EP.251 - DECLAN McKENNA

Hello, Adam Buxton here with news of some live shows, details of which you'll find on my website adam-buxton.co.uk.

On the 10th of October, I'll be on stage at the Wimbledon Theatre with Samira Ahmed, talking about my book I Love You Bai, showing clips and signing things afterwards.

On the 13th and 14th of October, the Adam Buxton Band is playing two nights at the Norwich Arts Centre.

Expect songs from my new album Buckle Up, Great Bants, and afterwards, I'll sign things if you want.

And finally, on the 26th of October, I'll be appearing at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the London Literary Festival.

Expect humorous readings, videos, and music, followed by, yep, signing.

And then, I think that's it for live shows for the rest of this year.

Tickets and info at adam-buxton.co.uk.

I

added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin.

Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening.

I took my microphone and found some human folk.

Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke.

My name is Adam Buxton, I'm a man.

I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan.

Hey, how are you doing, podcasts?

It's Adam Buxton here.

I'm being stung by netals

out on a farm track in East Anglia.

Ouch!

The thing is that out here in Norfolk in mid-June 2025 when I'm recording this intro, it is hot and

I am out here with my best dog friend Rosie

who is not that pleased to be out on a hot day like this but still needs a bit of exercise.

She's mainly been lounging

basking in the shade and on the hot patio slabs.

I've come out wearing gym shorts and trainers rather than my walking boots

and that was a bit thick really because now I'm walking along quite overgrown farm tracks

with a lot of brambles nettles and tiny creatures that want to attack me.

All of them want to attack me.

The brambles and the sort of spiny bits of wheat chaff, I don't know exactly what they are, are getting lodged in my socks and also in the top parts of my trainers and sticking into my ankles.

The creatures are just munching on my legs and the nettles have stung the living heck out of my shins.

I'm not complaining, it's a sensory smorgasbord that makes me feel alive

and I'm delighted to be here with you for episode number 251.

of the podcast, which features a great little ramble with a very talented young man, English singer-songwriter Declan McKenna.

Here's some McKenna facts for you.

Born in the London borough of Enfield in 1998, Declan Benedict McKenna grew up in Chesant, Hertfordshire.

Having learned to play the guitar as a youngster, he started uploading music to the audio distribution site Bandcamp in the mid-2010s and was just 15 when he uploaded Brazil, his third single, in late 2014.

The song, an engaging slice of psychedelia-tinged indie pop, went modestly viral, thanks in part to lyrics that criticised the football governing body FIFA for awarding the World Cup to Brazil in 2014 without apparently addressing the extensive and deep poverty affecting the people of the nation.

That's a quote from an article about the song at the time.

Declan was studying for his GCSEs in 2015 when he entered the Glastonbury Festival's Festival's Emerging Talent Competition, and after winning it, he appeared at the festival that summer on the Williams Green stage.

A record company bidding frenzy ensued.

I know all about those.

It was absolute carnage with all the major labels trying to get hold of Buckle Up.

And in late 2015, just before his 17th birthday, Declan signed with Columbia Records.

His debut album, What Do You Think About About the Car?, was released in 2017 and produced by James Ford, celebrated for his work with the Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode, Florence and the Machine, and most recently, I think I'm right in saying, Pulp, whose album, produced by James, has just gone to number one as I speak.

Declan's second album, Zeroes, was released in late 2020, and his third, What Happened to the Beach, was released last year in February 2024.

A couple of months after the release of that album in April we met face to face in London for a brief ramble about music and movies and writing songs in a politically febrile climate and Declan played a great acoustic version of his song Elevator Hum.

I really enjoyed meeting Declan.

He's a very smart guy.

Originally I think the idea was that he was just going to play a song and do a brief introduction and then I was going to attach it to an episode with another guest.

But actually we ended up talking a little bit longer than I imagined because I was enjoying myself.

