Photos: Parcels' Noah Hill Releases Debut Solo Album OK OK NOW
The non-linear concept album draws on folk influences and is accompanied by New York and LA headlining shows.
Noah Hill, a member of the Australian band PARCELS, has released his debut solo album, OK OK NOW, via Because Music.
Photo Credit: Macami
Alongside the release, Hill has shared a new music video for 'HEAVEN.'
Hill didn't set out to write a break-up record. His debut under his own name, after years as one-fifth of acclaimed Australian act Parcels, came to him almost by accident. 'I realised mid-way through writing the album that the only songs I could write were about this one relationship,' he says. 'No matter what I tried to write, in the end they were always about her.'
But Ok ok now isn't a typical record of heartbreak. It's a non-linear concept album, telling the patchwork story of a relationship that was itself non-linear — stopping and starting, existing in hyper-intense month-long blocks followed by long periods of total separation. What's left, once the dust settles and goodbyes are said, are fragments: good times sitting next to bad ones, memories arriving out of order.
Fans of Hill's work with Parcels will recognize his layered compositional style and his knack for melody. But Ok ok now is a departure too: more melancholic, more contemplative, and built from songs written across a startlingly wide timeframe. Hill returns to the folk and acoustic pop that first shaped him, drawing inspiration from the intimate songwriting of Andy Shauf and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
'Having grown up playing folk and acoustic pop music, I started to miss the immediacy and quiet honesty of it, and gradually found my way back to these songs,' Hill explains. 'When I did, it felt instinctive and right. Over time, it became clear this was the most honest place I could begin as a solo artist. Most of the songs were written over many years, on back porches at home, or in quiet hotel rooms. Some are nearly ten years old, others more recent. Together they trace a period of my life shaped by a first great love and its ending.'
Rather than telling a straightforward story of heartbreak, Ok ok now unfolds as a nonlinear collection of memories, capturing the emotional disorientation that follows the end of a relationship. Once the dust settles, what remains are fragments: moments of joy alongside pain, memories arriving unexpectedly and out of sequence. Across the album's melodic, understated arrangements, euphoria and grief exist side by side.
'I realized midway through writing the album that the only songs I could write were about this one relationship,' Hill says. 'No matter what I tried to write, I realized that in the end, they were always about her.'
Performing as a one-man band, Hill played nearly every instrument across the record and mixed the album himself. While rooted in one relationship, Ok ok now ultimately reaches beyond romance, exploring the gap between how we imagine life should unfold and how it actually does. It's a meditation on memory, growth, and the quiet truths that only become clear in hindsight.
At its core, Ok ok now is the sound of an artist finding his own voice. Fans can experience the new material live at Noah Hill's debut headline shows in Sydney and Melbourne this week with debut solo shows at New York's Night Club 101 and LA's Moroccan Lounge later this month.
Tour Dates
Wed 22 Jul - The Eveleigh Hotel, Sydney, AU *SOLD OUT*
Thu 23 Jul - The Eveleigh Hotel, Sydney, AU *SOLD OUT*
Fri 24 Jul - Wesley Anne - Melbourne, AU *SOLD OUT*
Mon 7 Sep - Cinetol - Amsterdam, NL *SOLD OUT*
Tue 8 Sep - Privatclub - Berlin, FE
Thu 10 Sep - Le Bus Palladium - Paris, FR *SOLD OUT*
Mon 14 Sep - The Lower Third - London, UK
Wed 16 Sep - Night Club 101 - New York, US
Fri 18 Sep - Moroccan Lounge - Los Angeles, US
Tickets are available here.
Photo Credit: Macami
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