Half Noise, All Heart: Zac Farro on music and life after Paramore

In a move that’s 180 degrees away from his stint keeping the beat in Paramore, ZAC FARRO has struck out on his own with a solo project under the name HALFNOISE. Farro, with the help of producer Daniel James, created HalfNoise, a mini-LP of songs that embody much more atmospheric vistas then regular linear songwriting. That’s not to say his music is impenetrable or cloying: Hell, there was a moment in time when he didn’t even want to play his music for his closest friends. He’s since gotten over that phobia, and now HalfNoise is turning into a vehicle for the 22-year-old to pursue whatever tangent he chooses to explore. He talked with Jason Pettigrew about his personal musical tastes, getting over his fears as both a songwriter and a frontman, and whether or not a career modeled after Phil Collins is such a bad idea.

INTERVIEW: Jason Pettigrew

The music you’re making under the name HalfNoise is not the kind of thing that would get a boost from a sticker on the cover that reads, “Former Member of Paramore.” How did the particular aesthetic for HalfNoise come about? Was that electronic, ambient, atmospheric vibe something you’ve been into?
ZAC FARRO: Yeah, I’ve always had kind of a… I wouldn’t say super-diverse musical taste. When I was younger, I would get music from my brothers. My older brother would come home from school, and people would show him Radiohead and Sigur Rós. I listened to Hanson and pop music as a kid, and then we started getting into more rock music: Foo Fighters, Failure, kind of more heavier, more aggressive. Then I got into Sunny Day Real Estate. I just loved the heavier-hitting drum sounds—and Jimmy Eat World, of course. That’s where my inspiration as a drummer came from.

But at the same time, I really loved the ambient, atmospheric vibes of Sigur Rós, Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, like the indie music scene. So throughout playing with Paramore, I would always go to my own little place and write music. When

Paramore were home off tour, I always liked experimenting with sampling and it was just a different setting. I went from playing really heavy drums to making chilled-out music myself, so I guess it was a good contrast and a good balance for me. That’s always the thing I’d leaned toward if I was listening to music rather than playing. I would always play pretty upbeat and aggressive rock music, so the sound kind of came naturally just out of what I like to listen to. That’s my vibe and my pace. I try to pull from the experience I got from listening to bands like that.


 

HalfNoise is more of a textural, atmospheric project, but it still has a structural aspect.
My biggest thing was coming up with ideas and never really completing [them] so the textural side was really brought out of me through my friend Daniel James. He has a band in Nashville called Canon Blue, and he’s been reaching out to all of his friends saying, “Hey man, when I’m off tour, I’d love to produce some songs for you because I really want to get into that.” He’s produced a handful of my friends’ [bands], and he’s done amazing stuff on his own. He recorded his record in Denmark with the Efterklang guys, and then he went to Iceland and had Amina [the string section for Sigur Rós] record on his album. He’s the texture master. So all the textural and ambient bits on the recording were really brought out of me by Daniel.

A lot of people are like, “Well this doesn’t really sound like anything you’ve done before.” I attribute a lot of it to just expressing more of the stuff I listen to, but having the help of being able to express that in the way I wanted to. I needed that nudge, so that’s why I was really eager to work with Daniel.

 

It’s like you knew where you wanted to go, so you’re driving the car but you needed someone with the map.
Totally! And he’s had that experience. He knew how some of my favorite bands recorded. He’d read online how they recorded their records, what they used. He studies up on all of that stuff. “Oh, how did múm from Iceland record their Finally We Are No One record?” That’s one of my biggest influences, HalfNoise-wise, and he knew exactly how they recorded. He had the map, for sure.

 

The name HalfNoise is anything but. There are melodic concerns and ideas but it’s not like some really impenetrable, weird avant-garde thing that’s a whole room-evacuating maelstrom of sound. It’s not really brash and brusque like a lot of these projects can turn into. Did you have it mapped out in your head where HalfNoise was going to have texture, but there was going to be song structure, as well?
That’s a great question. I was very directionless. With the name and everything, I didn’t just want to have a name that sounds cool. I definitely wanted there to be meaning before I released it to the public. I didn’t even want to show my friends my songs: This is just private for me. Then I was like, “You know what? This is what I do. This is what I’m into.” Who knows, people might want to hear about it.

