It's good news for the Parafamily, as Paramore are finally back in the studio recording their sixth studio album. Serving as the follow-up to 2017's After Laughter, the new record – currently untitled with no official release date – is set to provide plenty of riffs, as it's to feature more "emphasis on the guitar".
According to frontwoman Hayley Williams – who has just relocated to a studio in California along with bandmates Taylor York and Zac Farro to cut the album, after months of songwriting in Nashville – the band have been channelling Paramore's earlier sound when trying to think of inspiration for the forthcoming release. In spite of this, Williams states that fans shouldn't expect the album to be a "comeback emo record."
Speaking to Rolling Stone, she shares details on the album's creative process so far. "Studios just feel like studios, but we brought a ping pong table and there’s a kitchen that I say I’m going to use. My Postmates bills are humiliating,” she explains. "We started recording only a couple of months ago. We go into the studio around 10am and leave around 7 or 8pm like a bunch of dads.
"I’ve been trying to get SZA to come hang with us ‘cause I want to be friends in real life but we leave the studio to eat and sleep and she’s still carpe-ing the diem.”
As for the album's sound, Williams continues, "The music we were first excited by wasn’t exactly the kind of music we went on to make. Our output has always been all over the place and with this project, it’s not that different.
"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.”
Anxious to reconnect with her bandmates after a half decade hiatus, Williams' preconceptions dissolved when they immediately wrote a song they all liked.
“We wrote and tracked something we loved and it actually surprised us,” Williams says. “We kept joking it was all downhill from that point, but thank God we’ve been surprised a lot throughout this whole thing.
"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.”
Watch this space for more updates on Paramore's new album.
