Credit: Press

Hayley Williams discusses Paramore’s journey in a handwritten letter

Mon 24 October 2022 11:25, UK

Ahead of Paramore’s headline set at Las Vegas’ When We Were Young festival, Hayley Williams took to social media to share an emotional letter with fans about the band’s journey.

The festival is a nostalgia-filled event with emo bands from the 2000s that Paramore headlined alongside My Chemical Romance. This year’s event was marred by weather issues which led to one-day being cancelled just an hour before the gates were opened for festival goers, some of whom had travelled thousands of miles to attend.

Paramore headlined the festival’s Park Stage for all three dates, and Williams took to her Instagram Stories to share a handwritten letter about her pride in topping the bill. “We fell in love with this subset of post-punk and hardcore likely because nothing else moved us. We didn’t fit in other places,” she explained.

Adding: “To be a young girl in love with this scene was to have the hope that I might find my own way to belong. It took years to find that belonging. It’s taken a lot of unlearning. A lot of untangling knots I didn’t even know were there. What I did know was that for every ‘Take off your top!’ or snarky punkzine review… For every dramatic headline pinned on my name, or any season of self-doubt… No one was going to define Paramore but Paramore.”

Williams looked back to the start and how far Paramore have come since they began on their journey: “Nearly 20 years later, we find ourselves a pillar of the very scene that threatened to reject us. And me.”

The singer also boasted of how Paramore have climbed to the top of the pile by exclusively doing “exactly what we knew was real for us”. Williams also noted how the festival is “celebrating the fact that, as a scene, we’ve come a long way – with much further to go”.

She added: “Fuck the ones who doubted! Hugs to the ones who watched on and even sort of believed. Young girls, queer kids, and anybody of any color… We have shifted this scene together, messily, angrily, heartbroken, and determined. Tonight, for me at least, is about celebrating all the facets of what punk music actually represents. All the things it wasn’t allowed to be when we were young. Can’t wait to see everyone tonight.”

Watch the footage below of Paramore debuting new song, ‘All I Wanted’, during their headline set.