The Hayley Williams-led pop-punk group Paramore sent fans on a whirlwind over the month with cryptic messages on their social media channels and a round of festival cancellations. Now, the “Ain’t it Fun” band has revealed their plans for the future and alignment with 2024’s Record Store Day.
Throughout the month of March, Paramore was slated to appear at three festivals: Vive Latino in Mexico City, Festival Estereo Picnic in Bogata, and Sao Paulo’s Lollapalalooza Brazil. However, they took to social media in January to state that they would no longer perform and Kings of Leon would be taking their place. This followed the previously-announced cancellation of their headlining spot at iHeartRadio’s ALTer Ego festival.
| READ: Paramore Cancels Festival Appearances, Promises ‘See You in the Next Era |
At the end of 2023, the group wiped their social media channels clean and even seemingly took down their website, which only reads a “404 Error Code.” This left fans questioning their future as a band, particularly due to a comment they made in an interview with UPROXX, where they noted that “all three members agreed that there’s a level of uncertainty” after the band fulfilled their label obligations with Atlantic Records.
After two months of leaving fans’ questions up in the air, Paramore has now revealed some exciting news: “After a long career in the music industry, we have decided to announce that we are going to continue to have a long career in the music industry (sorry for any inconvenience).”
In an Instagram post, which also revealed that they were named the 2024 Record Store Day Ambassador, they shared their first public statement as “freshly independent” recording artists.
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“Our first order of business as a freshly independent Paramore is to shine a light on independent records stores – a vital part of our journey from music obsessed school friends to professional music makers,” Paramore said in the post, noting that they are “humbled to be your ambassadors for Record Store Day 2024,” calling the timing “kismet.”
Paramore went on to note that music discovery “was always meant to be romantic,” and indie record stores continue to be a space that offer a “tangible, tactile experience of music discovery.”
“In this world that feels more disconnected and hostile than ever, it feels important to remain in touch (literally) with what inspires us, empowers us, or simply brings us joy,” Paramore continued. “Thankfully, for all our sakes, there still survives among the chaos, the purity and radical simplicity of a great record store.”
Pop-punkers can finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing that Williams, Taylor York, and Zac Farro are staying together after all this time. It seems that their lack of social media presence has acted as a restart to their career, a similar approach we’ve seen other acts like All Time Low enact in recent months.
Paramore first arrived on the scene in the early 2000s, cementing their spot among the emo greats with their 2005 debut All We Know Is Falling. They continued with fan-favorites “Misery Business” and “crushcrushcrush” from 2007’s Riot! and achieved massive success with Brand New Eyes‘ “The Only Exception” and “Ignorance” before dropping the smash-hit “‘Aint it Fun” from 2013’s self-titled. In 2023, they returned with This Is Why,. which just scored their first-ever Grammy award for Best Rock Album.
Fans can catch Paramore opening for Taylor Swift on The Eras Tour across Europe this summer for a run kicking-off on May 9 and concluding on August 17.
