More about: McFlyfypglastonburylivemsuiccrowdsingingglasto

Ask any British person who had a semi-formed brain during the mid-noughties and it’s more than likely they’ll know all the words to at least one McFly song. Shooting to stardom as the fresh-faced baby brothers of Busted back in 2004, the band have remained a cheerful presence within British culture - whether that be for their ability to write proper catchy pop songs, their appearances on celebrity game shows, or the eco-friendly anti-plastic books they write for kids. 

Their career thus far can be characterised by a charming back catalogue, a tour with McBusted and then a brief hiatus, after which they returned with the triumphant Young Dumb Thrills, which featured the likes of Rat Boy and Mark Hoppus. Now, they’re more charged than ever - back again with Power to Play, an electric 11-track LP that further embraces their rockier roots. 

“To me,” vocalist and guitarist Danny Jones tells us over the phone, “this album is the album we’ve always wanted to make.” He’s buzzing about it: you can hear it in his voice. 

Drummer Harry Judd is the same. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about an album,” he says. “It’s a fresh sound for us - we’ve always said we want to make an album that perfects what we sound like as a live band and [here] we’ve done that, just completely focused on stripping it back to guitars and drums...We were saying we wished we’d followed Radio:ACTIVE up with an even heavier sound and just gone for it, but we didn’t… But, well, we’re here now!”

What they did follow Radio:ACTIVE up with was 2010’s Above the Noise, a weird half-EDM, half-overproduced-pop album that featured the likes of Dallas Austin and Taio Cruz. Harry states that the album was somewhat of a “regret”, that left “scars in the band and on our fanbase.” 

“Some people love some of the songs on Above The Noise, and there's some songs on that album that I really love, but ...I think it just sent us on this kind of confusing path of shit, who are we?”

"what we loved about McFly is playing live, playing our instruments"

It would be the last album they’d record until Young Dumb Thrills, an album that gave the band the opportunity to get back into the swing of things, to tease out ideas: it was “more of a healing process.” The experience of reuniting and writing that album allowed them to get introspective when writing Power to Play, which sees the band embracing what drew them to music in the first place.

“By the time we came round to recording Power to Play, we were ready to have that conversation. We were like, ‘right, what does everyone think and feel, and how does everyone see this band?’ We had a big chat about what’s good about McFly and what’s not so good, and we all agreed that what we loved about McFly is playing live, playing our instruments.”

To write this record they had to get to the core of who McFly actually are. What they stand for, what’s good about them, what they like doing. No easy feat when you consider the fact they were quite literally children when they debuted, with bassist Dougie Poynter being no older than fifteen, and the rest of them - Danny, Harry, and vocalist and rhythm guitarist Tom Fletcher - being around seventeen. To have the weight of success on your shoulders at such a young age - they snatched a Guinness World Record off The Beatles for being the youngest band to get a number 1 with their debut album - is bound to leave you a bit murky and muddled along the way. How are you supposed to know yourself when you’ve grown up with eyes on you, record labels pushing and pulling you and the everlasting pressure of living up to your younger selves? 

In comes what Danny calls the “Board of Identity” - a concept that kept them focused and engaged throughout the writing and recording process.

"We had these questions, like, What is McFly? What are we now? What makes us great?... McFly is those moments on stage where the energy is at its fucking peak, where we’re smiling at each other saying ‘This is just the best thing we’ve ever done!’ It’s the connection with the fans, the passion - the sweaty people at the front of the gig, you know? All of that is what McFly is… The guitar riffs, the hooks of the guitar riffs… That’s the kind of band we are and that’s what we set out to do.”

Written with their audience in mind, Power to Play is a celebration of live music - the specific ecstasy of leaving a venue dripping with sweat after spending two hours twirling your friends around to your favourite songs. “We’ve learnt what’s important to us and what’s important to us as a band is live shows and gigs.”

“We’ve made this album for the people who’ll be at the show, and not just the people who’ll listen to us on the radio. One of our strengths is playing live, and we do that amazingly well - so we were like, "how do we make an album for those people - how do we make an album for the people who turn up every week, to a show on tour and tour with us, and what will it mean to them, let’s do an album for them”, you know?”

@mcfly When they close off the field due to the amount of people trying to get to the stage 👀 #fyp #mcfly #glastonbury #livemsuic #crowdsinging #glasto ♬ original sound - McFly

You only need to take a quick glance at the comments on McFly’s Glastonbury TikTok to see Danny’s not exaggerating. ‘Absolutely insane that they weren’t on the Pyramid,’ one user writes, ‘...they’re UK royalty.’ Another: ‘We couldn’t get into the tent, but it was so good!!’. And finally: ‘LISTEN TO THAT CROWD AS THEY SHOULD BE’. That they were placed in the Avalon tent, rather than on the Pyramid stage, was a topic of contention for many Glasto-goers - the festival  had to close the stage because it was so packed, leaving people who’d queued to see them miss the band’s set. Two things stand out when you watch the clips - one is that they’re a solid live unit and a joy to watch, and two is that everyone, absolutely everyone, whether that be boys in bucket hats or mums in their fifties, is singing along at the top of their lungs. It seems that the words to ‘Obviously’, ‘All About You’ and ‘Star Girl’ are deeply ingrained in the British psyche…and yet, surprisingly, this was the first time they’d ever played.

