Since finishing their run on the Warped Tour this past summer and releasing their stellar debut album, Paramore have constantly been on the road. I caught up with them at home in Nashville, TN to see how things are going.

Trevor: First off, let’s get the obvious out of the way. You’ve had two member changes since the last time I talked to you. How is that working out for you?

Josh: It’s amazing.

Hayley: It’s…terrible.

(Laughter)

Jeremy: It’s so good!

(Laughter)

Hunter: It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to Paramore.

Hayley: Jeremy was actually at the last show you interviewed us, watching.

Josh: He was there wishing he was back in.

Jeremy: I was the original bass player, and then I left and..yeah.

Zac: He does a lot of smart things like that.

(Laughter)

Josh: It’s been awesome, amazing, and incredible, so yeah.

Trevor: You’ve done a lot more touring since the summer. Now be honest. How much fun are you guys having on tour?

All: A lot.

Josh: We’re so blessed to be able to show up at a venue every day and do what we love doing.

Zac: It never gets old.

Josh: It never does, but it gets cold.

(Laughter)

Trevor: What are some of the new friends you’ve made while you’ve been touring?

Zac: The Lashes.

All: The Lashes.

Hayley: Forever Changed.

Josh: We didn’t tour with them, but we met up with them and got pretty close.

Hunter: Amber Pacific. My American Heart and Halifax.

Josh: Every band we’ve been on tour with.

Jeremy: Yeah, we’ve become close with pretty much everyone.

Trevor: How did you guys hook up with Shane C. Drake for the “Pressure” video?

Hayley: That was sort of John Janick’s idea. He knew him because he had done some stuff with Fall Out Boy and Fall Out Boy was with Fueled By Ramen. So he was like, “I’d really like to see what Shane could do with you guys,” and it worked out perfectly. We’re hoping if we do a new video, he’d be interested in doing it with us, because he’s incredible.

Zac: Yeah, now that he did us, it’s just going up from here. He’s doing Panic! now and we started him off on his career!

(Laughter)

Trevor: Who came up with the concept for the video?

Josh: We all kind of did. We sitting in the van and it was all kind of sprung up on us. It was kind of rushed, so we didn’t have much time to think about it. We love the video and how it turned out, but we’re just going to make our next one a whole lot better.

Trevor: I go into my school’s university center all the time, and they’ve always got MTVu playing. Almost every time I walk in there, the video is on.

Hayley: Oh weird!

Trevor:So how does it feel to know that your exposure is steadily growing away from the internet crowd and is slowly getting more mainstream?

Hayley: It’s really evident at shows. We’ve been able to tell the difference from the Warped Tour crowd last year, and even before that, the Bamboozle crowd. You can tell a lot by the way the kids we used to play for never would scream that much. Then the new kids, I don’t know; after we did the Simple Plan tour and on the Simple Plan tour, you could just walk on stage and everyone would start screaming.

Jeremy: It was like their eyes were going to pop out. They were like, “AAAAH!”

Hunter: Everyone’s just so much more enthusiastic. It’s a good feeling.

Trevor:Are you planning on releasing a new single any time soon?

Josh: We’re hoping to. We don’t know which song, but we’re hoping to some time soon.

Trevor: I heard you were demoing some new material.

Hayley: Yeah.

Trevor: Do you have a target date to actually go in and start recording a new full length?

Hayley: No, not really. I think we wanted to be able to record new stuff, but after we came back out on tour this year, we saw how much different the response was, and how much better it was. So we want to keep this record a chance to keep growing, because I think it’s only going to get better from here. We’re actually going to play two new songs tonight.

Zac: Yeah, we play the new stuff, because there’s no set thing for it. Maybe after Warped Tour, though, we’ll play a whole new set.

Trevor: Since the summer, a bunch of fan sites have popped up and they’ve got really, really rabid readers that contriubte something every day; whether it be pictures, videos, or whatever. Did you guys ever think that would happen to you?

All: No way!

Josh: They’re crazy man. They bring us stuff to shows. They brought Jeremy a pinata for his birthday and filmed us breaking it. The brought him cake.

Hayley: Oh! What about the girl that brought us gingerbread cookies that looked like us?

Zac: Oh man, those were good!

Hunter: There’s so much candy and everything.

Zac: For some reason, I guess we’ve done interviews like, “What’s your favorite food?” and I say, “Candy I guess,” so they read it. Then they’re like, “I heard you guys like these!” and we’re like, “Thank you!” They bring the candy you like and you’re like, “Oh gosh!”

Josh: I guess it’s just hard to fathom that someone you don’t know will buy you your favorite candy just because they like your music. It’s awesome, but at the same time you’re like, “Why are you doing this? I don’t deserve this.”

Jeremy: It’s cool, though, because I love it.

