Paramore appeared for a cover story in NME in honor of their brand new album, This Is Why, dropping today. After several years, the band members opened up about everything from their inspirations and struggles during recent shows to serving as a guiding light to a new class of musicians.
Throughout the piece, Hayley Williams also opened up about how different things were in the early-aughts emo scene, despite people’s tendency to look back on it nostalgically.
“It’s revisionist history on a less heavy topic,” Williams said. “People look back with these rose-tinted glasses. They talk about the good and forget the rest. It was an alternative scene for a reason – it was weird.”
As a younger band fronted by a woman, Paramore and Williams also had a completely different experience, compared to the other bands surrounding them.
“Oh, my God. I hope no young female experiences the sh*t that I experienced,” she added. “When we were teenagers, the way forward was to be tough all the time. Our entire scene was contributing to sh*tty treatment of women and anything that wasn’t masculine. We were out on Warped Tour, this little Fueled By Ramen band acting like a hardcore band on stage. It was like if I didn’t spit further, I felt like someone was going to throw me out.”
Because of this, Williams continues to shine a light on other young stars, including Billie Eilish, PinkPantheress, and more inspired by Paramore’s decades-long discography.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
