Paramore New Album Update: Hayley Williams Says It Won't Be a 'Comeback Emo Record'

Paramore New Album Update: Hayley Williams Says It Won’t Be a ‘Comeback Emo Record’

2021-02-01

Paramore, “Misery Business,” album art – Story by Cat Badra, cover art via Fueled by Ramen

Hayley Williams of Paramore says the band’s new album is party inspired by their early musical influences

Hayley Williams went solo last year and released an album without her main band, Paramore. But, now Williams is back with the band, refreshed and ready to release new music, and we’re looking at some developments with the songwriting.

Williams and band members Taylor York and Zac Farro are currently working on a new album, and sessions are going well. The frontwoman discussed the progress of the new tunes via a recent email update with Rolling Stone, and she also foreshadowed what to expect, style wise, from the set.

While Hayley says the album won’t be a “comeback emo record,” the band has been garnering inspiration from their early influences. “The music we were first excited by wasn’t exactly the kind of music we went on to make,” she said. “Our output has always been all over the place and with this project, it’s not that different. We’re still in the thick of it but some things have remained consistent from the start. 1) More emphasis back on the guitar, and 2) Zac should go as ‘Animal’ as he wants with drum takes.”

Paramore got back together last year and starting writing and jamming to the new songs at a Nashville studio. As Hayley describes, with so much time apart, she was a bit nervous about how things would go, but the team’s chemistry and magic together was still enact.

“We wrote and tracked something we loved and it actually surprised us,” Williams said. “We kept joking it was all downhill from that point, but thank God we’ve been surprised a lot throughout this whole thing. I’m always waiting for the moment for us to know we’re onto something new and we’re not just rehashing the same s***.”

She added, “It was ‘Ain’t It Fun’ for our self-titled record, and ‘Hard Times’ or ‘Told You So’ for ‘After Laughter.’ It’s not about it feeling like a hit so much as it’s a scary, exciting feeling that you’re treading uncharted waters. It keeps you curious. We got to feel that feeling early on this time.”

Now, Paramore is beginning to record music for the new album in California. There’s not release date yet, or even a ballpark figure, but chances are they’ll at least wrap up work on it later this year.

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.