Paramore: “We work so hard to make the show great”

Last night, Paramore stepped up to the plate and completed their first co-headlining set at Reading 2014. Now, as their second closing slot fast approaches with the band currently preparing to take on Leeds, the trio are already bubbling with nerves and excitement.

“It’s amazing that we’re playing with Queens of the Stone Age,” enthuses Hayley Williams, when speaking to DIY ahead of their show yesterday, “that’s pretty cool. There are some pretty cool bands on this bill, and I don’t actually think we fit, but that’s what I like. I like that we are not with our typical sort of bands that we normally play with. That’s nice for us.”

Sandwiched in between Vampire Weekend and Queens of the Stone Age, it’s an eclectic mix that’s not lost on them. “It’s very nice,” adds guitarist Taylor York. “It feels like our perception is starting to change in people’s eyes, and that’s cool.”

Currently fresh from a massive US tour alongside Fall Out Boy - with three dates remaining once their return to the other side of the Atlantic - the band are at the peak of their powers, and with their biggest production set up yet up their sleeves, they’re planning on ending Leeds with a bang.

“We’ve brought a lot of stuff from Monumentour with us - the production, the lighting,” explains bassist Jeremy Davis, “which is bigger than we’ve ever had over here and that’s cool.” “It’s my favourite production that we’ve ever had,” Williams adds, before Davis continues: “It’s awesome. We’ve got a lot of confetti… we have way too much confetti! The people cleaning up are gonna be hating us, like ‘I’m never working another Paramore show!”

“Confetti is our ammo!” laughs Williams. “That’s the mark that we leave in every venue and every city. I know that a lot of bands do it, but every tour, we just try to do it more.” “And now we have so much more than we had on Monumentour!” Davis laughs, “We’ve done more than double, almost triple, for this show because there are so many people so I’m pretty sure it’s going to be snowing.”

As for what they hope to achieve with their sets - apart from a tough clean up job - their intentions simply lie in inviting some new fans to join the family. “Hopefully it’ll be cool,” concludes Williams, “because fans that have never seen us, that are here to just watch bands or that are here for another band in particular, will be surprised. I think that’s my favourite thing about being in this band: we hear a lot of people tell us that we’re better live than we are on CD and that’s the biggest compliment anyone could ever give us, because we work so hard to make the show great. Hopefully we’ll surprise some people and excite them and expand the community and keep it going.”