'Wilted' Album Discussion

Anna

Free As A Bird
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Track listing:

1 collide
2 undone
3 repair
4 cosmic
5 dead sea
6 let down
7 eyelids
8 scorpio rising
9 freight train
10 wilted
11 another spring

'wilted' is currently available on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Deezer, and Tidal: https://parisjackson.lnk.to/wilted/

What are your thoughts on the album?

1.Collide


2. Undone


3. Repair


4. Cosmic


5. Dead Sea


6. Let Down


7. Eyelids


8. Scorpio Rising


9. Freight Train


10. Wilted


11. Another Spring

 
I like it, especially let down, eyelids and scorpio rising.
 
I am so proud of Paris right now and I'm very pleased that this album is doing well for her. It's a great effort for a debut solo album.

I intend buying a copy of "Wilted" for myself. This is huge for me (LOL) - I haven't bought anyone's music in a couple of years.
When I have bought it and devoted some time to really listening to each track, I'm going to talk about them.

My initial reactions are that the songs I've heard so far are sonically beautiful and lyrically sophisticated.
I always enjoy interesting lyrics that contain poignant imagery and emotional depth.
 
The more I listen to Paris's new album, "Wilted"; the more I appreciate her musicality.
Paris's father, Michael Jackson, is smiling down at her from Heaven.
:innocent:
 
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I haven't listened to all songs yet but I really liked Let Down, she's talented. So sad Michael isn't there to see his child doing so well. I can only imagine how proud he would have been. He would have said so many nice words about the album. Would have loved to hear them.

I really didn't expect her work to be so good. It's a nice surprise.
 
Nice album. i like eyelids, scorpio rising, wilted, and let down. my favorite is let down. i can see why she call that her baby. nice.
 
While i don't agree everything Paris do and say. at the end of the day she's an adult. she still young and have a whole life ahead of her. if she's decides to keep doing music then that's her choice. i'm not comparing her to michael or any of her family members. i'm not sure why people asking her to be like them.

fans need to stop thinking that their idols kids are gonna be like them. and of course she doesn't sound like michael because she her own person and style. but that's her father.
 
While i don't agree everything Paris do and say. at the end of the day she's an adult. she still young and have a whole life ahead of her. if she's decides to keep doing music then that's her choice. i'm not comparing her to michael or any of her family members. i'm not sure why people asking her to be like them.

fans need to stop thinking that their idols kids are gonna be like them. and of course she doesn't sound like michael because she her own person and style. but that's her father.
I agree. I also think she will become more mature over time. If music is what she wants to do then I think she should do it. She does have talent and a style of her own.
 
Other than the single, "Let Down", my favourites are "Cosmic", "Scorpio Rising" and "Another Spring".

I think "Another Spring" should be the next single.....or "Scorpio Rising". I wonder if she's going to release another single with a video for it?

It'll be interesting to find out what song (or songs) she does on the Jimmy Kimmel show. She'll probably do her single, of course, but it would be good if she performed one of the other songs, too.
 
Other than the single, "Let Down", my favourites are "Cosmic", "Scorpio Rising" and "Another Spring".

I think "Another Spring" should be the next single.....or "Scorpio Rising". I wonder if she's going to release another single with a video for it?

It'll be interesting to find out what song (or songs) she does on the Jimmy Kimmel show. She'll probably do her single, of course, but it would be good if she performed one of the other songs, too.
Mikky Dee, we have the same taste! ;)
The songs you named by Paris Jackson are some of my favorites, also!!!!
:love:
I, also, enjoy listening to listening to "Collide".
 
More video from behind the scenes during the filming of Paris Jackson's "Let Down" video.

 
Click on the Paris's instagram link below to submit your Art work inspired by her "Wilted Album:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CICUzuwpXDN/



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Paris Jackson Turns Brokenness Into Alt-Dark Folk Music On Debut Album "Wilted"
by Jason Scott

Paris Jackson Turns Brokenness Into Dark Alt-Folk Music On Debut Album, ‘wilted’ « American Songwriter
Paris Jackson is carving her own path. It may have been easier to follow in her late father Michael Jackson’s musical footsteps, it would also have been less fulfilling. So, instead of fitting her voice within the pop/R&B space, she veers in another direction entirely. Her debut record, wilted, written with and produced by Andy Hull (of Manchester Orchestra), shape-shifts between shadowy, evocative confessionals and alt/-folk soundscapes that configure snuggly up against Phoebe Bridgers.