But then the problem became when to put the episode out,

and due to my organizational chaos,

books, etc., I didn't get it together to get it all cut and ready to go until now.

I apologize to Declan and to you, listeners.

I'm a disgrace.

I'll be back to say goodbye at the end of the episode, but right now, with Declan McKenna, Here we go.

Ramble chat, let's have a ramble chat.

We'll focus first on this, then concentrate on that.

Come on, let's chew the fat and have a ramble chat.

Post on your conversation, hope to find your talking hat.

La

Will you say a couple of things, Declan?

Yep.

One, two, three.

How about what you had for breakfast, the old what you had for breakfast?

I had this flat white for breakfast and

have you not had a nutritious food-based breakfast, young man?

No, no, I've got an orange juice and a flat white.

That's going to be my breakfast.

I literally woke up off the bus and got a gap here.

Are you good at looking after yourself when you're touring around?

Yeah, more and more I try to.

I mean, the thing is, for me, is just sleep.

Like, I went to bed at like half past three last night and we were just watching movies and stuff, but like winding down when we get off stage at you know, quarter to 11 or whatever it is, we play for about an hour and a half, hour and 45, something like that.

You know, I'm not sure.

You're all all jazzed up on adrenaline.

Well, yeah, I'm like saving all my energy for the end of the day, and then I've got to sort of come down from it.

So that's mainly the problem.

But we, yeah, we don't.

Have you tried heroin?

It's great to relax, apparently.

That's what they used to say, but these days you're kind of more aware that, like, ah, if you're just drinking all the time, it only makes these problems worse.

Yeah.

Or whatever.

Heroin, absolutely, absolutely.

It's very moorish, though.

That's the thing about it.

But in these modern times, are there people in the way that there never used to be in the olden days of the music industry who do actually look out for you a little bit and do say, oh, don't do that, heroin?

Or is it still just like...

Specifically, that.

Yeah, I think more and more people are looking out for each other.

Sometimes the standard can be to just sort of burn the candle at both ends to an extent.

Like, you do have to look out for yourself because, as I say, I've been touring since I was about 16.

So, when you're sort of that age, maybe 17, 18, and sort of just all this like Carlsberg in the dressing room, you can get into pretty bad habits, like, not even of like getting drunk every night, but just of having like three or four beers every night and that being normal and not actually feeling like you're celebrating anything, you're just kind of just kind of what you do.

Like, that I don't know, I think you have to shake off after a certain point and be like, you know,

you keep getting sick all the time, or you keep, just feeling really tired.

And I mean, you feel tired anyway, regardless.

So it's just like anything to kind of conserve the energy and keep saying.

That's really impressive to have sort of learned that by you're 25 now, right?

Yeah.

To have realized all that by the time you're 25, that's quite useful.

I was quite a long way from figuring that out when I was 25.

I think I had another good 10 years of excessive Carlsberg use in it.

Sure.

I mean, and knowing it and, you know, putting it into practice consistently are two different things but at the same time I definitely feel much more like inclined to just take it easy on on tour like I don't think like I don't really go out or anything on tour other than in Ireland on this tour.

We went out in Ireland because that's that you know you have to sure but um it's the crack apparently.

Yes, it's the it is the crack.

That is exactly what they're saying over there.

Have you got lots of family there?

Olden family.

Literally my whole extended family is in Ireland.

So yeah, it's like quite a big crew over there.

And when we do play in Cork, it's like we played Cypress Avenue, which is like quite a small venue, like a 500-cat venue, but had like, you know, 40-odd people on the guest list all in the dressing room after the gig.

And it's really, it's really nice.

And it's just a really funny like...

meeting of different generations at this gig that they probably wouldn't go to otherwise if it wasn't me, wasn't a relative.

Yeah.

And are they they happy for your success or do they give you weird vibes in the dressing room?

No, don't give me weird, but everyone loves it, like everyone loves coming out for these things.

Like in different ways, I think they appreciate it.

Like, I don't know how much everyone loves the music, but I think some of them do.

