Q&A: Parcels’ Noah Hill is ‘Ok ok now’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY AUTUMN THATCHER ☆
NOAH HILL HASN’T BEEN SLEEPING MUCH LATELY—but if you ask him if he’s tired, there’s an air of hesitation in his response. A member of the Australian electro-pop band Parcels, Hill is no stranger to long days and even longer nights. Parcels played a slew of festival shows over the summer, keeping its five members busy both on the road and on the stage. Sure, touring can exhaust even the most seasoned of musicians, but it’s Hill’s side project that’s keeping him up at night.
“In the band, I could sleep well. I cared a lot about it, and I was so invested in it, but this solo thing is the next level of investment,” said Hill on a Zoom call from Budapest. “I’m up all night thinking about it and thinking about the things that need to be done or how best to do it. I’m a bit of a madman at the moment.”
On September 4, Hill officially releases his debut solo album, Ok ok now, a 12-track record that thrusts listeners right into some of the most personal and vulnerable moments of his life. Self-produced and featuring Hill playing guitar—a departure from the basslines he provides in Parcels—Ok ok now explores Hill’s experience navigating the devastation that comes when true love falls apart.
The result is a raw album with enough heart to elicit feelings of guilt for being so close to what Hill was thinking and feeling. Hill talked to us about making the album, what he hopes listeners will take from it and what’s next as he prepares to introduce the world to Ok ok now.
Read Luna’s conversation with Hill below.
LUNA: You’re on the cusp of your solo album debut, and you’re touring with Parcels, so you’re doing a lot of multitasking. What’s it like managing all of that, and how are you feeling?
HILL: It’s been an interesting transition because I spent the whole start of the year finishing the record, building and making music videos for the solo record, doing and preparing the live shows, doing all the rehearsals and then immediately came onto this tour with the group. I had no downtime to process what all of that was like. I'm just processing it on the road right now.
I can feel that I'm in an interesting time of my life, and I'm looking forward to taking a few days off and sitting on a beach in Greece and being like, "What the hell has happened and what's going on?" Really being able to center myself again for the release and for the shows. It's been a really big period, but I'm super energized by it. I'm so inspired and happy that I've finally done this. You never know how much energy you actually have until you care about something this much.
LUNA: There’s a lot of vulnerability in making a breakup album. In many ways, you’re letting listeners into these personal experiences and thoughts, which might change over time. Did you have any reservations about bearing so much of your soul on this record?
HILL: Yeah, those songs were written over a long period of time, and I just decided at one stage that this is what the record was going to be about. It came together right when I was feeling all these emotions, and I just poured it all in—funneling it into this super vulnerable, open-hearted, open-book breakup album.
Now it's two years on, and I'm about to sing all these songs again, and it's really intense. It really brings me back to that time. I put my whole heart into the songs when I'm singing them, and really feel them, and make sure I'm delivering the feeling of that time. It's painful for sure, but also beautiful. I just roll with that whole depth of emotion and accept that's the journey when you make something.
LUNA: Is there any part of you that's like, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have gone so deep?"
HILL: Yeah, there has been a bit of that recently where I'm like, "Oh, was this a good idea? Or yeah, am I being too earnest? Am I being too direct?" There's definitely uncertainty and insecurity around that. But at the end of the day, it's good to be vulnerable. I'm happy I did that. This is my way of expressing myself and moving through it. I think the more vulnerable you get, the more people resonate with it. That's what I love when I hear music: when you're like, "Whoa, I'm not even sure if I should be listening to that. That feels so personal." And you get led into someone's world in this really, almost peeking-through-the-back-door way. You're looking into this person's life and are uncertain if you're allowed.
And there's a certain amazingness about that because it feels so vulnerable and intimate. So I love that, and I'm happy to give that to other people. And like you said, even if I'm in a new relationship now and it feels different, and I've moved on in some regards, everybody knows that feeling of breaking up with someone who you just thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with. It was like a soulmate thing that was forever in your eyes and was long and deep and now it's not. And that's just something that I'm sure everyone has gone through at some stage.
LUNA: What was the experience like making your first solo album, which is different from the music you make with Parcels?
HILL: I'm playing guitar on all of this, so that was always the biggest difference—where I'm sitting down and playing the guitar, being a songwriter rather than trying to find a pocket of groove or working on the basslines and drums. Producing it myself is a big thing that took a lot of decision-making. I don't think I truly connected with how much decision-making goes into making your own album. There's no one else to bounce off, and every single decision has to be yours. That was a lot of weight.
And the sound of it: I chose this because it was the sort of music that felt most authentic to me. It was the music that I heard growing up in my house. I wanted the intention to be as personal and authentic as possible. These are the songs that revealed me as much as possible.
LUNA: The texturizing of the music and the instruments that you're using on the album make the listening experience feel raw and appropriate to the vulnerability theme that you're going with on the album. It immediately brings you in.
HILL: Thank you. Yeah, that's exactly it. There are some sounds that bring you in and some sounds that keep you out and push you away or make it feel a bit larger than life. The rawer it is, the more vulnerable it is, and the more you bring the listener in. I wanted it to be super close as well. I wanted the vocals to be really upfront and for the guitars to be wide. I've been into pop music a lot as well, and I get really inspired by Justin Bieber's acoustic sessions, where it's just him and some guy playing an acoustic guitar and a super strong pop vocal. To me, that was always the coolest thing because it had everything: it had this pop flavor, but it had this rawness and directness—and that was everything I wanted from the record.
LUNA: Did you draw inspiration from any other musicians?
HILL: The album is an amalgamation of my parents listening to Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, John Martyn, James Taylor and all these sorts of people while I was growing up. I have that as a base, but then I get really inspired by people like Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzie McAlpine, and these pop-modern folk artists who are singing great stories. On the production side, I loved leaning into the pop world a bit more.
LUNA: How would you describe the perfect setting for future listeners to experience the record?
HILL: When I see this record, I see a room, a bedroom with red light—one of those nice lights that you can dim really low until it's red and warm. It’s in a room with lots of stuff all over the wall: old newspapers and lots of old things. Then there's a door ajar onto some sort of outdoor patio or deck. You're drinking a glass of red wine and smoking a cigarette, you put this on, you're sad and you're having a bit of a moment for yourself. That's how I picture this record a lot of the time because that's the environment in which it was written.
LUNA: What do you hope listeners will get out of this album, and what will you be doing when it makes its debut to the world?
HILL: I hope, firstly, that they enjoy it sonically, that it feels like something they can put on and like the feeling that it gives them without needing to cry your eyes out. Secondly, if it could be a place of solace for hard times and help you process your own stuff, that's what these kinds of records are good for. If it could do anything like that, that would be awesome.
When the album comes out, I'll be on an island in Greece with my friends and family, waiting. Maybe we’ll pop some champagne. We’ll go for a swim, and I'll hang with my friends. Maybe we'll have a bit of a party and enjoy that night—and the last few days of relaxing together—before I start the tour.
