Hayley Williams and David Byrne have released their latest collaboration – listen to ‘Open The Door’ below.
The two artists have become closely linked in recent months, with the Paramore singer appearing on the former Talking Heads frontman’s new solo album ‘Who Is The Sky?’ on the track ‘What Is The Reason For It?’, and Paramore covering ‘Burning Down The House’ for the 40th anniversary reissue of Stop Making Sense last year.
Byrne also covered Paramore’s 2017 track ‘Hard Times’ for Record Store Day 2024, and at a show in New York’s Radio City Music Hall on Friday (October 10), Williams joined Byrne for duets of both songs, both of which you can watch here.
Now, the two singers have shared the song they have recorded together for the upcoming animated film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits. ‘Open The Door’ is one of three tracks Byrne has written and produced for the Netflix project, and they shared the playful, tuneful song this week – listen below.
“This was a fun project,” Byrne has said. “Like other Roald Dahl books, this one has its share of dreadful characters. When I was approached to write some songs for this movie, I immediately said ‘Let me give it a try and see if you like what I come up with’. Phil [Johnston, writer, producer and director] was wonderfully clear what each song needed to express and what the character was feeling at that moment.”
“I reached out to Hayley Williams to collaborate on the end credits song and we both agreed that it should serve to remind us that there is heart and connection in the story after all the unpleasantness depicted by Mr. and Mrs. Twit. Hayley was inspired by Beesha’s story and came up with some lyric ideas, and I set them to tune and boom.”
Williams added, “Being a part of this movie is like one pinch-me moment after another. My favourite Roald Dahl book growing up was The Twits. I’m drawn to learning about twisted characters like Mr. and Mrs. Twit and The Wormwoods from Matilda.
“It feels like a cautionary tale – and also a really lovely depiction of chosen family and community, which is one of my favourite topics. I owe David Byrne for pulling me into the music for this. It was so fun and so surreal starting a song from scratch with him.”
Mr and Mrs Twits will be voiced by Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale, and others in the cast include Emilia Clarke (Pippa), Natalie Portman (Mary Muggle Wump), Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Beesha), Ryan Lopez (Bubsy), and Timothy Simons (Marty Muggle-Wump).
The Twits will debut on Netflix on Friday (October 17).
Byrne’s current worldwide tour in support of ‘Who Is The Sky?’ kicked off in September and will reach the UK in March 2026. Any remaining US tickets can be purchased here, and UK tickets here, and all dates can be viewed here.
As for Williams, she released her solo album ‘Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party’ digitally in August, with a physical release coming in November (pre-order here).
NME gave the record a glowing five-star review, writing: “As with almost every era of Hayley Williams’ career, this new release has come with questions about the future of Paramore. The determined lyrics on the tender ‘I Won’t Quit On You’ should be all the reassurance worried fans need, but if that’s not enough, there’s plenty in this brilliant, swaggering new chapter to be excited about. These songs might be about missed second chances, but Williams is certainly making the most of hers.”