Danny reckons some of that is to do with the “stigma connected to being in a pop band.”

“You get a lot of promoters who don’t believe in you, and Glastonbury was one of them, because they stuck us on a smaller stage but we absolutely smashed it. We did an interview backstage where they asked if there was anything controversial you wanted to say and I was like, ‘Yeah, we’re one of the best live bands here!’ - but I believe it. I believe we work hard, it’s our favourite thing to do and that’s our strength. There’s a few of those promoters out there who don’t believe that, but that’s fine. I feel like we proved it that day, we proved it to everyone - shutting down the fields and that…it just felt really good. It felt like everyone was with you on it, which was a nice feeling to have.”

Writing them off because of their pop sensibilities has been going on since the early 2000s, where it was very cool to dismiss them in the NME because they were an Unserious ‘Boy Band’ rather than a Serious Real Band™ (despite…er, playing all their own instruments, and writing all their own songs). That attitude is silly in and of itself - pop music is joyous and fun! - but moreso, it completely disregards the eclectic elements that have characterised each of their albums. Room on the Third Floor is a Beach Boys-meets-Blink-182 piece of surf-pop-punk; Wonderland is a stunning Oasis-inspired collection of baroque-pop.  Motion in the Ocean’s ‘Transylvania’ is single-handedly one of the best singles to enter the British charts - even though it’s so fucking weird. The only pure pop album they’ve done was Above the Noise.

Danny does think these attitudes are changing, despite mishaps like the Glasto stage fiasco.

“What you get now is people in bands where their first show was our show, where they grew up listening to us - cus we’re obviously getting a bit older now aren’t we!” he laughs. “We’ve got people who work in the industry now who are like, oh, my first show was McFly! It’s really cool to hear that. We’re working with a few different new artists at the minute and it's the same thing - they’re super cool and you would never think that they would be into McFly!”

"At the end of the day - we’re a guitar band. Who write good melodies and have fun."

I tell him McFly were the first band I ever saw, at the age of six, when they supported Busted at the M.E.N Arena back in 2004. My first taste of live music, that would then spur me on to pursue a career in the industry, because I’m yet to find a feeling that’s as good as screaming your lungs out to songs that seem as though they were written especially for you. I’m not unique in crediting McFly as the first band to show little-kid-me how music can truly captivate you. For a lot of people my age, McFly were that early awakening - where you just about come into consciousness and start to understand how music can make you feel, what you like, and how special it is. The gateway drug into rockier pop music - first it’s McFly, then it’s Green Day, then before you know it you’re getting a My Chemical Romance tattoo. With Power to Play, they’re getting back into that pop-rock sound and putting guitars back at the heart of what they do. It’s an album that honours guitar rock in all of its glory - even if it does lean into that old hair metal cheesiness. 

“[In the past] We kind of ended up right in the middle of being commercial, but still functioning like any rock band - we sit right there. So the 80s rock thing made sense to us, because they’re really pop songs but done in a rock way,” Danny explains. He cites all sorts of influences on the album - from AC/DC and Rush to Taking Back Sunday and The Used. He’s also been enjoying the emo/pop-rock revival as of late - his Spotify is currently abound with WILLOW, Paramore’s This Is Why and songs by Liverpool’s STONE.

Not only are the band excited by guitar music of old and new, but they’re equally excited for the fans who’ve been waiting patiently for another guitar-fuelled McFly album.

“It’s been nice to put out these teasers and people responding to them like, yes! McFly are back with guitars! Let’s do it!” says Harry. “I’m hoping this reignites a lot of people who loved our Radio:ACTIVE album - people in their 20s and 30s who may have switched off since then. Hopefully it brings in some younger fans, and inspires people with guitars and drums.”

Throughout our chat, one thing appears clear to me: McFly have landed on their feet with Power to Play, creating something they are distinctly proud of.

“This, for me, is really a defining moment for us musically,” says Harry. 

“I really hope it does what we hope it does, and even if it doesn't, then I hope we can make another album like this. At the end of the day - we’re a guitar band. Who write good melodies and have fun.”  Exactly. 

Power To Play arrives June 9th.

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: McFlyfypglastonburylivemsuiccrowdsingingglasto