Indie rock artist Declan McKenna’s contemporary take on politically sharp protest songs has long captivated audiences since he was discovered in 2015. McKenna was sought out by nearly 40 different record labels after winning that year’s Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent Contest, and eventually settled on the right fit. His debut album, “What Do You Think About The Car?” dropped in 2017, and one of its lead singles continues to soundtrack coming of age stories across TikTok. In a world in which a constant flow of information is seemingly inescapable, McKenna captures the experience of youth in a time of uncertainty.
“Brazil” details the ongoing deforestation crisis in Brazil, and the world’s capitalization on lumber exports and soccer culture surrounding the 2014 World Cup in the nation. The track demonstrated promising songwriting prowess when it comes to setting world issues to music, and McKenna wrote the track when he was a teenager. Following the success of his debut, he went on to record his second album “Zeros” in 2020, and left his native U.K. during the process to start production across the pond in Nashville, Tennessee. The sophomore album has the ethereal elements of 70s rock, notably one of McKenna’s biggest inspirations, David Bowie, as noted by The Evening Standard.
@evalyonn cape cod day in my life
Having been working on his upcoming third studio album, McKenna is about to hit the road yet again. Among his 50-plus stops in North America and Europe are several festivals, including Boston Calling, Lollapalooza, and the U.K.’s Leeds Festival and Reading Festival. What’s Trending caught up with Declan McKenna about his favorite festival crowds, the influences on his upcoming album, and what to expect at his shows.
Since your career really picked up when you won the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent Contest in 2015, are festivals your favorite type of tour stops?
“It just depends. I sometimes think the festivals that I’m the most excited for are the hardest gigs to play, because it just feels like there’s a lot of pressure on it to be really good. Sometimes they just hit you out of the blue and wind up being the best shows because you just never fully know what to expect. With headline shows it becomes a quite regimented thing, and once you really get into the flow of it at festivals, that’s a bit harder to do.
I love doing them, because it’s always something different each time, and there’s always something else to see and do each one. The British festivals are a very specific microcosm, and they’re just a very crazy and hectic experience. Whereas it’s just different in America. There’s nothing quite like British festivals, for the good and the bad that they are. They are the most hectic thing that you could ever really experience during a tour, but that is kind of what I was raised on.
I loved Lollapalooza the last time I played there [in America], that was amazing. Just having the whole Chicago city skyline behind us, there’s nothing like that in the U.K., so it’s exciting for me.”
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Are there any new production elements you’ll be adding to this tour since your last North American tour in the fall of 2022?
“I’m just figuring it all out. I think there’s definitely more elements, since we can incorporate screens and things like that at festivals. We haven’t done anything like this for festivals in the Americas in ages, so it’s definitely going to be like a step up from the last time.
I’m just itching to get into rehearsals and things and figure it all out because I have a lot of ideas musically, but how it’s all going to come together and look is still something that I haven’t quite figured out yet.”
Some fans are coming to your shows after discovering your breakout single “Brazil” and “Listen To Your Friends” from TikTok. Do they carry a different meaning now?
“Yeah, ‘Brazil’ particularly has just taken on a life of its own. I probably see it a lot differently now compared to how I did then, but I still really like it. I still like playing it, so it doesn’t change in that respect. The way I approach it, the way I play it has maybe matured a little bit. With ‘Listen To Your Friends’, it was always a really important song, particularly performed live, because it feels like it creates powerful moments, and feels really freeing.
It just feels different from the rest of the set every time we play it, and it feels like we truly get to appreciate it. I never stopped wanting to play these songs live. As an artist you don’t expect these things to happen, and when TikTok just runs away with something, it’s nice seeing people literally hearing that song for the first time.
I’m excited to see what will come out of all of the shows, but the festivals in particular, now that people are familiarizing themselves with some of that older music.”
@declanmckenna he had a point tbf
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Do you hope to combine more personal topics with larger overarching world issues on your upcoming album?
