DECLAN MCKENNA
Declan McKenna, 21-year-old alternative artist out of London, is back with his sophomore album ‘Zeros’, a triumphant follow up to his 2017 debut ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’, which featured his breakout hit “Brazil”. Sitting down for an interview, Declan talks about the chaos of the last few years and what he’s learned: lessons he’s immortalized in his new album ‘Zeros’.
Declan also put together a guest DJ playlist for us, linked below!
INTERVIEW
Interview by Bridgette
October 21, 2020
Declan McKenna is joining me from London. Thanks so much for being here!
Yeah! Thank you for having me!
First off, congratulations on the release of Zeros! It’s a great album released in a pandemic, nonetheless. How does it feel?
Yeah, it’s very strange. It’s been a very very chaotic year and everything had to change course within it, but we still managed to get the album out and people seem to be enjoying it. It took an awful long time to get out from when I finished it, so it’s just been nice to have that happen and finally get there. It’s obviously a strange time right now and I’m kind of back to mostly just being at home, which is weird again, but I’m kind of embracing it a little bit because it’s been kind of a busy year for me. Yeah it’s been strange, but managed to be kind of cool. (Laughs)
Yeah, awesome! And I think especially now, in times like these, people need new music, so I’m sure people are really grateful to you for putting the work in and putting out such an awesome project.
Yeah, thanks! (Laughs)
A lot of younger artists are going the shorter EP route. What made you want to make a full album?
I just think every now and then you have to release a record. It had been a few years, and doing more regular stuff, it’s a different style of working, and for me, it was just a big group of songs that felt like it pieced together properly. Doing shorter releases, I’ll probably do some of in the coming months, or years, or whatever. But it felt like this was an album and I had been intending for the whole time I was writing to get 10 songs or whatever out of it. It just felt right! I love albums and I think there’s a time and a place for doing it, and I think every couple years you have to come back to doing that. So yeah, it was quite a simple decision for me, really.
That makes sense. In the album, you explore a lot of different themes of discovery. Where did this album come from in terms of inspiration for you? Was it based on personal experiences?
Yeah I mean, I tried to make it as much of a stream of consciousness as possible: for the lyrics to feel direct and in the moment. I feel like I’m always drawing from all over the place, and as I said, it’s been a chaotic couple of years, coming out of doing my first album and touring it. It was just a whole new life for me, really. All of that has gone into it, as well as so much going on in the world around us, so much change and I’ve been looking at that. I guess the disparity, in terms of technology, between the generations and between the ages, that kind of stuff has all seeped into it as quite a big theme, and where we’re headed in the coming years is all a bit important to the record. Inspiration comes from all over the place, along with that, I got a record player in the time that I was writing the album, and that was the first time I had gotten my own, so there was a lot of crate digging going on. I managed to collect all of the ABBA albums in that period of time. I managed to collect a good few Bowie and Dylan albums and things like that, and Kate Bush as well, I got a couple of those. I was listening to music in a traditional way, which goes back to your album question, because those records and listening to them in that way kind of inspired the feel of it, as well. I really wanted some rawness, and mistakes and looseness. Also some of the weirdness of those records, as well. Kate Bush’s stuff is just-- you never listen to a Kate Bush song and go “that was boring.” It’s always so interesting and always so well constructed. Yeah, there’s a lot of influences, really.
That’s so interesting because I’ve also recently discovered the world of listening to vinyl, and I feel like it’s so different, getting to really take in the full album in that way.
It’s quite exciting, I think, finding a record that you weren’t expecting to find. I don’t really go to the expensive record stores. Here in the UK we have charity shops that I aim for, which are so cheap and obviously for charity, as well. The stuff people donate: I’ve got Graceland or Paul Simon for a fiver, you know, it’s just stuff people are throwing out which I find really nice. There’s always sort of a story in it, which is so exciting, being like, “they have this Sex Pistols album I’ve never heard of! Great, let’s get it!” (Laughs) I don’t really get that anywhere else.
That’s awesome, and to think someone just threw it away! So you’re talking about your process of making the album and where your inspiration comes from. What’s your writing process like? How do you approach writing a song?
It’s always different for me. I kind of try to keep things fresh for myself between projects, and between songs even. I just find if I start repeating myself, whether it’s if I’ve just written a song on acoustic guitar and I pick up an acoustic guitar again I kind of do something quite similar, so I’m always trying to come from a different point of entry. So the process for me is always very broken up. I find for my own music, projects, and albums, I tend to rely on a lot of ideas that just come to me, and I’ve always had these melodies and little lyric ideas sort of come to my head. I do have a very fast paced brain; sometimes I’m going through ideas and not really thinking about anything properly, but in that sort of chaos, I’ve always found melodies and lyrics. And I think that for me is always the most exciting place to start a song from, because my brain is sort of doing random crap (laughs) so the process starts in many different ways. I use Logic and do a lot on my computer, and I play a lot of guitar and do a few songs on piano. I kind of start from whatever point and bring it into Logic. I tend to do the demos quite extensively. From wherever point I’m starting from, I do try to get as many ideas out on the table as possible and then I have the terrible job of just sorting through the mess and being like “what does this song actually need?” That’s what the creative process is like for me! It’s full-on and fast-paced, and often leaves me on the wrong path before the right one, but I don’t know, I’ve never found anything else that works other than just kind of throwing down my ideas. (Laughs)
Right, and I love something that you keep saying: chaos. You’re saying your ideas are chaotic and the way the songs get made is chaotic--
If I could just show you the table. This is my studio that I’m in right now, if I could show you the table and just how much crap there is everywhere. (Laughs) It is just chaos!
