When bands lose members…

The news was released yesterday (December 18th), though an official press release on the bands website that Josh and Zac Farro (guitarist and drummer respectively) of Paramore have decided to leave the band, leaving Hayley Williams as the only original member of the line up (since Jeremy Davies joined the band on their second album and Taylor York became an official band member before their third). According to their press release, this has been a decision that the band knew was coming since the Farro brothers said that they would be departing from the band at the end of the year a while ago, and the band have kept it to themselves up until now. That was, until a fake blog post revealed the information without the bands consent and they have now come clean about it. I’m not going to blub and say that the world is over because Paramore have lost a couple of members, but it is always a shame when one of the bands you listen to a lot lose a member.

Obviously there have been worse tragedies – 2010 saw us lose Ronnie James Dio to cancer, and Slipknot bassist Paul Gray passed away as well, so there are always worse things that can happen, and I’m not saying this entirely exclusively about Paramore, but it does raise an interesting subject.

I’ve got to say, I’m a bit upset but I’m also a little curious as well. Don’t get me wrong, its sad that they feel the need to leave the band to go about things differently, but in fairness to them Josh is married now and is probably starting a family and can’t be on the road, and Zac is probably starting down the same road because he doesnt want to lose contact with his brother. Paramore obviously won’t be the same without them, no band ever is when they lose members, but after this I think a series of things could happen:

1) It’s likely that Josh and Zac will realise that Paramore actually IS where they’re happiest and there will be a big reform splattered over the music press and they’ll sell loads more of their new album they are to start writing soon because of it.

2) Because there’s only 3 members of the previous line-up left, they’ll probably form some kind of new band (as they should if nearly half of the original line-up isnt there anymore) and go in a new direction which will be fresh, different and interesting.

3) It will take the eye off of Hayley for a bit. Don’t get me wrong (again) I think Hayley is brilliant and sings really well, but no matter how much she tries to deny it Paramore will always be about her. It’s mostly not even her fault –  it’s the way press works, as they need a face to put to the name and its normally the front-person. So it just stands to reason that the bigger Paramore got, that would mean Hayley would always be that much bigger until she became what the band was about in some peoples eyes. So perhaps this will allow them to take a sabaticle and rework their image in the press a little.

4) I know Josh and Zac are obviously very good at what they do, but perhaps whoever they get in to play for them will be even better and it will almost be like starting over again, so Paramore will go back to playing some smaller venues and re-discover themselves all over again. Which will make it better for the fans as they will be able to see them playing in the kinds of venues they started out in.

5) They’ll break everything off entirely and Hayley will accept the persona shes now become in the press and embark on Solo projects of her own. Personally, I really liked the song she did for the Jennifer’s Body soundtrack as it was acoustic and also pretty punk as welll – like Hayley was doing Frank Turner songs. More of that would be very welcome!

So, why am I posting this exclusively about Paramore when bands split or members move on all the time? Because it struck me that no matter how much a band means to people or an individual, there is life after a line-up change. And sometimes its for the better. Coheed And Cambria changed their drummer after there was problems in the band and now Chris Pennie has added a new dynamic to their whole technical sound. Taking Back Sunday seem to change their guitarist each album they release, and they still keep selling records.

For those incredibly dedicated to a band such as Paramore, it’s easy to understand how they can become so much more than just a band. For the loyal fans, they’re not just a band, they’re all individuals that are playing music, and it’s all about who they are and what they do. They become so much more than a name, they actually become people you know intimately, and when one or more of those people leave that band that you love it’s like a friend moving away. But ultimately, it doesn’t mean that their music no longer exists – the records you have will always be there as a reminder of what they gave you, and they’re not going anywhere unless you sell them!

Ultimately, this is more than about Paramore really. I’ll openly admit that I love the band, but this happens all the time and it affects people differently, but bands will always make music as long as its what they love doing.

Whatever happens, its a shame they felt the need to split, but I’m dubious and interested as to what will come next.

The End.

Paramore – “brand new eyes”

Paramore, the Tennessee quintet that have risen to become pop-punk superstars, are FINALLY back with this, their third studio album entitled brand new eyes. And this time, they’re out with a hell of a lot to prove!! This is by no means the sound of a band continuing to create music for the sake of it. No, this is the sound of a band breaking out of their comfort zone and shouting their message right in your freakin’ face!

