Cover Feature Paramore: ‘It’s Dumb To Be Pretentious About Music’

For Paramore, the last decade has been far from easy. Born into a world of pop rock and Fueled By Ramen, the Nashville five-piece started their careers young and in the spotlight. From that point on, things only got bigger. In fact, by the time frontwoman Hayley Williams turned 21 they’d already released three albums, two of which went on to be certified platinum across the world.

Having spent the majority of their teenage years on the road, their youth was well documented with reviews, interviews and photoshoots recording their every move. Each step was broadcast across the internet, written about in magazines and shinily packaged on shelves in record stores. Most of the time it was everything they could’ve hoped for, but then – somewhere along the line - it began to unravel.

The thing about Paramore though, is that they’re no strangers to change. They’ve been forced to grow up, and had already lost three members (granted, bassist Jeremy Davis wasn’t gone for long) to the temptation of the ‘real life’ they missed out on. For a while they were able to prevail, but as 2010 drew to a close things looked to be crashing down around them.

What followed was a (probably too) well documented split from guitarist Josh Farro and his drumming brother Zac that publicly tried to undo Williams’ constant reassurance that ‘Paramore is a band’, not a vehicle for her own ambitions. Rather than strike them down, it made them stronger, granting the freedom to start afresh. The result; one of the finest albums of this year.

“With every record you know that there has to be a shift,” guitarist Taylor York begins. Having been friends with the band for years – he actually bears writing credits for debut cut ‘Conspiracy’ – he finally joined the line-up as an additional guitarist in 2007. It wasn’t until now though that the process became more collaborative. “There has to be a change and a progression, and especially in our situation, we couldn’t replicate what we’d done in the past. In a lot of ways, we were forced into new territory.

“At first, we were definitely reluctant to do that. We saw success from the kind of style that we had always done, but we realised that we had to push the limits and explore some other sides. That was really scary but also really freeing. We were writing songs that we really believed in. It was a terrifying and liberating experience all at the same time.”

See the full DIY covershoot gallery with Paramore. Photo: Mike Massaro / DIY

Throwing out the rulebook, the band - now a three piece - started work with Beck bassist and M83 producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who encouraged them to try new things. Abandoning their more traditional structure, and following a serious bout of writer’s block, Williams finally found the confidence to do just that, and gained comfort in embracing writing music that she, y’know, liked.

“With ‘Still Into You’, I scared myself when we were writing and I came up with the melody and the lyrics for the chorus,” she laughs. ‘We were writing songs that we really believed in.’“The verse didn’t scare me; the verse excited me. It was bouncy enough that it kinda sounded a bit new wave, but it was still poppy and catchy, but the chorus… I was like, ‘This is really straightforward for a Paramore song. That’s really poppy!’ And Taylor was like, ‘Well, do you like it?’ ‘I love it.’ That was it. That’s where you stop worrying about it. You don’t question it. Once that happened one or two times, I realised, yeah I’m questioning this when I shouldn’t be. I think that was part of our growing up.

“Over the last few years, it was about realising we love what we love. Yeah, I grew up with N*Sync and Britney Spears, and I don’t really care! I still ended up in a band that I think is rad. All those things just made me this unique person, the only person I can be. And the things that Jeremy listened to - he grew up listening to a lot of hip hop - but I don’t think either one of us grew up listening to punk rock. No one is in the womb listening to Black Flag. I think we get older and we realise that; ‘Oh, okay, it’s dumb to be pretentious about music.’ You just like what you like, and if you love it, who cares?”

That’s something echoed by York: when able to finally accept what they were influenced by, they were able to use it to broaden their own horizons. “It was weird to finish a song and think, ‘That’s really poppy. It’s funky and Jeremy’s playing slap bass, but we love it’. At the end of the day, all we can do is write songs that we believe in. When we’re on stage, people either believe it or they don’t, so we had to make something that we could stand behind. That was really refreshing, and I think we all gained a lot more confidence knowing that we could do other things. We could draw on influences that we’ve always had, but never been able to really show people.”

With such a dramatic shift in the mechanics of the group, there were always worries that things wouldn’t quite be the same in the studio. But that wasn’t all they had to contend with; going through a break up is difficult, and for the first time in their careers, they decided they needed to slow down. “The time we spent off was more for our sanity,” offers Williams. After the news broke in late 2010, the band headed home. It was then almost a year until they began work on their self-titled effort. “I mean, it was hard. You had to be with yourself for the first time.”

“We had to learn how to be normal people,” adds bassist Jeremy Davis, “to hang out with ourselves and be okay with who we are. That’s something that we all really needed at the time. We’re moving constantly and to slow it down was pretty important.” “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” confirms York, “and felt pressure from the outside too. It’s weird, we needed time off, but at the same time, you start thinking about your career. ‘We’re taking too much time off. Are people gonna forget about us?’”

