Hayley Williams launches in-depth emo podcast Everything Is Emo

Hayley Williams is the host of a new podcast charting the history of emo, the much maligned genre her band Paramore are a key part of. Everything Is Emo is available exclusively via the BBC Sounds app and will run for 20 episodes as Williams traces the earliest stages of the music scene through to its modern day revival.

"Not long ago, people started calling me a “veteran” of my scene and of the music industry," Williams said in a statement. "It sounds so funny to me because most of the time I still feel like a fan. The serious truth is I have, in fact, grown up in this scene for the last two decades. I guess that’s a pretty long time. I’m really excited to have the opportunity to publicly nerd out about bands and songs that make my favourite subgenre feel like home to me. And while it will be fun to take some trips down memory lane, I’m just as excited, if not more, to play music from new artists I’m discovering all the time.

"Everything is Emo is meant to feel like a conversation with other fans of the genre, young and (ahem) old. There’s going to be plenty of interaction, which I hope will feel somewhat reminiscent of the message boards and forums I used to frequent as a teenage scene kid.

"More than anything, I hope music fans and artists alike will be psyched to hear a highly considered spectrum of “EMO” in all its forms. And yeah, of course you’ll hear some Paramore."

Earlier this year Williams revealed that Paramore are back in the studio working on the follow-up to their most recent album, 2017's After Laughter. In the subsequent period she shared solo albums Petals for Armor and FLOWERS for VASES / descansos. Earlier this month, she jumped on stage with Billie Eilish to perform Paramore’s “Misery Business” at Coachella.