Toward the end of November 2021, Hayley Williams offered a year-end newsletter reflection on her solo album cycle where she tipped fans that she would be returning to Paramore.
Now, Williams, Taylor York and Zac Farro are all back together and working toward a new album, as the singer revealed in an email update with Rolling Stone. And within that update, Williams dropped a few hints as to what fans could potentially hear when the group returns.
While Hayley states that the band had been reflecting on some of their earliest influences as they began to write, she reveals that fans shouldn’t necessarily expect a “comeback emo record.”
“The music we were first excited by wasn’t exactly the kind of music we went on to make,” she explains. “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.”
The trio first reconnected at a Nashville studio, with the singer admitting she had some anxiousness about how things would go after their time apart. But, any fears were quickly dissolved once they found a song right off the bat that sparked their collective interest.
“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.”
Having relocated to California, the band is now starting to record music for the upcoming release. At present, there has been no timetable assigned for completion and release, but the start of a new record for the band is underway. Stay tuned for more info on the upcoming album as it becomes available.