“I love Phoebe Bridgers,” she says of the comparison. Funny enough, Bridgers is in a band called Boygenius with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and Baker is good friends with Manchester Orchestra. Two degrees of separation underscores how tight-knight “this little community in the alternative/folk world” really is, she remarks.

Jackson measures out her own unique musical ingredients, though, from the haunting chain-stomp on “repair” to the otherworldly orbs of “dead sea,” and always with a feathered inflection and pinches of raw vulnerability. “Wither away like bones to dust / Shrivel and break and combust,” she draws pain unto herself, letting it finally dissipate on the titular track. A ghostly moan tumbles around her, fusing together with so much static, and her voice remains the unwavering constant.
wilted certainly runs the risk of being too dark or too depressing 一 but her journey into and out of heartbreak and impenetrable anguish could not have been expressed any other way. “I know you’re fallin’ to pieces / ‘Cause you wear your heart on your sleeve / But if you could just put down the needle / Mend yourself and make believe,” her voice quakes on the hypnotic “undone,” witnessing a relationship spiral terribly out of control. Leaning into her rock sensibilities, Jackson found herself drawn to Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle’s approach, structuring with doses of synth and swapping in a bass solo instead of classic guitar.
It should come as no surprise how influential folk legends like Damien Rice and Ray LaMontagne are to her own work, as well. Jackson may not have studied music theory or adhere to any strict songwriting guidelines ─ but her songcraft is instinctual and moving, much like her heroes. “[Damien and Ray] are just so honest and raw. When they sing, you can hear how much they feel it. It really sounds like it’s coming straight from their soul, no filter, no restraint. It’s sometimes pure agony, or pure love. You hear it.”

Moments later, “repair” smacks the eardrums with an unsettling melody and rattling chains that feel bruised and tormented. “You told me once our broken pieces fit so well,” she weeps. “But now I’m whole / So swear to God you’ll love me still.” Even her inherently lilting vocal cords appear to flounder in heartbreak’s rising waters.

Strongly influenced by Cage the Elephant’s acoustic iteration of “Right Before My Eyes,” originally a hidden track on 2011’s Thank You, Happy Birthday, Jackson pays homage in both the guitar line and her vocal phrasing. Side-by-side, “repair” certainly feels beholden to it without growing stale or overwrought. “I’ve always loved the acoustic version [of that song]. It’s been one of my favorites since I was a freshman in high school. The only way I can find it now is going on YouTube and listening to a fan uploaded version of it,” she explains.
“That influenced the strumming patterns of the guitar and the chain-like percussion. What we did for percussion was we got a giant tote of shakers and tambourines and different little percussion tools and shook the entire thing in front of a mic. That’s the sound you hear, and it does sound like chains rattling and dragging on the floor.”

“If I could be the one that you wanted / If I could be enough for you,” she laments on the bridge. Her misery echoes throughout the song, notably with the switch from E minor to a full E chord, a technique she absolutely adores and borrows from Radiohead’s work.
With “dead sea,” Jackson draws from her Jewish heritage and turns to one of her favorite The Lumineers tracks for inspiration. “I’ve always loved [their song] ‘Dead Sea.’ That whole record [2012’s self-titled] was a big record for me when I was a freshman and sophomore in high school. I listened to that whole thing on repeat. It was one of the first records I owned on vinyl,” she says. More importantly, she’s always been fascinated with “what the Dead Sea can represent.”
“A lot of the songs I [took] to Georgia to record were already written. But ‘Dead Sea’ was completely rewritten with Andy. It was a very back-and-forth kind of thing. He’d write half a line, and then I’d finished the sentence,” she continues. “Or I’d say one word, and that would inspire him to write two parts of a verse. It definitely exceeds any expectations when two musicians truly connect and speak the same language. It’s like when two brains melt into each other and become one.”

