| For The Record... |
| Members include: Jeremy Davis, bass; Josh Farro, guitar; Zac Farro, drums; Hayley Williams, vocals. Group formed in Franklin, TN, 2004; signed to independent label Fueled By Ramen in 2005; released debut, All We Know is Falling, 2005; signed to Atlantic Records, released Riot!, 2007. Addresses: Record company—Atlantic Records, 1290 Ave. of the Americas, 28th Fl., New York, NY 10104. Web site—Paramore Official Web site: http://www.paramore.net. |
Rock group
For avid MTV viewers and alternative radio listeners, Paramore exemplify your average teenager more than, say, a Disney starlette, or even Fall Out Boy. The group's feisty female singer, Hayley Williams, was only 14 when the band signed its first record deal, and the rest of the group were still in high school. The band's music is full of authentic teen crushes, emotion, and an authenticity that few of their musical contemporaries have possessed. Paramore arrived fresh out of Tennessee, and went on to dominate MTV's video rotation, performing at the MTV Music Video Awards and earning a Grammy nomination after the release of their sophomore album. Not only was teenage singer Williams a standout with her red hair, she was a girl her fans looked up to, a girl they wanted to be, or wanted to date.
The original seeds of Paramore started when lead singer Hayley Williams was 13. Brothers Josh and Zac Farro had moved to Tennessee, where they formed a band, with Josh on guitar and Zac on drums. After Williams moved there, she was asked to join their band. The group added bassist Jeremy Davis and rhythm guitarist Jason Bynum. Paramore started playing at high school talent shows and then ventured into rock clubs. In 2004, shortly after the band began playing in such venues, they were signed to Florida label Fueled By Ramen (Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship). In an interview with Billboard, Ken Fermaglich of the Agency Group (who books Paramore) explained what he saw in the band so early on. "I was impressed by [Williams's] raw talent at that young age," Fermaglich said. "I knew when I met her that there was a star there. She knew exactly what she was doing, how she wanted to do it, and she had a plan."
Fueled By Ramen hooked Paramore up with James Wisner and Mike Green for the July release of their debut album, All We Know is Falling. They quickly headed off to tour across the United States as part of the Vans Warped Tour; something they would end up doing four years in a row. After the summer, Paramore toured with the then-hot emo-pop band Simple Plan until December of 2005, when guitarist Bynum left the band. Hunter Lamb immediately replaced him while Paramore toured with bands like Halifax and Bayside. Paramore spent the summer of 2006 on the Vans Warped Tour, to an ever-larger audience. During this time, Lamb left the band to get married, and Paramore decided then and there to continue as a quartet.
With her fire-red hair and punk edge, Williams has been a key ingredient in Paramore's success. Mikael Wood, a writer for the Baltimore City Paper, called Williams "a self-assured firebrand who makes that upbeat pop-punk emo-rock work as more than a repository for teenage guys' fear of females." When summer was over, Paramore sat down with producer David Bendeth to make their sophomore album, releasing Riot! in the summer of 2007. They went on the road again, this time as headliners. "This melodic Tennessee foursome deliver everything that a group of new-school mall punks angling for big time should—massive guitar riffs, sweetly infectious choruses, and soaring power ballads," wrote Spin's Trevor Kelley.
"It definitely feels like we've come a long way," Josh Farro told MTV.com. "Four or five years ago, all we did was hang out in [bassist] Jeremy [Davis'] living room and write songs. We never thought we'd be touring the world." Paramore released the record Live in the UK 2008, and also recorded a song for the soundtrack of the teen vampire movie Twilight. Riot! singles "Misery Business" and "crushcrushcrush" made the band MTV favorites, and the group was nominated for Best Rock Video and performed at the MTV 2008 Video Music Awards. Riot! earned the young group a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
"It's awesome to see our songs and our music being accepted by so many people," Williams told MTV.com. " … We're just having a blast." After years of endless touring, 2009 has found Paramore eager to record new music. "The stuff we have now, the heavy stuff sounds a lot heavier, but the softer stuff is a lot softer, so I feel like it's more diverse," Josh Farro told MTV.com in another interview, about a third album. "I feel like we'll be able to reach a lot more fans that we weren't able to with Riot!." Still young, but almost veterans at the same time, the band appeared to expect the third record to reflect age-old problems. "Personally and professionally, things that we never thought we'd go through, we're experiencing and learning from," Williams told Montgomery, about the nature of their upcoming record. "And just growing up in general. I think you'll hear a lot of those types of themes. … I think things will start pouring out that I didn't really know existed. And I'm psyched to see where it goes."
Selected discography
All We Know is Falling, Fueled By Ramen, 2005.
Riot!, Fueled By Ramen/Atlantic, 2007.
Live in the UK 2008, Fueled By Ramen, 2008.
(Contributor) Twilight (soundtrack), Atlantic, 2008.
Sources
Periodicals
Baltimore City Paper, August 15, 2007.
Billboard, October 6, 2007, p. 18.
Online
"Paramore Love Rocking Out For You … And Your Parents," MTV.com, http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1575243/20071128/paramore.jhtml (November 10, 2008).
"Paramore Nervous About VMA Performance, Get Busy on New Album," MTV.com, http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1594048/20080903/paramore.jhtml (November 10, 2008).
"Paramore, ‘Riot!,’" Spin, http://www.spin.com/reviews/paramore-riot-fueled-ramen (November 10, 2008).
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