Hash Brown Struggle: Declan McKenna wants to know where the good vegan food is

Hello.

Hey Deccers, how are you, man?

Haha. I'm good, how are you?

Does that annoy you when people call you "Deccers"?

Not really. It's a fairly common one — it's fine.

But Willy Bish doesn't call you "Deccers" does he?

Willy Bish, he calls me a number of things, not really "Deccers."

So nothing worth printing as far as nicknames go.

Haha, uh, anything.

I wanted to ask you. I saw Chelsea v. Arsenal today. Is Chelsea your team?

No. No. Tottenham. Not Chelsea, Tottenham.

Oh, so Spurs. Right on, then I'm not gonna ask you about that match. Sorry.

That's alright.

Can I ask you about GQ? Did you ever think you would be in British GQ at the ripe old age of 19-years-old?

I mean, no, not really. I mean, yeah, I kind of grew up not knowing about British or any music press, really, so I haven't expected much, but I have done a lot in the last couple of years, but I feel very fortunate in that sense.

And I wanted to stay on the topic of bigger press for you. You are certainly not comfortable with the idea of being a voice of a generation — but you, along with Earl Sweatshirt and Archie  from King Krule — do like to give young people face time (ie: your video for “The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home”) How do you think the more mainstream publications could better analyze your music or give folks in your age bracket more of a fair shake? I feel like the media kind of leans on just a handful of topics when it gleans conclusions about from your work. I don't know if you feel like we've been getting it right.

Right. Um, I don't know. I think in 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 being young is a big part of my music, it's a big part of me as well. I think I just wanted to make a point to sing about the things that I care about and that my friends care about, and yeah, giving them extra voices, keeping the numbers up as far as young people trying to affect the world because I think it's a very frustrating age in between teenager and adult, and I wanted to channel the frustration in a way that wasn't considered to be like throwing a tantrum because it could very easily get criticized for that or something like that ilk. Young people from all generations have been criticized for that for decades and millenia.

For sure, and it's strange to listen to What Do You Think About The Car? because that was, sort of, the 16-year-old version of you who kind of wrote those songs, and you're working on a new record. So now the 19-year-old version of yourself is different from the one who wrote the songs on Car? Do you feel more grown up at 19 then you did when you were writing those?

Yeah, I definitely have grown a lot and done a lot. I think I've spent the last couple years doing rounds of touring and recording, and fairly weighty and time-consuming stuff. I've had to kind of adapt to that world very quickly, and I have definitely changed in certain ways, but I'm still trying. You know, I don't think I've changed a massive amount, but I've definitely grown up, and I think I just understand a lot more. Even though I'm still a very confused sort of adolescent, I find that I've evolved and come to understand more about myself and my place, and I also understand, a bit more, in my own personal life as well, growing up I've had more time to sort out my life and where I things to go because it is a very exciting time, and I think, yeah, it's just a really cool opportunity for me, and I am just kind of taking that in.

Awesome, and I wanted to ask you about even earlier music. Your earliest music was just you imitating things you were hearing, but there was also the “fake deep” seven and ten year old stuff? What kind of subject matter is that?

I mean literally nothing, you know? I don't know. I definitely wrote some stuff that was fairly insightful, but nothing quite revolutionary, and in now way do I consider myself revolutionary at all, but I think back then there was a little bit more that I wanted to tell. I don't know maybe songs just about basic ideas of politics and the way the world works, and I tried to do that very early on without much understanding, and I still, I'm not really massively knowledgeable on the world, but yeah, it was a different time, it was quite funny, and it's all part of growth, and still while it never really scratched any kind of surface it kind of helped me develop and helps me develop now.

Do you remember what kind of early sounds were you mimicking? Was it Bowie, Nina Simone and Jeff Buckley even at that age?

