TIME AFTER TIME
the world behind and we do our own thing, connect over music, play games and none of it matters, because who even knows how to find us? It’s this really beautiful community and feeling, yet I was really sad. There was this - I dunno - cloud that felt like it wouldn’t get off our backs for a moment there.
“Then we did this meet and greet that was about three hours long,” she explains. “People were coming up and looking us very deeply in the eyes and genuinely telling us things like, ‘Oh man, we’re so proud of you guys’ or ‘We’re so happy we get to be a part of this music’. These really incredibly genuine sentiments. There are always these really nice reminders with Paramore that it’s not just about us. I think that’s why we’ve been able to survive all of this shit: because it’s not really about us. When you’re looking into people’s eyes and you know they’re going through something probably worse than you, it just gives you a fresh perspective. We came home from that with a little bit of extra energy to get going with writing again. It was a good thing.” By the time June rolled around, the band – who had invited Farro back into the fold by this point – were gearing up to head into the studio. “I mean, I never feel prepared, but I was scared,” confirms Taylor, on how they were feeling in the lead up. “I did feel like we had all the pieces, but it’s always a bit terrifying.” After the ambition of their previous full-length, the bar was set high, and that sentiment wasn’t lost on them. “Music is one of the only mediums of art where you do something and that is what you exist with for years.” An artist can create a piece and move on, a director finishes a film then continues with their next project. “For us,” Taylor continues, “we make a record and we live it. There’s a lot of pressure from both outside and within, because you want it to be great, you want to believe in it. That was where the fear came in; it was about making something that we all loved and that - even if it didn’t work out - we could all still stand behind it and be proud.”
T
he first step in making their fifth record was to build themselves a support network. Alongside Zac, who originally left the band in 2010 and has most recently been working on his own project HalfNoise, the group recruited ‘Self-Titled’ producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen to co-produce with Taylor. “When me and Hayley went into the studio,” adds Taylor, “we were a duo, so it was about putting people around us that we had history with and confidence in.” Rebuilding their bridges, they tried to create something that felt much more like a band. They were able to move forward, and more importantly, be themselves. That’s an element that has ultimately shaped ‘After Laughter’ itself. While their previous record saw them giving anything a go, this time around they knew the path they needed to tread. Building upon the high octane energy of the likes of ‘Ain’t It Fun’ and ‘Still Into You’, it takes the bubbly vibrancy of those tracks and cranks it up to eleven. “We intentionally didn’t look back at all,” Taylor is quick to assure. They now finally felt liberated enough to pursue the sounds they’d played with last time, but in a bigger way. “I really wanted this album to be different, but I didn’t really know what that would be like. I knew I didn’t want a ton of high lead guitars and I was getting kinda sick of head banging - our necks just always hurt!” While ‘Ain’t It Fun’ represented one of the most distinctly different sounds they explored last time around, now it was about calling upon the attitude and the mentality that had allowed for that song to be birthed in the first place. “We definitely just wanted to be honest with where we’re at,” he adds, “and be excited to listen to [the music] ourselves.”
‘After Laughter’ has been over eighteen months in the making: here’s a few of its most key moments. March 2016: Hayley and Taylor set sail on the band’s second edition of Parahoy! where they find a little extra inspiration for their next record. June 2016: LUUUUNCHTIME! The band start ‘eating with people not doing anything special at all.’ Yeah, right. “We ate a lot of Vui’s,” Zac reveals, looking back at Paramore’s teasing Twitter posts, “which is this Vietnamese restaurant.” June 2016: The band begin pre-production with Zac back on drums, while producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen joins them for the process down at RCA Studio A in Nashville too. August 2016: More lunch is consumed... October 2016: Vocal takes are finished, and the album is officially done! “We finished back in October,” Hayley confirms, “but we didn’t have mixes or anything yet.” January 2017: Hayley gives fans an update on life in the band and what’s set to come next. ‘Following up our self-titled album didn’t seem like it was going to be an easy task,’ she writes, ‘and, unsurprisingly, it was not.’ February 2017: It is announced that Zac is back in the band, via the means of a very cute, very colourful gif and t-shirt. 19 th April 2017: News of the band’s fifth album is OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED, while new video for ‘Hard Times’ – the first track from the record – is revealed too, ooh-er. 12th May 2017: ‘After Laughter’ gets let loose on the world!!
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