Will Paquin is adjusting his sound for the stage

Back in 2020, Will Paquin made his streaming debut with “Chandelier ”, the glitch-pop tune that quickly went viral. But after years of sporadic singles, Paquin is gearing up to release his very first full-length album, Hahaha on September 12th. Unlike the meticulously recorded, quieter songs fans of Paquin might recognize, Hahaha is raw, loud, chaotic and evocative. His first time recording a project with a full band, Paquin delivered most songs in a single take—breathing life into the record and setting it up for success on the stage.

We had the chance to sit down and chat with Will about the process of making this record, some of the different bands that inspired the record, and what he’s looking forward to about his upcoming US tour. Read our conversation below and make sure to follow Will on Shelf for real-time updates into his latest music fixations (spoiler alert, expect lots of Can).

ShelfMAG:   First off, congrats on your first debut album. It’s sick—it’s fun and it’s energetic. I know you started releasing music during COVID….I feel like there’s been this shift from solitude to a more shared energy. What has that transition been like and what was your intention there?

@willpaquin: I feel like the album is a lot for myself, but I had an audience in mind when I made it because I wrote a lot of the songs when I was on tour. I was on my first full length, multi-month tour when I was finishing up these songs and getting the idea for the album. I was playing live and I was playing all these songs I'd written before that were very introspective and almost introverted. They're hard to perform.

I was actually getting frustrated with it because I felt like I wasn't in the moment when I was playing and I wanted songs that I could play live and just have a ton of fun playing them. That was the main thing that I wanted with this album—just to have a lot of fun recording it. I had a lot of fun writing it. It's pretty goofy at times. I was trying to take things a little less seriously than I took them before, because when you take things really seriously, it can kind of slow you down.

ShelfMAG: Is there a specific song or a specific venue/audience you're most excited to play?

@willpaquin: I'm most excited to play it in Boston because that is my hometown, and I've never actually played there as a headliner. I used to play basement shows and shows in my apartments when I was in college, but I've never truly been an artist performing there, so that's gonna be really sick. My mom's gonna be there and maybe my grandma, if we can get her out.

ShelfMAG: Are there any artists whose live performances inspired the sound for Hahaha as a project or anyone you're subconsciously channeling?

@willpaquin: Yeah, definitely. I spend most of my days on YouTube watching old performances of bands. This didn't really come across on the album at all, but I was listening to a ton of Fugazi and I would play performances from 1991 and just watch them go crazy. I was listening to a lot of Fugazi back then. What else was I listening to? There's Geordie Greep. He had a new album that I was listening to that maybe had some sort of inspiration.

I was just listening to a lot more band-oriented music. This band Can—I've been obsessed with for a long time and they've just kind of stuck with me for a while.

ShelfMAG: Will I be seeing that on your shelf in the near future?

@willpaquin: For sure. It's actually bad—I need to stop actually. This is really embarrassing because you're also gonna see a Can biography on my Shelf that I just started as well. It was a birthday gift. It's gonna be aligned— maybe a Can documentary. I'm just gonna be completely engrossed in Can.

ShelfMAG: For fans who've been around since “Chandelier”, what about the new record do you think is gonna surprise them the most?

@willpaquin: Probably my voice. I kind of let loose on this album and I feel like beforehand I was really adamant about having my voice sound perfect. My previous music, I was shooting for perfection in a way, and on this album we literally did a single take all the way through. That's what you're gonna hear. And I feel like it’s more true to me. The emotions are more adamant to me. This is my first time really making music with a band. All the songs are live takes pretty much, so that's a whole new process. Usually I just do everything myself.

ShelfMAG: And is the band that you recorded with the same one you're touring with?

@willpaquin: Yeah, Abby and Seb, bass and drums. They're killing it. I'm about to meet up with them to rehearse for this next tour. I'm really excited. They've got some eclectic tastes. They definitely inspire me.

ShelfMAG: If you could stalk any person's Shelf, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

@willpaquin: I was just thinking about this. Maybe Bob Dylan or John Lennon or something. Like someone kind of basic like that. Any of The Beatles, I just look at them with such awe. And I've just spent my whole life looking up to them. I took a class about Bob Dylan that was cool and it kind of gave me an entrance into his mind a little bit, but only to an extent. It would be nice to really know what they're reading especially, and what they were listening to. It was just so different back then.

ShelfMAG: Are you one of those people who feels like they were born in the wrong decade?

@willpaquin: I don't want to group myself in with those people, because that's just so annoying, but low key yeah. Even though I don't want to admit it to myself.

ShelfMAG: If you're looking at someone's Shelf, what would you consider a red flag

@willpaquin: Maybe no books. I haven't put any books on my Shelf yet, but I feel like I can't feel creative unless I'm reading something. I just started a book, but I've had a huge dry spell of reading for the past few weeks. I finished a book and then didn't start a new one, and I didn't do anything creative that entire time. I like to read fiction. I've got a big ass list of books that I've been kind of bad at getting to this year because I've been on tour, and then I was like recording. I wish I could just read. If I could do anything for the rest of my life and just not a single other thing, I would just be reading. Just gives me a lot of joy and happiness.

ShelfMAG: On that note, I feel like I could probably assume what you would consider a green flag if you saw on someone's Shelf.

@willpaquin: Yeah, definitely. I'm definitely pro book these days.

ShelfMAG: What item on your shelf is most likely to stay there forever?

@willpaquin: Wow. Probably The Beatles. The Beatles were my number one. They were my day one band that really got me. I have waves of music. When I was 10, I had this big wave of music that was really influential and is still influential. And then I had another wave when I was 13. And then another wave when I was like 18. And there's specific years where I got introduced to a whole new world of music. And The Beatles was when I was 10 or 11. I became obsessed with The Beatles. I feel like a common introduction to music for kids is The Beatles. But they just opened up a whole world to me, and they're still so mystified. I don't think I'll ever get sick of it. I just ran the entire discography of The Beatles a few weeks ago. I do it every once in a while, like, every few years, but I just never get sick of it.

ShelfMAG: Any song or album in particular that you resonate with more than the others?

@willpaquin: The White Album, I'd say, because it's kind of a nonsensical album in its own way. But it's nonsensical in the way that a kid can just create his own world to it because it's so free-form. It's not concrete, and I feel like that's why it's such great music for children. It allows them to be creative with it. I took that album with me throughout my whole life, and when I listen to it, I still think back to when I was a kid and the world that I created with that album.

ShelfMAG: I think that link to childhood with The Beatles is so true. I think I always feel 12 when I hear “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” or “Eleanor Rigby”.

@willpaquin: It's like Mozart. Babies need to listen to Mozart, and they need to listen to The Beatles.

Curious about what else Will is into? Get real-time updates at shelf.im/willpaquin