Listen Close #1 'Simmer' by Hayley Williams

Listen Close is a weekly feature where I take a long hard listen to a song that really grabbed my ears. I think about which elements of the production have got me so interested and try to understand how and why they work, as well as how I can apply these techniques to my own productions.

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For my first post I am exploring the song ‘Simmer’ by Hayley Williams. The track was first released in January this year (2020) and it’s been in constant rotation for me since then. Simmer is the opening track to her album ‘Petals For Armor’, released on the 8th of May. You might recognise Hayley as the lead singer of the band Paramore, who have been putting out some sonically impressive records since 2005. Their latest release ‘After Laughter’ (2017) has a satisfying crisp pop-rock aesthetic with a fun 80's throwback vibe. After Laughter was Mixed by Carlos de Garza and he returns to the board for ‘Petals For Armor,’ with production being handled by fellow Paramore guitarist Taylor York. Simmer, and the rest of the album was Mastered by Dave Cooley.
 
You can listen to the song on all the major streaming services, but here’s a quick link for Spotify or Apple Music.
 
Now you know what we’re listening to. So why has this track stuck with me?
 
The first thing is, it’s a great song and production. It’s got a really dynamic structure and an engaging, evolving vocal performance that will be stylistically a little unfamiliar to Paramore fans. There are also a lot of unique sounds dotted throughout the song that demand repeat listens and deeper inspection. 
 
 
This track is a blend of fairly traditional ‘rock’ instrumentation and some modern electronic production. Bass guitar, a drum kit and electric guitar all feature prominently, combined with synthetic ‘keyboardy’ sounds and electronic percussion. But one of my favourite features is the non-traditional use of Hayley’s voice outside of the lead vocal, from percussive ‘tsks’,’uh’ and ‘ah’ sounds to more sustained ‘mmms’, ‘ooos’ and ‘aaaah’ noises. Choosing to create this soundscape with Hayley’s voice rather than using samples or other instrumentation, gives the song a unique, intimate quality. The song has an extended intro section, and by deploying these vocal noises before the lead comes in, it connects you to the ‘character’ of the singer before she’s even said a word. Very cool! 
 
The track also gets a lot mileage out of using these vocal sounds to function in places where a conventional instrument might have been. For example, when the full instrumentation arrives (from 0:16) it could conceivably have been led into with a drum fill. The kit is very present in the song, but instead of using Toms and a Cymbal crash we’re treated to a pattern of short inhalations followed by a washed out, reverb-soaked exhale, smoothing the transition nicely. The sustained ‘mmm’ in the intro makes for a more interesting choice than just another synth sound might. All of these sounds really add to the vibe of the song, and imprints it’s identity into my brain so it stands out, even amongst the rest of the album.
 

So now the song has truly piqued my interest with all these unique noises. What else is making this track sound so good to me? 
 
It does some really cool things with its placement of elements in the stereo field, which let the track feel both focussed and driving, but also spacious and wide. The first thing I notice is that the majority of the musical information, by which I mean the sounds that form the song itself, exists either exactly in the centre of the stereo mix, or close enough that they feel central to the track. In fact, if we think of the stereo track in terms of Mid/Side processing, and isolate the Mid portion of the signal, the mix doesn’t change a whole lot. The Kick, Snare, Hats, Bass, Lead Vocal, Main Guitar and Keys are all audible, clear and balanced well with each other. This choice is a distinct contrast to a lot of rock music. In fact it helps further distinguish this song from Paramores’ output, which often use the more traditional rock style of having wide hard panned guitars and a drum kit that spans the whole stereo image.  Just simple panning decisions within the mix have reinforced that this song belongs to Hayley Williams, not the band she is most known for performing with.

