GIITV’s own Joe Coyle caught up with Mcfly to talk about their new autobiography ‘Unsaid Things’ and life as a pop band.
What was the inspiration behind writing a book now?
Tom: We have always wanted to write a book. We have always said, over the years, when we would have one of ‘those moments’ that we would have to remember it for the book. It just feels like the right time now. There has been a lot that has happened in the last few years of our career and the dust has settled on that and we are all in really good places in our lives. We are releasing a ‘Greatest Hits’/ ‘Best Of’ soon, so it just felt like the perfect time!
Does it feel surreal that what has happened in your career so far has actually happened to you?
Danny: As a band it just all seemed to fall into place. We are lucky to be here now.
Tom: It does feel like fate sometimes and that everything happens for a reason: something bad would happen, but then something good would come from it. When we were going through the book and all the stories, we reminisced quite a lot and all talked about the same funny stories that happened. You repeat all the ones that you remember really well! When putting the book together there were stories that we hadn’t really talked about or had forgotten about and it was interesting to reminisce altogether, as a band, and hear the different ways that we each remembered the same things.
Harry: It’s a series of events I guess. There are so many highlights and it’s only when you look back on those highlights that you realise how special they are.
How easy has it been to stay grounded as things have happened over the years?
Harry: We were very well managed in the early days. They kept this hierarchy between us and them and we really respected them. If anything we were quite scared of them! Because of that, they didn’t allow us to do too much and they protected us…
Tom: …which was frustrating at the time, but was definitely the right thing to do.
Harry: We did do our little ‘rock and roll’ bit behind the scenes – behind closed doors. We had fun – lived our lives. We were never around people who would try and influence us.
Danny: There was always that thing that when we went on stage we would think we were awesome. But, when we came off the stage, we would always take constructive criticism and try and make it better every time.
Tom: Our management never let anything go to our heads. They were very crucial in shaping who we are.
How do your song writing processes start as a band? Is it just Tom and Danny who start off the process and bring the rest of the band in?
Tom: Well, Dougie writes a lot too. It’s different every time really.
Danny: In the early days we were in hotels quite a lot, so we would have acoustics and we would just jam. James [Bourne – of Busted fame) was about.
Tom: When we first started writing it was more like that. Danny wasn’t into producing then, so we would just sit down with acoustics – or on the piano – and write in that very relaxed atmosphere…
Danny: …just imagining how stuff would sound (in your head)…
Tom: …and then we would go through things in pre-production and work through all the parts. As we got older, Danny got in to producing and it’s kinda different now. We sometimes write as we were recording. It’s different depending on which producers you are working with. On the last album, we were recording a lot as we were writing it. The producer was from a very urban background, so a lot of the time we would start off with a beat and write to that – which was the backwards way round for us! We are normally melody first and then lyrics last.
Danny: The amazing thing about learning to song-write, for me personally, is that it opened my music knowledge. You study and appreciate music for how good it is rather than what it is. If something is a good song then you just like it. Now we all show each other music and if it’s good we appreciate it.
Tom: We listen to absolutely everything. There are no limits to what you like.
Harry: The songs that we have released aren’t the limits of our song-writing abilities. I think we would be capable of writing some completely different stuff, but when you go to writing your album you need to take that time to think: “Right, what do we want to do? What sound do we want to have? “
Read the rest of the interview SOURCE
What was the inspiration behind writing a book now?
Tom: We have always wanted to write a book. We have always said, over the years, when we would have one of ‘those moments’ that we would have to remember it for the book. It just feels like the right time now. There has been a lot that has happened in the last few years of our career and the dust has settled on that and we are all in really good places in our lives. We are releasing a ‘Greatest Hits’/ ‘Best Of’ soon, so it just felt like the perfect time!
Does it feel surreal that what has happened in your career so far has actually happened to you?
Danny: As a band it just all seemed to fall into place. We are lucky to be here now.
Tom: It does feel like fate sometimes and that everything happens for a reason: something bad would happen, but then something good would come from it. When we were going through the book and all the stories, we reminisced quite a lot and all talked about the same funny stories that happened. You repeat all the ones that you remember really well! When putting the book together there were stories that we hadn’t really talked about or had forgotten about and it was interesting to reminisce altogether, as a band, and hear the different ways that we each remembered the same things.
Harry: It’s a series of events I guess. There are so many highlights and it’s only when you look back on those highlights that you realise how special they are.
How easy has it been to stay grounded as things have happened over the years?
Harry: We were very well managed in the early days. They kept this hierarchy between us and them and we really respected them. If anything we were quite scared of them! Because of that, they didn’t allow us to do too much and they protected us…
Tom: …which was frustrating at the time, but was definitely the right thing to do.
Harry: We did do our little ‘rock and roll’ bit behind the scenes – behind closed doors. We had fun – lived our lives. We were never around people who would try and influence us.
Danny: There was always that thing that when we went on stage we would think we were awesome. But, when we came off the stage, we would always take constructive criticism and try and make it better every time.
Tom: Our management never let anything go to our heads. They were very crucial in shaping who we are.
How do your song writing processes start as a band? Is it just Tom and Danny who start off the process and bring the rest of the band in?
Tom: Well, Dougie writes a lot too. It’s different every time really.
Danny: In the early days we were in hotels quite a lot, so we would have acoustics and we would just jam. James [Bourne – of Busted fame) was about.
Tom: When we first started writing it was more like that. Danny wasn’t into producing then, so we would just sit down with acoustics – or on the piano – and write in that very relaxed atmosphere…
Danny: …just imagining how stuff would sound (in your head)…
Tom: …and then we would go through things in pre-production and work through all the parts. As we got older, Danny got in to producing and it’s kinda different now. We sometimes write as we were recording. It’s different depending on which producers you are working with. On the last album, we were recording a lot as we were writing it. The producer was from a very urban background, so a lot of the time we would start off with a beat and write to that – which was the backwards way round for us! We are normally melody first and then lyrics last.
Danny: The amazing thing about learning to song-write, for me personally, is that it opened my music knowledge. You study and appreciate music for how good it is rather than what it is. If something is a good song then you just like it. Now we all show each other music and if it’s good we appreciate it.
Tom: We listen to absolutely everything. There are no limits to what you like.
Harry: The songs that we have released aren’t the limits of our song-writing abilities. I think we would be capable of writing some completely different stuff, but when you go to writing your album you need to take that time to think: “Right, what do we want to do? What sound do we want to have? “
Read the rest of the interview SOURCE
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