“In my eyes”: The song Hayley Williams called the turning point for Paramore
Bands that have been around for a long time don’t get that way without going through a few shakeups. Anyone can put together a group with their best friends from high school, but when money starts becoming a factor, it’s easy for relationships to get complicated and bridges to get burned now and again. And while Hayley Williams has experienced a few too many twists and turns regarding Paramore, there have always been those songs that have kept her pushing forward every time she makes a record.
Before Paramore became one of the biggest names in modern music, Williams already had to worry about being separated from her own band. She never had the desire to be a solo artist when she started out, and while she has since branched out into different musical ventures on her own, there’s always been a certain chemistry to the way that her voice plays off the guitar of Taylor York on some of their greatest albums.
But when looking back at their meteoric rise to fame, Riot was both the best and the worst thing that could have happened to a young band. It’s easy to forgive songs being a bit problematic since they were coming from a bunch of kids, having that kind of rise to fame made everyone have a stronger opinion about what was going to make it onto their next record. It was bound to get messy, but you’d hardly know it from listening to Brand New Eyes.
Although the band weren’t exactly fighting with each other on the same level as a Rumours or Bridge Over Troubled Water, it was clear that there was some tension in the air when working on tunes like ‘Careful’ and ‘Brick By Boring Brick’, even if the tunes got a little more mellow on the hits like ‘The Only Exception’. If there’s one song that captures all that frustration in one place, it’s ‘Ignorance’.
While the song itself could have been a thinly veiled jab from Williams to members of the group, it’s clear that it’s not meant as a direct attack. This was the sound of the band growing up in real time, and when talking about the tune later, Williams felt that it was the perfect snapshot of what she felt when working on the record.
The band was far from easygoing, but that was all a part of them growing up as far as she was concerned, saying, “In my eyes, this song is a huge turning point for the band. The truth of it is, growing up is not easy. We’re five different people who have to work towards the same goal on a daily basis. There were a lot of times when I felt really alone or angry or insecure. Sometimes it takes songs to get the point across. It’s unfair that I’m the one who gets to talk about it but it helped me a lot. The line ‘ignorance is your new best friend’ is about how I felt I was losing people, and I think the band did too.”
And listening to how the following records shaped up, Williams wasn’t looking to go back on her words for a second. ‘Ain’t It Fun’ was about trying to transition to another part of life, and while things took a bit of a darker turn on records like After Laughter, it was all in service of them trying to find themselves rather than catering to what one song was supposed to say for their entire career.
While the band’s sound will only continue to evolve, the lyrics of ‘Ignorance’ have only become more pertinent. There are always going to be people who treat them like a total stranger when they move on, but any artist would rather follow their heart than cater to someone else’s vision for them.
