Years & Years are working on a new album of dancefloor fillers.
Olly Alexander
The 'Desire' trio's frontman Olly Alexander has revealed he and his bandmates - Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Turkmen - shelved an entire record when the Covid-19 pandemic hit because they wanted their follow-up to 2018's 'Palo Santo' to be more uplifting.
That teamed with being inspired by his new TV show, 'It's a Sin', which is set in the 80s and follows five teenagers who have their lives turned upside down by the AIDS crisis, made Olly want to create some "euphoric dance tunes".
The 30-year-old singer-and-actor - who plays Ritchie Tozer in Russell T Davies' miniseries - told NME.com: “The pandemic happened and I went back to square one and just wanted to make a lot of upbeat, euphoric dance tunes.
That’s what I’ve been focused on the majority of 2020 doing. Definitely the show had an impact on that. Although I don’t think it’s going to sound ’80s, I’m trying to channel that energy and dancefloor transcendence.”
Meanwhile, Olly previously admitted he felt "miserable" and "angry" when he and his bandmates couldn't agree on songs for their second album.
The group experienced a "nightmare" process making 'Palo Santo’, and on top of having creative differences for months, their record label were just as "angry" that they didn't have the songs ready.
The 'King' singer spilled at the time: "We could never agree on what sounded good or what we liked.
"Then six months down the line, we still had no songs and the label were really angry and annoyed."
On top of the band's difficult second record, Olly was also going through an emotional time with his troubled relationship with his father.
The two things combined made Olly's success feel like a "fairy tale" gone wrong.
He admitted: "It was a nightmare. I felt so miserable and I was so angry because I'd worked so hard to be in this position, and it's very weird to feel like you're in this fairy tale that's going wrong and you're desperate to put it back on the right track."
In the end, the band agreed to follow his vision for the record and they put their differences aside.
He said: "Ultimately, we do love each other."
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