NME Friends Like These: Georgia x Declan McKenna

Magic is bound to happen when two of the most exciting young minds in music open themselves up to collaboration, and that’s certainly true of Georgia’s eclectic, synth-laden remix of Declan McKenna’s latest single, ‘Rapture’.

Lifted from the singer-songwriter’s second album, 2020’s ‘Zeros’, the indie-pop track found new life when producer Georgia was handed the production reins, and then reworked its space-rock ripples into a striking floor-filler, complete with a little nu-disco shimmy.

In the latest instalment of NME’s Friends Like These series, McKenna tells Georgia: “I remember being fairly sure that there was a dance remix somewhere in this song. When I was discussing it with my label, your name kept coming up, so everyone was in agreement. And then everything just kind of fell into place.”

“It’s really nice when this sort of thing happens with remixes,” she responds. “This is why I love doing them, because they can bring us together. I’ve said this to you before, Declan, but I just really enjoyed working with all your production. I think I noticed similarities with my kind of production, and I just wanted to get to know you more.”

It was McKenna’s ricocheting vocals on the original version of the song that first caught the attention of the acclaimed producer, with which she created a series of alternative remixes that traversed pulsing house and electronic styles. “At first I thought that it would be fucking wicked to just have a house-y, disco track with just Declan screaming over the top…”, she jokes. “And then suddenly I was like, ‘Hang on a minute – I can’t do that!’”

The final cut, which was released last month, draws on the ambitious disco-pop flourishes that permeated Blondie’s seminal 1978 album, ‘Parallel Lines’. Georgia explains to McKenna: “It was your vocal, plus hearing your drummer Gabi [King]’s backing vocal, which I thought sounded almost like a New York disco track, but quite indie as well. It had that spacey, Debbie Harry vocal over the top of a really tight riff.”

“It was very fucking Blondie-influenced altogether!”, laughs McKenna. “I got ‘Parallel Lines’ on vinyl while I was writing the album, and I was listening to it obsessively… It all kind of makes sense that they would have inspired the remix.”

For the latest edition of NME’s Friends Like These series, the pair also discussed their first ever live shows, favourite karaoke songs and celebrity fans. Watch the full video above.

– Declan McKenna’s ‘Rapture (Georgia Remix)’ is out now