New article - New album to be written after Warped...

[thebrowncoat]

Paramore watches itself grow on the road

 

Local emo group takes a larger stage for this week's Vans Warped Tour stop

 

By NICOLE KEIPER

Staff Writer

 

 

Where local rock band Paramore is to, say, MTV, seems clear enough. The network logged the young act into its next-big-thing-predicting "You Hear It First" programming, alongside the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Chris Brown.

 

But ask Paramore where Paramore is, and it's a little more fuzzy.

 

"Honestly, I really don't know," singer Hayley Williams says, stepping out of her band's tour van and onto their manager's cell phone. "I think we're somewhere in Arizona? Um, we're at Carl's Jr.?"

 

Location blur happens, certainly, when you've been on tour long enough for highways to morph into a haze of gas/food/lodging signs leading to another sound check.

 

And since last summer's Fueled by Ramen Records release of All We Know Is Falling, Paramore's debut album, the young band hasn't seen much else, taking the road almost non-stop alongside emo scene well-knowns such as Simple Plan, Bayside and Straylight Run.

 

After this stop at Carl's Jr., the band's schedule moves to an early-morning flight to Japan for another tour, then a haul back to the States to jump on the long-running traveling punk circus The Warped Tour, which stops at Starwood Amphitheatre Wednesday.

 

The Warped Tour, Paramore has done before, the band took part in last year's jaunt, playing on the small Shira Girl stage. The band moves up to the much bigger Volcom stage this year.

 

But Japan, that's a new conquest.

 

"We're not too excited about the plane ride," Williams says. "But we're stoked about Japan. Just to learn about a new culture is really cool. We're so young and we've already been able to learn so much."

 

The band's members are indeed young — bassist Jeremy Davis is 21, guitarist Hunter Lamb, 20, lead guitarist Josh Farro, 18, drummer Zac Farro, 16, and Williams, 17.

 

And their collective rock-nomad year, along with being a learning experience, also looks to have done some good.

 

This May marked Paramore's second year on the lineup for the big New Jersey punk and emo fest The Bamboozle, too. And playing it again, Williams says, certainly made clear the progress the band's made through a year of heavy touring.

 

Last year's Bamboozle set drew Paramore an audience of about 150 kids.

 

"And then this year, 3,000 kids came and watched," the singer says. "So I'm excited to see how different the Warped crowds are, because last year we were playing to about 200 kids tops a day. I'm so stoked to see what happens."

 

The sweep of momentum that's already happened, Williams figures, also comes from a mix of luck, a good business team and, in All We Know Is Falling, a simple, easy-to-grab-onto record.

 

"I think our music, it's fun, and I think people can relate to that," she says. "And a lot of the messages in it have to do with, you know, love, which everybody understands to some degree. And it's also about healing and just stuff that we've all gone through. . . . I dunno, I don't think it's a hard record to relate to if you're human."

 

Some of the folks who focus on the pop-rooted, punk-derived emo scene Paramore populates have been a bit more effusive, including rock mag Alternative Press, which called Falling "a perfectly crafted, melodic-yet-rugged testament to teenage angst."

 

What makes the band's songs work, to Williams, is a collection of perspective. Bassist Davis is big on virtuoso Victor Wooten, Lamb is the band's resident punk aficionado, and main songwriter Josh and brother/drummer Zac Farro have an indie-rock base and, she says, some kind of musical sibling-telepathy thing going on.

 

The reviews that focus on deceptively diminutive Williams' soul diva-vocal power, too, aren't too far off-base.

 

Her grandfather turned her on young to old soul and funk, styles that stuck when she went to make music herself. (Mom's radio pop tastes and Dad's classic rock figure in there somewhere, too.)

 

"I kind of got a really good mixture," she says. "I liked the Jackson Five a lot, and The Temptations. I grew up with a really good variety of music and kind of homed in on the soul part mostly when it came to singing."

 

All the time the five of them have spent onstage since the last record, Williams figures, is going to figure loudly on the next one.

 

They'll work on writing it during a break after Warped but before another road trip, an August-September headlining tour.

 

"My gosh, I can't explain to you how much touring can affect you, in the most positive way," she says. "We've definitely, definitely grown. . . . I think we'll always be true to what we are now and what we released last year, but gosh, a lot of people are saying, 'You guys are just a different band.' But it's totally a good thing. And we're excited." •

 

http://www.nashvillerage.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060618/ENTERTAINMENT01/606180319/1055/ENTERTAINMENT

[kerrie]

I love it!

I acutally read it too, thanks for sharing that.

[lordjedediah]

they only have like a three week break to write the allbum!

[thebrowncoat]

they only have like a three week break to write the allbum!

 

Well, I doubt they're going to write the whole thing. They've probably been writing on the road too...

 

Reading between the lines, I'd assume this means they'll head into the studio in late Sept., early October to record their follow-up to AWKIF.

[kerrie]

I cant wait x)

 

so if they release this they can go on warped next year?

[kristina]

oh snap awesome. they are amazing. they just keep on going i love it.

[neversummergirl]

Yay! Thanks that's an awesome article. And the fact that Hayley says 'stoked' makes me love her even more cause I say it all the time =) hehe

 

 

"We're not too excited about the plane ride," Williams says. "But we're stoked about Japan.

 

"So I'm excited to see how different the Warped crowds are, because last year we were playing to about 200 kids tops a day. I'm so stoked to see what happens."

[hayleh]

ah kewl =]

t4p.

[lalalalisa]

main songwriter Josh and brother/drummer Zac Farro have an indie-rock base and, she says, some kind of musical sibling-telepathy thing going on.

 

 

 

love this.

[neversummergirl]

^^ oo i didn't realize josh was the main songwriter ... how does it go? josh the main writer and hayley comes up with most of the melodies?

[XParamoreFanX]

Ahh yeah, that was here, local newspaper.

[crashedROCKSTAR]

Ahh yes starting work on a new CD! I love it.