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WILLOW releases new album ‘lately I feel EVERYTHING’

WILLOW

RELEASES NEW ALBUM
lately I feel EVERYTHING
OUT NOW!FEATURING COLLABORATIONS WITH TRAVIS BARKER, AVRIL LAVIGNE, AYLA TESLER-MABE, CHERRY GLAZER & TIERRA WHACK

FRIDAY JULY 16 AT 5PM BST, PERFORMING SONGS FROM THE NEW ALBUM
WILLOW IN CONCERT: lately I feel EVERYTHING
VIA FACEBOOK WATCH

Today (July 16th), WILLOW has released her new album, lately I feel EVERYTHING on MSFTSMusic/Roc Nation/Polydor. The album features Travis Barker, Avril Lavigne and previously unreleased collaborations with Tierra Whack, Cherry Glazer and Ayla Tesler-Mabe.

“lately I feel EVERYTHING is a musical expression of trying to perceive both joy and pain through an equally compassionate and playful lens,” says WILLOW.

Of the 11 tracks on the album,  WILLOW had previously released ‘Lipstick’, and the explosive first single ‘t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l feat. Travis Barker’. In the month since its release, ‘t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l feat. Travis Barker’ has amassed 36 million streams and became WILLOW’s first Hot 100 entry. The song, currently #18 on the Alternative Chart in the USA was the #1 most added single at Alternative Radio last week and the #2 greatest gainer, jumping up 8 spots. In the UK the track has been rapidly climbing the Official Singles Chart peaking at #28 and has also been added to the Radio 1 playlist.

All songs on lately I feel EVERYTHINGwere written by WILLOW with production and co-writing on select tracks from her longtime collaborator Tyler Cole. The album was recorded in Los Angeles at Conway Studios with additional drums by Matt Chamberlain. WILLOW plays guitar throughout.

This evening, Facebook Watch will host the exclusive live performance event, WILLOW IN CONCERT: lately I feel EVERYTHING. Fans can tune in at 5PM BST to catch this Facebook Watch exclusive concert experience. WILLOW will debut songs from her incredible new album, including her hit single ‘t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l’ feat. Travis Barker and brand new anthem, ‘G R O W’ with Avril Lavigne feat. Travis Barker.

The event is equal parts intimate, electric, punk and unexpected. In between songs, Willow and her friends and family – including her mum Jada – discuss her musical journey from her days performing ‘Whip My Hair’ at age 10 to now, a full decade later writing, producing and performing her music. The concert will be available for viewers to watch together in Instagram video chat using the Watch Together feature, in addition to Messenger and Facebook Watch.

At only 20 years old, WILLOW has spent half her life in the music industry. With lately I feel EVERYTHING, a decade of growth both in the industry and as a young woman come to a head. Her album is a love letter to that constant evolution. She began working on the record in 2020, during the pandemic. With all the extra time on her hands at home, she began recording demos that she would later re-record when she felt like she could safely enter a studio. It was a new process for her, born out of caution, but it helped her capture the rawness of her new sound. On the forthcoming record, WILLOW channels the pop-punk and emo heroes she adored as a teenager, like Avril Lavigne, My Chemical Romance and Paramore. “I thought this was a really dope outlet for a new energy I wanted to bring to my music,” she says.

t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l feat. Travis Barker’ was originally unveiled via Beats1’s Zane Lowe as a New Music Daily and has since garnered both critical praise and commercial success. “Smith’s song doesn’t so much make the case for Black women in pop-punk as much as it serves as a reminder that we’ve always been here,” said Jezebel. “It’s a pop-punk banger for the ages.” WILLOW recently performed the single on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Watch here.

lately I feel EVERYTHING – TRACKLIST

  1. t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l feat. Travis Barker
  2. F**K You
  3. Gaslight feat. Travis Barker
  4. don’t SAVE ME
  5. naïve
  6. Lipstick
  7. Come Home feat. Ayle Tesler-Mabe
  8. 4ever
  9. XTRA feat. Tierra Whack
  10. G R O W – WILLOW, Avril Lavigne feat. Travis Barker
  11. ¡BREAKOUT! feat. Cherry Glazer
Photo Credit: Dana Trippe

PRAISE FOR
lately I feel EVERYTHING

“The resulting record is a blast—often angry, a little bratty, always incredibly fun.” – GQ

“The creative force is paving the way for Black women in pop-punk and beyond.” – SPIN

“A classic when we look back at WILLOW’s discography in years to come”
 – NME

“It’s spiky, mature and not lacking in substance, which makes for a consistently strong and rewarding record… It feels like there’s no stopping WILLOW’s rise.” –
Kerrang

“You can’t touch Willow Smith… The 20-year-old pop-punk hero has arrived” –
The Face

“A shouty blast of punk rock that scorches by like a shooting star” – Financial Times

