Declan McKenna unveils new single "The Key To Life On Earth"

"The Key To Life On Earth" is the second single McKenna has shared from his forthcoming second album, and arrives with a visual directed by Will Hooper (IDLES, APRE, Bree Runway), and stars The End Of The F***ing World's Alex Lawther.

Of the new song, McKenna says, ""The Key To Life On Earth" reflects on mundanity and hostility. I suppose it’s set in suburbia much like my hometown. The video sees two people, who are very similar, in conflict with each other, and I think that’s the simplest analogy for the song’s purpose."

On working with Lawther, McKenna explains, "Alex Lawther is someone I’ve wanted to work with for a long time, I enjoyed watching his roles in Carnage, Black Mirror and The End Of The F***ing World, and I was trying to get in contact after seeing how much people compared us online. After finding I had a mutual friend with one of his family, I was eventually able to get his number and we got talking. We met up for tea a few times and found out we really did have a lot of mutual passions and ideas, and we shared and compared our experiences of working in our respective creative worlds. We hung out at the Extinction Rebellion and I ended up playing him some of my album. We were both keen to work together but syncing up timewise was pretty challenging."

McKenna adds, "We eventually pulled together with the video’s director Will Hooper who has helped to put together most of my video projects for this record so far, and with more ridiculous ideas than you could shake a vegan cream tea at; we finally managed to lock in a date to make this video - and just in time as it turns out."

The new single follows on from McKenna's lead single "Beautiful Faces" that landed in January.

Zeros, McKenna's follow up to 2017's What Do You Think About The Car?, was recorded in Nashville with producer Jay Joyce, and mixed by Spike Stent.