“Cut my eyelids / So I can’t see you float out the door,” Jackson unpacks visceral, terribly gutting imagery against a celestial, watery backdrop. In such a way, she is able to dive deep into the darkest, most troubled aspects of the human existence, insightfully nestled among her own. Hull, who sings background vocals on the entire record, rises to meet her voice in the set’s only duet.
“I knew I wanted to do a duet with him at some point. I didn’t know which song or if he’d want to do it. I left it up to him to decide which song. It was originally supposed to be a hidden track and only a minute and a half long,” she says. “I’d only had my verse written. He said, ‘No, we could really take this somewhere.’ He wrote an entire new verse, and that’s the part he sings. He’s so good. There’s no words to describe what it felt like to hear my hero singing the words I wrote.”
Often described as having a “soft” and “sweet voice,” Jackson works her tone to her advantage, frequently pairing with her love of “the macabre and gore and really dark things,” she offers. It makes sense then that her entire album aesthetic, from YouTube audio thumbnails to album artwork, would lean hard into creepy, unsettling imagery.

A long-time admirer of artist Matt Duncan (known as CREEPTOONS on Instagram), she knew almost immediately he would be the right fit. “I’ve been following him since I was about 16 or 17. I’ve always loved his art and the creepy stuff. When it came down to thinking up cover art, I was going to research some artists and maybe reach out to some who have done art for my favorite bands,” she says, noting bands like Colour Revolt. “While I was thinking about it, one of Matt’s pictures popped up on my feed.”

wilted drags the listener through the most overgrown lyrical thickets, leaving them nearly as emotionally injured as she. In the final moment, on the unexpectedly giddy closer “another spring,” Jackson allows all the heaviness to fall from her shoulders. “Seasons change / Days dawn anew / I’ll rearrange /And let my wounds shine through,” she sighs in acceptance. She comes to terms with all her pain and fully realizes it’s time to move to what’s next. Initially, the song was never intended to make the final record. “While I was in the studio recording, I wrote this song. That’s the newest one. It seemed like a good punctuation to put at the end, and it felt like a part of the story,” she says.

With inviting Manchester Orchestra into her world, Hull and the band have become much more than collaborators; they are family. “Over the last couple months, since recording this album, they call me their little sister. I can’t even describe how that makes me feel. But I call them my musical big brothers,” she shares. “When it came down to getting the record deal or asking for advice, I can always call Andy and ask him what he thinks about the contract or this one lyric or melody. We send voice memos or memes to each other.”

Hull even recently sent her a snippet of a brand new song on which the band is working. “He just sent me the first two verses, but it’s so beautiful. And it got me teary-eyed listening to it. He’s incredible. I asked him, ‘How do I get this incredible at writing? Is it really just experience and practicing?’ He said, ‘Study really good songwriters. Try and take it from a different perspective.’ So far, I’ve been writing about what I know and things I’ve experienced. He’s like, ‘Start thinking about more from a storytelling approach, not necessarily telling your story.’ So, I said, ‘I just watched ‘The Fly.’ What if I wrote a song about that?’ He said, ‘That’s a perfect example.’ So, I wrote a song about ‘The Fly.’”

Paris Jackson exhibits great strength and power as a songwriter. wilted is only the beginning of her journey, and its shimmering promise will surely serve her well. Not one to be constrained by genre labels or boxes, she eyes “maybe sprinkling some grunge or rock” in her work in the future, she muses. “I’m going to let it happen and not think about it too much and feel my way through. I do what feels right.”



 
Paris Jackson on Her Indie-Folk Debut Album, ‘Wilted’: ‘It Just Makes My Heart So Full’

Paris Jackson on Debut Album: 'I Want to Do This the Rest of My Life' - Variety

[FONT=var(--font-family-secondary]The 22-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson, who performs tonight on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," says her debut album made her feel "like I’m exactly where I need to be, and I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing."[/FONT]

3_Credit-Janell-Shirtcliff-e1607045364380.jpg


Janell Shirtcliff


The last time most of us saw Paris Jackson, she was 11 years old and crying. Taking the stage at Staples Center in June 2009 at her father’s star-studded memorial service, her famous aunts and uncles told her to speak up as she nervously said: “Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine — and I just want to say I love him so much.”
But Jackson, now 22, has been busy forging her own path as a model and actor in the decade since. She’s had parts in the Fox series “Star” and the David Oyelowo action-comedy “Gringo.” She has 3.6 million followers on Instagram, but the microscope of celebrity has also magnified her bouts with depression and drug use. It’s hard to live normally or emerge from the shadow of Michael Jackson. But Paris Jackson has now followed her father’s footsteps into music, and her debut album “Wilted” is full of pain, heartache and meditations on mortality.

