Paris Williams is a young musician based out of Kanas City, MO. He first gained attention in grade school with his doodles on his note pages, then eventually created his own songs around the age of thirteen.
With a bunch of releases already out and more on the way, he has recently dropped his breakout single “NOLA,” followed by an EP which will be released by the end of the year.
When it comes to “NOLA,” Williams comments, “I wanted to make something groovy that girls could dance to and feel empowered by. I had just watched the movie She’s Gotta Have It, and the character Nola Darling has this rotation of dudes and just can’t be held down. So the lyric ‘I met a girl named Nola / can’t let no one control her’ is inspired by that.”
His first release, Delay, caught the attention of punk legend Iggy Pop, who shared one of the tracks to his BBC radio show and posted it to social media.
“Love to Iggy! It’d be a dream to meet him sometime soon! Seeing his recent campaign with Tyler and Rocky was fire, they all inspire me a ton. Right now I’m rolling out an EP called ‘COCOA’, Nola is the first single! We’ve teamed up with local Kansas City Label ‘French Exit Records’ for the release. I plan to put out one more single titled ‘Youth In Revolt’ featuring one of the homies. Hoping the EP will officially be out sometime before the end of the year. I’ve got a brand called ‘BITTERSWEET’ as well so we’ll be dropping merchandise around the release.”
When it comes to the name Nola, Williams comments, “Nola Darling is the name of the main character of Spike Lee’s ‘She’s Gotta Have It’. Watching that movie and seeing how unstaggering in her ways the character was inspired me. I think the girl I wrote about in the song has pieces of that original character and women I know or have met over time. “
When it comes down to it, Paris Williams wanted to produce something that he felt the women close to him would be empowered by and have a good time dancing along.