their last song. You never think you can do it again.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I wish it would change.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The room is so vulnerable, I feel like you can\u2019t let anyone in, because if someone comes in and is like, \u201cOoh, those drums,\u201d you just, like, die.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I\u2019ve loved tapping into the creativity of friends that I trust. If they said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, have you thought about it this way?\u201d it wouldn\u2019t suck the oxygen out. It would just refine something. That\u2019s also the importance of community. It\u2019s like the vulnerability part we talked about. The trust \u2026 Another thing that\u2019s really fun about being a part of a subculture is it kind of does narrow down \u2014 depending on the show I\u2019m at, I\u2019m like, \u201cOK, we have similar values.\u201d I feel so, like, held in, you know, tight by that.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of dudes that are gonna say weird shit to me. But I get to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n HAYLEY WILLIAMS<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: Same.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I kind of just don\u2019t want anything else.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I don\u2019t want anything else. I just want to make sure everyone gets in [to the show] safely and doesn\u2019t get, like, completely destroyed by how much it costs.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: Yeah, yeah, yeah. How are you gonna talk about that? How are you gonna tour?<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The biggest thing I\u2019m gonna keep doing is shouting about it, because live music is literally bigger than ever. That\u2019s a beautiful thing. People are fucking going to shows in a big way now.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I don\u2019t know if I just tuned back in or if it really is happening in a way again that feels more akin to what we grew up with.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: For better or worse, I\u2019m kind of always watching that part of it. I love touring and live music so much. If people aren\u2019t coming to your show, you ain\u2019t worth shit.\u2026 My Chem[ical Romance] are having the biggest tour ever right now.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: It\u2019s really cool. They\u2019re really good guys.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: I grew up with them. The best guys. So this thing is flour\u00adishing. Everyone wants to go see music, and there\u2019s so much for everyone to go around. Then there\u2019s a couple fucking people at top [who] just have to be like, \u201cNope.\u201d And you fucking are left with what you\u2019re left with, which is people like us talking to the audience being like, \u201cHey, we\u2019re so sorry about the fake VIP line. Thanks for letting us know. Gonna shut it down.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I lost a large chunk of my innocence the first time I realized that we had made enough money to get gas to go to the next show, but we had to give half of it to the venue. My dad was like, \u201cThis is America.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tAntonoff: I remember it too. I\u2019ve seen it from every level. I know how hard it is to be someone who plays for no one. That\u2019s character building. What fucks me off is, why is drawing a few hundred people not an honest living? You and your band can\u2019t turn a profit, and then we have to watch the companies that own all these rooms and monopolize the whole fucking thing and post billions of earnings. Chill the fuck out, it\u2019s working. Everyone wants to come. It\u2019s not total anarchy.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: The indie venues [struggling] thing is killing me. My favorite street in Nashville has been just obliterated.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: It\u2019s so simple to me, and there\u2019s one answer that\u2019s never going to happen, which is [the corporations] have to make a little less money. I want everyone in that room [at a show] to feel like a fucking human being from beginning to end. I want it to be the best night ever. The last thing I want people to think about is how they\u2019re treated. I remember growing up \u2014 a bad security guard? They\u2019d be gone. It would never happen. There was such protection over the literal vibe.<\/p>\n \n\tWilliams: I remember getting heckled quite a bit. There was this one show at the North Star Bar [in Philadelphia]. I had a great show, but there was this guy that just kept saying really foul shit to me. I\u2019m 16 \u2026 Someone heard this guy and just immediately took him outside. I heckled him back and shit, but I can only do so much. I\u2019m trying to play a show.<\/p>\n \n\tThat night really impacted me, because [it showed] we take care of each other. There\u2019s a lot of bad apples. There\u2019s a lot of dudes that are going to say weird shit to me. That sucks. But I get to be here. I\u2019m going to keep claiming the space, and the right people are going to make the space.<\/p>\n \n\tAntonoff: The culture of the audience is fucking everything.<\/p>\n Production Credits<\/p>\n Production PATRICIA BILLOTI for PBNY PRODUCTIONS.\u00a0![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MoM2025-teaser2-e1760634569541.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nHayley: Vintage T-shirt courtesy of Varsity Los Angeles. Vintage Jeans courtesy of Klactus Vintage. Shoes by Vagabond. Earrings by The Great Frog. Vintage Rings courtesy of Handbook<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
of our band right. At this point, it\u2019s just fun.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
JACK: Styling by PATRICIA VILLIRILLO at FUTURE REP. Grooming by SIGI KUMPFMUELLER. Styling assistance: MORGAN GREER LIPSINER.\u00a0HAYLEY: Styling by JARED ELLNER for A-FRAME AGENCY. Hair and makeup by BRIAN O\u2019CONNOR. Styling assistance: BROOKE FIGLER and MAYA SAUDER.\u00a0Tailoring by MARIA DEL GRECO for LARS NORD STUDIO. Set design by JACOB BURSTEIN for MHS ARTISTS. Set design assistance: ALLAN MAJANO. Digital technician: KENNY AQUILES ULLOA. Photographic assistance: ALONSO AYALA and MICHELLE PERALTA. Video director of photography: WILL CHILTON. Camera operators: HALEY SNYDER and SOPHIE POWER. Audio engineer: RYAN DANIEL NORTHROP. Editor: GRAHAM MOONEY. Audio mixer: GABE QUIROGA. VFX: MIGUEL FERNANDES. Production manager: CHRIS MCCANN. Production assistance: AARON BARAK. Photographed at ATTIC STUDIOS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O ne day in 2013, Jack Antonoff was sitting in a car in Los Angeles with his friend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,88823,96,26451,88824,88825,88826,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-205688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-direct","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hayley-williams","12":"tag-jack-antonoff","13":"tag-musicians-on-musicians","14":"tag-musicians-on-musicians-2025","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}