No, I was interested in all of that for sure, but I think I was more in a way mimicking artists that I was looking up to. A lot of modern folk influences. I was kind of, you know, you always kind of start out just imitating your favorite music and that's where my music started from, and from there it kind of, at least for the first album kind of merged into kind of indie rock, electronic sound, which now, as well, moving forward from that, has changed now in my second album. Sort of gone into a world that is kind of like the later recording from my album, but this is more like the music I listen to now, and trying to be more in the vein of Jeff Buckley or David Bowie kind of sound. I don't know, those were two very great artists and difficult to compare yourself to, but I think it's something to look up to. The music of your favorite artists, you know.

Yeah, I was gonna ask you if you still asked yourself things like, “What would Bowie or Jeff Buckley do?,” but it sounds like you still do kind of ask yourself those things.

Absolutely. You know, my keyboard player Will, or as many people know him, Willy Bish, has a deck of cards written by Brian Eno or someone like that, which are like little creative, motivational cards, so sometime we kind of look to that, and they're actually quite good. You kind of read every card for what you're making at the minute, and it can help you with ideas. But yeah, thinking about what they would do is something I would do, and it is something I try to do more now.

Right on, and so you finished writing this album in November, and you’re already writing for the second one. I think I saw here you kind of like that people won’t be able to necessarily pick out what’s going on in the next back of songs and videos, and that you’re looking for some space to care for the little details and develop the mood changes in the songs — maybe a concept album. Will you give us a hint as to what kinds of topics — I mean we know what sounds you're changing — but what kinds of topical hints about what you're writing about? Or are you just gonna leave that to fans to parse out?

Well what I've got so far is a little bit of a narrative, a couple of characters. I think the reason I wanted to do that was because I think I find myself, a lot more, writing about a sort of, a more personal thing. I think before I thought I would write an album that was a little bit more first person, but, I don't know, without being written in first person, so kind of an outsider's perspective, but about my life. I guess it's kind of the way I've been writing songs for a long time, honing ideas that fit into the story, or the narrative like a book or a poem, and I'm kind of doing the same thing now. Just following a certain person, and certain ideas, but more based around myself a little bit more, basically. A little bit more about, I don't know, where I'm at and where I've been over these last couple of years.

I like that talking to you know there's less of, um, well I think for a little while you seemed very surprised by the success, but I think sometimes you thought that what you were doing was just mediocre or that you were chatting a load of rubbish, maybe had some kind of imposter syndrome back then, but it seems kind of a natural thing to have — a little self-doubt about your work.

Oh, I don't think you can escape the imposters syndrome. I think it's part of it. It's part of the fun. Part of the fun is getting past it and making something that you are actually proud of. So now I am at this phase of making an album, and I am at that same point three years ago when I was writing the last one like, "What am I gonna do? This is so terrible. It's not good enough." You always look back on your work and think you can improve it, and you listen to the best artists in the world and you feel down like, "Why can't I be like that?" And that's just part of it, and you do go there every now and then, and think, "I could be better," or "I could do this better," or "I could do that better," but at the end of the day even if you do feel that way you still have to try and be optimistic. Otherwise you are never really going to get out of that rut.

And speaking of ruts, and getting in and out of them, do you need a vegan food shirpa when you get to Tampa because our office is full of them.

For sure, 100-percent.

Haha, maybe I'll bother Emilio and we can eat some vegan food when you come here. Some good vegan food.

That's kind of the scariest thing about touring America, at least for me. Your lifeline is just fries and bread.

Yeah, because it's 43 dates in America, and you've done America before, but that's 43 cities where you have to find decent vegan food that's not weird butter and bread.

Yeah, you gotta just find a Whole Foods and stock up for a couple of days.

That's true, I guess depending on your routing, I didn't commit it to memory, but I am sure you are hitting some weird cities where you'll have to stock up. Oh, are you touring in a bus now?

In a bus, no. We're touring on a bus in the U.K., but this tour is two months in a van which is going to be really fun.

OK, and I’m guessing Willy Bish is in, but who else is coming on the tour with you as far as the band? You’ve come a long way from the loop pedal days.

Yes. I've come a long way, and my first gig in America on a loop pedal in America was in Tampa, Florida.

Really? Where?

Yeah! At that big outside space. I can remember it very vividly. It was with a radio station. And it was my first big show in America.

Maybe Next Big Thing? Maybe the amphitheatre?