(Laughter)

Zac: I swear, they’re going to put poison in it one time and I won’t care, because I love to snack!

(Laughter)

Trevor: How often do you catch yourselves wishing you were home?

Hayley: Uuuh…(laughs) I think..I think..ah..too often.

Josh: I think towards the end of a tour, everyone’s anxious to get home, but then when you’re off for a week, you’re itching to get back out on the road again.

Jeremy: Yeah, it was like today. We got here at 6:30 in the morning, we all went to sleep, and then like, we all met up for lunch. We all hugged eachother and were like, “I miss you!”

(Laughter)

Jeremy: I mean, seriously, we were hugging eachother and were like, “I saw you like what, five hours ago!” I’m not even kidding, it was the weirdest thing ever and we’re all like, “Aaah!”

Hunter: You hang out for every second of every day and then you’re gone for two hours and you’re like, “I’m so happy to see you!”

(Laughter)

Trevor: What have you been taking out on tour that keeps you sane and occupied on the road?

Hayley: Pillows.

Zac: Scooters.

(Laughter)

Josh: Movies and stuff.

Hunter: Steroids.

Josh: Haha, yeah, our daily vitamins. Hayley’s trying to get a little swollen.

Hayley: (Laughing) No! They make fun of me, because I take vitamins a lot.

Zac: Steroids.

Hayley: (Laughing even harder.) No! I just take vitamins a lot because I’m extremely paranoid about being sick.

Josh: She’s a health freak.

Trevor: I heard earlier in the week, there were a couple of rude guys at a show. So I guess I’m directing this at Hayley. How often do you have to deal with that, and when you do, how do you deal with it?

Hayley: Every night. Lately the way I’ve been dealing with it is just through our music. At the end of “Here We Go Again” we have this, I don’t want to call it a breakdown because we’re not a hardcore band, but I guess this musical outtro, and it’s pretty heavy. I just make up lyrics that kind of pertain to what’s happening. The other night, that’s kind of what happened. I just got super fed up with it. The only thing I can do is sing about it, because that’s the platform that I have at the time. I mean, I’ll say things back to them every once in a while. Like, that one night, I was like, “Why are you here?”

Josh: Yeah, she was like, “Do you even like our band?” and they were just like, “You’re hot!” and they don’t give up. So they kept on yelling and I was like, “SHH!” and they stopped.

(Laughter)

Zac: It’s cool sometimes, because like the other night we were somewhere like, Tucan, Washington or something..

Hayley: Tucan?

(Laughter)

Hayley: Tucoma.

Zac: Tucoma, Tucan, who cares?

(Laughter)

Hayley: Go on.

Zac: Somewhere in this world, we were playing, and this dude was like, “Hey play Skater Boi!” and Hayley just totally like killed him, dude. She was like, “Hey, no. We played that on our last tour.” Then the guy was like, Oh,” and at the end of “Here We Go Again” she just starts, “He was a boy, and she was a girl!” and we were on stage playing and we were like, “What is she doing?” I was like, “I’ve heard that before. Oh wait! That’s Skater Boi!”

Jeremy: You could tell that everyone was laughing at those dudes because she was like, “You should have been on that tour! It was awesome!” Then she’s like, “This song’s called Complicated!” and I was like, “What’s she doing?”

Josh: I’ve got one more story. That one night in Detroit, that was probably the worst night we’ve ever had, but they were like, “Let me touch your hand! Give me a high five!” and Hayley’s like, “You know what? No.” and everyone’s like, (All the guys) “Ooooooh!”

(Laughter)

Hunter: It was like 8-Mile.

(Laughter)

Hunter: We were there. The venue in 8-Mile.

(Laughter)

Hayley: I’m sorry, we’re definitely not sane right now.

Zac: We’re having a good time in Nashkill!

Hayley: For real, though. We’re just excited to be home, and you’re an old friend, so it’s just fun.

Trevor: (Laughing) So what are your plans for the summer?

Josh: We have Warped Tour. We’re actually going to Japan in about a week, then in April, we’re going to the UK. But yeah, after that it’s Warped Tour.

Trevor: Are you playing the full Warped Tour or are you just playing select dates?

Zac: I think a month.

Hayley: We’re playing South by Southwest also, next month in Austin Texas. That’s going to be cool.

Zac: Which isn’t the summer at all.

Hayley: Yeah, but it’s up and coming. I’m excited because Thursday is on that bill and I like Thursday.

Trevor: You’re going to get starstruck. You know you are.

Hayley: Oh, totally. (Laughter) No, see the thing is, we saw Geoff Rickley at CBGB’s when we played there last time. I don’t know, it was in New York, but he was there. We know people from labels that know him and I wanted to be like, “Hey, my friend says she knows you,” but I was so scared.

Zac: He’s a cool person, and he smells like cigarettes.

