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20.09.13 MusicWeek 41
there and we were getting really excited about it saying ‘You should produce this album, get involved!’ We high-fived, and then we really didn’t really talk about it again.
DJ: It was great because we recorded some really interesting things. We went to Texas and had an amazing time. We sort of co-produced but he was the lead.
TF: You need someone who’s got an outsider’s opinion on an album, someone who you trust. We tried it ourselves but it’s hard to get perspective. You need someone’s who’s there to kick your arses a bit.
HJ: You need someone to challenge you. It’s no good just leaving it all up to us. If you have a producer who is older and has been in the game for 20 years, we respect him. We respect Jason, we’re all into what he’d done with his band [‘A’] and he understands us, helping us be the best band that we can be.
Was dropping Jason for 2010’s Above The Noise [co-produced by Dallas Austin and Taio Cruz] a bad decision in hindsight? DJ: It’s just part of the road that’s led us back to him now. If we didn’t do that we wouldn’t have known to work with him again.
TF: I think me in particular [feels] down about album five, but it was still an amazing experience, and working with Dallas [Austin] was incredible. He’s extremely talented… It was different and not really in my comfort zone I guess but that is what being a band or any kind of artist in any creative field is about. You’re always going to have to try some stuff and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
HJ: Dallas was a lot of fun as well. The thing with Jason though, he gets us being a band, he understands us. He is so clued in on the music industry and what’s cool and what’s not cool and how good [rock band] Rush are. We’re in the studio, the four of us playing, and that‘s the most fun thing.
DJ:Our first single is just one take of us live off the studio floor and listening back, it captures everything.
TF: The previous album was all about us doing something different, making a statement. It was so not about that this time. We’ve just really made an album that we’ve really enjoyed making and think the fans are going to love it. It would be amazing if Radio 1 would play our songs and it does really well. And if it doesn’t, we’ve made an album which we are really proud of.
HJ: Jason is absolutely hilarious as well, we had so much fun…
DJ: You’ve never seen a 40-year-old man get so excited over a bag of M&Ms.
TF: He’s worked with us, this is the third full album he’s produced now and he’s seen us grow up and he’s been a huge part of that. He knows that Danny is perfectly capable of producing an album on his
ABSOLUTE MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION:‘MCFLY HAVE A MAGICAL COMBINATION OF QUALITIES AND INDEPENDENCE’
Absolute Marketing & Distribution director and co-owner Simon Wills on working with the band for the second time on their upcoming new album…
What is Absolute’s role in McFly’s new album campaign and what can you bring to the table? We are really excited to be back on McFly duty in a distribution and marketing capacity; utilising our core services of physical and digital distribution, sales and marketing for retail, including any and all advertising booking, as well as any further ideas concerning the overall strategy and direction of the release campaign, as we work in close partnership with the band’s management team to achieve the best outcome.
Why did you choose to work with McFly again after first hooking up for Radio:ACTIVE? They’d initially approached us about releasing the new album, which is great praise as we worked with them back in 2008 for the Radio:ACTIVE album campaign, so we are familiar with how they work and the relationship was already strong. At that point, it was their first independent album release and all involved were pleased with the success it achieved. We’d like to pick up where we left off and make their latest effort an even bigger DIY feat for a band and team that are already the picture of independent and self-sufficient.
own and he gives us that kind of respect and freedom ourselves, and that’s important for us to have. Danny’s producer’s fee is too high as well.
Do you foresee more albums from McFly after this one coming up? All: Absolutely.
TF:We’re gonna go until we go.
DJ: You know what’s amazing? I was looking through all our files, there are so many songs that I think [we’ve] forgotten about.
HJ: I get so annoyed I’m forever like ‘Why can’t we just give the ones that we are not going to put on the album to the fans?’
DJ: I know we write songs all the time and get excited about new ones but these old ones are fucking great, really good.
For Radio:ACTIVE in 2008, you gave away a 10- track version with the Mail On Sunday. Will you do something like that again? TF: I think we’ve done so many weird and
ABOVE 10 years of hits: McFly’s discography boasts three platinum albums,
including their 2 x platinum- selling debut Room On The 3rd Floor
What do you think it is about the band that has made them so successful? They seem to naturally have that magic combination of being great songwriters, musicians, hard workers, and quite simply, are a lovely bunch of lads. I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who doesn’t think they are as I’ve described, and being universally thought of in this way can’t hurt!
Realistically, how big do you think the new album could be for the group? Let’s hope the biggest so far - it certainly deserves to be. They are a band that have artistically progressed with each new album they’ve released, and I think this latest one is a real testament to that. The band have been in, and survived, the business for 10 years, and have still managed to score hit after hit, are still selling out arenas and show no signs of slowing down any time soon. Their career so far is a massive accomplishment and that is not something that we can say about many acts these days – they have the power of longevity behind them, not to mention a great team.
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