Nyt Interview Med Dougie Poynter

Power pop chart-toppers, Mcfly have just released their new album Radio:Active on their own label Super Records after giving half of it away free with the Mail. We spoke to bass player Dougie Poynter about going toe to toe with Gordon Ramsay, touring those massive arenas and setting certain sensitive parts of your anatomy on fire.

Three's A Crowd - So the give away in the Mail was a huge success. Whose idea was that?

Dougie Poynter - Well, our manager came to us and asked if we'd be interested in doing it and we were very keen. We're very proud of the album and thought it would be the best way of getting it out there, so we had no hesitation

TAC - Do you think that musicians should be giving away more music for free?

DP - Maybe. I don't know. For us, it definitely was a good idea, but times are a changing, so you never know

TAC - What do you think of file sharing?

DP - It doesn't bother me. I personally don't do it, I'm a big fan of iTunes, but I used to share stuff when I was younger, but I think everybody did.

TAC - Starting your own record label – Super records – how's that been going?

DP - Great. Things are far busier now, we've got a lot of things to do

TAC - Any other planned signings?

DP - For the time being stick with ourselves. There aren't that many people involved in the label. We're really busy already, we wouldn't be able to hack it if we brought any more people in.

TAC - You've said that the single Lies is the darkest song you've written.

DP - That's what press release said. I guess it's one of the darker songs we've written. It's not like Not like Enter Sandman or anything like that though.

TAC - Does this mark a big change in direction for McFly?

DP - Kind of. We're exactly the same band, we've evolved quite a bit. This is the style we're always going to be like, we just didn't compromise at all. We decided this is going to have trumpets and the lyrics suited the style of the song.

TAC - You're doing another massive arena tour later this year. Do you ever wish you could play some small intimate venues again?

DP - Yeah, we did two or three tours last year and the first tour was an Up Close and Personal tour, where we played really small places, places that we'd never got the chance to go to before like Grimsby, like the Cliffs Pavilion in Southend. I'd love to that again, I think they were some of the best shows we've done. It was super sweaty and you get to see everyone else having a good time.

Doing arenas is fun too, both have different qualities. With arenas, you can do things with fire and have loads of pyrotechnics and stuff, Theatres just feel much more intimate.

TAC - You guys were on the F Word fairly recently. What was the experience like? Are you going to be taking up cooking any time soon?

DP - That was the most intense four hours of my life. When I first heard about it – I thought we'd all have a laugh and mess around. When it came nearer and nearer the date, we decided to take it really seriously and be the best people he had on there. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work that way. We got 49/50 for the starter but the main course was far too hard. You had to put the fish in the oven for four minutes and prepare other ingredients while counting in your head. We're not that organised!

TAC - So who's the chef of the group then?

DP -Definitely Tom, he makes his own bread! You'll go round to his house and he'll answer the door and say "alright, do you want some of this bread I've just made".

TAC - So what are you like in the kitchen?

DP - I suck at cooking. About 9 out of 10 times on tour I manage to give myself food poisoning even if it's just tuna steak with salad. It might be down to how I clean things, I'm not very good at washing things before or afterwards.

TAC - You performed at the Olympic Visa party recently. Are you excited about the Olympics coming in 2012? Are you keen sportsmen?

DP - Oh yeah, I can't wait. I got really into it this year. I don't think we'll be competing in 2012 though...

TAC - Maybe, the egg and spoon race?

DP- Yeah, egg and spoon or the women's 100m sprint. I'll be crap on purpose so I can see from behind...

Harry's very good at pretty much every sport.

TAC - You must hate him...

DP -Yeah, it's so annoying, he just picks things up really quickly.

Danny's really into football, he's doing Soccer Aid at Wembley Stadium, which is really cool. I'll make sure I turn up to boo him.

Tom and I are really into skateboarding, wake boarding and windsurfing. Bear in mind that just because we enjoy it, doesn't mean we're any good at it.

TAC - There was the whole "lighting your pubes on fire" thing – what was that all about?

DP - It was at G.A.Y. [the club night at the Astoria], I think it was bonfire night, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

TAC - Perhaps you could be some spokepersons for fire safety this year?

DP - Yeah, we could be fire marshalls!

TAC - Describe a typical McFly day.

DP - Oh it's different every day. If we're doing promotion I guess our average day would involve our tour manager picking us up really early in the morning and taking us to interviews.

TAC - Do you ever get sick of this?

DP - Not really, because you could be recording an album for five months, so when the interviews roll around again, there's always something new to talk about .

TAC - Can you do your best Marty Mcfly impression for me?

DP - Marty? That's a hard one.

TAC - No it's not. All you need to do is when I says "Marty!", you say "Doc!"

Ready? Marty!

DP - Doc! Doc!

TAC - That was awful.

DP - Yeah, sounded like I was saying "duck!" instead!

TAC - Well, at east you've got your music...thanks Dougie, good luck with the new album...