Yeah, yeah, they're definitely like some of my cousins that who are sort of closer to my generation really enjoy it.

Some of them even have kids who really enjoy it.

So it's like, yeah, so it's great, it's lovely.

But yeah, that is like kind of the hub where most of my extended family is.

Do you like Van Morrison?

Not particularly.

Ah, jeez.

Like, yeah, like.

Just the mention of Cypress Avenue put me in mind.

Do you know that album, Astral Weeks?

Yeah, yeah.

That's a good album.

He's good.

I feel like I've just grown up knowing that he's a bit of a grumpy

way of doing that.

Well, maybe.

I don't know.

I just feel like because his music just to me is a bit like dreary, I'm just like, oh.

Not that all my heroes are wonderful, you know, ungrumpy people.

Like, definitely some clangers in there, but I don't know.

It's not like my thing.

These are noises that Van Morrison makes.

Good impression, actually.

When he's thinking about the folly of

lockdown

for experts.

Yeah, yeah.

See, he's

like a sort of fair enough about lockdown.

The jury's out.

Like, who knows what the right thing was to do about the lockdown?

But he absolutely blasted all the doctors.

He wasn't having having any of it.

Yeah, anyone who needs a bit of stick from Van Morrison, I think the doctors could be left out of that one.

Left out of the list.

It wasn't a good song either.

That was the problem with No More Lockdown.

People don't bring their A-game to their conspiracy theory catalogue.

That's the problem.

That's the thing.

If Van Morrison came out with like Moondance 2.

Yeah, exactly.

But it was anti-lockdown.

Maybe we'd be listening.

It's a marvelous night for a lockdown.

That was low-hanging fruit, fruit, and I grabbed it.

Sufjan Stevens, have you ever met him?

I know he's an influence of yours.

Yeah.

Am I pronouncing his name properly?

Sufian, yeah, I think.

Sufjan Sufian.

Yeah.

I don't really know.

No, I haven't met him.

But yeah, I found his music as a teenager and was really into the album, The Age of Odds, because it's just...

It's wild, like, just sonically crazy, but also he has this way of doing that and keeping it really emotional not making it like purely for the sake of it and the last song in the album is like 20 minutes long or something like that and it's so good but yeah I love Supian Stevens 20 minutes that is a big ask isn't it it is but have you the song really just travels really nicely sure it's it's it's really I'm trying to think of the longest song that I like

I mean you had you had Richard Dawson yes right on here he has some long tunes that are pretty good he's got some very good long ones.

Nothing important.

That is so good.

But yeah, often it's like an indulgent thing to do.

But when you're just like basically a genius, I think you can get away with it.

Yeah.

I like Auto Barn Craft Work.

That's a long one.

That's more, that's almost like a classical piece, really.

I mean, it hasn't really got lyrics in it as such.

But apart from...

Saying fun, fun, fun.

I always thought they were saying fun.

Do you know the song?

Not really, no.

Farm, I haven't listened to much.

Oh, they're quite good.

Yeah.

I know the vibe, like, I haven't checked it out.

But I guess maybe you're more into sort of analog-y stuff rather than electronic-y?

Not necessarily.

I'm into all different kinds of music, really.

Like, I don't, there's not like one

thing that I.

Sometimes, like, some of the older cutting-edge music, like craft work,

or you know, music that, like, set the tone for music in a certain direction I struggle to get into because so much of the music I like has been influenced by it okay like I never got into the cure growing up because every band that I listened to sounded like the cure right

I think and joy division I don't know if I would have loved joy division if so much other music hadn't been influenced by it but I feel like I've just never been into those bands because all of the indie bands growing up were just like

very much indebted to them and I think the same is probably kind of true of craft work.

Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it and it probably seems so plodding it's and prehistoric it's like it's very basic i mean it is very basic a lot of that stuff but yeah it's part of my musical dna i always see them you know pictures of them on tour and it you know they they still do really interesting things i even kind of took an idea from them on the last album tour I did where they had these like strips on their arms or something like that.

