POP-punk band Paramore have announced a return to the studio in preparation for their first album since 2017. Lead vocalist Hayley Williams confirmed yesterday that the band are officially back to work on their next release.
It’s been five years since the release of Paramore’s last album After Laughter, which moved away from the thrashing guitars and fast drums of 2007 album Riot!, which contained the hit song Misery Business that shot the band to international emo adoration.
Following the release of After Laughter in 2017, Williams took some time away from Paramore to work on her solo projects, releasing Petals for Armour in 2020 and Flowers for Vases/Descansos in 2021, but hinted in November last year that the band would be returning with new music in 2022.
And in an interview with Rolling Stone, the 33-year-old from Mississippi confirmed the news that Paramore fans had been hoping for.
Speaking to the magazine via email, she said: “We wrote and tracked something we loved and it actually surprised us. We kept joking it was all downhill from that point, but thank God we’ve been surprised a lot throughout this whole thing.”
She added: “I’m always waiting for the moment for us to know we’re onto something new and we’re not just rehashing the same shit. 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.”
Touching on what the new album might look like, Williams was quick to note the band are not necessarily plotting a “comeback ‘emo’ record”. However, the singer did add, “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.”
Williams also mentioned on a potential collaboration between Paramore and SZA, whom she had reportedly been trying to befriend for a while. Williams and Paramore have covered SZA songs in the past, notably 20 Something from the R&B singer’s 2017 album Ctrl.
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