Declan McKenna’s emergence into the public eye has come thick and fast, leaving him with little time to reflect upon everything that’s occurred within the past year. From writing songs about corruption surrounding global sporting events, to touring with some of the UK’s hottest acts, it’s fair to say that the 17-year-old from Hertfordshire has been forced to mature incredibly quickly, with him only finishing his GCSEs last summer. We catch up with Declan shortly before his Live At Leeds set, where we discuss how he’s managed to deal with everything that’s been thrown at him in such a short space of time and his plans for the future.
Since you won the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, there’s been a lot of hype surrounding you, is it hard to take it all in?
Yeah, I guess so. I mean I never really expected all of it to come pretty much off the back of one song. But it did and a load of crazy stuff has happened for me and I’m getting to play at places like this and see a lot of other countries, which is something I wouldn’t have been able to do if I hadn’t won the competition. There’s nothing more enjoyable than just travelling around and playing shows. I mean there’s just a buzz that you get from it that you can’t get from anything else. I really can’t complain.
Being 17, do you ever find people look down on you because of your age?
Definitely, I mean people can, especially online, be slightly patronising or believe that because I’m just a teenager and they’re slightly older they then think they have some superior wisdom that I don’t have in life. Although that may be the case, I’m trying to just do my own thing and enjoy myself. So it can get quite frustrating when people are trying to force their righteous views upon me. But I don’t like to listen too much to people over-thinking what I’m doing and I’m just doing it for fun and being me.
Is it weird for you being away from a sense of normality, I mean you only finished your GCSEs at the end of last summer and since then you’ve been on tour with the likes of Mystery Jets, how’s it been?
It’s been incredibly crazy, I mean I’ve just had to adapt very quickly but I guess it’s something that is required of you in this sort of industry. With all the touring you have to do and all the shows you have to play, it’s not like you can stay rooted in one spot the whole time, so I guess you do sort of become a nomad. But it’s something I’ve always wanted to do and if that means I have to sacrifice certain elements of my lifestyle in order to accommodate the good stuff, then that’s exactly what I’ll do. Although I’m very all over the place, I really can’t complain about it. I’d be an idiot to turn down the opportunities I’ve been getting at such a young age. Like I’m going to America, which is a place where I’ve never been before. You can’t really take it for granted and you’ve just got to welcome it.
Since you finished your exams last summer, have you attempted to carry on with any sort of education?
I won’t lie; I really just haven’t had the time to do anything. But for sure, I think it’s definitely something that I want to do in the future. I mean regardless of how I’m doing with my music, I think educational qualifications do mean something. I don’t want to have just left school and have nothing. I don’t know, the music industry can be very fragile, so I want to just have something else there in case things don’t go to plan. But I’m enjoying my music at the minute and it’s what I want to do, so I feel like my main focus right now is just writing songs, recording songs and playing shows.
So the song Brazil has quite a political theme to it, was that something you intentionally tried to create or something that just came about organically?
It kind of just came about due to me watching a video of someone from Brazil talking about the problems surrounding the World Cup and it just got me thinking about the whole situation. And then before I knew it I’d written this song about it. I was doing interviews with Sky News, which was really odd and I look so uncomfortable looking back on it, and my voice was a lot squeakier back then. But yeah, that was cool. A very strange experience, as I never saw myself being on that sort of media platform, but it’s another thing to add to the list of all the mad stuff I’ve done so far. Not many people get interviews on a TV network like that and it’s fair to say that I’ve had a lot of opportunities come about as a result of that interview. It feels like people are really getting into that sort of songwriting at the moment and it seems to be that many more musicians are using their voices to get across contentious issues.
Are there any upcoming plans to release anymore new singles or EPs?
Yeah, hopefully there’ll be another song coming next month. I’ll probably be releasing a couple of songs towards the end of the year too. Then if everything goes to plan, there should be an album hopefully next year, although I need to record it first, which might help. But yeah, that’s as much as I know right now.