It’s a record in a surprisingly earthy, indie-folk vein, made in collaboration with singer-songwriter Andy Hull and engineer Robert McDowell of Manchester Orchestra, one of Jackson’s favorite bands. It owes stylistic debts to that group and her other musical heroes, including Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. If her father haunts the album in any way, it’s in Ms. Jackson’s pure-tone, angelic but full-bodied voice. Like her father, she’s not a multi-instrumentalist or trained composer, but she thinks like a producer, humming the different instrumental parts she hears in her head. :cool:

Jackson’s media team made it clear that “Dad” was a strictly verboten topic of discussion, so any deeper connections will have to be inferred. Variety spoke to her on the eve of Thanksgiving, a holiday she doesn’t celebrate. “I think it’s good to be thankful every day, you know?” she says. She appears tonight on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” making her late-night TV performance debut.
Why now? Are these songs you’ve been storing up for years?

No, I wrote them all this year, starting in January, all the way till about June or July. I don’t know, I just wanted to get in a studio and record, and it kind of worked out the way it did. The guys that I worked with, my heroes, just so happened to be free and available to record with me.
Was the pandemic an unexpected upside in any way?

Yes, in the sense that Andy and Rob were available to record with me. Usually they’re on tour. Andy’s got a couple other side projects—aside from Manchester Orchestra, he’s also in Bad Books and he does Right Away, Great Captain! He produces for other people as well, so he’s normally a really busy guy.
There has been a silver lining of actually getting a hold of people who are normally so busy.

Yeah. And the first half of the year, the film and fashion industry were pretty much completely shut down, so I wasn’t working as much.
Did COVID factor into your writing at all?

Not really so much in the writing, but it definitely gave me more free time.
How long have you been writing songs prior to this?

Maybe a little less than 10 years, I think.
But this felt like the right time to make your debut with a record?

Yeah, I guess. It really just worked out the way it did. The album was just ready, so we were just like: okay, let’s release it.
Did you see the album as having a concept or a story to it?

No, at first I didn’t, because I wrote all the songs as I was going through just life. Then when it came time to actually get in the studio and start recording demos, it was a matter of: Okay, well, out of all the songs I’ve written this year, which ones am I going to choose to record? And as I was writing down which songs I wanted to record, it started to seem a little bit like a concept record. So I was like, Okay, I’m going to intentionally make this, you know, a story. It’s my experience with love and betrayal and heartbreak. And, in that sense, it is autobiographical. But I feel like it’s also written in a way that can be all-encompassing, because everybody experiences that in some form or another, you know?
Do you write your songs on a particular instrument?

Guitar. That’s the only one I know well enough to be able to write on. I’m kind of slowly picking up piano here and there, but I don’t know it well enough to be able to write on the piano.
So you went to Andy with a batch of demos. What kind of form were they in?

I had gone into a studio out here with an engineer, and recorded just very basic ideas of what I wanted to do with the songs. I had guitar and vocals. And for “Another Spring,” for example, I didn’t have a banjo, so we took the guitar, I did some plucking, and then we tuned it up using autotune, and added filters over it to make it sound like a banjo. We used sample percussion to get the ideal sound that I was trying to go for, and then we used a synthesizer to get the cello sounds that I wanted. I would just sing to the engineer what I heard and what I wanted, and he would play it on the synthesizer. So they were just like really standard demos. But Andy said that normally when he works with someone new, they just come with like a voice memo from their phone. So he said it was really helpful that I had basically full songs. … Some songs, as I’m just playing it on guitar after it’s been written, I’ll hear what I want the bass to sound like, and if I want there to be electric guitar. I’ve been told I have the producer brain, so I definitely hear the song before it’s made.
What was the stamp you felt Andy could give these songs?

