The Tennessee pop-punk band Paramore, fronted by Hayley Williams, is attempting a reintroduction. It has to. Its self-titled fourth album, just released on Fueled by Ramen, follows two years of turmoil in which the brothers Josh and Zac Farro, the nine-year-old band’s founding guitarist and drummer, quit. On his blog Josh Farro called Paramore “a manufactured product of a major label” and accused Ms. Williams of hogging the spotlight. She stood up for her band and its authenticity on MTV. (Zac Farro later said his brother had regrets about the post.)
Now the remaining members — Ms. Williams, the Tang-haired singer and songwriter; the guitarist and songwriter Taylor York; and the bassist Jeremy Davis — have regrouped as a trio, working with the producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who has recorded with Beck and M83. “He let us be the band that we needed to be, and kind of weather our own storms,” Ms. Williams said. “And we found when we pushed ourselves and were a little bit less afraid of our influences as musicians, the boundaries were a lot farther.”
“If you haven’t heard any Paramore albums,” she added, “start with this one and not the first one.”
In the last year Ms. Williams, 24, also moved away from home in Nashville, renting an apartment in Los Angeles, partly so she can be closer to her boyfriend, Chad Gilbert, guitarist of the rock band New Found Glory. But she’s eager to be on the road again, even on the smaller stages where she began.
“Obviously it wasn’t roses going in a van for a lot of years; it was hard work,” she said. “I remember my butt just being numb all the time from just sitting in the van. But I’m a supernostalgic person. It’s an old energy that’s really great to feel.”
She spoke with Melena Ryzik from a tour stop in London, about the near-split and a family run-in with Elvis Presley. These are excerpts from the conversation.
Q. How was writing without Josh and Zac?
A. We started writing, and we were doing things that we had done before, and it was so boring. There was no inspiration. I remember bringing Taylor a random melody that I had saved in my voice memos, and we turned it into this song called “True.” And it was like, this kind of sounds like Paramore. We had 23 songs that all sounded like they came from different parents. We’re two men down, and something unpredicted [had to happen].
What do you listen to for inspiration?
I usually like a lot of older music. If I’m listening to a new hit band, it’s because of Taylor. I’m not really a Pitchfork [the music Web site] sort of gal. I was listening to the Shirelles and the Angels, who are my favorites, and even Blondie and the Ramones and that period of punk rock. They were writing pop songs, but they were played by punk bands. Every day in the car it was like, why can’t I play “Heart of Glass”? We finally wrote a song called “Daydreaming,” which is a total rip of “Dreaming” by Blondie, because I couldn’t think of a better title.
How did you deal with the band splintering?
I was trying superhard to deny it for a while. The first song we demo’d was “Proof,” a love song. I just wanted to go completely away from the situation. I realized that all three of us were dealing with it. We realized very quickly that we each needed each other to pull through. I was trying to be intentional about not being bitter and not being angry, but using the hope that I felt that we did have a future, as a fuel, and to light me up from the inside.
Did you grow up a lot in this period?
It catapulted me into adulthood. Everything that happened, starting with those guys leaving the band. It was the final break from that “Goonies” theme that I had as a kid: We were going to be a band, it was going to be called Paramore, and we were going to go out in the world and take it over. I related to that story line of the Lost Boys. I look back on it now, and it’s like, would I ever have grown up if I were following this broken-down dream that I had? I look at pictures of us from three months after the split happened, and I’m like, we look like babies. And now I look at pictures, and I’m like, Taylor looks like a man. I don’t know if I look older, but I feel older. You have a choice: You let it make you bitter and tarnish you, or it polishes you into something more refined.
You have a powerful style as a frontwoman. Do you have any performance role models?
Growing up watching a lot of heavier bands play, some hardcore bands and some metal-y bands, I liked that energy — singers like Josh Scogin of Norma Jean. Now I look at people like Freddie Mercury, and I’m like, how can one person do that? Karen O I think is rad. I’m very inspired by even Elvis. I kind of grew up on him. My granddad, his aunt or great-aunt, she took Elvis in when his mom died. My granddad was completely obsessed. He has a whole curio of Elvis memorabilia. I remember YouTubing Elvis and Johnny Cash when I couldn’t sleep. How cool would it have been to play shows like that? It takes a lot to grow up in a time where people aren’t shaking their hips on TV and then have the audacity to do it.
What do you think of being called emo?
At 16, 17, I hated it. Now I’m 24, I’m trying to bring it back. Emo for me, growing up, was bands like Sunny Day Real Estate. Most of those bands were gone by the time I got ahold of their records. I just think of it as emotional, and I want to write emotional music. I say, let’s bring it back.