“It’s always a combination–I’ve had moments where very personal moments feel like the right thing to write about, or, sometimes I’ll finally land on something that I really feel needs to be said. The new album definitely has moments where I’m clearly talking about the wider world, but I feel it’s actually a little bit more direct and in the moment. Given what the last few years have been like, the process felt like falling in love with music again, having been stuck at home for so long.
This time, I’m trying to really let the process lead the way and not think about it too heavily. I mainly wanted to get back to the simplicity of being in my bedroom as a teenager when I was writing songs back then. Songs like ‘Brazil’ just seemed to flow out and it was more about the exploration. You’re always discovering yourself and what you want to say, but yeah, there’s going to be a bit of both going forward.
I have ideas for how I want to approach future projects and say what I need to say for myself and to enjoy the process, and also to find the moments when to reach out and find something deeper to talk about.”
Would you say that Bowie still remains the center of your inspiration, or have you picked up different influences in the past few years?
“Bowie was definitely a big influence on the last album, because I was listening to a lot of 60s and 70s records. The intensity on his albums was really inspiring the way I wanted to write, and I wanted to capture that energy in my songs. With this new album, I don’t think it would be something listeners would point out initially.
It has a slightly more modern sound, and it’s a bit more digital. I think part of his spirit of experimentation and weirdness is definitely in there though, so maybe in a way it’s more like him because I think it’s less like him, since he’s all about non repetition. That’s the spirit of David Bowie that I’ve taken into my own projects as an artist, and it’s the motivation to keep moving forward and to keep pushing myself. I think I’ve made the most ambitious album that I’ve ever made, because I’ve tread new ground for myself and made something that I’m really proud of.
So that, for me, was what David Bowie was all about, but I don’t think maybe, sonically, people would pick out that it sounded like his work. I’m really happy with it.”
Are there any other current world issues that you hope to tackle in your songwriting?
“There isn’t really one theme, and there are very few I would pick out that are specifically about one topic. In a way, some of my first album songs are quite obvious, at least in that I’m able to explain them easier.There’s something just a little bit more loose and expressionistic, and just following the moment about these lyrics.
I have a song that’s kind of about apathy, but then also kind of relating to how you kind of have to rely on yourself to change the world, or to change things around you, because nothing else will. So it’s still a personal thing, because I’m not really talking about politics, I’m not really talking about any particular social issue, but I’m maybe talking about my place in the world, and how you can sort of feel a bit defeated at times.
I feel like there’s a direct edge to it, and I’m talking more about how I feel in the world, and not necessarily about the world.”
What do you hope concert goers can take away from your live show experience, and listeners from your upcoming album?
“I haven’t even started rehearsals yet, but I do have a lot of ideas and have already been planning a lot of things, and really, it’s supposed to feel freeing, it’s supposed to feel good for the listeners, both live and on the album. That was my primary objective and what I wanted to get out of it in the simplest way, and I feel like I’ve been able to express things that maybe you can’t express if you think about it too much.
With the shows, I think what I felt at the end of the last tour, which was in the Americas, in September and October of last year, was that, my band and I were so well drilled with that album, and on that tour we’d done so many shows and got so used to doing everything one way that for this next group of shows I’d really like to carry that energy of being free and feeling a little bit looser. We don’t have to be so structured or follow any pattern, just start with a clean slate and also bring a different energy to the shows, one that’s not like we’re a touring show, but actually something that’s a little bit more connected with the individual night and the venue and the crowd, which is a bit more of an old school approach.
It can be a really freeing thing for people to see us enjoying ourselves and messing around and really just not taking ourselves too seriously. That’s something that I’d really like to get back into the show, which didn’t happen on the last tour. This time is a chance to play some new material, it’s a chance to start things a little bit from scratch and see where it takes us along the tour, and just let it grow as we go.”
Tickets to Declan McKenna’s “The Big Return Tour” are available for purchase here.