I am obsessed with his music. Honestly, he can do no wrong in my eyes. So when I brought the songs to him, I was just like, “Whatever you want to do with these songs, let’s do it.” There were some songs where he was like, “I don’t want to change anything at all.” And then there were some songs where he’s like, “All right, well, let’s work on the lyrics,” or “let’s improve this in some way.” Or he’ll just totally take the producer standpoint and enhance the sound. And then, like “Eyelids” for example, he totally wrote his own verse, and we worked on the harmonies together. But I trust his instincts. We connected in a really cool artist way. Most of the time, if someone tries to tell me to change something, depending on the person, it can feel like they’re not respecting my art, you know? But with Andy, there was so much trust there that I was very open-minded to what he had to say.
Did you envision a certain palette of sound, or a genre of music you wanted the songs to end up in?

I knew I wanted “Undone” to be more upbeat, a little bit more on the rock side. I knew I wanted “Scorpio Rising” and “Wilted” to be the weirder ones on the record. I wanted to really experiment with textures and just weird sounds, and I really wanted to make the listener feel uncomfortable in a comforting way. I believe that art is supposed to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. I wanted to try and capture the feelings that I get when I listen to certain Radiohead songs, and howI’ve seen some people react where it just makes them uncomfortable and uneasy, but it feels so comforting to me. I knew I wanted “Another Spring” to just be like super folky. And then there were just some other ones where I’m like, “Yeah, I just want it to be a mashup of Radiohead and Manchester Orchestra, so, I trust you, Andy. Do your thing.”
Manchester Orchestra. Radiohead. What other kind of music do you gravitate to? Which artists speak most to you?

Honestly, I have so, so, so many influences. But for specifics, “Undone” was very heavily influenced by the band Grandaddy, and the lead singer Jason Lytle and his music. “Another Spring” was very influenced by Caamp and the Lumineers.
What adjectives would you use for what this record is?

Mmm… just a good starting point. Because I want to keep growing. I want to keep expanding. I want to keep experimenting. I want to try as many things as I can, while staying true to myself and what I think sounds and feels right. I mean, just for the sake of naming a genre, I’d say it’s more alternative folk, but I don’t plan on staying with just that. I’m definitely going to keep some of those elements, but I really, really want to expand, and just try everything out.
Talk about the little touches and textures on the album, like the glass jangling or whatever that sound is on “Repair.”

That was a really fun one to record. That one was very heavily influenced by Cage the Elephant — and Radiohead, of course. The sound that you’re thinking of, the percussion, was actually a box filled with tambourines and shakers and little percussion thingies, and we just shook the whole box in front of a mic. It was really fun.
I was also really struck by the quality of your voice. I hadn’t heard you sing before. Who would you say are some of the inspirations for you as a singer?

I guess Thom Yorke, for sure. And Andy. I don’t know. I mean, I grew up hearing my dad’s voice all the time, so I imagine that’s definitely got to have an influence on me, subconsciously — and just picking up things here and there because that was my childhood. I think all the music that I listen to, in some way, just influenced my sound.
Your singing voice feels very unaffected. It doesn’t have a put-on to it. A lot of popular singers do a voice, and yours is a little bit more pure.

First of all, thank you — I appreciate that. That is definitely my intention, is to be as honest as possible with my music, and to just be myself. But I definitely, in the future… I’m starting to try out different sounds with my voice, and see how far I can go before it starts sounding bad and weird. When I’m by myself in my car, I’m trying out different voices to see what sounds right. Up until this point, I’ve just been 100 percent myself, and just singing how I sing. But I’m trying more raspy stuff, and just trying to see what my voice can do, and really explore.
You mentioned Thom Yorke, who goes up into falsetto a lot. There’s something very vulnerable about that — especially for a man, I guess — but something kind of pure and vulnerable about his voice.

Oh man, he’s so incredible. If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out “In Rainbows – From the Basement,” which they released earlier this year, he does exactly what you’re talking about. It’s kind of like a wailing. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.
Tell me if I’m wrong on this, but your video for “Let Down” reminds me of the ball sequence in the movie Labyrinth. Was that inspirational at all?