They were were on like

big boxes and like part of their clothes were like basically reflective or like lighting up or something.

Yeah, they look like something out of Tron.

Yeah and I just kind of we got this like reflective material and put it all down the arms and legs of the outfits on like the last album tour.

And that was based off of seeing like craft work live videos.

So I do take influence from them in some roundabout way.

I'm still thinking about you, what you said about the cure and craft work and things like that.

I think that's so so interesting because I show my children movies that I really liked when I was growing up but a lot of them have been ripped off yeah and recreated and even remade so going back to the originals It's quite boring, I think, for them a lot of the time.

They're used to a different pace of storytelling and editing and special effects and everything like that.

It's very hard for them to then make the adjustment to appreciate what would have been good about something in 1975.

I think it depends though.

Some things are completely timeless and obviously I am into a lot of like older music and older films and stuff like that but

things just travel through time differently.

Some stuff from even you know 20 years ago feels like you can watch it now which feels kind of ancient but some things

travel really well and it's it's a strange thing.

It doesn't I don't know if it means something is better or worse.

We watched the other day

One Hour Photo

of Robin Williams.

Right.

That is a brilliant film.

Really intense.

I'm not going to watch it again soon because it was so intense.

Is he a serial killer?

Well,

it would kind of spoil it.

But like, he acts like a serial killer.

But initially, you really feel for him.

You really get connected with the character.

And then he starts doing strange things and it just like tears you up.

Like I found it so intense to watch because, you know, I was really rooting for him.

You sort of see he's this lonely guy, and he's sort of obsessive about this family.

You know, he's like, he's been developing these photos for this family.

So he's seen this kid grow up, seen, you know, this family's life and is so invested in it, but it just gradually gets more and more creepy.

And it's really good because it's got a good heart.

And I find that now, like, sometimes with the big movie productions, with even with music,

a lot of stuff just doesn't have the heart that is sort of necessary to keep you engaged.

It's like almost trying to be like aesthetically stimulating over anything else.

Yeah, yeah.

And I don't get it.

I think that's maybe what happens when there's too many heads involved and like there's not someone with a sort of clear vision.

Or it could be, it's probably a number of different ways it happens, but I think it's just trying to keep people engaged.

It's like a desperation to keep people watching because so few people it's so much harder in the screen age to get people's attention and keep it so it seems like you're most likely to do that by having something spectacular or eye-catching

and it's so much harder and more of a gamble to try and do that via kind of emotions and things.

I've never seen one hour photo.

That's Mark Romanek who did

recommend it.

Yeah.

Who did Never Let Me Go as well, the Kazuo Ishiguro adaptation.

I think I avoided one hour photo because I thought, mmm, I don't know if I need to be conflicted about Robin Williams.

Creepy Robin Williams.

No, I'm fine, thanks.

That's the thing.

Like, I get a bit fed up of not Robin Williams, to be fair, I think he's the best of the bunch, but there's some actors who like always do those like sort of larger-than-life comedy roles like Jim Kerry.

I can, I can't watch another Jim Kerry movie ever.

I just so sick of it.

Adam Sandler's another one, although he's done more serious roles recently, but like, that's what I liked about it.

Was because I love a lot of other Robin Williams roles, but like he still has that over-the-top thing about him in it.

But yeah, it's not a comedy role at all, and it's contained in a way.

And you really see how brilliant an actor he was.

I don't know.

I just think it's one of his best roles that I've seen.

came

They said it was fixed but now it's the same

I'm taking a photo with my T to put on my Instagram Some people like to see the tea of another man

People be tripping out tea picket Yup she brewing a nice picket

But I can't upload

Do you remember when you wrote your first song and what would it have been like?

I was probably writing songs when I was like four or five because I definitely remember being a little bit older than that and writing quite a lot.

Like I would write all sorts of songs when I was in primary school.

