MNEK talks teaming up with Paul Woolford and Lewis Thompson on throwback new single 16 Again, work with FLO and second solo album: "I'm embracing everything that I am"

MNEK has teamed up with Paul Woolford and Lewis Thompson for a brand new single, 16 Again. 

A rampant banger all about that special kind of connection that takes you back to more innocent teenage days, it sees MNEK's sugar-sweet vocals mixed perfectly with the throwback production courtesy of Woolford and Thompson.

And it is something of a family reunion for MNEK, who has collaborated closely with Lewis Thompson (known best for his work with friend Joel Corry on all his UK chart hits so far) including on his first UK Number 1 single as an artist, Head & Heart.

"I'm really happy to be collaborating with Paul and Lewis," MNEK tell us from his studio. "Obviously, I worked with Lewis on Head & Heart with Joel. and that was obviously a really amazing moment for all of us. I always really enjoy working on fun dance music, and hopefully it appeals [to everyone] and they enjoy it."

MORE: MNEK's Official Charts history in full

We do offer to MNEK however, that when he sings that he feels 16 again...well, not many people had the same life experience as him at 16. When most people were studying for their GCSEs, he was already making a name for himself in the music industry and forging ahead with his production and songwriting.

"I can appreciate that," he tells us. "My experience of my teenage years was very unique. I was still in school when I got into the industry, and when I was 16 I got my first cut, it was The Saturdays, All Fired Up."

All Fired Up, as we know, is a classic record - just one of many brilliant singles by The Saturdays, in case you've forgotten - and in a sense, like many of his school peers, MNEK did kind of get an apprenticeship into his trade...it was just with Xenomania's Brian Higgins and Miranda Cooper instead of, like, work experience at your local Tesco.

"I guess there was something about everything back then," MNEK says, "a blissful ignorance. I didn't know too much about the industry, I was still learning and figuring it out. And that buzz of getting your first hit and hearing it on the radio, that what you've made is dope enough for the whole nation to hear. [All Fired Up] was very fresh back then!"

As far as MNEK's career in the modern-day, however, he tells us that he's now interested in executive producing for other acts more, like he is for rising girlband FLO, who have just issued a brand-new single, Fly Girl, from their debut album, which MNEK is helming.

"I'm excited to do more stuff with them," he continues. "There's so much hype around them now, and I want to do right by them."

Also on the cards, finally, is some new music just for MNEK himself. It's been a while since he issued his 2018 album, Language (including the genre-bending lead single Tongue and the bright and sparkling Colour, with Hailee Steinfeld) but he is, slowly, working on its follow-up.

"I'm always thinking about what my next project is going to be," he teases. "While, yes, I am working on my sophomore album [...] I'm all about building [my career] around it. When I dropped Language, I was really fixated on being seen as just a singer and an artist. I'm a lot more than that. I think it's actually, now, about embracing everything that I am."

16 Again is out now.