Long Read - McFly take the wheel on new album 'Power To Play'
McFly’s first single from a new guitar-driven era, a healthy slab of driving rock, was in their own words “written on a steering wheel”.
‘Where Did All The Guitars Go?’ The question is posed in the title of the track, the first release from June’s ‘Power to Play’, the band’s seventh album, but their first in a lifelong passion for harder rock, from the eighties and beyond. The song also answers the title’s own poser – they’re right here.
Frontman Tom Fletcher wrote the track, which opens with a 15-second guitar instrumental that feels like a middle finger to the streaming age, and it’s motored along by Danny Jones on guitar and Harry Judd’s drumming.
But it was definitely not what bass player Dougie Poynter expected when Tom came into the studio with it two years ago.
“It was surprising from Tom, that kind of a heavy riff,” he revealed to When The Horn Blows. “We were like “Woah, alright Tom!””
Dougie picks up the story of how the song came to reflect on guitar music’s recent time in a sleepy doldrum. He explained Tom’s thinking behind the track: “He was driving into the studio one day, listening to the radio, and was like “Where did all the guitars go?” There’s no guitars anywhere on the radio at the moment.
“He was working on another project, they booked a studio to work with this writer, and he showed up and there were no guitars in the studio, there was no acoustic for him to pick up and jam on. And he was like “Where the fuck have all these guitars gone? What the hell is going on?”
“This is the genius of Tom Fletcher, he wrote that song on the way to the studio on his steering wheel, just tapping away. He gets to the studio, and says “I’ve got this idea, let me play it to you. I’ve never played it, so bear with me”. And plays the song pretty much start to finish with all the lyrics, and the breakdown. He’d never played it before. He’s a talented son-of-a-bitch.”
Danny concurs that the new guitar sound should make it a delight at McFly shows, a fundamental part of their existence of a band. He said: “It feels like that will be really fun to play live. That riff at the beginning, it’s so cool.”
One of the catchiest lines from the single, seemingly a fair taster for the whole record, is “Rock and roll is good for the soul”. Dougie says video games are “crucial” for his spirit, but they were also inspirational. On seeing the art in platform game The Artful Escape, he showed the band, who reached out to BAFTA winning animator Arden Beckwith to do the inside artwork for ‘Power to Play’. “It captured the feeling so well,” Dougie said.
While Danny gives the least rock and roll answers to the question of what is good for his soul (exercise and travelling), he admits his “happy place” is in the studio, especially fusing his own band with the rockier sound he grew up with. “It’s a magical place being in the studio making the album, when everyone in the room gets the buzz,” he enthuses. “If it’s good enough for everyone in the room, that means it’s good enough for the world.”
Like 2020’s ‘Young Dumb Thrills’, the new record was a co-production with Jason Perry, from alternative rock band A. Jason’s work with bands like Don Broco, Greywind and Kids in Glass Houses has been critical in forming McFly as a harder edged quartet – or quintet. Danny said “We love Jase. He’s like the fifth member of the band. I love producing. I got into it because I could never articulate what I wanted it to sound like. Jason was one of the first that understood what I was trying to say.”
While Danny admits that it can be a “challenge” to be behind the desk, he’s happy to do it as he keeps improving. “Being able to produce your own band is awesome. The boys noticed that I can get what they want to achieve. As I’ve practiced it over the years, I’ve got better at it.”
So much so that another planned for this release for this album, the Green Day-style stomper ‘God of Rock & Roll’, is the second single Danny has produced for McFly, after ‘Love is Easy’. Danny’s previous pop production work with One Direction sometimes caused him sleepless nights, but he feels wide awake when talking about crafting a fair chunk of ‘Power to Play’.
He said: “This is my world. Guitars and drums, that’s what I grew up on doing. I know how it should sound. The more pop production, and the 1D stuff, I had to think about it. I lost sleep over it.”
it is abundantly clear that both Danny and Dougie are well versed on the rock world. Danny admits to “geeking out” over the techniques and equipment of producer Jerry Finn – to the chagrin of his wife and friends – while Dougie cites Rush bassist Geddy Lee as an influence on this album’s sound. “I bought his SansAmp, it has this fazey chorus distortion sound to it. I used that for pretty much the whole album.”
It may seem like a swerve turn from, well, McFly, a pop band with nearly two decades of chart hits, but this passion has always been there – they’ve just channelled into it on ‘Power to Play’.
“For us, it doesn’t feel that different,” Dougie said. “I was the last to join this band. From the moment I joined, our influences have always been the same. We’d focus on one for each album. Our first album was really Beatles and Beach Boys. We went massively hard on that. At the same time, we were all massive fans of The Used, blink-182 and New Found Glory. Live, we merged the Beach Boys and Beatles in with that.
“People don’t think we’re as into rock music for some reason. It used to bother us when we were younger. We’d be at a gig, and people would be like “Why the hell are you guys here? How the hell do you know Taking Back Sunday? That’s so weird.””
It’s not just seeing shows for these guys. For Danny, they’ve incorporated their love for live music into ‘Power to Play’, making tracks for the fans down the front. When I said that the new tracks felt like arena-fillers, Danny shot back: “We were going for stadiums.” It has that sound, for sure.
Dougie still appreciates the more chilled songs the band have made in their career, like 'Obviously’ and ‘All About You’. He said: “Playing a 90-minute rock show is exhausting. We have to put in a moment like three-quarters of the way through where we have a breather and stop running around like total idiots.”
Those shows are exciting voyages for the guys, as much as they are experiences for the fans. For all their years on the road, and in airports, Dougie admits: “There’s literally countless places I’d love to explore as a band, just for the adventures really.
“All of those tours we’ve done in South America are imprinted in my brain as the funnest times we’ve ever had as a band. We literally laugh the entire trip, that shit just gets funnier and funnier. I think we laugh ourselves into like a sickness. By the end of a tour, my lungs feel a bit fucked from laughing so much.”
From being mocked at Taking Back Sunday shows, to talking in depth about Van Halen at awards ceremonies, it’s clear that this new rock world feels like solid ground for McFly.
Despite being born in 1987, after that first wave of Van Halen hits, Dougie sums it up best. “I don’t know why rock music never leaves you. It’s just fucking ace, isn’t it? There’s nothing that can beat it. It’s the raddest thing. Live rock music is the raddest fucking thing you can experience.”
Feature by Samuel Draper
McFly are back with Power To Play, their biggest, boldest and most brilliantly noisy statement yet. Their highly anticipated 7th album is an all-out celebration of rock music and will be released on June 9th, via BMG. Pre-order Power To Play here.