Mid/Side Listening
I’ve talked about listening to the song from a mid/side perspective, and to do this I’m using a couple of bits of software on my Mac. The first is called SoundSource made by Rogue Amoeba. It’s a programme that allows you to manipulate the volume and EQ of individual programmes on your Mac, but most importantly allows you to insert plugins. Using Soundsource I’ve added a plugin called MSED, by Voxengo, to the output of iTunes. MSED is a simple Mid/Side encoder/decoder, but it allows you to mute either the mid or side portion of the signal and just listen to the other. You can find a free trial of Soundsource here, and download MSED for free here. If you'd like know more about Mid/Side processing Izotope have a good article clearly explaining it's uses and theory here.

With such a focussed centre of the mix, you might imagine that the whole track would end up feeling like it was in mono. But instead it opens up a lot of space in the sides of the mix for what I think of as the ‘toys’ of the production. These are the parts that add interest, variety and sparkle, but aren’t as critical to getting across the intentions of the song. So the majority of the vocal sample sounds, that I previously mentioned, are nicely panned out. The vocal effects like reverb and delay have plenty of room to play, and some extra snare drum sounds add some variety to the main kit. This gives the impression that the drums are big and wide even though the majority of their content is central. There’s also an electronic drum loop that contributes some rhythmic information and movement in the choruses. 
 
There are couple of exceptions to that ‘important parts in the middle’ philosophy. The most obvious are the wide vocal double tracks in the chorus, ‘con-trol’, ‘eyes closed’ etc (from 01:14), that provide a call and response feel with the central lead vocal. Subverting that expectation makes the track feel even wider, and gives it a great lift as it transitions to the chorus. The first half of the second verse also uses panning to switch things up. The main drum kit slides off to the right (from 1:51) and is mirrored by a strummed electric guitar part. I love this as it gives the second verse a totally different feel than the first. As the vocal energy comes down and becomes more intimate, it’s given more of the central spotlight, emphasising the vulnerability of the performance. The guitar part on the left feels crucial to this effect. It begins on the lyric ‘something more precious’ which provides some nice synchronicity as more happens as the word ‘more’ is said. The shimmery guitar sound is also pushed forward slightly in the mix, suggesting that it is the ‘my reflection’ that she considers ‘more precious.’ 
 
Those two aspects of this production really got my brain going while listening. This is a real ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ mix. That’s not to say that the individual elements don’t sound nice, as there are some gorgeous sounds throughout. But no single part steals the show. They all work together in a cohesive way, with little flourishes and subversions making things sparkle and keeping the mix interesting beginning to end. 
 
I feel like there’s a lot I can take away from this track and apply to my own mixes and productions. I’ve definitely been guilty of excessive panning to try and make things sound super wide. But here, the restraint of using the centre so much has taught me that it can be a great way to let a track feel big and open. It’s also shown how some truly unique sounds, like the singers own breaths, can help give a song its own identity. 

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Stray Observations
Here are some other moments in the song that are worth listening out for:
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• The Kick and snare sound(s) throughout. It’s a really tight and close sound and helps the whole song feel intimate.
• -Automated reverbs and delays on the lead vocal, like how ‘is a quiet thing’ pushes out into the wide stereo, and ‘sooner gut him’ where the word ‘gut’ gets a little close delay emphasising the menace in her voice.
• There’s a few little self oscillating feedback delays transitioning out of the first and second choruses, both slightly differently. Tasty!
• The drums in the second verse have some fun delay/verb things going on. Check out around 1:57 after the word reflection. That’s a fun section all round.
• The song starts and ends on a tight mono sound playing the same note, a synth at the start and a guitar at the end, giving the whole track a feeling that we went on a journey and ended up somewhere different.
• I’ve listened to this song a lot, but every time I’m mishearing the ‘Give in!’ just before the first chorus as ‘Kevin!’ and I’m often wondering what Kevin did to inspire these lyrics…

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​Further Listening
 
Check out the rest of the album Petals For Armor, there’s lovely sounds and mix techniques throughout. Or if you’re looking for something a little more upbeat, musically at least, try Hard Times by Paramore. It starts with bongos and marimba and features a vocoder solo. Fun!

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​So that was the mix that’s been bubbling around my mind this week. Did you hear anything I missed? Got any fun ideas for stereo width or unique sounds of your own? Let me know in the comments below!