LA according to hayley williams 🤘

the paramore legend loves a post-grammy tuna melt, walking the silverlake reservoir, and not calling the paps.

Jun 28, 2025

Let’s time travel back to the year 2008.

Big things were happening in the world: the housing bubble burst, followed by the great recession…Obama became president, the Twilight saga *just* came out. Even though I was 14 and didn’t really comprehend the significance of these events, it felt like the change I was experiencing on a personal level (puberty, high school, general teenage identity crisis) was mirrored on a bigger scale.

The only way I could make sense of the chaos was through music. I loved escaping into moody songs from artists like A Fine Frenzy, Meg & Dia, Eisley (please tell me if these names mean anything to you lol).

But no one got me like Paramore did—and I know I’m not alone in this. For a generation of millennials, Hayley Williams practically raised us.

Her influence runs deep. For a girl in small Bay Area town, Hayley’s powerful vocals traveled from my purple metallic iPod nano into my soul and assured me it was ok to scream and cry and let it all out. (I’ve been listening to Misery Business while writing this, and it still feels as cathartic as ever).

Authenticity and vulnerability feel like trite buzzwords now, but the simple reason why Hayley is such an enduring cultural icon because she keeps it real. She always has.

Which is why I am beyond elated to share an exclusive interview with the Paramore legend today. The seed of this collaboration first came about because well, it turns out, Hayley is a longtime Molehill reader.

During the LA fires, she messaged me about signal boosting a benefit show and clothing drive she was organizing with friends to support those who lost their homes. I had a few friends in LA go to the show; they loved the sense of community it symbolized. This year, it’s become more clear to me than ever that loving a city means standing up for the people who make it special.

So, I invited Hayley to come on the Molehill and do an exclusive interview as a fundraiser for LA’s immigrant communities. She said yes.

My questions for her were meant to draw out her relationship with the city of angels: where she last cried, her eastside haunts, where she goes to feel anonymous, how she would describe LA as a perfume, and more. It’s a poetic and intimate look at the city through her eyes.

count me IN.

*All photos courtesy of Hayley Williams, interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Hi Hayley! Thank you so much for chatting with me. Can you give us a brief timeline of when you lived in LA, and how much time you spend there now?

I lived in LA, on and off, from 2010 to 2015 and then, on and off again, from 2022-2025.

Which neighborhood did you live in during the 2010s?

In my early 20’s I bought a place in West Hollywood, near Runyon Canyon.

What did you love about it?

I loved walking to Toi for Tom Kha Gai with their super delish extra firm tofu and black rice. If I was lucky I’d get one of the tables that’s low to the ground and sit on a pillow in front of whatever old movie they were projecting on the wall.

My house there was my dog Alf’s first home. I loved our neighborhood walks there so much—we always went the route that took us past the house from the original Halloween.

There was night blooming jasmine running down the left side of the house and a lemon tree outside the kitchen window that grew lemons the size grapefruits. It was like living in a house from a sitcom, idyllic and cozy.

Melrose Trading Post, Crossroads Kitchen, and a movie at Arclight made a perfect Sunday in LA for me in 2013.

I love when people have the same hair color as their dogs.

What color was your hair?

When I got my house there, the band was making the self-titled album. I was growing out an undercut and the really short bits were bleach blonde, and the rest was reddish. That summer (2012), I cut baby bangs and dyed it a pale orange/marigold that made my skin come alive. Always chasing that high.

What LA myth(s) did you believe before you moved there?

“Nobody walks in LA”

Favorite song about LA and why?

“I Want To” by Best Coast. It’s not about LA but the entire Crazy For You album is quintessentially LA and really takes me back to that particular time in my life, living amongst palm trees for the first time.

The last place in LA you cried?

On the 2.

If LA were a perfume, what would it smell like?

Milk tea, jasmine, huge test jars of Good Dye Young hair dye samples that would fill a room with the smell of bergamot essential oil, sweat, and palo santo.

Let’s say you just finished playing a show—where are you going to eat afterwards?!

For a long time, it was Swingers. I’m pretty sure we went to Swingers after our first Grammys. Had to get the hardcore soy shake and a tuna melt, every time. You’d always run into music friends there, it was cute.

two generations of punk in this photo! also i love that the linda lindas snack on flamin’ hot funyuns backstage.

Where in the city can you go to feel anonymous?

I’ve always felt pretty anonymous in LA—not one to call the paps! Especially once I got a place on the east side. Whenever I’m out there, I still like to walk the reservoir with a friend, go to shows, get a treat in Little Tokyo, a long drive to the beach…

I get same feeling now as when I first moved there, like I’m invisible but in a good way, and nobody can catch me.

Best place to sit with a notebook and write?

It’s been a very long time but sometimes I imagine sitting back on the back porch at my first house there, under the palm tree that towered over the yard, writing while Alf hunts around for whatever he’s always looking for.

What does it mean to be punk in 2025?

It’s community and it’s the political and social power we wield when we band together against negative forces.

It’s your local scene and knowing that you’re part of something.

It’s speaking up for the marginalized.

It’s joy and rage in the face of systematic oppression.

It’s awareness but never the acceptance of said oppression.