Josh Farro’s New Band: Novel American

“Basically, I met these guys in high school — they’re a little older than me, and that’s a big deal when you’re in high school, they were always in the cool crowd — but we connected after high school, and we got together after the whole Paramore thing, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be in another band,’ ” Farro told MTV News. “But I called the guys, we got together, we wrote and we jammed, and it was great, so we decided, ‘Let’s do another band.’ And, honestly, I had some ideas that just didn’t fit with Paramore, and I said, ‘Guys, we can try these,’ and they just loved them, and so that’s really how it all started.”

Those guys Farro is referring to are Van Beasley, Tyler Ward and Ryan Clark, formerly of Nashville act Cecil Adora. They’ll now be singing, drumming and playing bass, respectively, in Novel American, with Farro on guitar (“I never wanted to sing,” he said. “My voice — and this is not false humility — is just not that good”). And starting with their very first practice, they aimed to break the boundaries Farro had been limited by in Paramore.

“My wife came up with the band name, because we were going through quite a long list — it got to the point where it was consuming our minds, because it was exciting — and she was like, ‘What about Novel American?’ … Because the definition means ‘Of a new kind, or something that hasn’t been seen or heard before.’ And I think that kind of describes us,” Farro said. “We want to be a new breath of fresh air to the music scene. We all love Jimmy Eat World, so it’s hard not to sound like them, but there’s a little of everything in there. We’re huge fans of Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Explosions in the Sky … there’s everything in there, really.”

Farro said that, right now — roughly a month into their existence — Novel American are keeping their goals manageable. They’re planning to record an EP, “play some shows around town” and focus on playing music strictly for the sake of playing music. Like we said, Farro is done talking about the past — mostly because it’s what he and his fans want.

“[Paramore fans] just don’t want this to be some dragged-out drama-fest. They just want to move on,” he said. “I watched [MTV News’ ‘Paramore: The Last Word’ interview], and, you know, I think we just disagree on a lot of things, and that’s OK. I don’t think it’s wrong to disagree with someone, so, um, yeah, I just wish them the best in the future, and I really don’t want to make it this huge drama thing, because then it becomes this huge war, and I don’t want to dwell on that. I’m more excited about the future and this new band and that sort of thing.”

With a new band in the works, Farro finds the future to be a lot more appealing than his recent past.