How is it to be back in Denmark?
Hayley: We love it.
Taylor: Scandinavia is one of our favorite places in the world. Especially Copenhagen. It’s mood, its style, its beautiful buildings and then here’s so peaceful. It is one of the places where I feel safe when I walk on the street.

When do you guys arrive to Denmark?
Hayley: Yesterday.

What have you done so far?
Jeremy: We just walked around. We were up in a church where you go on the outside of the Tower. Insanely beuatiful view. Continue Reading

It’s the day of Paramore‘s first show in Copenhagen since they shrank from a quintet to a trio back in 2011, it’s 3 in the afternoon and fans are packed outside Store Vega’s entrance singing along to a stereo booming out the band’s hits. On one hand this must be a welcome sight for a band that must have worried how their changes would go over with the fans, but on the other, getting this big as such a young band, and finding so much success with such a young crowd, must have meant that you’ve had to answer some pretty ridiculous questions during interviews. More so considering the occasions when band members have had their privacy exposed to the internet. So as I’m preparing at home – and really still when I’m waiting to meet the band backstage – I’m trying to weigh what I can ask that’ll interest you readers while not coming across too much like “the enemy”. To find out how I managed, you can either listen to my chat with the band using this player, or you can read on below, as things start off right after I’ve had the audacity to introduce Rockfreaks.net as “sort of a Denmark-based absolutepunk.net, only with a lot more reviews and with a lot less people arguing in the comments”, prompting some early laughs and nods of appreciation from the band.

RF.net: So how are things going with the tour and with everything really?

Hayley: It’s been amazing! This is our first big festival run with the new record, so it’s kinda’ cool to see how different audiences are accepting what we’re doing with it. It’s cool because we’re not really playing to all our fans unless we do a show like tonight. We’ve done a handful of headlining shows, but even in Germany or other places where we didn’t know how the new stuff was going to go over, everyone’s been really into it and that makes us feel good. Continue Reading

Right after their performance in Milan, we are glad to meet Hayley Willams and Taylor York from Paramore - Jeremy Davies was not there, at the moment of the press conference. Inevitably, the very first question is about their explosive performance the evening before. Paramore last came to Italy in 2008, so the enthusiasm was definitely tangible in the audience – mostly made of teenagers, as the other part was made of parents and elder brothers and sisters who took the hot and bothered sibilings to the event. “It was great, fantastic!” said Taylor briefly “Definitely one of the loudest audiences so far. An amazing experience“.

Of course, the following questions are all about the fourth album of the Tennessee-based band: “In this record (“Paramore”, which was released last April) we went through a million of things, Taylor and I, we have been writing songs together for something like ten years. It feels like we haven’t planned to make this record, it sounds very natural. The vibe of is so true and it’s what we wanted to be as a band. We’re really proud of that. You just have to let things happen” explained Hayley “At the beginning, we were hopeless, our band was coming back from the deads, we wanted so desperately to make the record sound great, everything had to sound perfect, but at the beginning, it has been frustrating“. The choice of having a self-titled album is often arguable, but there was a reason for Taylor: “We went through a lot of changes and I think that in this record we really found confidence, and we felt like that this time, that is what Paramore is, how the band should sound“. Continue Reading

Congratulations to your new album! What makes “Paramore” to something special and differs to the earlier albums?

This record wasn’t an easy one to come by. It took a lot of dedication to the whole process. Through all the frustrations and then the triumph of actually completing it, we just feel so completely connected to it in a way that we’ve never really felt for anything else we’ve done as a band.

You mentioned that this “album is you” and therefore named after you. It was a “rediscovery” of yourself.

Yes it is. We grew up a lot together over the last 3 years and had to relearn what it meant to us to be in this band and what it means to be better friends to each other. Continue Reading