THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.251 - DECLAN McKENNA

Episode Date: June 22, 2025

Adam talks with English singer/songwriter Declan McKenna about not going off the rails, why classic music can sound boring, why Robin Williams' best film was 1 Hour Photo and keeping your head in the music industry. Declan also performs an acoustic version of his track Elevator Hum.Recorded face-to-face in London on 11th April, 2024Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and conversation editing Podcast illustration by Helen GreenPRE-ORDER SIGNED VINYL OF 'BUCKLE UP'PICS AND RELATED LINKS ON ADAM'S WEBSITE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 you doing, Podcats? It's Adam Buxton here. I'm being stung by net owls 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'm 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 a 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 Chesent, 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 Emerging Talent Competition. And after winning it, 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 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. We'll focus first on this, then concentrate on that Come on, let's chew the vat and have a ramble chat Put on your conversation coat and hide your talking hat Yes, yes, yes 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 and a flat white

That's gonna be my breakfast. I literally woke up off the bus and got a cab here So are you good at looking after yourself when you're touring around? Yeah more and more I 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 I'm winding down when we get off stage at you know quarter to 11 or whatever It is play for about an hour and a half hour and 45 something like that, you know I you're 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 more ish though. That's the thing about it But in these modern times Are there people in the way that they're 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 industry who do actually look out for you a little bit and do say, Oh, don't do that heroin. Um, or is it still just like, yeah, I think more and more people looking out for each other.

Like sometimes the standard can be to just sort of burn the candle at both ends to an extent. Like you do have 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 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 like, just feeling really tired. And I mean, you feel tired anyway, regardless. So it's just like anything to kind of conserve the energy. Yeah, and keep saying, that's really impressive to have sort of learned that by your 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 a good 10 years of excessive Carlsberg use. Sure. I mean, and knowing it and, and, you know, putting it into practice consistently are two different things. But at the same time I definitely feel much more inclined to just take it easy on on tour like I don't think like I don't really go out or anything until other than an island on this tour we went out an island because that's that you know you have to sure it's the crack apparently. Yes. It's the is the crack. Exactly. That is exactly what the 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 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 happy for your success or do they give you weird vibes in the dressing room? No they don't give me weird vibes, 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, I think some of them do. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Like some of my cousins that 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. Oh, Jesus. 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. Oh yeah, does that get in the way for you? Grumpy man. 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, ah. 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... Who he's going to shout at next.

Lockdown or experts. Yeah, yeah, see he's a, yeah. 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 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 really going on morrison came out with like moon dance, too Yeah, exactly, but it was anti-lockdown. Maybe we'd be listening. It's a marvelous night for a lockdown Just that was low-hanging fruit and I grabbed it. Um Sufjan stevens, have you ever met him him I know he's an influence of yours yeah uh no pronouncing his name Sufjan yeah I think Sufjan Sufjan yeah um I don't I don't really know no I haven't met him yeah I found his music as a as a teenager and was really into the album The Age of Arts because it's just 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 on the album is like 20 minutes long or something like that and it's so good. But yeah, I love Stephen Stevens. 20 minutes, that is a big ask, isn't it? It is, but the song really just travels really nicely. Sure. I'm trying to think of the longest song that I like. I mean, 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. Yeah. Nothing important. That is so good. But yeah, often it's like an indulgent thing to do. But when you're just like it, basically a genius, I think I think you can get away with it. 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 like lyrics in it as such. Okay, but apart from Saying fun fun fun. I always thought they were saying fun. Do you know the song? Not really? Oh They're quite good. Yeah, I kind of I know the vibe like I have yeah checked it out You know, but I guess you're maybe you're more into Like I have checked it out. But I guess you're maybe you're more into Sort of analog e stuff rather than electronic e not necessarily I mean, it's 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 craftwork 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. I never got into The Cure growing up because every band that I listened to sounded like The Cure. 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 Kraftwerk.

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 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 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 Kraftwerk 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 Kraftwerk and things like that I think that's 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 is quite boring, I think, for them a lot of the time. They 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 oh yeah Robin Williams right that is a brilliant film really intense I'm not gonna watch 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 seeing this kid grow up, seeing 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, 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... I would 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, 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. I get a bit fed up of, not Robin Williams to be fair, I 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. Mm-hmm. Like Jim Carrey. I can't watch another Jim Carrey movie ever. I just Adam Sandler is 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. with my tea to put on my Instagram some people like to see the tea of another man people be drippin' out tea, picky, y'all should brew in a nice picky but I can't upload, cause my wifi's too slow 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 you making

a note of them and stuff? Yeah, 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 were like sometimes jam in the morning. And I was like writing whole songs and they were like, all right,

like nothing I would release now, but like those songs. Yeah. So like, you know, I'd started writing quite regularly, probably when I was seven or eight years old, like I just always just have 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 Mischiegettes. Some of it sounded a bit like Paramore 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 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 my band in secondary school I'm sure they're somewhere. Yeah I can like loosely remember some. I couldn't really do a good rendition of them I don't think Come on Couple of lines. I'm trying to think what is a good one to do if I was to do one but it's gonna 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 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 that it had this riff that was like proper like pop punk riff and I think I don't know if I wrote 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 A&E. And it was about they were closing down the local like A&E center or something like that.

