Hayley Williams on Next Paramore Album: "I Have a Lot to Say"

As 2008 winds down, Paramore are celebrating the success of their contributions to the Twilight soundtrack and making plans to record their third full-length LP. "The only thing I know for a fact is that it's in the very earliest stage possible," lead singer Hayley Williams says. That disclaimer aside, Williams said the band will be holing up in their native Tennessee to work on the new album, after recording their last two LPs in Orlando and Elmwood Park, NJ. "It's time to be home, and play music at home," she says. "I think we're really going to gain a lot from that." The decision also means any possible collaborators (Williams says the band has narrowed down their list of possible producers) will be heading to Nashville.

"I have a lot to say this time around, and there's a lot of things I thought I knew that I was absolutely wrong about," Williams says. The band's lives off stage over the past year and a half, including members' parents getting divorced and break-up rumors following the cancellation of a European tour, have resulted in trying times. "Things happened that are very normal, but they were so magnified by distance and being busy," Williams says. "I can't believe we've made it out of this, and I feel we're stronger because of it."

The band hopes the record will be out late next summer, and Williams says it's too early to tell if Paramore's new material will resemble the darker tunes featured in Twilight. "We're definitely not going to rush anything or force songs out," she says. "There are moments I didn't know what was going to happen, and I'm just proud of where we are now."

Related Stories:
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• Exclusive Look at Paramore's DVD The Final RIOT!
• Q&A: Hayley Williams

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

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