Editorial Design on Paramore

JUICE SINGAPORE

may 2017 issue #400

www.juice.com.sg

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PARAMORE “I’VE WANTED TO QUIT THIS BAND SO MANY TIMES”

old faces, new sound issue

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COVER FEATURE: TIME FOR MOVING ON

By Sarah Jamieson | 28th April 2017

PARAMORE

There have always been arrows flying at Paramore, but over the past two years, the band found themselves faced with their worst period of uncertainty. Now they’ve reached the other side.

Music to get you thru hard times Over the last fifteen years, Paramore have come up against their fair share of hurdles. That much is no secret; with each of their past four albums, the group have been forced to face new challenges, and stare into new unknowns. It was with their previous, self-titled fulllength, though, that it was all set to change: they had finally cast off their demons and stepped into a new light.

Or had they?

Back in 2013 when the band released their fourth album, the pieces felt as though they’d finally fallen into place.

With ‘Paramore’, they threw out the creative rulebook and offered up a seventeen-track record brimming with ambition and energy. Packing in more musical styles than you can

shake a stick at, the trio found themselves deviating from the punk-pop sound they’d mastered previously, choosing instead to stack the album with pop hooks, funky rhythms and a gospel choir for good measure. It was bold, it was brave and above all, it gave the group a new lease of life.

It wasn’t set to last. As the band drew their ‘Paramore’ chapter to a close with a final run of intimate US shows and a second Parahoy! cruise scheduled for early 2016, things soon went very quiet.

By the end of 2015, a message from the band broke the news that bassist Jeremy Davis had departed in what they called a “painful” split, the reasons for which still remain a private matter. It was then the remaining two members – Hayley Williams and Taylor York – were faced with another big decision to make. They chose to, once again, pick themselves up and continue.

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Almost eighteen months later, the three current members of Paramore – Williams and York are re-joined by original drummer Zac Farro – are sat together in the corner of a lofty Nashville photo studio.

It’s a Friday afternoon and the trio are in the middle of planning a trip to see Radiohead in Atlanta this weekend. I t’s also just a little over a month until their fifth album ‘After Laughter’ will be released and, as of the time of writing, only a handful of people in the world have any idea what’s coming.

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“It’s weird,” ponders Hayley, on how it feels to be five albums deep and over ten years into their career. “I still feel like we’re really green, especially with this record. It felt like there were so many new things to try and so many ew feelings about life you’re finally all the way over the hump of being able to deny that you’re an adult now. Yeah, this was a crazy record to make.” Unsurprisingly, the sense of anticipation surrounding the band’s next move has been palpable.In March 2016, the then-duo of Hayley and Taylor set sail on their second Parahoy! but fans remained uncertain of what would come next. And while their performances on board - their first after Jeremy’s departure - were raught with emotion and honesty, with wounds still open, the four-day cruise would go on to be much more significant than they’d anticipated. “I’ve never really wanted to cry on a cruise…” Hayley laughs, looking back at the rather emotional experience. “ That wasn’t a selling point for certain!”

It did, however, provide some much needed catharsis for the then-two members. “Taylor and I talked about that right after it happened. It was really tough, and a lot had changed.

All of a sudden, I felt very naked up there. “Parahoy!’s supposed to be this fun thing; it’s meant to be a place where we all leave the world behind and we do our own thing, connect over music, play games and none of it matters, because who even knows how to find us? It’s this really beautiful community and feeling, yet I was really sad.

There was this - I dunno - cloud that felt like it wouldn’t get off our backs for a moment there. “Then we did this meet and greet that was about three hours long,” she explains. “People were coming up and looking us very deeply in the eyes and genuinely telling us

things like, ‘Oh man, we’re so proud of you guys or ‘We’re so happy we get to be a part of this music’. These really incredibly genuine sentiments. There are always these really nice reminders with Paramore that it’s not just about us. I think that’s why we’ve been able to survive all of this shit: because it’s not really about us. When you’re looking into people’s eyes and you know they’re going through something probably worse than you, it just gives you a fresh perspective.

We came home from that with a little bit of extra energy to get going with writing again. It was a good thing.”

“If we’re all faking it or being phoney, when do we ever get to connect?”

Hayley Williams

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By the time June rolled around, the band who had invited Farro back into the fold by this point – were gearing up to head into the studio. “I mean, I never feel prepared, but I was scared,” confirms Taylor, on how they were feeling in the lead up. “I did feel like we had all the pieces, but it’s always a bit terrifying.”

After the ambition of their previous full-length, the bar was set high, and that sentiment wasn’t lost on them. “Music is one of the only mediums of art where you do something and that is what you exist with for years.”

An artist can create a piece and move on, a director finishes a film then continues with their next project.

“For us,” Taylor continues, “we make a record and we live it. There’s a lot of pressure from both outside and within, because you want it to be great, you want to believe in it.

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That was where the fear came in; it was about making something that we all loved and that even if it didn’t work out - we could all still stand behind it and be proud.”

The first step in making their fifth record was to build themselves a support network.

Alongside Zac, who originally left the band in 2010 and has most recently been working on his own project HalfNoise, the group recruited ‘Self-Titled’ producer Justin MeldalJohnsen to co-produce with Taylor. “When me and Hayley went into the studio,” adds Taylor, “we were a duo, so it

was about putting people around us that we had history with and confidence in.”

Rebuilding their bridges, they tried to create something that felt much more like a band. They were able to move forward, and more importantly, be themselves. That’s an element that has ultimately shaped ‘After Laughter’ itself. While their previous record saw them giving anything a go, this time around they knew the path they needed to tread.

Into You’, it takes the bubbly vibrancy of those tracks and cranks it up to eleven. “We intentionally didn’t look back at all,” Taylor is quick to assure.

They now finally felt liberated enough to pursue the sounds they’d played with last time, but in a bigger way. “I really wanted this album to be different, but I didn’t really know what that would be like. I knew I didn’t want a ton of high lead guitars and I was getting kinda sick of head banging - our necks just always hurt!”

Building upon the high octane energy of the likes of ‘Ain’t It Fun’ and ‘Still

“It’s cool to not feel like we have to be presentable when we’re broken.”

- Taylor York

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“We defInitely wanted to be honest with where we’re at.”

- Taylor York

Photo by Lindsey Brynes

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Now that we’re sitting here, and we have the songs we have, it doesn’t mean that my life’s perfect by any means, or that I’m even over some of the stuff we talk about on the record, but it’s so great to know that we didn’t give up.” “For us, to be in the spot that we’re at, it’s just so rad for the three of us to want to be together and love being together genuinely,” continues Taylor.

“To be proud of what we did. I would like to hope that one day we can make a record without having to go through something like that, but that’s just been our reality so far.

Every time we actually get through it, it’s just that much sweeter. Life doesn’t stop,” he concludes, “but I think we got over a big hurdle and it’s great to be on the other side of that.”