Paramore are working on a new album with “more emphasis on guitar”

Paramore are back in the studio working on their sixth album – the followup to 2017's After Laughter – and promise “more emphasis back on the guitar” this time around.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, vocalist Hayley Williams and drummer Zac Farro give an update on the progress of the new album, which is yet to receive an official title or release date.

Williams reveals she and guitarist Taylor York have drawn on some of their early influences while writing the album, but insists they won't be releasing a “comeback emo record”.

“The music we were first excited by wasn't exactly the kind of music we went on to make,” Williams says. “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 [Muppets drummer] Animal as he wants with drum takes.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Farro notes that the new record will be the first Paramore LP completed as a trio (he rejoined the band during the making of After Laughter).

“It's really exciting because the three of us have completely different strengths when it comes to creating,” he says. “It's making the music and just the whole process of making a Paramore album feel completely new.”

During the early days of composing for the album, Williams says that she felt anxious working with Paramore after years apart, but that anxiety was quickly quashed when they began writing.

“We wrote and tracked something we loved and it actually surprised us,” she 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.”

Back in 2021, Hayley Williams released her latest solo effort, Flowers for Vases / Descansos, on which she played all instruments.

“I feel like I got better at guitar,” she said of writing and recording the album during the Covid-19 pandemic. “I haven't had this much time to play guitar since I was a teenager before we started touring.”