The Wanted ''had a great time'' building up their gay fan base.

In order to help break them in the US, the British boy band toured plenty of gay bars in the country.

Band member Jay McGuiness told DigitalSpy.com: ''When we first started we did a lot of gay clubs, which is traditional for boy bands. We had a great time. When we came to America, we did a lot of them again. As much as we're a boy band, there are so many advantages to having a real loyal female fan base, but I'm happy with how much we've branched out into the male side of things.''

The 'Glad You Came', hitmakers are also experimenting with changing their sound for their third album but rapping is out of the question after they experimented and it went wrong.

Jay said: ''We were working with Guy Chambers on an almost Robbie Williams-type song, and Tom [Parker] tried a little bit on that, but no. We didn't fit into it. Maybe we'll develop into it more over time. We could probably go garage, but we couldn't' go hip-hop because you really need some sense of rhythm.''

The band have long wanted to collaborate with N-Dubz rapper Dappy, but are frustrated it has no happened so far as their schedules have been too busy.

Jay added: ''We definitely want to work with Dappy. We've wanted to do that since the second album. It's just not happened. We're penciling in writing time with him and a few others.''

The Wanted are due to release their third album before the end of 2012, which album will feature current single 'Chasing the Sun'.