"I definitely think that we've matured a lot over the last few years."
He says this latest album had been a long time in the making as they had to make sure they were happy with the music.
"It took a long time, we spent a lot of it writing."
And with all the writing, it's their track Tucan which McCarthy says he has a personal connection with.
This month, they're celebrating the release of Modern Love with gigs in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland. Their mini tour will be the first they have headlined.
Until November 17, they hit the road to perform three shows, supported by new talent Loui The ZU - an artist who McCarthy says is definitely someone to look out for.
On November 9 they were at the Bedford in Christchurch and will play The Powerstation in Auckland on November 17. Tickets for the Auckland shows are available through Ticketmaster and Real Groovy.
Although there were only a few venues on their tour so far, McCarthy says they are looking at adding other venues throughout the year.
"There's plans in the pipeline."
He says people who attend one of their shows will have fun.
"We've always worked really hard as a live band ... we like to keep it upbeat."
The last time KidsOf88 went out on the road nationally was with Kiwi band The Naked and Famous in September, 2010. From there they went on to scoop up Single of The Year and Music Video of The Year at the New Zealand Music Awards before heading off on a world tour across Australia, the UK, America and Europe, where they toured with pop star Kesha.
"We've had quite an affinity with Naked and Famous. We got to travel with them quite a lot," McCarthy says.
"I think it would be kind of nice to become on a similar page to them."
Internationally, McCarthy says he would love to work with big names such as Massive Attack and the Chemical Brothers, not so much to make music with them but even just to be a "fly on the wall".
"I think it would be pretty nice to work with some heroes."
