Q&A: Yungblud Will Kill You With Kindness

 

☆ BY JOHN COTTER ☆

 
 

THE KING OF HIS OWN DOMAIN — 25 year-old English superstar Dominic Harrison, also known as Yungblud, is inseparable from his sympathetically thrashing image. Everything about his emo, pop-punk persona puts into question what a “persona” even is. Connection to a public image can lead to a two-way street for many successful musicians and entertainers: Do you succumb to ego and indifference, or do you blossom and become a haven for your fans? 

For Yungblud, fostering a healthy environment for his fans isn’t a choice, but rather an obligation. Living his truth and shedding his insecurities through song exudes the trust and transparency needed to have such a close-knit grasp on his audience — one that stands tall with nearly 8.5 million listeners on Spotify.

This isn’t just internet stardom, either. Before his North American tour commenced, Yungblud “Occupied the Strip” in L.A, playing three shows in one night at The Viper Room, Whiskey a Go Go, and The Roxy. It’s more of a gracious gesture to his fans than anything else, especially considering it was free admission, which isn’t something that many touring musicians can even afford to do. While Yungblud does represent the more pop-centric side of the recent punk surge in the mainstream, this opens up doors even further for him and his prospective audience, making that consoling grasp all the more accessible.

It is one that typically comes with monetary caveats for industry players, as larger and more dedicated audiences means more streams, tickets, and merch, as well as the occasional NFT scam for good measure. Taking advantage of the parasocial artist-fan relationship is nothing new, yet increasingly prevalent. 

This was my first initial fear when approaching Yungblud back in 2020 during a press tour for his album weird! It’s rare that my preconceived notions are not only obliterated so quickly but also morph into an introspective appreciation for how on-the-nose and direct the superstar truly is. Sure, he’s promoting his album, but he’s also promoting the ideas of sexual and gender fluidity, unabashed transparency, and opposing social norms that may hamper one discovering themselves. 

Even after releasing his self-titled and third studio album, having that album go number one in 6 countries, and playing Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the English rockstar is hopping right into a worldwide touring journey.

Ahead of his performance at Riot Fest in Chicago last month, I sat down with Yungblud in a face-to-face conversation surrounding the ideas of YUNGBLUD, the varying critical receptions his album has received, and how he’s doubled down on everything about his artistic career — and just how important it is to talk these things out. Read our chat below.

YUNGBLUD: Life is so sick, man. People always say to me, “Do you get tired of doing interviews?” and I love it. I do it to meet people. I’ve learned so much from great questions and great conversations, you know what I mean?

LUNA: That's my job!  And that's why I try and do well but … and, you know, speaking of that, one of the best quotes I've ever gotten was from you. When I asked you about social norms, identity, your audience, and truth being a two-way street, you said, “Boundaries are for football players, boxes are for cereals, barriers are for train station turnstiles.” Now with the album YUNGBLUD, it feels like you just doubled down on celebrating yourself, your failures, and everything else. How have the last two years been since we made that connection?

YUNGBLUD: With this album, I opened the door, which I kind of can't go back from. This album, it's a line in the sand to the rest of my life. I feel like I can talk about myself now because I found a community that accepted me. And now I'm gonna push that barrier further and further and further every time now. With YUNGBLUD and what it is, it's for everyone. It's here to destroy every fucking sense of conformity and every place to be put. My favorite thing in the world is meeting people, and I want them to be able to meet each other through my music. I want the world to be able to meet each other from every walk of life. It's not just emo kids. It's not just hip-hop kids. It's everyone. What's been so beautiful, as I was speaking to Roger Daltrey from The Who a couple of weeks ago — which is just fucking mind-blowing because The Who are like… what the fuck! What he said to me is he gets so … psyched out when young kids [are at] Who shows, and that's so funny to me because I get psyched out when old people are [at] Yungblud shows! When you kind of sing to the world and put that out into the ether, like, that's the dream for everyone to be here because that's what rock ’n’ roll means. In my opinion, freedom is what rock music means.

LUNA: Chatting with him must’ve been wild!

YUNGBLUD: Wild! Even this morning I spoke to Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins, and it's the same shit. Everyone relates back to the idea of freedom and the evolution of art, and the passage of time as an artist is the funnest part.

LUNA: Your passage of time as an artist has been so interesting because with this new album it feels like you're diving into deeper, more introspective and darker material than before. But the music itself is so harmonious, pop-punk–esque, and happy. I’m curious — was that a deliberate contrast?

YUNGBLUD: With this record, I got a lot harder shit coming out. I can write hard shit in my sleep because that's what I do. I love [making] hits, but I've written it on two albums. Again, there's other projects coming imminently. I never want to stand still — I’m not bothered. The traditional form is like, “I'm going to put out an album now and then I'm going to wait a year.” I’m always writing and always collaborating with my friends, so I’m just gonna put it out. Because that's what I really want it to be. I want it to be a bridge between every single fucking genre because I love music — I love hip-hop music, I love jazz music, I love metal, I love fucking pop. I love everything. With this album, I really wanted it to be a statement of happy/sad: The Cure, The Smiths, Joy Division. Everything was gut-wrenching, but it sounded so happy. If you listen to “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” you want to live forever, but you want to die at the same time. You listen to “Friday I’m in Love,” you want to cry, but you're getting your heart broken while you've falling in love. It's cynically optimistic music, and I love that because I always say that I'm confidently insecure and that's how I want the music to come across: confidently insecure. Music critics didn’t get it because it's a contradiction, and that's the point. And that's why I think, in 20 years, people will get it more than they did now. My culture gets it and young people get it because we are a contradiction, and you were a contradiction 20 years ago, mate! You’ve got to go back to that place to understand it, you know what I’m saying?

