The band have their local tour coming up this summer before they set off to the UK. On the 13th of October they will be kick starting in London at the Roundhouse. As from here, their journey becomes a pickled one. Jumping from one country to the other, they will make their way around Europe visiting from the UK to Germany, Norway, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

Their final destination relies on the quiet Finland on the 21st of November. A good move from the bands part, what better place to choose from other than a rock head country who relies on their loud riffs to elevate from their peaceful stance as a country. Playing in Tampere they will wrap up with a heavy heart.

We welcome this tour as the celebration of their upcoming album release of Darkfighter, set to be released on the 2nd of June this year (2023). Allowing enough time between the release and their tour in order for the fans to absorb their fresh sound, willing them to experience the live shows with an eager anticipation. Three songs have already been released from the album. These include “Bird in the Hand”, “Nobody Wants To Die” and “Rapture”.

A first glimpse of the band since their last studio album in 2019, Feral Roots. An album which took flight from the roaring success and was claimed the best rock album of that very year. They now come back with a fresh set of ears and a four year rejuvenation to their musical development.

“Dear friends on the other side of the pond, Darkfighter is coming for you,” mentions their guitarist Scott Holiday . “And Lightbringer is coming for you too. We’re finally able to come back to you and bring you NEW music! Music that has been firmly situated in our hearts. Nothing makes me happier than to think about experiencing these albums together and making them into something entirely new and different every night. Let’s make something symbiotic and alive that we’ll want to remember forever.”

They have taken the time to write and create this project. Really delving into the meaning behind the creative process and perceiving the album in two parts. On one side, the story tells the fighting of the darkness. And the other side explains bringing the light to where there is none. After Darkfighter they will be releasing a companion album later this year Lightbringer. You can see which story involves what. The build up couldn’t be more tense.

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Tickets for the tour will be available on the 14th April here.

UK Tour Dates: 

13/10/2023 – Roundhouse – London
14/10 – NX Newcastle – Newcastle
16/10 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow
17/10 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
18/10 – Manchester Academy – Manchester
20/10 – Cambridge Corn Exchange – Cambridge
21/10 – O2 Academy – Bristol
22/10 – O2 Guildhall Southampton – Southampton

The performance sees brandishing a yellow telecaster and his band are neatly co-ordinated in white in an image which is so very Beatles, with McKenna looking like Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all rolled into one and the band looking like something off the Abbey Road album cover. McKenna is also seen with a rather extensive pedalboard in front of him which he uses to achieve the exciting sonic experimentation which his latest album has benefitted hugely from. Where ‘What Do You Think About The Car,’ was appealing in its rawness and relative simplicity, ‘Zeros,’ is glamorously decorated with a whole pallet of sounds achieved by effects pedals which take McKenna’s neat guitar playing to the next level.

Declan McKenna has perhaps been more eager to engage with his fans on a direct level than other artists throughout this pandemic duet the raw nature and political content of his music, which is always relevant and always needing to be heard. Another advantage that McKenna may have other some of his competitors is his age. While being left behind in almost every arena throughout, young people have looked with mere bemusement as their elders struggled to get to grips with the tools of the digital age, scrambling onto social media and zoom calls after years of berating the importance of their children’s Skype calls and online communications.

A familiarity with digital technology must have been an unexpected blessing for McKenna and other artists his age who have found it much easier to continue with their music, and interacting meaningfully with fans as well despite the total ban on live music in person. Of course this is no substitute for real life but it must have been amusing for McKenna when the pandemic hit so see artists with many more years and experience in the industry struggling to find a way to continue, for McKenna it was simple, the tools to release music and interact with fans remotely were right there in front of him, and he had the advantage of already knowing how to use them.

Georgia’s second album ‘Seeking Thrills,’ was, like Declan McKenna’s ‘Zeros,’ also released in 2020 and has been well received with tracks like ‘Started Out,’ and ‘About Work The Dancefloor,’ reaching streaming figures in their millions. Her music could be described as a chilled out approach to dance music which is less in your face than what you might expect of a club floor-filler, but it lures you in and has you moving to its infectious grooves before you realise what has happened. The more mature style of her music is also reflected in her lyrics which, although still centred around the club, include more sophisticated themes than some more mainstream dance tracks might offer.

