Having performed five intimate, sold-out United Kingdom dates to preview fifth studio full-length Above The Noise, English electro-pop quartet McFly's latest outing included the single "Shine A Light". A duet with Taio Cruz, the composition charted at position four and was certified silver in its own right. Four months following the record's issue, McFly are extremely pleased by its reception.
"
The reaction to Above The Noise has been amazing" exclaims frontman
Tom Fletcher. "
Obviously we were all kind of quite nervous because it's a huge change in direction for us, but it's been accepted amazingly. We obviously hoped it would do this well, but 'Shine A Light' has been the biggest selling single that we've ever had, a track that was a duet with someone you normally wouldn't expect us to work with. The album has a very different sound, so to have that kind of reaction seven and a half years into your career – to have your biggest selling single to date – is an amazing achievement I think."
As Tom goes on to explain, Above The Noise marks a distinct change of musical direction for McFly compared to its 2008 predecessor Radio:Active.
"Radio:Active was a lot more rocky, and it was very simple. It was just the four of us, and more of a traditional rock album for us. We went out to Australia with the producer Jason Perry, and that was it; it was just us four and him, and more than half of the songs were already written before we went out. We did just two weeks of pre-production, working on all the parts in a tiny little sweaty studio, and went into the studio and recorded it. It was all very organic and an amazing experience, but we just felt like this time we wanted to take ourselves out of our comfort zone. We want back to Australia to record this album and tried to repeat the experience we had before, recording about ten songs, and then decided to put them to one side and start again really. We then went on tour and ended up getting back to doing business with Universal, and working with people like Dallas Austin. Working with Dallas was completely different; we weren't just recording songs we'd written, but we started writing songs with him. We went into the studio with only two to three song ideas, and started recording the album as we wrote it. We've never done that before, so it's a whole new way of writing and working."
From March-April 2011, McFly play thirteen dates across the United Kingdom in their biggest ever domestic arena tour, a tour which includes stops at venues like the Birmingham LG Arena and Manchester MEN Arena, culminating in a final performance at Wembley. Recession or no recession, it seems the multi-certified musicians are here to play live.
"For us, we think it's the best time to invest" says Tom. "When things are down, you wanna be putting on the most amazing show and giving people their money's worth. We're not materialistic in any way – we're not in it for the money. We'd rather put on the most incredible show in the world and make a loss rather than just put on a cheap and easy show like a lot of bands do to make the most amount of profit – we've never had that mentality at all. I don't really know if we've been particularly directed, though I know everybody has in the music industry. We're still gonna record amazing albums though and have amazing tours, and be able to pull off the tricks and gimmicks and setlist we want to. Playing live is what we do best; touring is by far the best part of our job and what we enjoy the most, and what we're the best at. Every show we do is so much fun. It's very rare we have a bad show. Especially the arenas because we just wanna put on... I remember what it was like when I was a kid, and my parents took me to Wembley to see a band play. It's a huge deal; it's a massive night out, it's expensive for a family of three to four people to go, and it's always something you'll remember – the first few concerts you go to when you're kid. I love the thought that we provide that to kids, I love it when they say that we played their first concert. With every show we do, you never get the same thing. It never gets repetitive because every show is different, and is just as much fun."
Above The Noise was released on November 15th, 2010 in the United Kingdom through Island Records. McFly are due to play at the following venues:
03/12 – Nottingham Trent FM Arena
03/14 – Belfast Odyssey Arena
03/16 – Dublin 02 Arena
03/18 – Sheffield Motorpoint Arena
03/19 – Manchester MEN Arena
03/20 – Brighton Centre
03/22 – Cardiff CIA Arena
03/23 – Bournemouth BIC
03/26 – Glasgow SECC
03/27 – Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
03/29 – Liverpool Echo Arena
03/30 – Birmingham LG Arena
04/01 – London Wembley Arena
