Declan McKenna

Just a day before his highly anticipated set at Latitude, I had the opportunity to chat with one of the brightest stars in the UK indie scene, Declan McKenna. McKenna’s second album, Zeros, faced multiple delays, originally slated for release in May 2020 then being delayed until September, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, he finally gets the chance to show off his critically acclaimed album live, along time previous hits such as his breakthrough single Brazil and most recent release My House.
Declan McKenna is set to perform a sold-out show at the Nick Rayns LCR in Norwich on the 16th of September.

How has your day been so far?

Yeah, good! I just kind of got up and then sorted my stuff out for Latitude actually, which we’ve got this weekend. I'm just in the car with some of my band on the way to a little pre-production rehearsal. So yeah, all good. Absolutely boiling here in Brighton.

How do you feel about returning to live performance?

I'm excited! I mean, it's just like, it's such a bizarre time to be doing it in, still feels a bit strange. But like, I think once we're there, we'll just be in our element…
I think we're going to really enjoy playing the tunes and I'm hoping it goes down well! I mean, despite that, you can't really shake the sort of nervousness of it all. It's the first show of the Zeros tour really, which is crazy, but that's what it is. So, a bit of nervous excitement, I think.

Tell me a little about your most recent single, My House.

I came to writing My House in like, March, April, last year, basically, after we'd first been put in lockdown. And I was, because of the nature of Zeros in the recording process, it was pretty much done and mixed and mastered and everything by that point. I was kind of looking for parallels for what I'd done before which was very live recording heavy and recorded with an extensive producer. Whereas with My House I was quite keen to just rely on my own instincts of production and do something a little more instantaneous and more direct and just like include a bit of the out-of-tuned-ness and really direct, simple lyrics.

It kind of came out of that period where I was actually kind of delighted, to have a little break, not really realising just how long everything was gonna go on for, I was like, ‘you know what, I'm gonna make the most of this’. Writing about something quite familiar, I think in terms of being, away from the people I love, but like, just kind of getting on with life, and trying to make the most out of the little things really, that's been a big takeaway of the last few years for me.

So yeah, it's a simple tune, but I think it's the right time to put it out because it's just feel good, and as things open up, and we can play it at the festivals and all of that. I think it made a whole pile of sense, and I'm really happy with it. It's kind of a nice one, because I was encouraged by my mates to release it. It feels very homely all around.

How was lockdown for you creatively? Did you get to take a break at all?

To begin with, it was a break, but then it just became kind of hellish, you know, it wasn't fun. Once everyone figured out how to get me working again, from home and working towards the album release, and all of that, it was hard to find respite and I think a lot of people found out as well in that period of time, but there was a lot of good things happening, it’s hard to embrace, doing what I do in that environment, really, because it lacks a lot of the excitement.

The creativity kind of becomes a bit duller over time, without having new experiences. Not having, you know, friends to mess around with on songs and things like that. So yeah, it became very, very tough. I think the release of the album, even though it was, you know, a lot of good things happened, as I say, it was hard work. It was a difficult period of time.

All the more excited to be, you know, heading out of that now, really, and working towards the festivals and being able to collaborate again, being a bit more excited on making music again, and having the time to do that as well.

Out of your two albums, What Do You Think About the Car? And Zeros, which do you think is more political?

I dunno! They are in different ways, I think. The first album, I guess, was just super direct and there was no like, filter, there wasn't really a clear creative filter with which I channelled the stories I was trying to tell, I didn't really have that kind of awareness creatively, I'd just been kind of writing songs, and that was it, that was what went on the album. So they're super direct. That one feels more obvious.

But Zeros to me kind of carried something else, had a bit more of that filter and that overriding message and character, it kind of tells a story about where I think we're headed. I think that on the whole it carries, maybe we'll say deeper, I don't really know if I like using that word, but like a deeper sort of whole message, whereas, you know, What Do You Think About the Car? kind of has a mixture of different ideas. It doesn't quite have that specific overriding theme, you know, Zeros I really was thinking a lot about the environment and the planet and the future of how humans are going to kind of destroy themselves. That's kind of the whole, the whole thing goes somewhat deep into that and discusses different ways you might end up kind of killing each other. And that, to me, is quite intense.

I don't know. They both do it in different ways, I think – ah, it's hard to avoid being political with it. I think it always one way or another carries, you know, a message, if you're saying anything at all.

Do you feel a responsibility to have that political message behind your music?

I feel it less over time. When I do stuff like that I don't like, it's like, sometimes people are expecting that, and I don't want it to just be a brand thing.
Now, I've kind of had a few years and kind of seeing the way people react, you know, I’ve released a lot of music, it's like, you know, I was doing that in the beginning, because that's what I wanted to say, what I felt needed to be said, and if I carried on just doing that, for the sole purpose of feeling that responsibility, it'd feel like I wasn't really being true to myself.

Now, a lot of what I write is just because that's what I enjoy doing. That's kind of integral to it, for me to kind of keep being able to do it, is enjoyment. I'm always gonna have something that I feel needs to be said.
But at the same time, there's a lot of new stuff I've been writing, which is really cool, but I don't really know what I'm saying, and that's kind of all right with me, because a lot of my favourite music, I don't really know what they're saying and they probably don't either. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, really. So, yeah, I don't want to sort of tie myself down to it really too hard, because then you end up just playing a role, so to speak.

A lot of reviews for Zeros compared you to David Bowie, how do you feel about that? And what’s your favourite Bowie album?

Yeah, there's, there's, you know, there's definitely a couple tracks where I think it's relevant. I think the aesthetics of the album sort of gave that feel more than most of the tracks do, because there's obviously a Bowie influence and a lot of the songs I wrote after kind of taking in the fact that Bowie had died and was digging into a lot of his records again, and I've always really appreciated that, you know, the album definitely is going for that sense of grandeur and that sense of character that I think Bowie always done so well. I don't know, obviously it gets a bit tiring, but I see why it happens. I don't think it's really the sound of the whole album that people are talking about mainly just a couple of songs, and maybe my delivery.

My favourite Bowie album, at the minute... It's really hard to say because I've listened to a lot of Bowie over time... I think Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) is kind of my one that I always come back to, it's just got that wonky Bowie sound. You know, it's one of the wonkier Bowie albums which I think is really good.