The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Declan McKenna

Declan McKenna is a 16 year old indie-pop solo artist from London, England. He has blues and folk influences and has numbered Jeff Buckley, The Black Keys, Django Django, The Leisure Society, The Beatles and Jack White, among others, as influences. His music has been described as “fun and lively, a refreshing and light-hearted.” Many commentators are expecting him to blow up big.

Little Pieces (Nov’14) is an acoustic song with minimal accompaniment provided by body percussion and glockenspiel. It’s a foot tapper, thigh slapper and has hauntingly beautiful vocals that worm their way into your consciousness. A song about inequality it has a rhythm that pops and has been called “swirly indie pop”. Don’t listen to people predicting a bright future for this musician. This is perfect. Right here, right now, Little Pieces is one of the best indie songs of 2015.

Note: This is a cover version for a reason. The original version is not available unless you down load it here.

 

Shit you need to know:

Declan McKenna plays guitar and mandolin and says he likes to mix-up genres.

Declan McKenna has described his music as “psychedelic-blues riffs and folk lyrics.”

His influences include Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Flynn, Django Django, Bach and T-Bone Walker.

He self-released his biggest song so far, Brazil (Dec'14), on vinyl. The song condemns Sepp Blatter and the corruption endemic in FIFA.

Declan McKenna's music was compared to Portishead and Radiohead by this reviewer while his unique vocals minded another of The Libertines.

Declan McKenna was the winner of the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition 2015.

The young man toured with rising hot indie band Blossoms on their UK tour this year.
 

Declan is being pursued by a number of labels & publishers according to A&R Daily in the UK.

Other great Declan McKenna tracks are Brazil and All That.
 

 

Declan McKenna’s percussion reminded me of Ben Harper’s Steal My Kisses (1999) which had the beatboxer Rahzel supplying the beats. So here is the roots rock musician with one of his biggest hits.


 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Bahamas

Bahamas is blues, roots, folk, soul or something like that. But on Stronger Than That (July’14) there is an all-in indie chorus and piano like on Lean On Me. So actually it’s like quite like an indie track.

Stronger Than That is a laid back chilling track that minds me of Ben Harper. The chorus is where it’s at and there’s some pretty tight guitar playing too.

Bahamas is Afie Jurvanen a great guitar player and songwriter from Toronto, Canada. He’s been lamenting his lot since least 2009.

Stronger Than That  is the second plaint from the long player Bahamas Is Afie (Aug’14). Afie has mad admiration for Willie Nelson, Van Morrison and Neil Young. Fucking weirdo.

Well if you dig lo-fi whinging and great song writing then ya could do worse than give All The Time and Lost In Light a fair shake of the stick.

Tickety-boo. Now for the follow-up let’s go with some Ben Harper and Steal My Kisses (1999).