Parcels' Noah Hill to Release Debut Solo Album 'Ok Ok Now'
The PARCELS member's folk-pop record arrives via Because Music, with headlining shows in New York and Los Angeles.
Noah Hill, a member of Australian band Parcels, is to release his debut solo album, OK OK NOW, on September 4 via Because Music. Alongside the announcement, Hill has shared a new single and music video titled 'Bye Baby,' described as an exploration of the slow dissolution of a relationship. The album marks a return to the folk and acoustic pop that shaped Hill before his years with Parcels, with the singer-songwriter citing Andy Shauf and Unknown Mortal Orchestra as touchstones. Hill is also set to play headlining shows in New York and Los Angeles in September.
The music video for 'Bye Baby' was directed by Cai Leplaw, and depicts two partners in the throes of moving on and the idiosyncrasies that make the day-to-day extraordinary when spent with the one you love most.
https://noahhill.ffm.to/byebabyvideo
Hill spoke about the origins of the new single: 'I'd had these chords for a long time. When it came time to make the record, part of the chorus came to me, and it felt completely in line with what the album was about, but in a way I hadn't said yet. The song is about a kind of resigned, slightly desperate acceptance that the relationship is over. There's still a part of him trying to hold on, to convince her to come back, but that slowly turns into frustration as he realises she's already moving on. It moves between intimacy and distance, hope and then a kind of passive-aggressive resignation. That feeling of, 'have it your way… if that's what you want.''
Best known as one-fifth of Parcels, Hill steps into a deeply personal new chapter with Ok ok now. After years creating within a collaborative band, 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 realised 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 realised 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.
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
Tue 8 Sep - Privatclub - Berlin, FE
Thu 10 Sep - Le Bus Palladium - Paris, FR
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: Melissa Gardner
Photo Credit: Melissa Gardner
