Guitarist Taylor York may be the newest member to join the multi-unit-shifting international success that is Paramore. But he performed in a proto-version of the band with brothers guitarist Josh and drummer Zac Farro before the Tennessee pop-punks officially formed in 2004.
“My parents wanted me to go to high school instead of being in a band,” says Taylor, who turns 20 today, speaking from Glasgow, where the five-piece is about to play their first UK show of the tour.
“It all worked out because when [previous guitarist] Hunter Lamb left [in 2007] I was there. I had never toured before so they wanted to make sure I was the right fit before they made it official.”
His membership was announced in June and underlined by his contribution to Paramore’s third album. Brand New Eyes features five Taylor co-compositions penned alongside the core writing team of Josh and singer Hayley Williams.
“I have had a song on every record so far,” admits Taylor. “But this was the first time I could do things in the studio, and get involved with production.”
The band worked with producer Rob Cavallo for the new album, who had previously collaborated with them on their song Decode, which became a highlight of the Twilight movie soundtrack.
Rob’s CV includes work with My Chemical Romance, Alanis Morissette, Jewel and, most notably, Green Day, producing all their albums between breakthrough Dookie and American Idiot.
“We didn’t have a lot of time to do the record,” says Taylor. “But he created a great atmosphere for us, which was really relaxed, free and creative.”
The band’s second album Riot had catapulted Paramore into another league – selling more than 100,000 copies in the UK and a staggering million in the US.
“I think there were really good songs on that record,” says Taylor. “We have Hayley as a singer – someone girls can relate and look up to – writing about things that were happening to her and to a lot of the fans, who are about the same age. It’s easy for them to connect with our music.”
The other way the band connects is through the internet, which allows them to have a closer and more personal link to their techno-savvy audience.
“Our first album wasn’t very big,” says Taylor. “But we had a steady build and a lot of that was due to the internet and the online community.
“It’s interesting in the UK, as we haven’t been here in a while and the shows we played last time were significantly smaller. It’s been a real shock to us to be playing to so many people!”
The band was nervous about following up a success like Riot, but Taylor says writing Brand New Eyes was much easier than they first thought.
“The minute we started writing it came really naturally,” he says. “We didn’t really spend much time on each song. We wanted to leave it the way it was, with the emotion left in there.”
He says the band is now in the enviable position of having achieved many of its ambitions relatively quickly.
“We are nominated for another Grammy award for Decode,” says Taylor. “So it would be cool to win that. And I would love to play Madison Square Gardens in New York.
“But we’ve reached all the goals we set out for. Anything else is a bonus!”
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