subtlety impracticality: Paramore Hard At Work On Fourth Album

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Paramore Hard At Work On Fourth Album

Singer Hayley Williams says band is working on 'a pretty strange schedule.'
By Gil Kaufman

Paramore's Hayley Williams
Photo: MTV

Less than six months ago, Paramore said they were determined to have more fun while recording their fourth studio album .

Well, so much for that.

On Wednesday, singer Hayley Williams gave fans a long-awaited update on the band's still-untitled effort, which, from the sounds of it, has not been much of a party so far.

"I've never known what it's like to be home for more than a few weeks at a time that absolutely nothing is going on," wrote Williams in a lengthy post in which she decried how quickly time flies. "The only thing I could think about was if we could snap our fingers and make the 4th album happen so that the next time I looked up, we'd be back on a stage somewhere and not sitting around at home. But you can't just make things like that happen. For something to be great, there has to be some kind of trial or some type of struggle that actually makes it special or valuable to you. Otherwise, anything could be easily taken for granted."

After promising fans last year that they would release new music despite the December 2010 departure of members Josh and Zac Farro, Paramore weren't able to produce a full-length album. They did, however, launch a killer single, "Monster,"   and a Singles Club  that served up fresh tracks "Hello Cold World" and "Renegades."

The group, which made it to the Elite Eight in this year's Musical March Madness , are hard at work on the follow-up to 2009's Brand New Eyes. So far, they've finished at least one song, "Daydreaming," for the album that is being produced by former Beck band member Justin Meldal-Johnsen.

"There's no reason to lie about it, the first few months of writing were ridiculously draining and a lot more of a pain than a pleasure," Williams said. "It was supposed to be fun right? We made it all the way to this point to just struggle some more. So, you can probably imagine that when the flood gates burst this past January and inspiration started filling us up again, we were more than willing to let it take us wherever it wanted. We've written a lot of songs I never thought we would write. And we aren't done yet! The writing will continue even as we enter the studio."

Williams reported that she, bassist Jeremy Davis and guitarist Taylor York went in to record the track a week-and-a-half ago excited, but unsure if the results would be something they could use. "At the end of our time in the studio, it was clear to us that this was definitely right!" she wrote. "In case you can't tell, we're working on a pretty strange schedule, by our standards. There has never been so much time and care put into a Paramore album. Usually, we are rushing to make a very strict deadline, which so far has just not been right for this record. We cannot assure you it will be out this year. What we can tell you is that from now on, when we go in to create this thing, whether for a day at a time or for a month, you will be kept more informed. It is a total joy to make our fans/family a part of what we do because we couldn't do it without you anyway."