BBC Interview with Josh

Konu: BBC Interview with Josh Salı Ocak 13, 2009 5:51 pm

Turning youthful energy, emotion and attitude into passionate, melodic heavy rock, US band Paramore are rising fast.

Fronted by the flame-haired Hayley Williams, the Tennessee quartet have been nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards and are in the middle of a sold-out UK tour.

Lead guitarist and songwriter Josh Farro, 20, talks about their fanatical crowds, their Grammy plans and their Christian beliefs.

Q: How is the tour going?

A: It's going unbelievably. We've been to Manchester and London and both have been about 4,000 kids a night. We're having a blast. The gigs are full of energy.

Q: What do you have that fans relate to?

A: We're pretty young, and all of our fans are pretty much our age and they can relate to us pretty well.

Also a lot of our songs give kids our age hope. Even if the songs aren't very uplifting - they may be about a tragedy in life or something - kids relate to it and think "wow, I'm not the only one that goes through this".

Paramore
Hayley has become a heroine for thousands of teenage girls
Q: Who is your average fan?

A: I would say the average is probably about 16 years old. Most of the time it's a girl, and if it's a girl she's got red hair and wears skinny jeans and hoodies and studded belts. Just like Hayley.

Q: Who are your musical heroes?

A: As a band, probably Jimmy Eat World, the Foo Fighters and we love Muse.

Q: What first inspired you to pick up a guitar?

A: At about age 13, my dad was teaching my older brother how to play guitar and I was pretty curious. I wanted to learn as well.

I watched him teach my brother, and then once they'd walked out of the room, I'd pick up the guitar and try and figure it out on my own. Since then, I've fallen in love with it.

We're pretty well behaved, we don't really party or drink - it's not really our thing
Q: Your younger brother Zac is on drums - did you think about forming a band with your older brother too?

A: No - when we first started playing it was when Hanson was pretty big. We didn't want to be Hanson.

Q: You've just had a day off from the tour - what did you do?

A: We had a Sunday roast, which was amazing. And we went to Oxford Circus in London and shopped because we needed to find some clothes for the Grammys. We all found some nice stuff, mainly in Top Man. That's our favourite store over here. I bought some black pointy dress shoes for £50.

Paramore
The group released their second album Riot in June 2007
Q: Are you going to wear them to perform at the Grammys?

A: We're not performing, but we are performing at a couple of shows around the Grammys. A couple of days before, Timbaland's throwing a party and we're playing a couple of songs there.

Q: You're up against Amy Winehouse in the best new artist category - are you a fan?

A: No I am not. I just don't like her music, I don't think she's very good and I think she's a drama queen. She makes artists look like divas, which some are, but her head is in the wrong place. If she's an artist she needs to be about the music, not about always trying to get attention.

Q: How do you have fun on the road - are you well behaved or debauched?

A: We're pretty well behaved. We don't really party or drink. It's not really our thing. On the road, we like to hang out and watch movies together. Especially over here in the UK, we like to go sightseeing and see the countryside.

Q: How important is your faith to your music?

We do believe that God has blessed us with an opportunity to be in a band and tour the world
A: Our faith is very important to us. It's obviously going to come out in our music because if someone believes something then their worldview is going to come out in anything they do. But we're not out here to preach to kids, we're out here because we love music.

We do believe that God has blessed us with an opportunity to be in a band and tour the world and we're going to use this gift to the full potential.

Q: What are you more interested in - Super Bowl or Super Tuesday?

A: What's Super Tuesday? [The big round of primaries for the US presidential election.] Oh, Super Bowl all the way. Go Giants!

Josh Farro was speaking to BBC News Entertainment reporter Ian Youngs. Paramore's new single, Misery Business, is released on 11 February.

Source : http://www.paramorefans.com

» BBC Chartblog Interview with Hayley and Zac
» Josh Farro Biography