But when we say writing songs, are you like writing down the words and are are you making a note of them and stuff really the whole thing wow like by the end of primary school i'd been in a band with my friend i used to like go to his house he lived right next to the school and we would like sometimes jam in the morning and i i was like writing whole songs and they were like all right like not

nothing i would release now but like there were songs yeah uh so like

You know, I'd started writing quite regularly probably when I was seven or eight years old.

Like, I just always just had little ideas.

And you just had an instinctive grasp of the structure, how songs worked.

Well, it's all based off of what I was listening to.

So some stuff sounded like,

you know, the indie stuff that we were kind of listening to a lot back then, the Mystery Jets.

Some of it sounded a bit like Paramour or something like that.

Some of it was more based off like,

you know, the Beatles and stuff like that.

Like, you know, you kind of base it off what you know and a structure that you kind of understand, and you're just trying to kind of create a new melody or something that you haven't heard before.

Do you remember any of the songs at all?

Like, what they were about or what the tunes were like?

Yeah,

I'm trying to remember now.

Yeah, I mean, there's some on YouTube from secondary school, from a band in secondary school, I'm sure they're somewhere.

But yeah, I can like loosely remember some.

I couldn't really do a good rendition of them, I don't think.

Come on.

A couple of lines.

I'm trying to think what is a good one to do if I was to do one, but it's going to be so embarrassing.

That's the idea.

See, I'm remembering the ones from secondary school, that's the thing.

I feel like I want to go earlier than that.

I can need to think of like what the

earliest, earliest ones were.

The one that I'm remembering had this riff that was like proper, like pop punk riff and I think

I don't know if I wrote it it probably would have been early secondary school but it went like

it was like pure like paramour vibe and I think it was called AE and it was about they were closing down the local like

AE center or something like that

and and I'd written this song and it was the kind of thing you just latch on to.

There was like

somewhat of a protest in the area in Broxbourne about this like place I'd gone when I'd like fractured my wrist closing down.

That's amazing.

Because your dad's involved with politics, is that right?

Or is that something on that's a Wikipedia?

That's a Wikipedia thing.

Where did that come from?

Well, my dad worked,

yes, worked for Broxbourne Council, but in like a community care

branch of something that was like funded by the council.

Basically, that whole section of Broxbourne Council has now since been sort of discontinued by the Tory government.

But it was like, yeah, it's like community care mainly for like the elderly that was part of Brock's Bourne Council.

But I keep getting asked if my dad's a politician, so I think in recent times, because of how I've sort of spoken about it in interviews or whatever, someone's been like, Declan's dad was a politician.

And it's not, it's like

stuff that's part of the council obviously isn't necessarily

politics.

Everything's politics, well, it is.

Well, you know, it obviously gives you a perspective.

Yeah, yeah.

Like when the Tory government acts as well, you're obviously politically engaged, so I suppose people assume that maybe that came from your parents.

Yeah, and to an extent, that's you know, of course, that's true.

Yeah, because you care about the things that affect your family and you sort of grow up with a certain set of values, I guess.

And yeah, in a lot of ways, my dad, and

you know, his sort of job of kind of

his job when I was younger, have given a slant on my life.

Like, my family, very community-oriented.

I think that's hopefully guided me in a positive direction, I think.

So, that is, yeah, it's definitely like it's not like I'm not renouncing the influence of my family, of course, but it's just a little bit different from what Wikipedia might suggest.

Was he even a milkman?

He was okay he was a milkman when I was I don't really remember his milkman days but he he was when I can't believe this is I didn't realize I'd mentioned that along the way but yeah he was milkman when I was a baby yeah you know he's been a number of digs yeah

you said that in a way that suggests he's also been an assassin an assassin under Brocksbourne Council that was his political days he's working for the Tory government that's what they they stopped funding the uh the community care project and started funding assassins.

They just got rid of their enemies one by one.

That was what 2008 did.