That’s a massive compliment. You’re talking about the Bowie movie, right? That’s awesome. I could totally see how that would be influential for me. I do love that film. The influence for that was mainly just a collaboration with me and [director Meredith Alloway]. Meredith just wanted to take a more Victorian approach, based off of what I described. We both love “Penny Dreadful,” we both love gore, we both love Alexander McQueen. The waltz itself, as a female, you have to be very trusting to your partner. You have to really trust them when they’re leading you, and dipping you, and doing all the things that you do in a waltz. And if you are going to hurt someone, it is when they’re going to be most vulnerable, and you trust your partner the most when you let them dip you. So it’s the perfect time to rip someone’s heart out, when they are 100 percent belly exposed. And I love gore. So that was mainly the approach that I wanted to take. I talked to Meredith about it, and she had this beautiful — without even hearing the song “Wilted” — she was just like, “Oh, decay,” and started talking about decaying fruit. I’m like, that is exactly what I’m going for.
I was struck by some of the imagery in your lyrics, like “bugs may eat my flesh,” but I guess if you’re into gore, that makes sense.

Mm-hmm.
Were you planning to do live concerts to promote this if there hadn’t been a pandemic?

Yeah, I mean, I love performing. There are so many different cool parts about being a musician, and performing is one of them. As soon as I’m allowed to, as soon as it’s not problematic, I’ll definitely be hitting the stage.
You say this is a good start. What’s a career dream you have?

To do this for the rest of my life. I’ll share this moment with you. I think it was maybe day two or three in the studio in Georgia, at Andy and Rob’s place. And we recorded the basics for, I think it was “Freight Train” that we were working on. “Freight Train” was one of the more vulnerable songs of mine. I was sitting in the computer room with Rob and Jamie [Martens], and this was just a few days before Dan [Hannon] came on board. Andy went into the vocal booth to do the harmonies and the backup vocals, and for that they turned my voice down so we could hear what he was doing. And to just hear my hero singing my lyrics… it brought tears to my eyes. I just remember thinking, Damn, I want to do this for the rest of my life.
“This,” meaning make music?

Yes. Connect with other artists like this, and to create like this. It just makes my heart so full. It’s that feeling like I’m exactly where I need to be, and I’m doing exactly what I need to be doing. It’s hard to explain, but it’s incredible.




 
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I remember Michael used to ”sing a guitarr solo” for example the way he wanted it to sound like and she seems to do something similar according to the interview.
 
"I believe that art is supposed to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."

A very deep thought from Paris.
 
i kind of agree with her statement. every art is different to everyone because everyone has different taste and emotions to different things.
 
Horribly average and boring, every single song.
Let's face it, if this weren't the daughter of Michael Jackson, you wouldn't listen to any of that.
And every other comment on YT is like "Your dad would be so proud".
So it's not about her, it's about Michael.
 
Don't Typecast Paris Jackson

by Ilana Kaplan

[FONT=&amp]

[/FONT]
Paris Jackson on Her Debut Indie Folk Album "Wilted" - PAPER (papermag.com)

[FONT=&amp]Even when she wasn't in the center of the spotlight, Paris Jackson was always near it. For the past decade, she has paved her own lane as a model and actress. She's starred on-screen in the TV series Star and crime comedy Gringo and has accumulated more than 3.6 million Instagram followers along the way. And as the daughter of pop icon Michael Jackson, a music career was never far out of sight.

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[FONT=&amp]In November, the 22-year-old shared her debut solo album Wilted — an album mined from heartache and meditations on pain. "It's mainly just a story of heartbreak and love, in general, and the thoughts and feelings that come after it doesn't work out," Jackson says over the phone. She might technically be following in her father's footsteps, but Wilted is not an album full of R&B-tinged pop anthems. Instead, it's evocative indie-folk that she made in collaboration with Manchester Orchestra's singer-songwriter Andy Hull and engineer Robert McDowell.
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[FONT=&amp]From her publicist's house in California, Paris spoke to PAPER about working with Manchester Orchestra, the influence of her father and her career aspirations.
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[FONT=&amp]What prompted you to make your new record?
[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]Pain [laughs]. No, I'm always creating and making music, and it just happened the way it did with Wilted. I just had been writing all year-round, and then finally when it came to getting into the studio to record some demos, I already had enough for an album. I [was] just picking the ones that would tell a congruent story the way I wanted it to. It was kind of a situation with the stars just aligned.