Weird for weird’s sake? That just doesn’t make sense. I hate when I listen to a record and you can’t tell if the band wanted to put something out that says, “I don’t care what you think, this is what I like.” I don’t like that. I like when songs get my attention, and they don’t have to be four-on-the-floor Top 40 songs, but they’re still exciting in their own way with a cool beat, but there is some different aspect or something more interesting than the normal linear verse and then a big chorus. So I definitely wanted to bridge the gap between structured pop songs and then really atmospheric nine-minute Sigur Rós songs that are just kind of like, “How would I show my friends this song?” My friends would be like, “Cool,” or people would be like, “What? Why did you put this out?” With Daniel, we came together on a lot of that stuff, and I’m really pumped on it turned out, and it’s enough of each, I feel.

 

 

Are there any things that don’t have anything to do with music that inform what you do? Architecture, literature, visual art? Are there things that inform the music that people wouldn’t really expect?
Yeah, totally. I appreciate these questions because in other interviews it’s been, like, 75 percent a normal Paramore interview and five percent HalfNoise and then the rest of it is another Paramore interview.

 

The way I look at it, you’ve already done the Paramore interview and that stuff is already out. There isn’t a lot [of press] concentrating on HalfNoise.
I don’t mind talking about [Paramore], but I really do appreciate the fact you’d start with my music. I just want to thank you for that.

But yes, I’m a very visual person. I’m intrigued when a band ties in their music really well with a music video or an album teaser, or it can be the album art. I really just love when the art and music of a band coincide. I really got into photography while doing this record. I took a trip to Sweden and England, and that’s where I got all the photos for the EP. I took all those photos. With HalfNoise, I’ve tried to do everything DIY. All the footage for the music videos and album teasers, that’s all footage I took. I had a friend help me edit it all together to kind of make sense. The cover of the EP is a picture of my friend running up a hill. I’m really intrigued when an artist or band incorporates more of their talent and what they’re into, more than just, “I recorded this record. I wrote this song, but someone else interpreted the music and made art.” I really like doing it all myself because it’s all my vision. I’m not a big reader, but I like reading some poetry, especially for writing lyrics now. It was never really something I did before, but now that I’m somewhat of a lyricist, I gotta [read] now.

I’m going to bring up the P-word now. You told NME the Paramore grind was bringing you down. The actual quote was, “I had a lot of negative feelings toward music. It was the thing that took me away from my family and my home, and I felt like it cost me my childhood. Now I see it as a blessing and I don’t regret it, but I needed a year to see it like that.” Subconsciously, do you see HalfNoise as some kind of psychic backdrop for your adulthood? Because you’re actively going beyond the linear verse-chorus-verse structure that’s part and parcel of the pop-rock scene. Do you feel what you’re creating now is a reaction to that?
I have a two-part answer for that. The first part is, it’s hard to not be misquoted, but I think [NME] did a fairly good job of getting what I said. I guess that quote is pretty fair, but it was more along the lines of I was really relieved that through the time I had off, I could see it for what it was and how it actually really was a great experience. I don’t regret [being in Paramore] at all.

But to answer your question about my subconscious: I don’t think it’s subconscious at all. I’m very aware of it. I think when every artist creates, it has to do with the season of life they’re in. That’s how I write. I’m sure not everybody does that. It’s not very therapeutic in a way like, “Oh, I need this music to help me get through what I went through while being on tour.” It was more life experience and life disappointment. Life still happens while you’re on tour. The therapeutic avenue I took was not because of Paramore as a band; it was because of personal experience. So everything I sing about, whether it happened during the time of Paramore or post-Paramore, had to do with personal experience. This whole project is just expressing to people the kind of music that really moved me and hopefully someone else will have that same experience that I got from listening to music similar to HalfNoise. I try to write what I’m feeling in the moment.