I think it might be time for you to play a song if that's all right.

Sure.

Are you okay to do that?

Yeah, absolutely.

Now, I think you're going to play Elevator Hump.

Yeah.

And I'm looking at the lyrics here.

I mean, I've heard the song, but I'm looking at the lyrics.

And I know it's not cool to ask musicians about lyrics,

but you know, they've written them, so I just find find it very hard to resist.

Sure.

Are you one of those artists that gets chippy when interviewers ask them about what the songs are?

No, I get asked it all the time.

Yeah.

How do you think?

Just listen to the song.

Well, yeah, I kind of try and say that in some roundabout way because a song isn't.

One of the things that frustrates me about the sort of TikTok era, which I'm not all against, but it's just like the whole, this is my song and this is what it's about in 15 seconds or less you know it's like

right almost writing songs for people to relate to it with like three words and it's just like oh none of the music i like is like that

so for me you know this like this song elevator hum is just it's more about the feeling it evokes it has this sort of nostalgic thing and i think where it came from was i've been writing with luca who produced this album for a couple of weeks like we just formed this friendship basically through making music together.

Is Luca an American?

He is, yeah.

Jean-Luca Buchulasi.

And he, um, yeah, and we just formed this relationship.

And it was one of the later songs that we wrote in our like first sort of stint working together.

So it was like this song about a growing sort of friendship, but it's like harking back to like childhood in a way.

It feels very nostalgic.

So that's kind of

the kind of vibe of the song.

But just listen to the song.

Listen to the fucking song.

I can't quite explain

this hole in my brain.

It's come around again.

The way it turns did rest.

Send me to bed, and I've out again.

Some things have to change.

Some things are to blame for almost everything.

Some points grow in shame.

Don't play that game.

Cause I want you to believe

you're just like me.

I want you to believe

me.

I want you to be free

To be happy

I want you to believe

You're just like me

Just another California tongue

Prove me wrong, but I think they all sound the the same.

It doesn't matter where you're from

Talking that way

now.

Listen to the elevator

The mechanism

is breaking down again

Don't you tell my mom

Don't play that game

Cause I want you to believe

You're just like me

I want you to believe

You're just like me

I want you to be free

To be happy

I want you to believe believe

if

you're just like me

Cause I want you to believe

You're just like me

I want you to believe

You're just like me

I want you to be free

To be happy,

I want you to believe

you're just like

me.

Good.

Thank you very much.

No problem.

Thank you.

That was great.

And so, yeah, because I was going to ask you what advice you would give to the 16-year-old version of yourself at Glastonbury having won that competition and suddenly being catapulted.

Was it a lot of pressure?

I think the thing that I would say to myself back then is not to feel the pressure on your creativity.

Because I think I've felt the pressure to work on stuff quickly.

to do things a certain way, to sort of almost take myself too seriously.

And actually, my advice would be to not do that, to just keep doing your own thing.

Because I think one of the problems with the music industry when a young artist gets into it is that

the artist is the one who tends to feel like they don't know what they're doing, when actually it's kind of the other way around.

Like the industry requires the artist who's doing this thing.

That's why they've sought out, you know, they seek out the new artists.

But just because of the way of things and you see this whole structure, you're like, oh, they know what they're doing, so I'm going to do things their way.

When it shouldn't really be like that.

It's not really anyone's fault.

It's just like the pressure that you feel when you get in.

You're like, right, what you guys tell me what to do sort of thing.

You just got to do things on your own terms creatively.

You really do.

And that's the only advice.

Like, I think people are always looking for

tips on how to break into the music industry.

And I'm just like, are your songs good enough?

Because there's so many songs out there.

Like, you're going to like, you need to go into the industry with proof,

with proof that you can do it.

Because, you know, if you don't have it, then you're going to have a very short period of time to prove yourself.

You're talking about not taking things too seriously,

but do you feel, as a young person, that the world is now so serious in so many different ways?