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Although more recognised for his album efforts, with none of his single release yet reaching the official charts despite two high scoring albums, McKenna has been generous with his songwriting, allowing for numerous remixes of tracks from ‘Zeros,’ and ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’ to be made by a diverse range of producers. As well as giving the music a greater range of purposes, such as use by DJs in clubs and on dance music radio, the remodelling of songs through remixing also gives them a greater trajectory and lifespan in the listener’s mind when they are exposed to it in different forms and situations. Most recently, until today’s ‘Rapture,’ remix, we saw another Londoner, TSHA, have her take on ‘The Key to Life on Earth,’ which almost completely deconstructs the song and rebuilds it as a laid back House masterpiece replete with hand clicks and smooth synths.

The ‘Rapture,’ remix is available here to listen on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music, download on iTunes, stream or download on Amazon Music, or to stream on Deezer or Soundcloud. While the official video for ‘Rapture,’ in its original form has been well received, clocking over half a million views in just a month from its release, the remix version hasn’t received a new video treatment, opting instead for a simple moving graphic showing McKenna looking peaceful with another, evil and enraged looking McKenna next to him with a red hue and blurred melding patterns linking the two together. Despite only being released today, the remix has already received 4.5 thousand views and is a strapping start to 2021 for McKenna and Georgia alike.

There is an amusing throwback theme to the cheap and cheerful horror flicks which were popular in cinema’s in the latter part of the last century, what Frank Zappa described as Cheapnis, with the title of the song being displayed in a cute blood dripping text font and a charmingly lo-fi approach to prop and costumes which makes the video seem all very down to earth and is all the more appealing for that fact. The song dabbles with religious themes and the video cuts to scenes of the devil dressed in red and enjoying the chaos unfolding in the English suburban setting.

Declan McKenna’s music has always been very deeply rooted in the concerns of everyday young people in the Uk and he is unashamedly outspoken and political, giving his opinion not just on issues such as sexuality or gender equality but also making his thoughts about certain leaders very clear. ‘Rapture,’ is no exception and in keeping with the albums 80s inspired sound he sings ‘Mrs. Thatcher, Your cruel heart navigates the world we live in, With its anger, Going nowhere, coming atcha.’ 

This view of, not just the former Prime Minister, but of the ideology of Thatcherism which continues to have an impact on all of our lives through more recent Conservative governments, beginning with David Cameron’s coalition government in 2010 and continuing in its more extreme form today with our present government let by the pro-brexit Boris Johnson and his Cabinet, is not uniquely held by McKenna. It is a view shared by many young people who tend to identify with the left wing politics of figures like Jeremy Corbyn and it is likely that they may see Declan McKenna as something of a rallying point at this time.

Zero’s, which was released on the 17th of September 2020, was met with with a very positive response and performed commercially much better than his debut album ‘What Do You Think About The Car,’ reaching number 2 on the official album charts, whereas the former made it to number 11. This is a sure sign of the dedicated cult following which has remained loyal to McKenna despite the long gap between his albums, as well as the new fans which he has managed to attract with his new look and sound.

Declan McKenna is due to tour in support of the album in 2021, full UK dates are as follows:

19/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Sheffield
20/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Liverpool
22/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Oxford
23/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Bournemouth
34/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Leicester
26/03/2021 – Nick Rayns LCR UEA – Norwich
27/03/2021 – Cambridge Junction – Cambridge
28/03/2021 – O2 Academy – Bristol
30/03/2021 – Cardiff University Students Union – Cardiff
01/04/2021 – O2 Academy – Brixton
02/04/2021 – O2 Academy – Brixton
03/04/2021 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
05/04/2021 – Rock City – Nottingham
06/04/2021 – O2 Academy – Newcastle
08/04/2021 – O2 Academy – Leeds
09/04/2021 – Albert Hall – Manchester
10/04/2021 – Albert Hall – Manchester
12/04/2021 – SWG3 – Glasgow
13/04/2021 – SWG3 – Glasgow