(Laughter)

Hayley: Yeah, but after that, we don’t know.

Paramore

I’d also like to give a shout out to:

Paramore.org

And to:

Paramorefans.com

These kids work hard on these sites and feature the content from Driven Far Off, so I’d just like to thank them for that and tell them to keep up the good work.

I got to sit down with Paramore for a little bit before they played an amazing in-store show at Grimey’s New and Preloved Music in Nashville, TN. They talk about Warped Tour and upcoming plans.

Note: When I interview a band, I don’t treat it like an interview, so there will be some banter in here that has nothing to do with the subject we were one. Please excuse the tangents.

——————–

Josh: Will that pick up?

Trevor: Yeah, it should. So um, state your names, what you do with the band.

Hayley: Hi, I’m Hayley. I sing.

Josh: I’m Josh, I play guitar.

Jason: I’m Jason, I play guitar.

John: I’m John, I play bass.

Zac: I’m Zac, I play drums.

Trevor: And so like, you guys are back home now. So how’s this feeling, after you guys have been signed and everything?

(Sounds of equipment rolling on the bridge overhead.)

(Laughter all around)

Hayley: It’s surreal. People are calling us, every day, telling us, “We saw your video on Fuse. Oh, you’re in this magazine. Oh we just found out that your CD’s sold out in stores.” It’s really- it’s really weird, ’cause we’re not seeing any of it when we’re out and all our friends are back home supporting us and you know, it’s cool.

Trevor: That’s great. So how’d you guys hook up with Fueled By Ramen? Like, I mean, ’cause you guys just came out of nowhere, appeared on a samplers, and everybody’s like, “Who’s this band? ‘Cause they’re really really good.”

Hayley: (Laughs) Um, we- we really didn’t play anywhere except for here in Nashville. You know, we were a local band, a garage band for a while. But John Janick, our management basically, you know after we had demos recorded and stuff, got a hold of it through our management. And um he decided he wanted to come see us play and just kinda get to know us, ’cause he was really interested in the songs we were writing and who we were. And uh, so he came and saw us play at Taste of Chaos which was just an acoustic thing and that just kind of stirred up more interest for him in our band. And then he came and saw us play again. We were in Orlando and we decided that we, you know, it was a good fit, and he introduced us to his label. We already knew, you know Fall Out Boy.

Trevor: Yeah.

Hayley: And all that stuff which was amazing. And he let us come by the office and we got to know everyone and we knew that was where we needed to be and we knew it was who would put out our record and would carry out the vision that we would like to be carried out.

Trevor: Well they seem to be a good job since everyone’s responding really well to it.

(Collective yeah)

Josh: It’s amazing.

Trevor: How are the other bands on the label? Like have you hooked up with them any? Talked to them at all?

Jason: Yeah, we played um, about three or four shows on the Fueled By Ramen and Friends Tour. And theAcademyIs… was there, and Fall Out Boy, and Gym Class Heroes and we made friends with them. They were just such cool guys.

Trevor: Yeah I met like, everybody when they were up here in Nashville and they were awesome.

Josh: Yeah, they’re all really nice.

Trevor: Yeah like, I remember, I tried to come up to see theAcademyIs… again with Mae. Like, two feet from the door, the show sold out.

(Collective oh yeah)

Zac: We were there.

Trevor: Were you?

Hayley: Yeah.

Jason: It was fun. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen theAcademyIs… play.

Trevor: Yeah I was walking around and like, Mike and Tom were out in the van and I was like, “Dude. That sucks.” Mike’s like, “Well here. I’ll serenade you.” and he’s playing his guitar and I’m like, “Thank you.”

(Collective laughs)

Trevor: Let’s see. Warped Tour. You guys are such a young band. And that’s gotta be incredible to be playing Warped Tour.

Jason: It is. It’s awesome. It’s great to find every day that we go and play at Warped Tour, we get there early in the morning and Fueled By Ramen’s already got our stuff pasted everywhere. We’ve got poster and flyers being handed out from the second the doors open. They’re really doing well for us on Warped Tour and it’s just an awesome experience for us to get to know all the fans- to get to know all the people that are hearing about our band through word of mouth and stuff. It’s incredible.

Trevor: So are the fans on Warped Tour responding pretty well to it and everything?

Jason and Zac: Yeah.

Jason: Yeah, we have a great turn out. Pretty much every day and we play on a really small stage. The Shure Stage and it’s always- the location’s not always really close to the main stage where everybody is, but surprisingly we have a lot of people show up and it’s awesome.

Zac: Yeah, people would just be like walking by and they’d like be on their way to My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy and they’ll just stop and watch us, even if they’re missing their show. It’s just great for us, ’cause like, I wouldn’t stop. (Laughs) I’d just keep going.

