Paramore Articles

Although I couldn't enlarge it enough to read the writing, I really like the layout of the photo with the mast head and article.

"When bands play home turf, it's often hard for them to please the locals. The very term "local band" is an indication of a band's limits. And within any given scene, envy runs rampant among the bands trying to get a leg up and a way out. Hell, Jesus couldn't even make it in his home town.

So imagine when that town is Music City, U.S.A.: Nashville, Tennessee. Imagine you're Paramore.

That seismic sensation you've felt rumbling up from Dixie for the past four years is the alternative pop-rock explosion known as Paramore, a young and fun four-piece from Nashville. The band - Jeremy Davis (bass), Haley Williams (vocals), Josh Farro (guitar), and Zack Farro (drums) - is blowing up. The success of singles like "Misery Business" and "Crushcrushcrush" scored the band promo spots on MTV, and the group was nominated for last year's Best New Artist Grammy. Everyone loves Paramore - well, almost everyone. Home court advantage doesn't always apply to musicians slugging it out in Nashville.

Of the Nashville concerts, "50 percent of the kids in the audience are already musicians," says Davis from a tour stop in Lubbock, Texas. "So they just sit back, they don't move, they just critique the band... just watch to see if they screw up or something. It kinda sucks."

Until recently, the band dreaded hometown gigs.

"We've always been scared of Nashville shows," he says. "Like, whenever we had a Nashville show coming up, we would just panic about it because we wanted to make the show so good. But now they finally like us. Now we don't worry about the Nashville shows."

Local fan indifference aside, Paramore has earned its fan base by the seat of its pants - pants planted for hours in a tour van, criss-crossing the map, playing shows, and doing homework. This band is barely out of high school.

"I had just graduated by the time we started," says Davis. "But Josh and Zack and Haley were all doing high school stuff. It really wasn't fun at all. There'd be times where I'd be driving and they'd all be back there on their computers trying to get their homework done. Or waking up two hours early to finish it. It's really hard. Zack still hasn't even finished yet."

This deflates any local band jealousy. Paramore's success wasn't just handed to them.

"All the local bands we were friends with - and even some of the bands I was in before - are very jealous of this happening to us," Davis says. "We got a lot of flak. But what you have to understand is when they were in Nashville building up their band and going to school, just doing everyday normal things, we were out working our butts off. And we all had to do school work on the road while we were touring. Bands in Nashville don't tour. They just play in Nashville and get big in the Nashville bubble."

Paramore's drive is no doubt a product of the work ethic that Williams and Davis developed while playing in the teenage funk cover outfit The Factory Band. The band played marathon sets for class reunions, weddings, you name it.

"It was crazy," Davis says. "We played four-and-a-half-hour sets with a 66-song set list, which is ridiculous. We played the longest sets ever."

The Factory Band eventually fell apart (perhaps from exhaustion) and Davis settled into studio session work for various Nash Vegas tunesmiths before getting the call from Williams, who was already getting the ball rolling with the Farro brothers.

"I met up with them that first day," he says. "And I remember thinking - Zack was about to turn 12 and me being a studio musician already and playing with some great drummers - this isn't going to work. And then I heard him play for the first time and he literally stomped all the drummers I had ever played with. He just had that potential."

Paramore began playing regionally, and in early 2005 the band was picked up by Fueled By Raman Records after its founder caught the band at a show in Florida. The band's debut, "All We Know Is Falling," was released that summer.

Paramore's potential, and the massive attention the band has received, centers a lot around Williams, a spunky orange-haired pixie with a solid voice, boundless energy, and songs full of lyrics that mirror her audience. This is a quartet, but Williams' presence dominates. You even get a sense that she's already being groomed for solo work and sojourns into fashion, a la Gwen Stefani. Davis finds it ironic.

"It's kinda funny," He says. "There're rumors of how we're so envious of Haley being out there, and people recognizing her first. We just sit and laugh it off, because if there's anyone who hates to be singled out most, it's Haley. She hates to be singled out. I think having Haley as a front woman is, first of all, a key part of the band. But especially since she's a girl, dude, that's like icing on the cake."

Paramore will play select Warped Tour dates this summer before jetting overseas to headline the Give It A Name Festival.

"We're stoked," Davis says. "I can't believe we're freakin' headlining it."

The band also aims to entertain the troops in Iraq, and is busy writing new music, now that most of its members have graduated. Davis' country music hired-gun background may even rear its head.

"We definitely enjoy country songs," he says. "We'll probably do one, but it'll be Paramore country."

Now that oughta burst the Nashville bubble."

The language in this article if very informative but is also extremeley informal which means that it is on the readers level. This is the sort of style I am aiming for because i want people to get some information but i want to talk to them as a friend rather than as an encyclopidia. I also really like the idea of using lots of quotes so i intend to make my article a question and answer one, therefore it will give information but will be very informal. I intend to be slightly guiding as i want the reader to learn to love a wider variety of music so i need to make them see the good parts of each genre.