McFly: We've made the best album of our career
McFly: We've made the best album of our career
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Wednesday, 02, Jul 2008 10:37
With their return to our radios imminent, McFly are joining other high-profile acts such as Paul Weller, Suzanne Vega, Sam Sparro, the Ting Tings, CSS, N*E*R*D and the Feeling on the stage at Camden's Koko club for the second annual iTunes Festival: London.
With the series of completely-free gigs taking place over 31 nights in July - entry to which can only be earned by winning tickets in exclusive competitions - the festival represents a great chance to enjoy your favourite acts without hurting a wallet already pressurised by the credit crunch.
And having made the break from Island to set up their own label, Super Records, the pop-punk foursome have "the best album we've ever made" to show off during the festival.
inthenews.co.uk's Richard James spoke to the McFly guys about their new offerings, going it alone, movie stardom and Gordon Ramsay.
Hey guys, so you're playing the iTunes festival this summer, who are you looking forward to seeing?
Tom: There's a lot great acts playing such as Paul Weller and NERD, who are starting it all off, and people like the Zutons.
Danny: I'm going to be there every day!
Tom: It's going to be awesome. We're very proud to be playing.
I'm assuming you're all big iPod users, what you do you think of the whole downloading music phenomenon?
Harry: Absolutely. I pretty much download all my music now. I buy CDs now and again but I think it's pretty much awesome because wherever you are, and if one of the guys recommends some music to me, I can literally have it like that.
So you're not worried about the negative effects of illegal downloading?
Tom: We definitely don't agree with people downloading music illegally. There's been a huge change in the music industry over the last couple of years because of downloading, which we've experienced. And now there's stuff like downloads, for example, counting towards chart positions. We love downloading music - as Harry said you can pretty much have it anywhere.
Dougie: It makes it a lot easier for me because whenever I'm walking around HMV I always need the toilet and I can never remember what I need to buy either. But if you're sitting on your laptop you need up buying more music anyway.
Tom: And you can go to the toilet while you're downloading!
Danny: And you can buy music videos and stuff.
Tom: I still like going to record stores and stuff.
Danny: The smell!
Tom: The smell indeed, and just browsing for an hour or so but yeah I certainly enjoy downloading.
So what happened with your old record label Island Records? What caused you guys to leave?
Harry: We left on really good terms with Island Records. They did a lot of good stuff for us and helped us to get to where we are today so we're very thankful for that but I just think it got to a point where we were just going through the motions and we just released a greatest hits which was something we didn't really want to do. And we just felt it was a great opportunity to do something different and that's why we left and set up our own record label.
So was the release of your greatest hits album forced upon you to a certain extent?
Harry: I mean it was a positive thing but it wasn't something we necessarily wanted to do. I can understand why the label wanted to do that. But it was things like that [and now] it's given us a complete free range to go out to Australia and record an album and spend as much time that we wanted and needed to make the album that we always wanted to make really. So it's a great experience so far.
So then, what can we expect from this new album? Is it similar to the stuff you've done before?
Tom: It's just that the quality of the production and the songs is a lot better than anything we've done in the past. Somehow we've managed to write the best songs of our career on this album and it's the best we've ever made. And production wise Jason Perry, who was the lead singer in the rock band A, he's produced this album and he's done an amazing job. It's a real step up, it's got lots more energy and a lot more balls, it's not necessarily a drastic step in another direction, it's just the quality of the songs are a lot better than the stuff we've done in the past and we're incredibly proud of it.
Are Tom and Danny still doing the majority of the song writing then?
Tom: We all write. Harry probably writes the least but he writes some lyrics with us sometimes and it's different every time. Sometime me and Danny will write a song or Danny and Dougie will come up with an idea. We come up with ideas individually and then over a year period we work towards putting them all together.
I've read that you're releasing your new album for free with the Mail on Sunday. What's the thinking behind that, is it just to get your music out to as many people as possible?
Harry: Exactly yeah. There's something like three million people who buy the Mail on Sunday and to have that many people have our album in one day is an opportunity we could never have considered in the past. We make music because we want people to hear it and enjoy it and we also wanted to appeal to a large audience so that's why we did it.
Where you able to make that kind of decision then because we had left Island Records and you had more control over your music?
Harry: Exactly that, yeah.
Have you signed anyone else to your record label or is just yourselves at the moment?
Tom: We're just concentrating on our stuff first but in the future it's definitely something we'd consider.
Do you feel under any pressure to produce a certain kind of pop music and to keep out producing the same kind of music?
Tom: No. I think that's been one of the things with leaving the record company, we gave ourselves complete control over the music and something that was really important to us, you know, we didn't want to have any preconceptions, we wanted to go out to Australia and make the album that we wanted to make and it just felt very natural to us. The songs we were writing just happened to better than anything we've done before and we've come back having made the album we've always wanted to make really.
Harry: We're still very much a pop band. That's the music we enjoy and the music we enjoy making.
So you don't ever feel pigeon-holed into make a certain type of music?
Harry: Absolutely not no. As Tom just said, the songs were written and we just went out and had fun recording them.
You guys appeared in Just my Luck alongside Lindsay Lohan. Have you got any plans to appear in anymore films soon?
Danny (joking): Yeah I've got Batman coming out soon if you want to come to the premiere.
Tom: Imagine you in Batman! No it was just a one off opportunity really. It was something that came along. It sounds corny but it was a once in a lifetime opportunity when you get offered to appear in a Hollywood movie. If something like that comes up, I wouldn't say we would never do it again but we'll just have to wait and see.
Danny: We're going to get acting lessons next time! Well I will anyway.
OK then, one final question. You appeared in The F-Word with Gordon Ramsey recently. How did it go? Is he really as intimidating as he appears on TV?
Tom: It was a lot of fun. We have a great time. He takes cooking really seriously.
Danny: Does he?
(Silence)
Danny: I'm joking, that was terrible
Tom: That was terrible. He's a really nice guy and we had a really good time.
So he wasn't too intimidating then?
Tom: No. He's a really nice guy.
Harry: I think Tom and Dougie sweat out a few pounds!
Tom: Yeah it was intense. Really intense.
Richard James