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[FONT=&amp]When did you start writing, and when did you realize it would become Wilted?
[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp]The first song that I wrote for the record, I wrote around January 2020. And then just throughout the next six months of 2020, I just was writing and writing as I was going through life, and the songs basically wrote themselves. Then around that summer I found a solid engineer to get the demos recorded and I didn't realize it was going to be a concept record until a few nights before I was set to go into the studio. I ended up picking the 11 songs that are on the record. Well, 12, and one didn't make it on the record.


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[FONT=&amp]Were people surprised by how rooted in indie-folk your project was?
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[FONT=&amp]I don't know. I haven't really read many reviews, so I would assume so. I'm sure half of the people that heard it were surprised, and the other half weren't surprised. I don't really know. When I create things, I do it because I love creating it, and then I just release it — metaphorically and literally— and let the universe take care of the rest. It's not really up to me how people receive it.


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[FONT=&amp]What is the story you were trying to tell and the themes that you're trying to evoke with the 11 songs?
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[FONT=&amp]It's a story of heartbreak and betrayal. While it is autobiographical considering it came from my pen and my guitar, I feel like it's written in a way that's vague in a sense that anyone can relate to it because the themes are pretty all-inclusive. The emotions that I went through that I wrote in that music are not specific to just me and my experience.


You released an EP last year as The Soundflowers with your ex-boyfriend Gabriel Glenn. How did that project influence your solo work?

I've been lucky enough to experience what it's like to create with a bunch of artists in my life, because obviously I come from a musical background. I've had a lot of musicians in my life, whether it was being around the studio when my father was recording and being able to see that kind of mastery and genius up-close-and-personal, singing backup vocals for Butch Walker on his operetta or being able to jam with some of my cousins. So any kind of creativity that I've experienced with another musician, that's always going to somehow influence my writing. I try and learn as much as I possibly can from as many musicians as I can and take what resonates and leave the rest.



Was making Wilted something that helped your mental health?

I feel like it helps me in the sense that anyone's outlet that they choose helps. I've got some friends that find a lot of therapy in painting, so they do that. I find a lot of therapy through music, and it's a healing process to be able to create. It's just like any outlet… it just works best for me.



As you said, you grew up with a very musical background. Who are the artists you've grown up with or collaborated with that have influenced you the most?

The guys from Manchester Orchestra obviously are the first ones to come to mind because it was a full collaboration with Wilted, and that was the greatest experience I've ever had. They're just incredible human beings. On top of the amazing musical connection that we shared, there was a friendship there. They treated me like their little sister, and continued to do so even after the project wrapped. Day-to-day, if I need help with something, I can call them and they're always there. And we've maintained this amazing brother-sister kind of relationship. Butch Walker was an amazing person to work with, as well. I did a song with him where I sang on the credits song ["Running for So Long (House A Home)"] at the end of The Peanut Butter Falcon. And that wasn't the first time we'd worked together, either, I sang backup vocals on a few of his songs that he did for one of his latest albums. There's a few more that I can't list yet because it hasn't been released. Anytime I can get my hands on another creative mind to connect with and walk that path of music together, it's always so much fun spending time with another creative mind that understands. It's a rare connection, and I never take it for granted.



What was your process for working with Andy [Hull] from Manchester Orchestra on the LP?

What's crazy about that is there was really no process. I came to him with a bunch of demos, and some of the songs we kept exactly the same and just added some solid production value. Some of the songs, he added his own stuff to it. [With], "Eyelids," for example, which the music video just came out last week, I wrote my verse and then he completely wrote his whole verse. I had nothing to do with his verse. We worked on the harmonies together, and that was a very effortless, weightless experience. "Dead Sea" was one that we completely rewrote together, where he would write one line of the verse, I'd write another, and we created the melodies together. It was all just energy. Connecting two energies and two nervous systems to create together.


You recently released a video for "Eyelids." Tell me the story behind it.

