Declan McKenna is opening for Beyoncé in April. Even the most sprung of spring chickens would have to squint pretty hard, but his name sits on the last line of the Saturday lineup for Coachella 2018, nestled in between New West Records psych-rocker Ron Gallo and new-school jazz-pop weirdo Shane Blanchard (aka Bane’s World). Alexander Brettin’s stoner-pop band Mild High Club is also on that line of text, along with genre-bending D.C. DIY punk group Priests. All those bands have a few things in common: they’re buzzing, hip, musically sound and mostly young.
But at 19 years old, McKenna — a sorta-baby-faced songwriter who was born on Christmas Eve in the London borough of Enfield — is really young, one of the most adolescent artists on a Coachella lineup headlined by The Weeknd, Eminem, SZA, HAIM, Portugal. the Man and Jamiroquai. Don’t let the date on his birth certificate turn you off of him, though. At the age of 15, McKenna wrote “Brazil,” a not-so-tongue-in-cheek critique of FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, which awarded the 2014 World Cup to Brazil in spite of the fact that so many Brazilians were (and remain) living in unimaginable poverty.
HASH BROWN STRUGGLE
Declan McKenna wants to know where the good vegan food is
“I heard you sold the Amazon to show the country that where you’re from is where the world should want to be,” is how the ridiculously catchy, jangly pop song opens. “I’m faithless now/Though we win every time and I don’t know how/cause I haven’t bought you and I haven’t sold me, but the people are dying to get on TV.”
A 2015 corruption scandal would eventually lead to the unceremonious downfall of then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter, and the song McKenna originally self-released on YouTube wound up being the anchor on his 2017 Columbia Records debut, What Do You Think About the Car?, which he’s bringing to Ybor City on February 8 as part of a yuuuuge 43-date U.S. headlining tour. On the album, McKenna — who has shied away from being considered “the voice of a generation” — tackles similarly heavy-handed subject matter like society’s patriarchal lean (“Make Me Your Queen”), xenophobia (“Isombard”) and even the often oppressive, lonely and misunderstood emotional conditions so many young LGBTQ kids have to endure (“Paracetamol,” a song inspired by the suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn). The 11-track album is a sterling example of full-hearted, somewhat-confused and eternally hopeful youthfulness. Critics looking for a reason to shit on the effort say that parts of the major-label narrative surrounding Car feel puffed up, or that the socially conscious message just isn’t stern enough. Kind of a cheap shot, considering most of us were busy practicing for our driver’s license tests when we were 15 and 16 years old. McKenna — who is still navigating the media’s newfound interest in his story and music — is frank about the hype and haters surrounding his tunes.
“A lot of the stuff that I make can be passed off as quite youthful and quite young, and that can often be considered a negative thing, but I don’t see why it ought to be. I think I just wanted to make a point to sing about the things that I care about and that my friends care about,” he told CL over the phone in between writing sessions for a follow-up to Car. McKenna — who idolizes Jeff Buckley and Bowie — also admitted that the purgatory between adolescence and adulthood can be a frustrating place to be, and that imposter syndrome is impossible to escape even in his own head.
“I wanted to channel frustration in a way that wasn’t considered to be like throwing a tantrum — young people from all generations have been criticized for that for decades,” he said, adding that “part of the fun is getting past [self-doubt] and making something that you’re actually proud of. At the end of the day you still have to try and be optimistic. Otherwise you are never really going to get out of that rut.”
It’s heavy stuff from the kid who won’t even be old enough to lift a pint of beer when he tours the U.S. with his friends and bandmates, but McKenna — who is hilariously vegan on Twitter — isn’t immune to sharing silly, melancholic laments about the true challenges of life on the road.
“That’s the scariest thing about touring in America. Your lifeline is just fries and bread. You gotta just find a Whole Foods and stock up for a couple of days,” he joked about the struggle that is finding tasty, plant-based food. McKenna might know where a few Whole Foods stores are around Tampa Bay. He holds the area in high regard since a 2016 Jannus Live set opening for The Struts and the Front Bottoms, the first place he publicly incorporated a loop pedal into his solo set. “I can remember it very vividly — it was my first big show in America.”
Oddly enough, vegging out and watching a different big show — the 2018 World Cup set to take place in Russia this summer — is low on McKenna’s list of things to do after the tour ends and he’s back home in the U.K. “I’m actually doing the complete opposite of that. I just want to write the album as much as possible,” he said about his summer plans.
“Not roast myself over it, but try and make something when I can, keep creative and not get out of the zone. I just think the sooner I can get ideas out and work on them, and make a really cool, fun album, then the better.”
Yep, because you aren’t getting any younger, kid.
Declan McKenna w/Chappell Roan
Thu. Feb 8, 8 p.m. $15.
Crowbar, 1812 N. 17th St., Ybor City
More info: local.cltampa.com
This article appears in Feb 1-8, 2018.