Noah Hill Announces Debut Album 'Ok ok now', Shares New Single 'Bye Baby'

Hot on the heels of his debut solo single 'It's All in My Head', singer-songwriter Noah Hill has announced the release of his first album, Ok ok now, out Friday 7 September via Because Music.

Best known as one-fifth of acclaimed Australian outfit Parcels, Hill has stepped out on his own to make a folk pop album shaped by the last couple of years of his life.

"Having grown up playing folk and acoustic pop music, I started to miss the immediacy and quiet honesty of it, and gradually found my way back to these songs," he says. "When I did, it felt instinctive and right. Over time, it became clear this was the most honest place I could begin as a solo artist. Most of the songs were written over many years, on back porches at home, or in quiet hotel rooms. Some are nearly ten years old, others more recent. Together they trace a period of my life shaped by a first great love and its ending."

At its core, Ok ok now is a breakup record reflecting Hill's memories through non-linear experiences. "I realised mid-way through writing the album that the only songs I could write were about this one relationship. No matter what I tried to write, I realised that in the end, they were always about her."

Hill has also shared the album's second single, 'Bye Baby', an acoustic ballad that offers a glimpse of what to expect from the songwriter's debut. "I’d had these chords for a long time," Hill shares of ‘Bye Baby’. "When it came time to make the record, part of the chorus came to me, and it felt completely in line with what the album was about, but in a way I hadn’t said yet. The song is about a kind of resigned, slightly desperate acceptance that the relationship is over. There’s still a part of him trying to hold on, to convince her to come back, but that slowly turns into frustration as he realises she’s already moving on. It moves between intimacy and distance, hope and then a kind of passive-aggressive resignation. That feeling of, “have it your way… if that’s what you want."

The track is accompanied by a music video by Cai Leplaw, showing two people going through the motions as they go their separate ways.

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After more than a decade as a member of Parcels, the Byron Bay electropop outfit that shared their third long player, Loved, last year, Hill is excited to embark on his own solo adventure.

Taking inspiration from acoustic folk artists like MJ Lenderman and early Bon Iver, Hill's new album is a collection of songs about love, heartbreak and moving on, with the artist performing almost all of the instruments on the record.

Hill is taking the record on tour this year, locking in two special gigs in Sydney and Melbourne next month, before he heads to Europe and North America in September.

'Bye Baby' by Noah Hill is out now. Listen here. Ok ok now drops Friday 7 September via Because Music. Pre-order here.