Indie star shoots music video in the Imperial

Singer has Cavan connections.

One of the music industry’s fastest rising stars, Declan McKenna, was in Cavan last week to shoot a music video for the release of an upcoming single.

‘Nothing Works’ is due out later today (Wednesday), September 13, with a video release expected to drop sometime next month.

Earlier in 2023, McKenna embarked on a tour of North America and, in July, released ‘Sympathy’ as the lead single from his upcoming third studio album, the title of his new upcoming album 'What Happened to the Beach?'.

Born north of London, and the youngest of six from an Irish background via Cavan and Cork, McKenna grew up playing GAA in Enfield before taking up guitar aged nine years.

McKenna, whose paternal grandmother is a native of the Breffni County, still has cousins living in the Lavey area.

He arrived last week at the behest of Cavan film maker and cinematographer Finn Keenan who, with cast and crew, commandeered the Imperial Nightclub as the backdrop.

“It’s all been Finn’s idea, and it’s been put together in the last number of weeks since I came back from touring America,” says McKenna, who lives in Brighton with Cavan native and former Strypes’ guitarist Josh McClory.

“Finn had done treatment [on previous videos] before I really knew him and his ideas always stood out...So I always wanted to do something with him.”

McKenna, who emerged as one to watch after winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent competition in 2015, says he initially had ideas for the “sentiment” he wanted from the video, but ultimately let Keenan “run with it” creatively.

“He’s a very, very creative guy.”

So, when Keenan suggested shooting the video in a niteclub in Cavan Town, McKenna’s reflects: “He’s a very convincing human being, and he seems to have roped in a lot of people.”

Laughing, McKenna comments: “It’s been great, a real family affair, and a very unique vibe for a music video, which would normally happen in or around London, various places, which is not less fun but definitely you get more use to doing things that way.

“In Cavan it’s different, such good fun, very friendly, very open, very chatty.

“Everyone is positive to be around and just constant joshing around really.”

McKenna, who is signed to Sony’s Columbia imprint, was delighted at being back in Cavan, having not visited for more than a decade:

“We drove up the other day. I haven’t been here for years, but coming here has reminded me I need to come back. There’s so much going on in Cavan and it would be good to catch up with everyone again.”

The last time McKenna visited Cavan was in his early teens, shortly before his self-released break-out hit single, ‘Brazil’, written when aged 15, a commentary on the corruption of world football and how the 2014 World Cup had displaced local communities.

The Celt caught up with the Indie scene star prior to moving the shoot to another venue.

“My sister was in uni in Belfast and so we drove down. Before that, when I was very young, we did three weeks in Ireland and saw everyone, down to Cork, which is three grandparents worth, some cousins in Dublin, and of course Cavan as well.

“I just remember lots of sandwiches and that.”

While McKenna has played Dublin and Cork in the past, he’s yet to play Cavan and, when speaking to the Celt, appears open to the idea.

“The opportunity hasn’t come up in Cavan... just yet!” Indie singer Declan McKenna.