If their debut 2005 album All We Know Is Falling was the sound of a small band from Tennessee starting out in the world with good material and catchy hooks and vocals, and their second album in 2007 entitled RIOT! was the sound of them spreading their wings and finding their own voice, then brand new eyes is by far the sound of Paramore taking flight and soaring to entirely new heights of  success. Considering the troubles that the band have experienced in-between RIOT! and brand new eyes (i.e. near break-ups, cancelled tours and personal troubles amongst the band), this album has been called a “cathartic process”, and renewing a “broken band on the brink of separation”, and this is clearly reflected not just by the tone of the music, but in the lyrics and the construction of the album itself.

Careful opens the album with its fantastic swell and burst of an intro, and lyrics that profess “it’s only the real world: a life you will never know” which is great at showing how the first lot of songs on brand new eyes are the ones most fraught and twisted with unsaid feelings. This then leads into debut album single Ignorance, and one of Paramore‘s most abrasive, powerful and hard-hitting songs of their career. It kicks in with Josh Farro and new band addition Taylor York’s jarring staccato bursts of guitar and only increases the pressure of the song with Billy Talent-style backing-yells before bursting through with the line “Ignorance is your New Best Friend”, a line that says more about the fraught and emotional times the band have been through than most people would know, and has been described by Paramore themselves as “the song that saved our band”.

Although Paramore have never really described themselves as a Christian Rock band, they haven’t exactly shied away from their beliefs either, especially with songs like Miracle from RIOT!. However, the song Playing God addresses their beliefs a lot more head-on than before, and speaks of struggling with faith and people’s opinions with lines such as “you don’t deserve a point of view if the only thing you see is you” and is a real display of how much the band have had to grow up being on the road.

Brick By Boring Brick is, to put it bluntly, a pretty awesome song. Hayley Williams’ vocals scale to new heights on this song, the lyrics of which speak of someone living their lives with their head in the clouds whilst their real life isn’t what they want, and contains the chant-along anthem of this album that Woah! and Born For This did on their respective previous two albums. Turn It Off goes back to facing the troubles of how beliefs are tested more and more, whilst The Only Exception presents the first slowed down, love-ish song (it seems too cynical to be a proper love song) of the album.

Feeling Sorry regains some pace to the songs, and starts melding into an attitude that comes out the far end of the darker times the band have been through and steps into the light of their new era, whilst Looking Up brilliantly describes new mentalities amongst the band with lines like “I’ll never trade it in ’cause I’ve always wanted this and it’s not a dream anymore” before finishing with a powerful chant of “I can’t believe we almost hung it up. We’re just getting started!”, which is to say that this “new phase” for the band can only take them to better times.

Where The Lines Overlap is another fantastic set piece of the album that totally contrasts the songs at the start, and is a rock song with almost “anti-rock” lyrics which fully state the new status quo amongst the band. With a chorus that goes “no-one is as lucky as us, we’re not at the end but oh we already won”  and lines dotted throughout the song like “nothing to it, I’ve never been happier”, it’s hard to ignore the fact that this is by far the new shape of Paramore to come. This leads into Misguided Ghosts, which is a beautiful yet haunting acoustic song that lingers under your skin after just one listen. Finally, All I Wanted really shows what Hayley’s voice is capable of, spiralling into the stratosphere towards the end, and bringing the album to a brilliantly sentimental close.

The single Decode that the band wrote for the film Twilight is also included on the album, which in a way is a bit of a shame since it sold so well on the soundtrack that the album could have done without it. However, since it’s a Bonus Track and isn’t used as filler for the actual album, it works out alright and since I don’t own this song anyway, I personally am not complaining too much. It’s still a good song; it’s just that it doesn’t fit the progression and tone of the album all that well.

Overall, brand new eyes is a fantastically dynamic album that progresses from emotive, fraught and abrasive songs to lighter, more moving and passionate songs that show just how much the band have gone through to get to where they are now. This is a collection of brilliantly raw, brutally honest and frankly awesome songs that show just how much growing can be done by one band. This is what growing up sounds like. This is the TRUE sound of Paramore.

To be honest, I love this album. It’s completely fantastic, and is by far my album of the year, if not my life.