London, March 3 (IANS) Boyzone singer Ronan Keating says that recording the new album 'Brother' was like therapy as the band members could pour their hearts out in the songs.

He said that the 'negative energy' the band was feeling after the death of Stephen Gately helped make it their best record yet, reports contactmusic.com.

'Events happened last year which almost forced this album so quickly upon us. We would have taken a bit more time but we found all that negative energy we had, and were feeling, went into the album. It was our way of releasing it,' Keating said in an interview.

'We spent most of the end of last year... finishing this album. It was like therapy in a way for us,' he added.

The group was part way through recording new album 'Brother' at the time of Gately's tragic death and decided to release the album as soon as possible in his honour.