Brendon Urie says Panic! At The Disco's new album is very "personal".

Brendon Urie

Brendon Urie

The 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' hitmaker believes the band's new LP features songs about topics which are very close to his heart.

Asked if it is a personal album, he said: "Yeah, it is. It's, I guess, two counts: it's a lot of my religious upbringing which I love bringing into my art because I can't deny it from my history. The cultural significance of the Mormon faith in who I became as an adult is huge so being able to use these themes like 'Pray for the Wicked', 'Swear to God I'll Never Repent', 'Mama Can I Get an Amen', 'Hook It Up' is cool.

"But it's also talking about where I saw myself as a kid to now. I dreamed of all this, being a rock star in a band. I used to make cardboard cut-outs of guitars and paint them and do the strings and tie yarn around them and then just sit in front of the mirror and act like I was singing Blink 182 songs or David Bowie or Queen songs. So a lot of the record is talking about that. There's a song 'High Hopes' which is about that, 'A Letter To My Mom': Hey look ma, I made it. That's a fun one."

The 31-year-old singer drew on music from new artists as inspiration for the album.

He added to NME: "It's more of a mish-mash but there are some more modern productions. I was listening to a lot more newer stuff and trying to learn why I liked this stuff so much. Like Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Sza that whole album is so beautiful - Dua Lipa, Kehlani, Cardi B. There's a lot of amazing female artists coming out right now and I was really enamoured with their production styles and their lyrics so I was stealing a lot from a lot of different people but also going back to roots with jazz and folk music and rock and classical - I try to use it all."