(Laughs)

Jason: We also work really hard to get people, to make connections with the fans and give them free stuff and you know, just say hi to them.

Josh: You have ants on your feet.

Trevor: Do I?

Josh: Yeah, like lots of them.

(Hayley proceeds to destroy the ants and save my feet.)

Trevor: Weird.

Josh: There’s still one on your foot.

Trevor: Where?

Josh: Right there.

Hayley: Get him before he bites you.

(Laughs)

Trevor: Okay.

(Collective laughs)

Trevor: Where were we?

(Collective laughs)

Trevor: I totally lost my train of thought. (Laughs) The ants.

Hayley: (Laughs) The ants.

Trevor: Yeah um so like, the fans have been responding well. Have you guys been watching any certain bands when you get a chance? Like who have you been checking out?

Zac: Oh yeah. I watched Emery the other day. They are one of the funniest bands. Like, their whole deal is every time they play, they wear something different. Like the first time I saw them, they were wearing Hawaiian shirts, then the next day basketball jerseys.

Jason: We also, like every chance we get, we check out My American Heart. They’ve become really good friends of ours.

Trevor: Yeah, they’re kind of like you guys. They’ve like, exploded like all of the sudden so they’re getting all of this attention and you guys, probably like kind of have a little connection there.

Zac: They’re such cool guys, too. Like every day we announce eachother’s shows like, “Go see My American Heart at 3:15.” or “Go see Paramore.”

Hayley and Jason: Yeah.

Trevor: Awesome. Are there any new released that have come out that you guys have been listening to a lot?

Josh: Dredg. Their new CD is incredible.

Trevor: Yeah, a friend of mine went and saw them with Circa Survive and said it was like, the most amazing show he’d ever seen.

Josh: I bet. I mean, the drummer plays piano. That has to be the best.

Jason: I like the Gorillaz new album.

Josh: Yeah, it’s pretty good, but it’s weird.

Hayley: We got Death Cab for Cutie’s new album. It’s called Plans. It’s awesome. It’s a lot more mature, I think.

Trevor: You guys are getting ready to go back on Warped Tour in a couple of days, so what’s after Warped Tour.

John: Uh, well, we have like a few things lined up to where our managers are trying to find out what’s the best tour for us to be on. We’re working on a few different bands, which when you’re in any band, it’s always like, last minute to try and figure out what tour you’re gonna go on next. Especially when you’re an opening band and stuff. So they have a few different bands. Rufio is one of them they talked about. Um, All American Rejects.

Hayley: Emery.

John: Emery was also another one. Simple Plan. So there’s a bunch of different options.

Trevor: If you guys got on tour with any of those, you’d get so much exposure. ‘Cause like, Cartel is playing with Simple Plan in Atlanta on August 17th and they’re such a good band, and that’s gonna be so great for them.

Hayley: Yeah, that’s gonna be awesome.

Zac: Yeah, we know a dude from- I don’t think he’s in their band anymore.

Hayley: No, he’s not.

Zac: His name is Adam, we used to talk to him. He actually was the person to tell us about Warped Tour, to tell us how to do it. How to get a good merch spot or whatever.

Jason: It’s nice to have someone help out like that.

Trevor: It’s always good to have someone that just tells you advice and everything.

Jason: Yeah. It’s not as hard as they said it would be though. Copeland told us that it would be really hard because they said they were on for like three days and they couldn’t do it anymore. It’s hard but it’s so much fun.

John: Yeah.

Trevor: Copeland’s such a great band, but I don’t know how the Warped Crowd would..

Everyone: Yeah.

Jason: That’s what they thought as well.

Trevor: I mean, like yeah, they’re good though.

Hayley: Yeah, they’re awesome.

Trevor: They played around in Cleveland a couple of shows at a place at Lee University called The House, it’s like a small little building. Copeland played that one night…got shut down by the cops.

Hayley: Wow.

Trevor: Copeland got shut down. How does that happen?

Jason: Yeah, that’s weird.

Trevor: So what would you guys think about playing with All American Rejects?

Jason: I think it would be awesome.

Everyone: That would be amazing.

Trevor: I would defnitely go to see that show.

Jason: I think that would be a good match for our band.

Hayley: Yeah.

Jason: We have the same type pop elements, and the rock side.

Trevor: Have you heard their new album?

Everyone: Yeah.

Jason: They’re on Warped Tour right now. I watched them play the other day, they’re so good.

Trevor: Is there anything else you guys want to say?

Zac: Yeah, thanks for doing this.

Trevor: Yeah, no problem.

Hayley: Thanks to everyone that’s heard the album, that’s buying it now. We’ve had a lot of great support from people. Thank you.

Trevor: Like I told Jason. I was at Best Buy, right when the doors opened. I blasted the album on the interstate.

Hayley: That’s awesome.

Everyone: Thanks.