Now that Twilight has conquered America’s eyes and ears, Nashville punk band Paramore, who contributed two new songs to the vampire movie’s chart-topping soundtrack, is finally ready to return to the studio to record the follow up to 2007’s Riot!. But, dear Twilight fans, don’t expect a repeat of the goth-ish “Decode.”
“I don’t want to turn into this dark band,” frontwoman Hayley Williams tells SPIN.com. “I don’t want that to be us all the time, because I really love our more energetic songs that are poppier and catchier. But I think there’ll definitely be some of that sound — but that’s definitely not going to be all of it!”
Currently Paramore are at home in Nashville, taking a break from a long and tumultuous 2007, a year that saw the band tour exhaustively, which resulted in messy band in-fighting and speculation of a split. All the drama, explains Williams, has fueled much of the lyrical content for the forthcoming record.
“It’s just been relationships within the band,” she says. “We’re a bunch of friends that have grown up together playing music, and you get to the point on the road where it’s all business. It’s a very hard thing to mix. We’ve learned a lot about friendships, and we’ve learned a lot about relationships in general, and that’ll definitely be a part of the record.”
As for the songs, they’re still coming together. “Josh [Farro, lead guitarist] and I are getting together and writing. We’ve had a crazy year. But at the same time, we’re really excited to write new material.” And when the songs are complete, Paramore — who traveled to New Jersey to record Riot! — plan to stay put. “We want to record in Nashville. We’ve never recorded in our hometown.”
Rhythm guitarist Taylor York — an unofficial, touring member of the band — will be on in on the sessions too. [Taylor’s] definitely going to be working on the record,” Williams explains. “He’s a great writer and a great performer. But we’re trying to be cautious and make sure it’s what he wants, and make sure everyone’s on the same page before we make it absolutely official.”
So when can fans expect new material? We want to get it out by the end of the summer,” Williams shouts. “Oh yeah, definitely!”
