← Panic! at the Disco

Halifax →

Paramore

Paramore is a U.S. rock band  was founded in the year 2004. Members come from Franklin Tennessee and are lead by Hayley Williams as the band’s vocalist; with Jeremy Davis as bassist and Taylor York as guitarist. In 2005, the band launched its first album “All We Know Is Falling”, and succeeded by the release of their next album entitled “Riot!” a couple of years after in 2007. “Riot” became a certified Platinum album in the USA and in Ireland. And in United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the album was Gold certified. The third album, “Brand New Eyes”, which came out in 2009 became the band’s top recorded album to this day—earned Platinum record in the United Kingdom and Ireland and Gold in the USA, Australia Canada and New Zealand.

The group’s music style is mainly described as “pop-punk” and “emo”. Their music is, as they put it, “aged differently”—speeds up and slows down. It is emo minus being bratty and whiny.

Paramore’s roots

In 2002, front girl Hayley Williams was then 13 years old, moved to Franklin Tennessee, from Meridian, Tennessee. While attending school in Franklin, she met brothers Josh Farro and Zac Farro. Soon after she moved, she started going to voice classes with Brett Manning. Before being on the band, Hayley Williams and Jeremy Davis (bassist), alongside buddy Kimee Read, had been members of a funky band called, The Factory. Meanwhile, brothers Josh and Zac Farro would practice together as soon as they get off from school. However, some of the group’s members of the soon to be famous rock band, were feeling jittery about the whole female thing and making Williams as the lead vocalist, but since they had a great thing going as friends, she began writing songs for the band.

When Williams first met the guys, she felt that they were those few individuals whom she thinks as very avid musicians like she was. Josh Farro officially organized the band in 2004 where he was also the lead guitarist and back-up vocalist, Zac Farro as the drummer, Jeremy Davis as bassist, and Hayley Williams as lead vocals. Jayson Bynum became an addition as rhythm guitar who was also William’s neighbour. The members of the newly formed band were very young teenagers—the boy who played the drums was just 12 years of age. Davis said when he first showed up, he was astonished and feeling a bit skeptical of the group because they were just bunch of kids. But the first time they practiced turned out to be amazing. The band name came about as suggested by the band’s first bassists. And after the band discovered that “paramour” is a homophone meaning, “secret lover”, they agreed to embrace the name but retained a different spelling. The group’s first single written was “Conspiracy”, which later was included on their first album.

Paramore and their albums

In 2005, the band took a trip to Orlando, Florida but not long thereafter, Jeremy Davis decided to leave the band due to personal issues. The 4 members who remained in the band took the album into completion and wrote, “All We Know” as a parting song. Later, All We Know Is Falling became the overall concept of the album. The album oeuvre mirrored sorrow as the couch on the cover of All We Know is Falling is empty as the silhouette moving away. They explained that it was generally about Jeremy’s departure leaving a void in each member’s lives. It took about three weeks for the recording and the album promotional material only featured the four members remained in the band.

Before taking on their tour, the band had a new additional, John Hembree as bass guitarist taking Davis’ place. Eventually, Jeremy Davis returned and replaced Hembree after five months apart, when he was courted by the group to return. All We Know is Falling was officially launched on the 24^th of July, 2005 and made its way to top 30 on the Billboard’s Heat seekers Chart. Subsequently, they released their first track entitled, “Pressure” and the director of the music video was Shane Drake. Unfortunately, the song didn’t make it to the charts. In July, the second single was released called, “Emergency.” The video reunited the band with director Shane Drake and this time, Hunter Lamb was featured (rhythm guitar), replacing Jason Bynum.

The “Emergency” music video showed the band on another performance level, as the members fixing gory outfits. Then followed the next single, “All We Know”, but only with little bit airtime. The video consisted of a compilation of live shows and behind the scenes videos.

In January of 2007, the band brought about the recording of their succeeding album, “Riot!”. They had produced the album in March without Hunter Lamb (lead guitarist) — who had departed earlier in that year after getting married.  In Lamb’s absence, Josh Farro (lead guitar) played two guitar roles for the album. Taylor York joined the band to replace Lamb. In the past, he took part in the same band with the Farro brothers way before they met Hayley Williams. The album, “Riot!” was released on June 12, 2007 and reached the Billboard 200 at #20, #24 in the United Kingdom charts, and in the US sold about 44,000 copies in the initial week. The album name “Riot!” had been selected for the reason that it means “an abrupt eruption of unrestrained emotion”. On June 21^st 2007, the first single was released, “Misery Business”, which was written by Williams.

Brand New Eyes was written and completed by them in early 2009. The first track released from the album was “Ignorance” on July 7^th, 2009. On August 13, 2009, the official video for “Ignorance” aired on all MTV platforms, websites and networks. Along with Paper Route and The Swellers, the band embarked on a tour in support of Brand New Eyes in the fall of 2009. “Brick By Boring Brick”, “The Only Exception”, “Careful” and “Playing God” were released subsequently as album’s succeeding singles.

The brothers Josh and Zac Farro left the group on December 18, 2010. A message from the remaining band members was released stating that the two announced their plan to depart from the band a couple of months ago and further said that it didn’t come as a surprise since in the past year, the two didn’t seem to want to be around anymore.

Paramore without the Farro brothers

During an interview with MTV on January 10^th, 2011, Hayley Williams stated that in spite of losing the bands founding and original members, Josh and Zac Farro, they will continue to make music, however, the band weren’t sure if they will record an entire album or just release some songs. Hayley Williams further admitted that their style will possibly change with the new line-up of members; however, the band will keep their signature sound.

The band launched the single “Monster”, on the 3^rd of June, 2011. The single was included on the Transformers: Dark of the Moon soundtrack, on YouTube. This song is the very first one they’ve released without the Farro brothers.

On June 9^th, 2011, the band with a new line-up stated that the band are piecing together their fourth album, which they expect to begin recording at the end of the year and targeting a release in early 2012. And on the 5^th of September, 2011, the band released a new song called, “Renegade”.

The band announced on October 11, 2011 that three new singles will be coming out over the next three months up to the end of 2011. The band has established the “Singles Club” on their website which enables fans to purchase the new singles as soon as they come out. The band is still currently trying to decide on a producer for their latest album.

Paramore  Official Website

Paramore  Official Facebook Page