It was this distance that sparked a realisation in Williams, about her own growth over the past few years. “I know that we’re not ‘older’ older, but we’re not 16, 17, 18 anymore. I have an 18 year old sister and I feel like she’s really coming in to who she is as a person, and starting to realise what she wants out of life. I’m thinking about me at 18. We had ‘Riot!’ which was a successful record, but when I think back on who I was at 18, I don’t think I had a clue what I wanted, or the things that I really cared about, as much as even some 18, 19 year old kid that’s just graduating high school and going into the real world for the first time.

“I think that sometimes being out here can be such a bubble, and it popped. When we were home, it was like, ‘Well… I don’t know what I’m gonna do with this…’, but we needed it. It was important. We spent enough time before we started making the record that we got to live at home and be normal, but also work really hard. It sort of felt like we were making our first record all over again.”

Their time away from life on the road was a blessing in disguise. While their previous musical efforts have been rooted in what can sometimes be the monotonous rigmarole of touring, ‘Paramore’ stands as an album that Williams claims is about just ‘living’. “It’s hard to tour! I mean, it’s fun, but as a kid, growing up and wanting to be in a band, the only reason I wanted to be in a band, even beyond making music, was hanging out with my friends all of the time. You don’t think about the boring, in-between moments. It gets tough.

“We wrote a whole album about what it’s like to be in a band, tour the world and freak out on each other. That record’s called ‘Brand New Eyes’ and you can buy that in the store. But it’s in our past. I don’t want to make a ‘Brand New Eyes: Part 2’. I don’t ever want to be that band again. ‘We had to learn how to be normal people.’

The record that we made this time is about living. Anyone can relate to that: you don’t have to be in a band, you just have to have a pulse to understand it. I think going home, waking up and trying to redefine your purpose in life, that’s what everyone is doing every single day. Growing up, letting go of things that hurt, and letting go of some things that don’t hurt, but you know that you just gotta let go of them. That’s the stuff I want to write about forever.”

Regardless of new musical directions, a line-up change, or rifts with ex-members, the band’s fourth record has undoubtedly been their most successful yet, landing straight in the Number 1 slot across album charts all over the world, bringing a whole new fanbase with it.

“That’s always something that we’ve wanted: to have a more diverse audience,” confirms Davis, “We want everyone at the show to be having a blast, have good music to listen to and make friends in line. I feel like our fans are like that, but there’s a new side. A more diverse audience, older people - literally people from everywhere - that are coming to these shows and I think it’s really cool. A lot of times when that happens, the old fans go, but our fans aren’t really like that. They’re opening their arms to bring them in. Maybe with part of this new record - if they’re not into our old records - there’s a bit of everything for everyone. I think that’s what we try to bring.”

Regardless of the hardships, growth and change in their own lives, one thing has been clear to the band. If their entire journey up until now has taught them anything, it’s the importance of their fans. Hayley spent the majority of their early career scrawling the words ‘Paramore is a band’ across the front of her shirts. When the trio were left to pick up the pieces in the wake of the Farro’s departure, she went further with a new motto of ‘Paramore is still a band’. It’s not just that, though. After all of this, they’re so much more.

“We’re really proud of that,” begins Williams. “I think it’s the weirdest thing to go back and think about. Obviously, we started touring in the States. I remember the first time we went to California, it was such a huge deal. We drove all the way from Tennessee to San Diego or somewhere. Those same people that were at that show, they still come. I talk to them on email now. They’re close to us because we wouldn’t be where we are if they hadn’t bought a ticket to that first show.

“I think about that all the time. We were in Manchester and I saw this picture from the very back of the room - this huge arena - and the people look like ants in this photo! The stage looks even smaller! Then, I was thinking that the first time we played Manchester, this girl named Ellen, she was in the front row in some tiny room, yelling, ‘Heeeeeyyyyy! I work at HMV!’ ‘Right now, there’s more of a purpose than ever.’She was yelling at me, trying to get my attention and I was like, ‘What?!’ So, she was like, ‘I work at HMV and I tell people to buy your record every day.’ I talked to her after the show and for the next three years, every time we were in town, she would take us out to like, Afflecks, or somewhere just to shop and eat. So, when we were in Manchester, I wondered where Ellen was. After all the time we took off, I haven’t heard from her or seen her, but we don’t forget those people.”

Even after all the hardships and hurt, Paramore fans have stuck around, and together they put the broken pieces back together. Why? Because they’re all Paramore. “That’s something that,” interjects York, “even on this tour, I think all of us have just been reminded of. This isn’t even about us. So often, just the way that the culture works - you do interviews and photoshoots and stuff - we’re tricked into thinking that this is about us, but it’s been really cool to be reminded that this is about our fans. This is about other people. This is about a connection that our music has with people, that it can speak to them in some sort of way. Whether it’s through our record, or at the show. Our fans honestly mean more to us now. They’ve always meant a lot to us, but as we’re getting older, we’re starting to see the bigger picture more. It’s so fun to play music with your friends, but right now, we feel like there’s more of a purpose than ever.”

Paramore’s self-titled new album is out now via Fueled By Ramen / Atlantic.