Paramore’s Hayley Williams has launched a new emo-themed radio show as part of BBC Sounds’ Back to Back series called Everything is emoand here is the premise, in the words of Hayley:
Not too long ago people started calling me a “veteran” of my scene and the music industry. It seems so funny to me because most of the time I still feel like a fan. The serious truth is that I actually grew up in this scene for the past two decades. I guess that’s quite long. I’m really excited to have the opportunity to speak publicly about the bands and songs that make my favorite subgenre feel at home. And while it will be fun to take a few trips down memory lane, I’m just as excited, if not more so, to play music from new artists I’m discovering all the time.
Everything Is Emo is meant to feel like a conversation with other fans of the genre, young and (ahem) old. There will be a lot of interaction, which I hope will be somewhat reminiscent of the message boards and forums I used to frequent as a scene teenager.
More than anything, I hope music fans and artists will be thrilled to hear from a highly regarded spectrum of “EMO” in all its forms. And yes, of course, you will hear Paramore.
The first episode is out now, and it features Hayley performing music and expressing her love for a wide range of artists – some of whom are regularly considered emo and others might not be, because as Hayley says , “everything is emo” — love Jimmy Eat World, The Postal Service, Wet Leg, Linkin Park, Yeah yeah yeah, My Chemical Romance, and more. She also mentions lime garden as one of his favorite new bands, talks a lot about Dusk soundtrack, and she works in personal stories that tie into the bands and the genre too.
Listen to the full episode HERE and check out a clip and the full list of songs Hayley has played below.
Hayley also says that later in the series she will talk about how Paramore’s Taylor York got busted by a copy for listening to Kelly Clarkson, what the self-titled album Blink-182 means to her and why Dashboard Confessional reminds him of people crying on MTV. New episodes air every Friday.
Hayley also did an interview with Rolling Stone United Kingdom about the show, and here’s what she has to say about the “everything is emo” concept:
From day one, I was perplexed when I first heard of that word “emo.” I searched the internet and tried to figure it out because I was getting into music that wasn’t popular on the radio. I was discovering this whole other world and I wanted to understand it better because I wanted to know everything, I really wanted to be in it. And emo has changed so much over the years. But one thing has never changed since day one: people don’t know what fucking emo is.
One of the articles I put out at the time, when I was 13, had Ian MacKaye from Minor Threat and Fugazi saying “this is so stupid, everything is emo”. “Punk music is emo because people express their rage or frustration” or whatever. And I’ve seen it evolve over the years, like you say, one minute emo sounds like pop punk and the next minute sounds like Phoebe Bridgers and Conor Oberst doing a project together. Where we’re at now, people are a lot more open to a lot of different versions of the word and I think that’s cool.
She also talked more about Dusk in the interview, as well as Paramore’s debut, making her playlists for the new show, more about Kelly Clarkson, and more. Read the full interview here.
Hayley also just joined Billie Eilish to perform Paramore’s “Misery Business” and Billie even more recently revealed her favorite Paramore song: “All I Wanted.”
Paramore also has a new album in the works. In the meantime, check out our reviews of their first five albums.
Everything is emo Episode 1 track listing
Jimmy Eat World – A Chorus of Praise
Panic! at the Disco – I write sins, not tragedies
Blue Foundation – Eyes On Fire
The postal service – such great heights
Wet Leg – Wet Dream
Linkin Park – Leave everything else aside
Yeah yeah yeah – Cards
L’Occasion – The Taste of Ink
Paramore – I caught myself
Linden Garden – Marbles
My Chemical Romance – Helena
