Having signed their first record deal since 2009 with BMG, McFly are back and ready to release their first single in seven years, ‘Happiness’ this Thursday.
The band will then release their brand new album ‘Young Dumb Thrills’ on 13th November 2020. The album will be their first studio album release since ‘Above The Noise’ in 2010.
The infectious new track ‘Happiness’ introduces a “festival vibe” to McFly’s classic pop-rock sound. Featuring a samba sample and a carnival-style riff inspired by the band’s sizeable following in South America, it’s a musical progression that’s slightly surprising, but also totally natural.
Tom Fletcher explains: “This song was always the clear choice to come back with – as soon as we wrote Happiness, it kind of defined where the rest of the album went.”
Danny Jones adds: “There’s that hands-in-the-air feeling about it, like when you’re drunk or you’re having a barbecue. You can put it on and your kids will dance to it, your wife will dance to it, your granddad, everybody, even the lads!”
When they were busy becoming one of the most successful chart acts of their era, racking up 19 top ten hits including seven number ones in just under a decade, McFly were known for being a rock-solid musical unit. A line they’d say in interviews – “It’s not always easy, but McFly’s here forever” – became embraced by fans as a kind of unofficial band mantra.
Now McFly have spent 2020 recording a new album that sounds “naturally and quintessentially us”.
“I think the break we had from one another made all this fresh again – it made it really exciting,” Danny says. “There was a new vibe and open-mindedness to it all, and recording near our homes gave us so much freedom – it didn’t matter if someone had to leave for the day, which meant we didn’t overthink anything too much. Recording just became part of our lives.”
Harry describes the process as a “massive success”, pointing out that the band didn’t just come away with a whole album’s worth of songs, but also a renewed appreciation for one another. “It made me realise how much we really enjoy being in each other’s lives,” he says.
As they prepare for their exciting next chapter, McFly remain hungry and ambitious – clearly they haven’t racked up seven gold and platinum albums over the years without putting in some hard graft. But at the same time, they know precisely where their priorities lie going forward. “We want as many people as possible to hear our new music and when we can, we want to go out and play for our fans,” Judd says. “But for us, nothing will ever beat being able to hang out with your mates and make amazing music that you love. For us, that’s what McFly is always going to be about.”
