"YOU NEED TO ENJOY WHAT YOU'RE DOING"
"Il faut aimer ce que l'on fait"
Tout va très vite pour Declan McKenna. Après déjà deux tubes, ce jeune homme de 18 ans sort en cette rentrée son premier disque et enchaîne sur une tournée mondiale. Un peu timide, il sort de sa réserve quand il s’agit d’écrire les textes de ses morceaux. De là à dire qu’il fait partie des fers de lance de sa génération, il n’y a qu’un pas. Nous sommes allés à sa rencontre.
Vocable: Why is your album called “What do you think about the Car”? Declan: It comes from a home video my family did when I was four years old. We just got a new car and my sister turns round the camera to me and goes “Dec, what do you think about the car? Do you like it?” and I answer: “I think it's really good. And now, I'm going to sing my new album!” Then I just started singing. I had forgotten about it but when I “re-found” that home video it felt like it should be the title of the album.
2. Vocable: Do you remember when you first figured writing and singing could really become a fulltime job? Declan: I started focusing on it and taking it seriously and writing quite a bit when I was 13 or 14. I remember listening to a lot of bands like Django Django, Mystery Jets, Jack White and Vampire Weekend…When you think about it, the writing is based on trying to emulate your favourite artists. In a way, you learn about what they do and you can develop your own style.
3. Vocable: Can you tell us about your writing process? Declan: Sometimes, lyrics can just be fun to sing and that's all they need to be, but for the most part in this record, it comes down to a lot of personal things, a lot of things that I've seen around the world and trying to get my head around it. You have to be selfish when you're songwriting because you need to enjoy what you’re doing. When it's genuinely something that you like; I think that translates well on record and live as well.
4. Vocable: What's your take on the situation in the UK? Did you vote in the General Election? Declan: It was my first time. I had to do a postal vote because I was in Japan, and I voted Labour. There are a lot of young people starting to show public interest in politics. It becomes a cool thing, A lot of them agree with who Jeremy Corbyn is as a person and what he stands for. People should definitely be taught more about having their say in politics and in the way the world's run. At least in the UK, for a long time, that wasn't the case and we weren't really taught about it well enough. I think Jeremy Corbyn's done a fantastic job of whatever it is he did, but especially in getting young people to actually really actively engage in voting and in politics.