I wasn’t really trying to sound incredibly mature or brilliant. I was just trying to be myself and say, “This is what I’m into, and this is how I am.” I grew up a ton in these past few years. I’m 22: I’m at an age where I’m just discovering who I am as a person. It’s been a vital past two years of my life as a young man. I’ve definitely grown up personally, musically and definitely stepping away from all I’ve known. Paramore was all I knew. We started doing showcases and things when I was 13 years old, so I definitely needed to take a break from that for a little bit, step back and grow up and to make music on top of that. There’s no doubt it’s going to sound different.

You were the drummer in a popular pop-rock band and here you are completely front and center, putting yourself out there in a big way. Point blank: Are you terrified? 
Let me tell you, it was so nerve-wracking. I got the call from Daniel and my friend Gavin who plays drums in Paper Route. Daniel was like, “Man, you can sing. You can do it,” totally helping me out. Huge blessing, but I was like, “Dude, I don’t want anyone to hear this,” but the more time went on I decided I’m really proud of this and I want to give it a shot. They gave me a call and they were like, “Hey, Canon Blue and Paper Route are doing a tour, and we’d like HalfNoise to open up. We’ll be your band,” because I hadn’t put a band together yet. I was like, “Oh man, I don’t know.”

I have to be honest, though. We went to the first show, and I went to the stage for the first time I’ve sung in front of anybody ever. We were in Philadelphia and there are, like, 300 kids at this show, and I have to open my mouth and sing. I’m like, “I’m either going to choke and nothing’s going to come out, or I’ll do fine.” Those were the only two options I gave myself, and I did fine. So it was absolutely terrifying, but at the same time, I had this peace, and I was chilled about it.

I’m pretty confident in the state of mind and place I’m at in my life right now. I’ve dealt with criticism in the past, so I’m kind of used to rolling with the punches. The hardest thing for me to get over was singing live. I did those shows and everyone was super-encouraging. I’m not Jeff Buckley, but it was definitely a really cool experience. This whole thing has been a learning curve for sure, but it’s been really good at the same time.

Are you forming an honest-to-God band of other folks since your buddies probably have different schedules than yours? What’s the plan?
The guys I’ve asked to play with me are full-time members of their own bands. But the thing with HalfNoise was, I never thought it would be a huge touring entity. I thought it would be more of a production/artistic outlet for me.

I envision that at some point, HalfNoise wouldn’t be a touring band, but I would love for some of the songs to be on a soundtrack or in a documentary or something like that. When you put your music out, people want to see you play it, so I’ve had some offers and I have some potential shows in the future. Luckily, as far as I know right now, all the shows I need to do, those guys can do. Their schedules are aligning, but if it ever got to the point where I’m doing a two-month tour with this band, I’m definitely going to have to find some guys around town and definitely put something together.

 

Does any of what you’re doing right now inform Novel American, the band you have with your brother, Josh? What’s his take on HalfNoise?
He’s really proud of me. We’ve both had separate projects happening simultaneously. I love my brother so much. We have such a great connection with music and playing together. Honestly, HalfNoise is such a dear project to me, I definitely want to keep it separate from anything I do in the future, and that’s what I was saying about keeping it as more of a production thing and a creative outlet for me. Not that I couldn’t be creative in a band with Josh, say, Novel American or whatever we end up doing in the future. But this has always been special to me, and he respected that and he’s super-supportive.

But at the same time, I love playing drums. Performing drums live is something I love, too. I’d love, in the future, to be able to do a bit of both, tour with Novel American or whatever we do here as a drummer. Right now, I’m just letting it do it’s own thing. I’m not putting any expectation on [HalfNoise], and I’m just trying to enjoy the process and the experience. Who knows? Maybe I’ll do this full-time for the rest of my music career or maybe I’ll do this and play drums with a band and tour. I’m not too sure yet. Right now, it’s just exciting because it’s something new and different.

So Novel American aren’t going to cover HalfNoise’s “Free The House”?
Not as of right now, because I don’t know if I can—like Phil Collins—sing and play drums at the same time.

While chewing a stick of gum.
Maybe I can do that. But they’re definitely going to be separate. [Laughs.] alt