Paramore burst back into public eye yesterday with their deceptively ebullient single “Hard Times,” carrying with it the announcement of the band’s new album After Laughter. It’s their first record since former drummer Zac Farro returned to the fold last year. His reintroduction into the band’s dynamic is one of the subjects of a new interview with Zane Lowe (“Zac is super emotional, I’m super ultra way too logical, and Hayley’s a bridge and has got this crazy gut instinct,” says guitarist Taylor York), along with a deep dive into the meaning behind “Hard Times” and how it deals with singer Hayley Williams’ recent bouts of depression.
The roller coaster of touring and being in a band in general and being public, it gave me a lot of compassion that I didn’t have before. Before I was very much like one of those people that was just like ‘everything’s fine, we’re good right? Everything’s great!’ … I don’t feel as dark as I did when we were making the record but I absolutely am not over stuff that we’ve written about in these songs, and that’s weird.
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It’s not all gloomy, as the band breaks down what went into their neon-tinged, new-wave inspired sound (“I was only listening to Tame Impala so I was just trying to rip off everything,” jokes York) and whether or not York’s vocoder turn on “Hard Times” means he has a good singing voice. (“No. They’ll both say it. I don’t.”) Tune into Paramore’s full interview on Beats 1 here right now and watch the full video below.
Phil is a Noisey Canada staff writer. He’s on Twitter.
