Want to think of a pop dream team? Well the idea of Years & Years meeting the Pet Shop Boys may well be top of the blooming list.
Fate would have it, it’s been revealed that Y&Y frontman Olly Alexander has been writing as of late with the electro-pop icons, revealing to The Guardian that writing sessions have recently been in full flight, with the trio juggling with the idea of writing about politics and everything going on in the world.
Olly chatted about the choice in the new record’s subject matter, saying: “It feels like that choice is more important now than it was a couple of years ago. You could write a song about love, and people would go ‘We’re living in a dumpster fire apocalypse and this is what you’ve chosen to write about?’”
“I felt like I didn’t want to write about politics simply because I felt like I should” detailed Olly, “but then last week I wrote a song with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s inspired by a fairground in Margate called Dreamland, but while I was writing it, Neil Tennant said to me ‘This makes sense right now with Trump closing the borders,’ and the song became something that touched on what’s going on in the world. I’d write lyrics and he’d say ‘No, it needs to be more direct.’ He’d take a simple line and interject a subversive political statement. That’s the challenge as a pop writer, to do both at once.”
Years & Years debut album ‘Communion’ came out back in 2015, packed full of certified bangers – so hopes are blooming high for the next one (especially if the ‘ol Pet Shop Boys are involved)
Olly was speaking while in the rehearsal studio with the Bands4Refugees supergroup, which you can donate to by texting REFU to 70700 to give £5. It’s a pretty special cause, as we saw when we headed down to the supergroup’s December fundraisers.
Fate would have it, it’s been revealed that Y&Y frontman Olly Alexander has been writing as of late with the electro-pop icons, revealing to The Guardian that writing sessions have recently been in full flight, with the trio juggling with the idea of writing about politics and everything going on in the world.
Olly chatted about the choice in the new record’s subject matter, saying: “It feels like that choice is more important now than it was a couple of years ago. You could write a song about love, and people would go ‘We’re living in a dumpster fire apocalypse and this is what you’ve chosen to write about?’”
“I felt like I didn’t want to write about politics simply because I felt like I should” detailed Olly, “but then last week I wrote a song with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s inspired by a fairground in Margate called Dreamland, but while I was writing it, Neil Tennant said to me ‘This makes sense right now with Trump closing the borders,’ and the song became something that touched on what’s going on in the world. I’d write lyrics and he’d say ‘No, it needs to be more direct.’ He’d take a simple line and interject a subversive political statement. That’s the challenge as a pop writer, to do both at once.”
Years & Years debut album ‘Communion’ came out back in 2015, packed full of certified bangers – so hopes are blooming high for the next one (especially if the ‘ol Pet Shop Boys are involved)
Olly was speaking while in the rehearsal studio with the Bands4Refugees supergroup, which you can donate to by texting REFU to 70700 to give £5. It’s a pretty special cause, as we saw when we headed down to the supergroup’s December fundraisers.