And certainly that that's the impression that you're given when you look at the news and go online or whatever, that things are getting...

even more serious.

And do you feel the weight of that?

And does that sort of cramp your style sometimes if you're trying to be carefree and write a song that may not necessarily be about anything too heavy?

Well, I think that's what music is for in a lot of ways.

And I started my career writing stuff that was very much trying to point in the direction of very serious matters.

A ⁇ E?

A ⁇ E, famously.

Yeah.

But, you know,

the stuff that I actually released as well was all sort of pointing at serious stuff.

But I do feel like now

if I am going to do that, I really want to get it right and I really want to you know be able to put something in the form of a song that kind of says something that is kind of beyond words in a way and brings people together on an issue and like I think that's kind of why I've maybe with the the newer stuff kind of

been m more and more like maybe this should just be an escape from it all for people because there is so much dialogue now which that wasn't really in the same way when I started my career.

Oh, yeah, have you noticed that difference?

Yeah, even well in the music world for sure, like not saying it's my doing by any means, but there's definitely been a shift in the last, you know, ten years or whatever.

And to be specific, you're talking about a shift towards,

yeah, focusing on more serious issues, towards it becoming mainstream to actually, you know, discuss politics or to discuss these things in that way.

Maybe I've just gotten older as well, but it does feel like there's a lot of heavy stuff going on and people are kind of discussing it whether or not they're doing it in like a functional way.

It's different, but like it's all kind of there in front of your face now.

Whereas I think when I started trying to address things, it just felt like anything,

you know, any message getting out there.

to try and encourage you know like young people to engage with politics and kind of engage with the wider world and um

and really see how you could have an impact.

I felt was really important and now I'm kind of, I still definitely like believe that, but I

just,

I don't know, I think I'm almost like trying to understand how

with the current format of things, like a genuinely

productive movement can like cut through everything, like being so in your face all the time and there being so many distractions as well.

Because yeah, just

the internet, you know, and so much of life being on the internet now, it just feels very intense and feels like very hard for a message to actually cut through.

Are you across all that stuff?

Do you check all your stats and engage with people on social media?

I don't know about stats, but I I use social media.

I just I'm almost trying to less and less because I think it just but my problem with it is is the ability to actually have a clear head on things and think your own sort of thoughts when, you know, within five minutes of something happening, every thought has already been had and it's out there and it's being discussed, it's being argued, and it's like it's just very intense.

But yeah, I have a weird relationship with social media now, and I'm kind of like

trying to distance myself a bit to kind of actually engage with things and not just engage with everything a little bit,

you know.

I do know

very much.

I'm trying to wean myself off podcasts.

I think I listen to too many.

There's too much info going in, and it's all going out the other ear.

Yeah.

And the thing that suffers actually in my life is music because I used to listen to so much of it in the pre-podcast world.

And,

you know, if I was wandering around traveling or doing whatever on my own, I would just be listening to music.

And then at a certain point that changed and I just felt, I thought, oh dear,

I've got to be munching info.

And so either an audio book, probably a factual audio book, historical, or a podcast, something like that, it felt like, yes, this is good, this is nutrition for my mind.

But actually,

I think it was not really staying there a lot of the time.

It's just a headache.

Yeah, it's just

a hum.

And all it's doing is ensuring that I'm not listening to as much music as I used to.

And it's a shame because every time I do listen to music, I do feel pretty good.

You know, and

I feel sort of alive.

It's noticeably nicer than silence, generally.

Sometimes.

But yeah, but that's the thing.

I actually also I try and like

not

listen to anything sometimes or not look at anything because it's so easy to always have something on and

for me making music it gives you less moments to actually find inspiration if you're always consuming.

Like you need to consume to get inspiration, but you also need to give your brain, let your brain breathe.

It's all vying for your attention and

it's all telling you that they know something you don't.

And you need to know this thing.

They probably do.

No, they don't.

They don't.

No, they don't.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

They probably do.

