WILLOW
About this Artist
WILLOW is at the forefront of redefining musical boundaries and setting new standards of innovation and authenticity. WILLOW has established herself as this generation’s eclectic musical trailblazer. Her unique blend of introspective lyrics, ethereal melodies, and powerful collaborations cements her as a boundary-pushing artist, resonating with audiences and leaving an indelible mark on the contemporary music landscape.
At just 23-years-old, WILLOW has built a critically acclaimed discography that evades easy categorization. There’s the neo-soul of her 2015 debut album Ardipithecus, the psychedelic folk of 2019’s WILLOW, and the feverish pop-punk of 2021’s lately I feel EVERYTHING. On 2022’s visceral
<COPINGMECHANISM>, she takes a white-knuckle ride through hard rock, collaborating with experimental punk Yves Tumor and pulling from heavier influences like Deftones. Her sixth full-length album, empathogen, pushes the envelope even further.
Produced by WILLOW, Chris Greatti, and Eddie Benjamin, empathogen is a genre-bending album. Inspired by a meditative mix of jazz, classical and indigenous tribal music, WILLOW leaps into totally fresh territory while retaining the whip-smart sensibilities and ear for melody that makes her music – whatever genre she’s drawing from – so compelling.
Where WILLOW's previous two albums tackled topics like anxiety and paranoia through chunky guitar riffs and rockstar prowess, empathogen, which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Contemporary Jazz Album chart, brings things back to earth. Tactile and transcendent, it sees WILLOW tapping into “ancestral energy” to evoke a sense of mystery. Features from Jon Batiste and St. Vincent drive home the album’s bent towards technical musicianship, while WILLOW’s voice – grown deeper and richer over time – takes center stage. It soars over lead single “symptom of life,” which marries waterfall keys and syncopated rhythms with an indie-pop sensibility. It dances across the crashing percussion and skittering arrangements of “b i g f e e l i n g s.” On “run!” the strength of her voice is in full bloom, as she soulfully belts over a stripped-back rhythm section. On St. Vincent collaboration “pain for fun,” the two women’s powerful voices come together, pulsing with yearning atop a minimal steel guitar riff and 90s trip-hop beat.
In 2011 she released her breakout hit “Whip My Hair” just before her 10th birthday, becoming the youngest ever artist in the United States to have a double platinum single. Her sleeper hit “Wait A Minute” now has over 1B streams and became a sensation on TikTok. Tyler Cole collab “Meet Me At Our Spot” also caught fire on the platform, with the record certified Platinum and Gold in multiple countries and nominated for “Best Rock Song” at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.
By the time most people are barely out of college, WILLOW has been a tween pop sensation, a rock star, an actress, an author with her debut novel BLACK SHIELD MAIDEN published in May 2024, an artist, a fashion icon, and a Daytime Emmy Award-winning talk show host.
On empathogen, WILLOW plays in the spaces between light and dark. Searching for happiness and beauty in an increasingly complex world, it’s an album that embraces tension – light and dark, free-spiritedness and social pressures, playfulness and depth. With soul searching lyrics and her vocals at the helm, WILLOW has created something truer to herself than ever before.