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@ Joe Cadman GED 16, most people were in the middle of an important year of GCSEs and life decisions. But for singer-songwriter Declan McKenna, 16 was the age he shot to fame, after winning a slot on the William’s Green Stage at Glastonbury in the Emerging Talent Competition. He has been capturing attention since and is preparing to release his first full-length album. ‘It’s really great,’ he says of the growing excitement surrounding him. ‘It’s what everyone wants to hear before they release an album. ‘It also means there’s a lot of
people looking at me, which is an unusual experience for me. More than anything it makes me hopeful for the stuff I’m going to release.’ Now 18, McKenna is taking the pressure of increased attention in his stride and channeling it into recording his debut album. ‘It’s going to be a learning curve as it’s still only my first album and I’ve got so much more to go,’ he says. The record is close to completion, but McKenna admits he needs ‘a kick up the arse’ to tie up the loose ends. ‘We’re just in mixing now and it’ll get mastered early this year so it’s very close now,’ he says. ‘It’ll be released in the first half of this year. ‘It’s really up in the air at the minute but it’s fine – I’ll get it done.’ Despite the debut album nerves, the Hertfordshire teen is still humbled by the success of the past two years. ‘I couldn’t have wished for anything to have gone any better than it has,’ he says. ‘Even when I was 16 things started happening much more than I ever expected.’ This year looks rather hectic for McKenna, as he gets ready for his
biggest solo tour to date. ‘After the album is released I’ll probably be touring for the next ten billion years or something,’ he laughs. Despite feeling overwhelmed by the upcoming stint of live shows, McKenna is excited to see what the tour will bring. ‘We haven’t really properly done a UK headline tour so I’m excited for that and I’m excited to see if anyone turns up to the shows,’ he adds. ‘They’re not particularly massive so I’m hoping it won’t look too empty, but we’ll see how it goes.’ Despite his age and the occasional bout of nerves, McKenna has always made it clear he will not let music industry bosses influence his decisions, however distracted he might be from his busy schedule. ‘That kind of stuff can happen,’ he adds. ‘Especially when you’re touring a lot. You can be like “oh yeah whatever, we’ll do this – I don’t care”. ‘When I was initially meeting people from labels and management companies it was important for me to get a point across that I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do. ‘I’ve very much kept to my own ideas and what I want to do so it’s
ON TOUR
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January 17 Glasgow, O2 ABC January 20 London, O2 Academy Brixton January 24 Leicester, The Cookie January 25 Birmingham, Hare & Hounds January 26 Liverpool, Stuido2 At Parr Street January 28 Newcastle, Think Tank? January 29 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club January 30 Sheffield, The Leadmill
been all good.’ This strength of opinion comes across in songs such as Brazil. McKenna wrote the self-released single about the gap between rich and poor Brazilians, which he felt was not addressed ahead of the country hosting the 2014 World Cup. The song was also seen as a criticism of FIFA and McKenna was interviewed about it on Sky News. Paracetamol also takes on weighty issues, this time those faced by the transgender community. The song was a balance between wanting to show support for LGBT+ people without putting himself forward as a representative. But he says other musicians should not feel obliged to take on current affairs in their songwriting. ‘It would be unfair of me to say more people should write how I like to write, because art is something people can run free with,’ he says. ‘However, at this point in time people who do have the platform should at least be speaking up about certain issues when they can. ‘There’s a dangerous level of right wing emergence going on and tragedies happening – people should be speaking out about them.’ McKenna has also addressed issues close to his heart in other ways, aside from his lyrics. During a performance of single Isombard on Later... With Jools Holland last year, he took off his
edinburgh city centre 1 castle terrace corner of lothian road edinburgh EH1 2DP
ocean terminal ocean terminal leith edinburgh EH6 6JJ ON TOUR March 3 Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach March 4 Coventry, Central Library March 6 Liverpool, Buyers Club March 10 Nottingham, Bodega March 11 Leicester, The Cookie
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