They probably do.

Of course they probably do, but that's what makes it even worse.

This dangling in front of you the possibility that you could enrich yourself and improve your lot in life if if you just follow these instructions and often it's behind a paywall conveniently.

Yeah.

So if you just watch this lecture and then you click on the link and pay your subscription, then you'll just find the secrets of how to stop the voices in your head, how to clear your mind, how to exploit the potential that your brain has locked away that you've just ignored all your life because you're such a fucking turd.

Sorry, I've gone down a bit.

That's good.

Yeah, I like that.

Wait.

Continue.

Hey, welcome back, Podcats.

That was Declan McKenna talking to me there and playing his beautiful song, Elevator Hum.

It was really great to meet him actually.

I enjoyed it very much.

And apologies again for

having taken so long to put the episode out.

Unfortunately, with the ad hoc way this podcast is created, that does sometimes happen.

Luckily, Declan is still very young, making music, and all his albums still exist.

You'll find links to a few videos for some of his singles, including Elevator Hum, in the description of today's podcast.

There's There's also a link to his website where you'll find other info, plus tour dates.

At the moment, he's out in Europe, in Italy and France,

Belgium, Denmark, Germany.

But he's back in the UK in July, playing at Tottenham Stadium, where he will be providing support for Imagine Dragons on the 25th and 26th of July 2025.

The big question that everyone's asking in the music world is when will Adam Buxton be touring his new album?

Well, I'm not sure.

I had my first singing lesson the other day

and that went really well.

So I'm going to have some more

and then I'm going to start performing a handful of songs here and there.

I think I might perform a couple of songs at Latitude this year if you find yourself there.

The idea is that sometime on the Sunday

I'll do

a kind of live podcast chat maybe with another musician,

TBC,

and I might sing a couple of songs from my new album as part of that.

Anyway, when I find out more, I will let you know.

But if you're around on the Sunday at latitude, Bear that in mind.

It's going to be extraordinary and a new page in rock music history will be written.

Probably about someone else, but I might get a mention in the footnote.

And for goodness sake, don't forget that you can pre-order my album, which comes out on September the 12th.

But if you follow the link in the description, you'll be able to pre-order that thing on vinyl beautiful album artwork by Helen Green and artist Brian E.

Jackson and myself.

Come on dog legs.

She's standing there going, can we go back the much shorter way please?

Unfortunately Rosie, that is so overgrown

that in my gym shorts it's just not sustainable as an option.

Who cares about your stupid shins and calves?

Sorry dog legs.

Let's go up this way.

I really, really don't want to.

I know, but I'm afraid we've got to, sweet dog.

Come on, this way.

Oh man, she is determined to go the short way.

Come on, Rosie.

We're going this way.

Okay,

that's it for this week.

Thank you very much indeed to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for his invaluable production support and conversation editing.

Thanks also to Frank, my son.

who also contributed some edit work on this one.

Thanks to Helen Green for her podcast artwork, and thanks to everyone at ACAST who liaises with my sponsors and keeps this show financially on the road.

But none of it would mean anything if it weren't for you.

Once again, you've come back, maybe to explore a new artist that you weren't familiar with, and you've listened right to the end.

That's a level of friendly dedication that I am deeply grateful for.

And in return, and I know it's not much, but I would like to propose a creepy hug.

Come here.

Great to see you.

Oh yeah, sorry, that's me.

I did some exercise this morning and

came straight out rather than taking a shower.

I do apologize.

It's the only way that someone like me is ever really going to be funky.

Speaking of which,

I'm going to watch that Sly Stone documentary

directed by Questlove, who did the Summer of Seoul.

Did you ever see that?

Brilliant.

And apparently, this documentary that Questlove has made about Sly Stone is also excellent.

Little recommendation there for you, although I haven't seen it yet.

Okay, until next time we're together, please go carefully, it is ridiculous out there.

And in case it's any help at all, I love you.

Bye!

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