WHEN pop-punk boyband Busted split back in 2005, it looked unlikely that they would ever reunite.

Charlie Simpson dramatically left the trio, claiming his time in the band was like “torture” and insisted he would never, under any circumstances, rejoin.

His departure came as a blow to the other members, Matt Willis and James Bourne, who were not yet ready to give up on their teenage dream.

The fame wheel kept turning for the boys. Willis went on to win I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! in 2006 while Bourne started his own group, Son of Dork, and moved to America where he gained songwriting credits for the Saturdays, the Vamps, 5 Seconds of Summer and McFly.

Simpson released four solo albums and four with Fightstar, while waging an ongoing battle with the press over whether he was rock enough.

More than a decade later, the group are now gearing up to release their fourth Busted album, Half Way There, described as a return to their old sound.

It follows their comeback album, Night Driver, which was more synth-pop than what fans had come to know.

“On the last album we changed our sound a little, this is a return to our original Busted”, James Bourne explains.

“It’s like if Busted grew up and made an album now. It’s an age appropriate Busted album that people would expect from us.

“We’re all mad excited about it. Whenever you make an album, that’s it forever.

“It’s stressful because you want to make something that will last and not sound bad in 10 years time.”

He adds: “We spent a lot of time writing songs before we went in the studio to record, a lot of love and care went into the songwriting which is my favourite thing to do.

“When we went in to record, we had whittled down our choices and we didn’t waste any time trying to write songs.

“We learned from the mistakes of our last album and every album it gets a bit better.”

Having got the difficult comeback album out their system, the trio are feeling more themselves than ever and are ready to give fans what they want.

“With Busted, the secret is to let the everyone in the room mould the song”, James explains.

“I think on the last album we tried a different thing but when you listen its hard to tell who’s doing what because it’s not what people are used to hearing from Busted.

“Fans from the past are going to be surprised and into it, because when you listen, you hear the band.

“There’s nothing else on it apart from us.

“It was cool to work with Prince’s saxophone player but, at the end of the day, as amazing as these players are, fans of the band just like the band. They want to hear us.

“They want to hear each member do what they do on a song. This time round we’ve tried to accommodate three of us. It’s like, intrinsically Busted.”

The issues of radio play and pressure to impress are becoming distant memories for Busted.

Following the creation of McBusted, a supergroup made with their former proteges McFly, it became apparent that there was still an appetite for pop-punk boybands, even if they were a bit older and with a family in tow.

Praise from the critics is not what James is looking for anymore, even if it is of high importance to bandmate Charlie.

“Charlie and I are polar opposite. Charlie really cares about what the critics think and we always laugh about it.

“I just make music because I love it. I don’t want approval from a critic. I care about more if there’s a writer that I work with or spent years listening to, if you bump into them and you play the music and they like it – that matters more to me.

“I make songs because I love it and I’m interested in how great songs make me feel. That’s the reason I’m in a band and make music. That’s the thing that keeps me coming back.”

The changing industry is not something that has gone unnoticed by the group. Neither has the age difference in their fans.

When Busted were originally signed, they didn’t even own a laptop.

Now, the internet is dictating the success of artists from all over the world.

“What is listened to and what is current seems to be dictated by young people”, James explains.

“It’s a very young industry and they look at the different social media platforms, which are also run by a young audience.

“There was no Instagram or ­Twitter when we were signed. I didn’t even have a laptop. It’s unrecognisable from when we started out.

“The internet has broken down boundaries internationally.

“Breaking America used to be a big thing, now there’s tons of acts breaking America – but you have to be able to get the social networks on your side and be able to connect on the numbers.”

He adds: “They look at numbers of the apps. They are where you win the hearts and minds of people who hold the keys to the industry – they look at those numbers.

“But then with Busted on our comeback tour, the tickets sold and our followers just didn’t correlate. There’s double the amount of people on that tour than we have followers because a lot of our fans aren’t even on the internet.

“It’s weird. It’s hard to navigate through that. You have to keep the faith a little bit and a lot of belief.”

It’s been a difficult journey for the three musicians who started off as excited teenagers in an industry ready to chew them up and spit them back out.

But they appear to have come back fighting, with a friendship that’s stronger than ever and successes of their own.

Without Busted, James would never have been given the chance to ‘live a free life’ which recently saw him buy a new home in California – previously owned by one of his favourite producers.

“Jerry Finn produced all my favourite records growing up and now I live in his house. It’s surreal", he adds.

Busted will play the SSE Hydro on March 23.