And I'd written this song. And that's the kind of thing you just latch on to there's like somewhat of a protest in their area in Broxbourne about this like place I'd gone when I'd like fractured my wrist, closing down. That's amazing and yeah because your dad's involved with politics is that right? No. Is that something on's a, that's a Wikipedia thing. Where did that come from? Well, my dad worked, yes, worked for Brock's born council, but in like a

community care branch of something that was like funded by the council. Basically that whole section of Brock's born 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 Broxbourne 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 axis. Well, you're obviously politically engaged. So I suppose people assume that maybe that came from your parents or.

Yeah. And, and to an extent that's, you know, that 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, in a lot of ways, my dad and, and you know, his, his sort of job of kind of his job when I was younger,, have given a slant on my life, like my family very, like, 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, which... 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, 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 things. Yeah. You said that in a way that suggests he's also been an assassin. An assassin under Brock's Bond 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 hum. 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 will the rage. They've written them. So I just 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. Um, I just, well, no, I just, just listen to the song.

Well, yeah, I kind of try and say that in some roundabout way because a song isn't the 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 almost writing songs for people to relate to it with like three words and it's just like to it with like three words and it's just like, none of the music I like is like that. So for me, you know, 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. Uh, Jean-Luc Bucciolazzi 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, that's the kind of vibe of the song. But just listen to the song. Listen to that fucking song. I can't quite explain This hole in my brain's come around again The way times did rest Send me to bed and head up 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 You're just like me I want you to be free

To be happy I want you to believe You're just like me, just another Californian tongue Prove me wrong, but I think they all sound the same It doesn't matter where you're from I'm talking that way, now Listen to the elevator hum 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 be free To be happy I want you to believe the one 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 Yay! Hey! You're just like me.

Yay! 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 like 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 that 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 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 like sought out, you know, 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 gonna 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, you guys tell me what to do sort of thing. You just got to do things on your own terms creatively, like you really do. And that's the only advice. Like I think people are always looking for like tips on how to break into the music industry. And I'm just like, oh, your song's

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. Cause you know, if you don't have it, then you, you know, 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 also 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 newest stuff kind of been more and more like, maybe this should just be an escape from it all for people, because there is so much dialogue now, which wasn't really in the same way when I started my career. Oh, yeah. Have you noticed that difference?

Yeah, 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, 10 years or whatever. And to be specific, you're talking about a shift towards 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 is different, but like, it's all kind of there in front of your face now. Whereas 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 and really see how you could have an impact. I felt it 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 like 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 it's 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 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. I do know very much.

I'm trying to wean myself off podcasts. I think I listened to too many, too much info going in and it's all going out the other ear. Yeah. And, 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 wondering 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 a I've got to be munching info. 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, 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. But 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, 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 know that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, 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 of a backbite.

That's good. Yeah, I like that. Wait. This is an advert for Squarespace. Everyone would like to have a website. Yes! But not everyone can build their own. No.

But they can come right here to Squarespace Where they can start a free trial and play with all the templates. Type in a paragraph, pop in a pic, stick a video in there as well, don't be a WALL-E, oh my golly, there's so many things that you can do, it's fun and easy too when you are working with Squarespace. Can I check my analytics? Of course you flipping can, and why not have a members area too? Oh thanks, can I set up like a shop? Oh well we wouldn't be much cop, if we didn't have the tools for you to do that easily.

Visit squarespace.com slash buxton, play around, do a trial, it's free. And there's even a code that will save you 10% if you decide to buy your Squarespace website. What is the code? Oh sorry, yes the code is Buxton. 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 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 gonna 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 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's 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 A-Cast 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. Hey, 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 Soul. 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. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Like and subscribe, like and subscribe, please like and subscribe Give me a little smile and a thumbs up, I take a pant when me bum's up Give me a little smile and a thumbs up, I take a pant when me bum's up Like and subscribe, like and subscribe, please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Give me like a smile and a thumbs up Nice like a fat, where me bum's up Give me like a smile and a thumbs up Nice like a fat, where me bum's up

Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe Please like and subscribe I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you

I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you I'm gonna find you

I'm gonna find you I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a

I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a I'm a little bit of a you