"Let Down," which came out two or three months ago was very cinematic. I've always been a massive fan of horror and gore, and I was super lucky enough to get Eli Roth to collaborate with us on that. That was an incredible experience, but with "Eyelids," because it's one of the main songs on the record that is stripped, I wanted to focus more on the melody and the lyrics. The song is really just a true description of what heartbreak feels like for me. I'm sure plenty of other people feel the same way — they've had their heart ripped out. With the video, I was the creative director, and I just wanted to keep it very stripped and raw. I used to love doing amateur photography, so I loved playing with lighting.



Obviously your father's been an influence in your life. Were there any songs or records from him that helped inform Wilted?

Because that is so deep-rooted in me, literally from birth, I think that's always going to have an influence and help me create. I grew up listening to the Motown kind of stuff, as well as R&B and soul, but my father also raised us listening to old school jazz, classical music, symphonies, movie soundtracks and old soft rock. We really listened to everything, growing up. So, I feel like that's always going to influence me in some form or another, whether it's a little bit or a lot of it.


At this juncture in your life, what are your career goals?


To be happy, to put food on the table for my dog and my cat and to keep doing what I'm doing, because what I'm doing is making me happy. That's the main thing. I'm definitely going and doing auditions, but it's like, whatever happens, happens. I'd love to continue acting, I'd love to continue modeling. I have a passion for both fashion and film. Music makes me the happiest, that will always be a main focus of mine, but I love doing anything creative, anything artistic. I don't have a golden statue in mind. It'd be cool, but it's not my goal.



If you were to do another record, what shape do you think it would take?

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I don't really know, because I haven't thought about it that much. I just like to go with the flow and just see whatever comes to me and let the song create itself. But I'd love to keep doing indie, alternative folk stuff, and then I'd also love to explore other genres. What I can tell you, based on the two latest projects that I'm working on, is they are very, very different from Wilted. That's all I can really say about them, but I definitely don't plan on being typecast into one genre. I want to explore everything.
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Even faster than asking disc shops, check releases on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/Paris-Jackson-Wilted/master/1848420
No CD, no vinyl so far.

Let's face it, if this weren't the daughter of Michael Jackson, you wouldn't listen to any of that.
True... through I was just starting to appreciate it the other day, haven't listened to it whole yet. And most of my "favourite albums" even from artists that I already knew often required time and many listening before I actually got into them... So who knows...
So far, it's a very rough impression, I hear her a bit like a less melody-lacking Billie Eilish, with something of a quieter Alanis Morrissette... (Haven't really paid attention to the lyrics.)

But it's actually a good thing that she's got her own style, 'hope people stop linking her to her father all the time...
 
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Maxym;4319471 said:
Even faster than asking disc shops, check releases on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/Paris-Jackson-Wilted/master/1848420
No CD, no vinyl so far.


True... through I was just starting to appreciate it the other day, haven't listened to it whole yet. And most of my "favourite albums" even from artists that I already knew often required time and many listening before I actually got into them... So who knows...
So far, it's a very rough impression, I hear her a bit like a less melody-lacking Billie Eilish, with something of a quieter Alanis Morrissette... (Haven't really paid attention to the lyrics.)

But it's actually a good thing that she's got her own style, 'hope people stop linking her to her father all the time...
I honestly like the album. At times I have been listening to others Jackson just because they were related to MJ but Paris has her own style and yes I think she is talented. Then as someone who watched her grow up I do make comments like ”your father would be so proud” at times as well which she probably find rather annoying..
 
ARTIST X ARTIST \

Artist x Artist: Paris Jackson and Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull in Conversation

SPIN's latest video series features artists in conversation

SPIN Staff | March 24, 2021 - 5:48 pm

Watch Jackson and Hull crack wise in the Vido link below:
Artist x Artist: Paris Jackson and Andy Hull Talk | SPIN

wilted was released last November and hit No. 1 on iTunes’ Alternative Albums chart. It was a big step forward for Jackson and her first foray into music in this manner. She’s been a public figure for most of her life (for obvious reasons), and her stripped-down indie-folk sound was something few would have expected when wilted dropped.

Our previous episodes of Artist x Artist saw longtime pals Jonah Ray and “Weird Al” Yankovic talk about the latter’s lengthy career in music and Hollywood, and then Sting and Shirazee spoke for the first time after the latter put his own twist on the ex-Police member’s “Englishman in New York,” aptly titled “African in New York.”

 
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