Maybe.

[After some post-interview research, CL realized it was a March 11, 2016 Jannus Live show with The Struts and Front Bottoms for 97X Freesome.] 

So yeah, I've got William Bishop, or Willy Bish. I've got Gabby King on the drums, returning. Isabel Torres coming back on guitar, and Nathan Cox on the bass. He actually wasn't on the last America trip with us, but now he's back. We're all really looking forward to it, actually, we were all kind of together the other day, and super-excited.

And how do you feel your setlist is evolving? I know you work in a lot of covers. I was wondering about ABBA.

I think the idea for the American tour was to kind of do a new setlist that we haven't quite, I don't know, we've got a little rehearsal before we go in, so we're kind of waiting to do that to kind of figure out whether we're going to kind of stick to the sort of one we've been doing for the U.K. shows. Do something fresh, try out some new things. I kind of like the idea of that. Because we've got a full tour, 43 shows, and I feel like if we stick to the same thing we've been doing for ages, then I'm afraid we're all gonna kind of not be enjoying it after a while, so we're gonna see what happens, but we're gonna try some new stuff out, try out some new jams. I like to be fairly loose with the live show and let them sort of grow and develop with the tours, just sort of see what we get with it.

So you can't confirm or deny ABBA because I was gonna definitely bring my mom if there was…

There's probably going to be at least one show where ABBA is involved in one what or another. But we've got a couple of cool ideas. We've definitely got some new songs, never before heard, that we're going to want to practice before the tour, but I don't know if there are any that we'll be doing at every gig. We're just gonna throw things in and drop things out, which is exciting.

Yeah. And I think I only have five minutes in, so I wanted to get this question in. When you received the BBC Introducing award you mentioned the “time, effort and support given by so many others to get me to the point I'm at now” — who are those so many other, Declan?

All over the place, honestly. BBC Introducing has sort of supported me from the ground up. I've had so much support from the whole team that's obviously worked for me, and helped me and my live band as well who have been so important to me growing and learning because I am sort of the youngest of the group and it's been great to be going around with that lot and living together, basically. There's a lot that I owe to them and to the family and friends as well, the people who kind of raise you up to where you are now, but yeah getting that award was amazing. It's super cool seeing all the other artists who've done really well — that was quite the shock.

And I wanted to go back to your fans. Again, I know you're not the voice of a generation, but what about your relationship with your fans? I feel like albums like Car, and it tends to make people feel like you are their friend or that you understand them in a way that other songwriters may not — at least on the record. Do you take a lot of time for your fans when you're stopping in these American cities?

Yeah, I think as much as possible. You want to interact and communicate with people who are into what you do because at the end of the day you were probably fairly like-minded in a weird way, and it's unfortunate that the more shows you play and the, sort of bigger you get, the more difficult it is to kind of actually talk to, and connect with, people. But, fortunately social media is quite an interesting way of doing that and interacting with people, and that's where kids my age spend a lot of time anyway. I love interacting with people and seeing other people react to tunes I've written myself because that's something that is really special and one of he many rewarding things about touring as opposed to the many unrewarding things about touring.

Right on, and last question since your tour does end in the spring and gets you back home for the World Cup. What's your routine there, are you going to kind of take a break from writing the album and just sit in front of the TV?

I think I'm actually, kind of, doing the complete opposite of that. I just want to write the album as much as possible. Just because it's kind of the way to do it at the minute is to get another album out as quick as possible. I'm just gonna, not absolutely roast myself over it, but try and make something when I can and keep creative and not get out of the zone because I'm making a lot of cool stuff, and I am enjoying it was well. I just think now, the sooner I can get these ideas out and work on them, and make a really cool, fun album, then the better.

That's awesome, and we are excited to hear some of that when you get here. Congrats on all the success around Car. I think it's a great record, and everybody seems to love it. I'm happy for you.

Thank you very much.

Cheers, man. I'll see you when you get to Tampa, we'll eat some vegan food and keep you away from Whole Foods.

Amazing man, that's very kind — I will see you soon.

Bye.

Bye-bye.