KENN YOU BELIEVE IT
In association with
WHEN developing his latest album, Declan McKenna did what most threaten to do every time the drizzle strikes, he took himself off to sunnier lands. And the Los Angeles sunshine permeates through his third offering What Happened To The Beach?
This stateside period coincided with an era of personal growth for the 25-year-old singer from England, as he allowed himself to be more fluid this time around.
The shift was symptomatic of the record first taking shape in his family home during the Covid pandemic.
“I think the whole ethos behind the album really came from working at home”, he reflects.
“Working in a really natural environment for me and going back to how I started out almost.”
With less pressure from studio sessions and record labels on his shoulders, he could be more experimental with his sound and approach.
“This album particularly, I really didn’t make with any commercial success in mind, I just wanted to do something for myself, for my fans, to keep moving forward and try out new things and keep progressing”, he explains.
McKenna first caught the attention of labels at age 15 after he released his breakthrough track Brazil, which tackled corruption in Fifa.
Its catchy indie hooks earned him a coveted performance slot at Glastonbury after he entered the song into the festival’s emerging talent competition, and won.
The singer continued to delve into heavy subject matters within his 2017 debut album, What Do You Think About the Car?, with his follow-up single Paracetamol addressing the misrepresentation of transgender teenagers in the media. He later criticised British foreign policy with his track British Bombs, which featured on his second album, Zeros, in 2020.
In his third record, he veers away from taking on the imperfect world around him and is more introspective with his lyrics.
“I think previously I’m known for creating a really followable story, almost with a timeline and the songs progress like that”, he says on shifting his creative focus.
“Some songs have that, obviously, it’s still me writing them, but there’s a lot more of a view to just create a feeling and an atmosphere and being able to sit with it.
“And I think it’s the LA sunshine creeping in, just making something that feels good and let it rest there.
“For me, I need that kind of music. And working that way and maybe focusing less on those sort of stories, there’s lyrics that talk about all sorts of different sh*t, really.
“But I’m not trying to really hammer them home every time, some of the messages are just softly sprinkled in there and songs are just playing up the emotions of themselves.”
McKenna says he has enjoyed exploring this change of style, which he feels came from losing control of his plans when he released his second album in 2020.
“I think having a point where you just had no idea what was going to be happening and how your life was going to be in the coming weeks, just waiting for the world to give you a break, it does shift your perspective massively”, he says.
“So it’s come out of quite an emotional time and wound up with some wonky beauty out of it.
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“And I think part of that is accepting the slightly raw takes that I’ve used on the album, the slightly more scratchy, less heavy production.
“Letting the mistakes be and accepting them for what they are has been a part of it for me.”
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