That’s funny (laughs) and I think that that’s interesting because “Brazil” came out a few years ago and you’ve been doing music for several years, but you also were pretty young when you started. How did you start? Was it always this chaotic? Or was it once you were sprung into everything the chaos started?
It was always chaos. I used to borrow my brother’s equipment-- well, I say equipment, he had an 8-track recorder. So I used to borrow that and use Audacity as a software which, just, no one should do. You know, it’s good to learn on a really terrible software, and I think that’s where the chaos comes from: finding your own route. I always found the most interesting way rather than looking on YouTube for a tutorial on how to do something. It’s like, if you’re doing something wrong, you’re kind of doing something right with music. It’s always been that way, and when I was starting out I was doing it in whatever way I could: in my bedroom, in the hall, at home, whenever I could make a tiny bit of space to record I would. I never got to a point where I made everything just so and everything came together. It has always been chaos. (Laughs)
That’s so funny. Well you really don’t see that, because these songs are so well put together. So I love to hear that the process starts one way and the product ends another.
Yeah, I like to create pop songs but I like to find new paths, rather than doing things in a way that I’m just writing a song, writing the chords, writing the melody. You can hash it out in weird ways, and I think you find slightly weirder ideas that I’m drawn to anyway.
I wanted to ask about “Beautiful Faces” — what a great track. What was the decision like to make this one a single? What does this song mean to you?
I think it was just about a big re-entry with my music: coming back in a way that felt like a song that wasn’t really like anything I put out before. It felt like it was going to grab people’s attention, and it felt like a catchy and easy melody in the chorus there which I think was important. Yeah, I’ve got a three minute and a half long track which I don’t normally write, and it’s just this bold moment which feels like a step into a new dimension for me. So yeah, it made sense as a first single and I think it definitely helped in getting people’s attention back towards the record. And obviously from that point, it’s just (laughs) descended into furthermore chaos. After January, when that was put out, obviously everything changed completely, so we ended up extending things. But that initial moment was really, really cool!
That’s crazy to think about: where we are now vs. where we were just back in January. Again, we all commend you and thank you for making this in this insane time. (Laughs) And like you said, it’s been a chaotic journey. What was your favorite part about making the album?
I mean, really, the most enjoyable creative process was being in Nashville and working on the album there. I had already written all of the music. It can be fun when you get to an idea that’s really, really good when you’re writing songs, but half the time it’s not that. For me, it’s the most frustrating thing and I do love writing songs because I love getting it right, but when I’m getting it wrong it’s really hard. I talk to my friends who are musicians, as well, and you can be very hard on yourself if you’re not creating music that you’re proud of. So going to Nashville and recording there with Jay Joyce was so freeing because I knew what I had to do and I’d hashed out these songs so many times that there were only so many things that I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. But we did allow a certain amount of freedom in the studio, as well, like it was all about playing things in a rough and raw way and not getting things too correct. But I kind of had a sense of knowing what I was doing, and also a bit of freedom to just enjoy the experience, which is why it was my favorite bit. It was just five weeks of making music, hanging out, not really getting stuck in a rut for too long. It was just such a great, fast-paced environment which is good for me. This is the thing, when I’m on my own it’s a little more chaotic. When I’m working with an amazing producer like Jay Joyce and his guys, who are setting things up as soon as I want them set up, it’s a whole different thing. I can just play it and be like, “cool, I’m onto the next thing now.” And they’re like, “cool, yeah, it’s set up for you.” It does feel so good in that environment, so it was great!
Well you’ve come a long way from Audacity on your brother’s computer. (Laughs) Congratulations again on the release of Zeros! It’s just been so exciting to watch and listen to, and thank you so much again for coming in today! Before we wrap up, is there anything you’d like to share with our listeners?
(Laughs) I don’t have anything coming up (laughs) like I’ll be on tour as soon as I can go out of the house. But peace and love, generally, to everyone.
Thank you again, Declan! It was so much fun having you here.
Yeah, thank you! It was lovely.
This interview originally aired on WNYU Radio with Bridgette Kontner on October 21, 2020 on The New Afternoon Show at https://wnyu.org/archives/2020-11-04-the-new-afternoon-show