Paramore have stormed onto the music scene, with feisty frontgirl Hayley Williams having only just turned 19. Wondering whether the fame had hit them or yet to sink in, RoomThirteen caught up with drummer Zac Farro and Hayley Williams herself, two dates into the tour, discussing cheese, scarves and… ah that’s it. Music.
R13- Hiya guy’s how was Manchester last night??
ZF- It was amazing, really good. Biggest show we have ever played on our own. So seriously unbelievable, we were so nervous.
HW- Still nervous now.
R13- And now you’ve seen Brixton, you seem pretty impressed?
ZF- Yeh, we were like who’s playing tonight, where’s the small room where we are playing.
R13- That’s pretty cool, okay your favourite song to perform live?
ZF- I like ‘Let the flames begin’, it’s just my favourite song.
HW- I think my favourite is the opener, its called ‘For a pessimist I’m pretty optimistic’, we start with that.
R13- Don’t give the set away! You’ll ruin the surprise! I hear on Radio 1 this morning you revealed you were singing Kaiser Chiefs after being told not to?
HW- I totally gave it away, everybody was probably like oooh what are they gonna play- argh man I don’t’ wanna hear it now.
ZF- The dude totally said don’t say the name of it.
HW- People probably think I’m some ditsy girl or on drugs.
R13- Or both.
HW- Ha! Yeah or both.
R13- Okay, who are the coolest band you have ever played with?
HW- We have played with a lot of cool bands.
R13- Are you worried you might offend someone?
ZF- No! Okay, we’ve played with Muse at a festival in Germany.
R13- Oh awesome.
ZF- Yeah, they’re not too bad. It’s just like you’re watching heaven come to earth.
R13- Wicked! So, Riot! has gone down pretty well here in the UK, the whole album appears to be about the same kinda period of time- is this a fair judgement?
HW- Um, sort of. Most of the songs are… well here’s the thing. I have a hard time writing lyrics about things that I’m going through right at that minute, and when I do it’s some of the lyrics I’m most proud of. Yet, usually what happens is I go through something and I recall it in a song. I guess I try to write when I’m going through something just to vent. Sometimes it’s just a little overwhelming. The whole record is based on life, regardless of when it happened.
R13- Are you proud of the new album- preferable to the first?
ZF/HW- yeah.
HW- But honestly we are all proud of ‘all we know is falling’.
ZF- For the album cover for Riot! You should have seen some of the funny stuff we didn’t use.
R13- Maybe I’ll have to google it! Okay, what’s the most random question you have ever been asked? I was gonna ask you about your favourite sandwich?
HW- Well, I’ll tell you what it is. My favourite sandwich is a Tuna melt. But it’s always nice to have a peanut butter jelly sandwich sometimes.
ZF- We once got asked our favourite cheese…
R13- Which is?
HW- Mozarella.
ZF- American cheese sorry.
HW- I like British cheese, you like me better now?!
R13- ha! Definitely!
R13- Okay, getting a bit more deep and avoiding further food distractions. You got thrown in or at least “big” in the music industry at a pretty young age- do you regret anything or is it all just fantastic?!
HW- Honestly I don’t think any of us regret it because this has gone somewhere we never thought it would go and not only that we are still so young that we have a lot of time to grow into whatever band that we wanna be. There’s so much room to grow and so much to learn from music. I think it’s good. On the other hand, it does get extremely overwhelming and I think there’s a lot of things; you know that line in “Juno” when she says- “I’m just dealing with things way beyond my maturity levels”, when she said that I was like, wow I say that once a day at least! It has its ups and downs but the ups and downs are definitely much better.
R13- Okay last question- what advice do you have for smaller bands trying to make it in the industry?
ZF- Make music because you love music not because you want money, or fame because when that’s your goal and it doesn’t happen you’ve lost everything.
R13- Just being nosy, where did you get your scarf from?
HW- I got it for free! Okay, we did a photo shoot and they bought all these clothes but most of them weren’t very much like me and this scarf was just sitting there and I was like; not only am I gonna wear that but I’m stealing it!
R13- Okay wicked thanks very much guys, good luck tonight.
HW- No thank you! See you tomorrow at the gig.