In a past few days Hayley Williams was doing many phone interviews promoting the upcoming MONUMENTOUR and Paramore’s two European shows scheduled for August. For this second reason Williams talked to Emily Mackay from the British Guardian. Surley, they talked about Paramore’s co-headlining Reading & Leeds spot and the set list for this very special moment.
“I feel like, for the most part, whenever we play festivals, we just want to play a lot of fast songs. But now we’ve made it up to headlining, I think there is a responsibility to represent all sides of who you are,” said Hayley. If you haven’t got a chance to grab The Guide with this interview, click “read more” to see the full interview and check out our TOUR section to find out the exact day for Paramore’s Reading & Leeds shows.
The co-headline spot at Reading & Leeds seems a great fit for Paramore; rock, but not too rock.
It’s been cool to grow at that festival. I think the fans who have come to see us from when we started out are really excited to be able to come and support us at the Main Stage, especially in a headlining slot. I feel really at home at Reading & Leeds. I mean, obviously super-nervous, because every time you’re at the top of a billing, that’s a lot of pressure.
Do you think you’ll get to hang out with co-headliners Queens of the Stone Age?
I’m not really sure they’d want to hang out with us because we’re all massive fans. We’d breathe heavily all over them.What’s been your most life-changing festival experience?
I ended up getting a tattoo to commemorate this one day we had at a festival – it was Cleveland Warped Tour 2007. We were about to go on but it had been stormy all day. It was a crazy storm, things were falling over, and everyone was running and trying to get away. But all the people that came to see us play weren’t moving, they just wanted to watch us. They were screaming “We won’t go! We won’t go!” That day just meant a whole lot to me. That’s what I love about festivals – you never really know what’s going to happen. I like that spontaneity. I got the tattoo at the same festival two years later. It’s behind my left ear. It’s a cloud with a lightning bolt, and it says ‘WARPED!’In March you did your own cruise festival, which must have been ace.
It really was. I didn’t know what to expect. I was like, ‘Does that mean we’re old, that we’re, like, headlining a cruise now?’Did you feel the temptation to crack out any cruise-ship show tunes?
I really wanted to walk out to Come Sail Away. I really wanted to ham it up with the whole theme. But no, we didn’t do any show-tunes, much as I would have loved that. Taylor (York, guitarist) wore Hawaiian button-up T-shirts the whole time. But I think we did a really good job of not making it cheesy, while also making fun of how ridiculous the whole thing was. And those two shows that we played were two of my favourite shows of the last four, five years – especially the second one, where we played more deep cuts.”Will you bring out any rare tracks for the fans at your Reading & Leeds slot?
I feel like, for the most part, whenever we play festivals, we just want to play a lot of fast songs. But now we’ve made it up to headlining, I think there is a responsibility to represent all sides of who you are. It’s going to be so nice to do our tour with Fall Out Boy right before Reading & Leeds, because we’ll feel practised, and we can go into it with a set that, hopefully, all our fans will like. Hopefully even people who have never heard of us, or don’t want to give us a chance, will hear us and think, “Wow, they really know what they’re doing”, or “they put a lot of work into that”. And that’s all I want! I love to win people over. If you’re not there to see us, I at least want you to be able to walk away and say, “Hey, that wasn’t too bad.” Or, “I loved it.” Any of those I would be into.
