McFly have started recording their new album without Tom Fletcher.
The ‘Five Colours In Her Hair’ hitmakers are working on the follow-up to 2020’s ‘Young Dumb Thrills’, but Tom’s current stint on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ means bandmate Harry Judd, Dougie Poynter and Danny Jones have had to get in the studio without him.
Drummer Harry – whose wife Izzy gave birth to their third child, Lockie, last month – told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: “It’s me, Danny and Dougie in the studio, and now just Danny and Dougie because I’ve been with the baby.
“The progress has been great. We just need to get a load of Tom’s vocals down, then it’s finished.”
The band are expecting to release the LP next year, and Tom’s absence might mean fans hear more from Dougie and Danny than usual.
Harry explained: “We finished the drums before we toured and I re-did one song after the tour.
“Dougie’s finished all of his bass and he’s been doing loads of vocals because Tom’s not been there and we’ve just wanted to get the melodies recording and down. Danny’s done all of his vocals and stuff.”
Meanwhile, the group are “really excited” about the upcoming collection.
He added: “It’s all sounding great, we’re really excited about it. I’ve genuinely never been more excited about new music.”
Over the summer, Harry opened up on the direction for the album and revealed they were embracing their rockier roots by going “back to more guitar, drums and bass” rather than a “classic pop” sound.
He said: “Young Dumb Thrills’ still had guitars and drums on it but there was programming and a bit of a different approach to recording.
“This time, from day one of writing and recording, we’ve had all our gear set up.
“So if Tom has brought in a song in the morning, we go straight in to playing it as a band to get parts that way. We’ve been writing songs in that environment as well, and writing riffs.”