McFly are my all-time favourite band. They’re the band that got me into music, playing instruments and now writing. They’re pop rock/pop punk, and have been around for 20 years, releasing their latest album Power to Play this year. It’s been a big year for my love of McFly, I got to see them twice and met them, they all seem like absolutely lovely people. It’s hard to pick a favourite song by them, but my favourite album is Motion in the Ocean.

I love to call FVK ‘the best band you don’t know’. They’re a little goth band from Suffolk, and had a little “break up” between 2016 and 2022, and since they’ve been back, it’s like they never left. They have all the time in the world for their fans, and love to spend time with them after shows. I got into them around January 2012, and spent my teen years following them around the country. I’ve made so many friends in the fanbase and I now get everyone I meet into them. My favourite song by them is ‘Death or Disgrace’ – it’s quite a heavy, messy song which is incredibly calming, weirdly enough. My favourite album is Unbreakable Hearts, which is such an artistic album, I could write an essay about it. They do much more than just music, though. They have concept albums set in a world called “Grandomina”, where their videos are set, and they release books written by the co-frontman Laurence Beveridge, which go into greater details. At one point, we had our own social media site called Obsidian Bond. It’s just so cool to have a band that gives all that, gives time to fans, and that has such an effect on people.

I was quite late to liking One Direction. I liked ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, but then I was heavily into my emo phase so couldn’t listen to boybands to save my life, I was very much not like other girls – “no pink, no boybands, you say 1D – we say BVB” (yep, that bad). When I turned 16, it was like something just clicked and I stopped caring, got into them and especially got into Niall’s solo music. I find Flicker such a comfort album and, according to Stats.fm, it is my all-time most listened to album. His music is so soft and sweet, while other songs are cheeky and fun. My favourite song by him must be either ‘Flicker’ or ‘Small Talk’.

Following my new-found love of 1D, I had to check out 5SOS and was instantly in love. I do think they deserve a lot more credit as a rock band, but equally they’ve done incredibly well for themselves. My favourite song by them is ‘Invisible’, and my favourite album is Sounds Good Feels Good – it really does as it says on tin.

This came along with me becoming more of a pop-girly. It’s not that I didn’t like them before, I just didn’t listen to them. They are incredible live and seem like lovely girls. They’ve become who I turn to when I need a bit of girl power/self-love. My favourite song is ‘Wasabi’, it’s such a bop and my favourite album is LM5.