“A blast of fresh air from Willow on this banging pop-punk album” – The i

“Willow Smith makes a captivating return as an emo-pop star”- The Independent

“Willow is back, and she’s stepping on necks on the way…Shredding on the guitar, she radiates power.” – New York Magazine

“Thank God for Willow, tracking her metamorphosis from precocious neo-soul explorer to out-and-out alt, kid” – The Guardian

“Willow Smith goes full pop-punk… the song draws from the music of Paramore, Fall Out Boy, and Barker’s own band Blink-182, with hard-hitting percussion and pop-punk power chords on guitar..” – Rolling Stone

“Willow Smith is ready to rock your world…fully embraces the alt-rock and pop-punk sound. Complete with her own guitar playing and a head-banging chorus” – Harper’s Bazaar

“A stark, honest, and punchy pop-punk reinvention” – Clash

“Willow’s move into pop-punk may have been unexpected but it sounds entirely natural” – DIY

“She is the moment…Over roiling guitars and Barker’s thunderous drums…belts in her best pop-punk voice about seeing right through the haters in her life. It’s super catchy. In its accompanying video, she channels the nostalgic fish-eye performance vids of pop-punk’s golden era with her own chic twists…No doubt the pop-punk heroes of her youth, Hayley Williams, Gerard Way, and Patrick Stump, would be proud.” – NYLON

“A guitar-heavy track that sees the rap star take a significant sonic shift and swap intricate lyrical flows for thrash-y pop-punk powerchords…Wielding an Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent signature, Smith serves up a series of sweet melodic slides and oversized open-string chordal hooks over a moody bass guitar line, all of which are driven along by Barker’s high-octane drum part.” – Guitar World

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More about WILLOW:
 
Though she considers her writing process “very solitary” and “insular,” she has found a fruitful musical partnership in Tyler Cole, who she first worked with on 2019’s WILLOW. She describes the relationship she has with Cole as a great “synergy,” which has unlocked something deeper in her music as she progresses in her career.
 
One major influence for the record comes from a deeply personal place: her own mother Jada Pinkett Smith. These days, the two co-host the Facebook Watch talk show Red Table Talk with her grandmother Adrienne Banield-Norris. But prior to that, Pinkett had a rocker past that she fulfilled alongside her acting career. Pinkett formed the nu metal band Wicked Wisdom when her daughter was an infant. “I was always so inspired by the power of her voice,” WILLOW says. Wicked Wisdom was at their most active during her most formative years. The group has released two albums, opened for Britney Spears on her Onyx Hotel Tour in 2004 and a year later appeared at Ozzfest. While she admired her mum’s musical route, WILLOW was skeptical of her own ability to channel that rock side. “I never felt like I could sing that kind of music because I was always trained to sing R&B and pop.”
 
Letting go of that insecurity proved to be a breakthrough when she realized how influential R&B and pop vocalists are on her pop-punk heroes like Hayley Williams, Gerard Way and Patrick Stump. She used the soulful range of her own vocal chops to add a fresh flare to the mosh-ready records she wrote for this release and learned how to stop looking at that training as a disadvantage. “I realized that it’s not my voice that can’t sing this kind of music. I was afraid to sing this kind of music because I wasn’t sure what people would think.”
 
‘t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l feat. Travis Barker’ teed off the album rollout, showcasing her own spin on emo and punk. It feels both nostalgic and modern, with a catchy hook and snappy melody that makes the song move like lightning. The lyrics were inspired by a quote from a “beautiful swami” she knows personally: “It is said that a saintly person is so pure that he or she acts like a spotless mirror. When we come in the presence of such mirror-like soul, we can see both the beauty and ugliness of our inner life.” She sees the single as a testimony to her desire to be the highest version of herself, something that she connects well with the angsty, pining feeling of the genres she explores. The songwriter rarely makes videos, but she felt so inspired by ‘t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l feat. Travis Barker’ that she decided to pursue one for it. She hopes the visual opens up new meanings for the listeners.
 
WILLOW’s own guitar playing factors into the project as well, which is something she was also inspired to do because of her mum’s band. She’s been playing the instrument since she was around 14, and it was part of a conscious effort to prove herself as a musician and songwriter, one that could have total involvement in more than the lyrics. “I personally feel it’s just really important to play an instrument if you’re going to have a career in music,” she adds. “Songwriting is 15 million times easier when you can actually write the songs.”
 
WILLOW compares her fifth LP to her last one, aptly titled The Anxiety. To her, this album showcases an artist who has made it to the other side of that anxiety and is a testament to everything she’s learned. Through the process specifically, she learned how to let go and show herself more compassion. More importantly, it helped her channel the playful inner child she felt she had lost for some time. “It was very cathartic for me,” she explains. “I want to live more like that.”

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