Paramore are now an independent band for really the first time in their nearly-20-year career, and their first act as an indie: Record Store Day ambassadors. RSD is this Saturday (4/20), and ahead of that, we caught up with Hayley Williams and Zac Farro over Zoom, with Taylor York chiming in via email, for the cover story of a special RSD edition of the free BrooklynVegan digital magazine (click the link to read the whole thing now). The band spoke about being free of a major label, their own experiences with record stores and record collecting, why shining a light on Record Store Day is important to the band, their own two RSD releases, future plans, and much more.
“It feels like a deep sigh of relief that we accomplished something that I don’t even know when we were kids if we really thought would ever come to pass,” Hayley says of becoming independent. “It feels like an achievement that not a lot of bands, especially our age… they don’t get to that point very often, so we feel really lucky.”
“We’ve always thought there’s not really any limitation,” she continues. “We can keep doing this as long as we want or we can put it to bed and go away. We’ve always tried to have that mindset about it–that this is a passion, we try to not treat it like a job–but I think the cool thing about now is that it really is, there are no deadlines on the table, there’s no anything really in front of us other than like, open sky, and it feels exciting. It’s overwhelming and also inspiring at the same time.”
Hayley, Zac, and Taylor also talked about their most prized possessions in their record collections (an early mewithoutYou 7″ gifted to Hayley by the band themselves, an original pressing of Jacques Dutronc’s Et moi, et moi, et moi, and Múm’s Finally We Are No One, respectively); Hayley talked about the first vinyl record she ever bought (Thursday’s Full Collapse); and they had a lot to say about the intrinsic value of physical media.
Paramore’s RSD releases include the first vinyl pressing of their Re: This Is Why remix album (ft. Julien Baker, Bartees Strange, Panda Bear, Wet Leg, The Linda Lindas, Foals & more) and their split with David Byrne where he covers Paramore’s “Hard Times” and they cover Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House.” “The fact that [David Byrne] came to see us at Madison Square Garden on his cute bicycle, and apparently loved the show, that just started a dialogue and we still can’t believe it,” Hayley says.
As for the new music that Paramore have been working on, Hayley says, “Just like always, whatever we put out next will hopefully surprise people and make them go, ‘Oh! I didn’t think it was gonna go this way.’ That’s what we always hope for in a way.”
Subscribe for free to the new BrooklynVegan digital magazine to read the full story instantly — all 122 pages of it, and head to your local record store(s) this Saturday to pick up the new Paramore RSD releases and much more.
The magazine also features a guide to RSD releases by the BV staff; Q&As with other artists about vinyl; features on Militarie Gun, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Blood Incantation, Gouge Away, Talking Heads, Blur, Sloan, Women In Vinyl; and much more. Here’s the cover:
