Boyband Blue working with Ne-Yo

Reformed boyband Blue have confirmed that they are writing new material with Ne-Yo.

The 'Too Close' group, who reunited to headline Capital FM's Summertime Ball last June, revealed that they have been working on new tracks in the US.

"We have been in the studio. We went back in last year," Duncan James told BBC Newsbeat.

"We went over to New York and recorded with Jay-Z's people, wrote with Ne-Yo and the stuff sounds really different to anything we've done before."

Discussing the new material, James added: "It's a lot up tempo, it's a lot dancier. It's fresh.

"And I think that if we do decide to release an album, then we have to step up again and come out with an album that is not what people expect.

"The thing I didn't realise about Ne-Yo is that he is such a super-talented person. He writes impeccably. It's all him. He does it all."

The group, made up of James, Simon Webbe, Antony Costa and Lee Ryan, confirmed that they are still working on their separate projects.

"We've still got individual projects that we're doing and we don't want to rush into it because with Blue it's got to be quality and with quality means time," Webbe said.

Blue rose to fame with debut single 'All Rise' in June 2001 and went on to secure three chart-topping albums.