LUNA: I do, and I relate to that. Especially on songs like “I CRY 2,” where you talk about people judging your sexuality and suggesting that they should go to therapy. That last part really stuck with me because therapy was something I first approached, like, four years ago and confronted my mental health. Seeing such outward, celebratory expression of that is so fulfilling and powerful for people. I didn't have that anthem when I was approaching it.

YUNGBLUD: YUNGBLUD is about me watching a generation grow up through Yungblud. I'm not bothered about everyone liking every song of mine. I want to say shit that'll change that person's life, but that person won't get it at all. That'll change that person's life, but that person won't get it at all. You can't just be like, “I'm gonna go and do the same shit forever.” When you’re watching my show, I want it to be all over the place. I want it to be, like, the best DJ set of the night because that's my favorite shit — when I'm listening to “(What's the Story) Morning Glory?” by Oasis, then “Toxic” by Britney Spears, then fucking, like, I don't know… “Harlem Shake” and then “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys. That's my night out. That's what I want my gig to be like.

LUNA: It's what you want it to be despite whatever boxes people try and put that music into separately. When, really, it can be many things at once, and it won’t please everybody.

YUNGBLUD: I just think like, fuck it, do it. That's the one thing I say. One day I want to wear a uniform. One day I want to wear runners and a hoodie. One day I want to wear a skirt. One day I don't. One day I'm going to carry my suitcase up the stairs. One day I'm going to ask Adam to do it. It's like, just fucking be who you are and just… fuck it. 

LUNA: You talked about the critics and the perceptions of people that don't really have the foresight to judge who you are and the stuff that you make. For me, I crumble under these kinds of judgements and assumptions, but it seems that it makes you go even harder.

YUNGBLUD: I’ll tell you something: I read The Guardian, and [they] gave me three out of five. And I love a bad review… that review was a critical review of my work, and he fucking hated it. But it was a good article because he listened to it and he judged me like he would everyone else. Then I read a Pitchfork article about my work and it was just… it was boring. It was a hate piece; it wasn’t about the music. It was about you not liking me or understanding me, and it was bad journalism. I love articles [that] tear me down when they make a point because that's what art is: I'm a vehicle for someone's expression. I'd be a hypocrite if I said people can’t hate me. I read The Guardian and I was like, “Well, that sucks.” But I get it. I get why he doesn't get it. But then I read Pitchfork and I was like, “This is just bad journalism.” This is just ignorant, do better. I know who you are. You hate me, and you wear a tote bag in a pub. But that's the world and that's a metaphor for the world. People are not gonna understand you. But if they don't understand you out of a place of respect, don't hate them. Because you are the same. If they don't understand you out of a place of hate, then they're not meant to be in your life. They're ignorant. You can be friends with people who disagree with you. That's fucking sick! And that's the thing that I want to change. It’s like, just because you all disagree and you come from different worlds doesn’t mean you can't have a connection. You know what I’m saying? That’s what I want to kill. I want to kill that mentality because music should be about that. That's the point. That's why I think I'm here. Because I want to bring worlds together.

LUNA: I actually read both of those articles. Where Pitchfork’s felt like finding the funniest, most creative way possible to say, “I don’t like it,” The Guardian’s explained the reference point, where the writer comes from, the influences…

YUNGBLUD: That's what I'm saying! I don’t talk about this shit. I don’t want to bring it into my art. But what's cool is I see it as a metaphor for the world. There are two people and I can tell that The Guardian writer is comfortable with himself. And the Pitchfork writer? I don't know them. They’ve still got a lot to learn.

LUNA: I wish we could snag them out of the writer’s room and bring them to one of your shows.

YUNGBLUD: That’s the thing, and that’s why I’m never going to stop. If you see it, it’s not just me. It's the people in the audience and the effect that it has on them and the effect that they have on me, and the effect that they have on you and the effect that you have on them. It's the connection point that is Yungblood, not the surface level thing.

LUNA: It’s an effective circle — each gear affects the next.

YUNGBLUD: Even if you hate my music, come to my gig because you might hate the music, but you'll meet someone who will fucking be in your life forever.

LUNA: At Riot Fest, you have the Misfits crowd, older people…

YUNGBLUD: And that's why I'm buzzing to go out there. I'm excited. 

LUNA: What are you excited to show them?

YUNGBLUD: That I have the best rock ’n’ roll show in the world under 30 at the moment. That's it. Blood’s thicker than water. If you mean it, you fucking mean it.

LUNA: I was surfing through your various fan pages and forums and I found a video of you from the subreddit titled “humans being bros,” where you were kicking these guys out of your show for harassing girls. It was a really powerful thing to see. You didn’t hesitate to kick them out, but it also made me think about the positive and welcoming vibes that you exude. Is it discouraging for you when you see that people like this make it into your shows?

YUNGBLUD: When it comes to that, it's my responsibility to uphold my morals. My shows are going to be safe, inclusive, and freeing for everyone. And if I see something going on in the crowd … that's what I say to artists all over the world. If it’s too rough or too crazy, do better. Don't be so consumed in your own bullshit that you don't see what's going on! They are your family, they are your responsibility, like you are theirs. They treat you with respect by singing songs and watching you. You treat them with respect by making sure they're safe, making sure that they're looked after, happy, and liberated. Because that's what gigs are about, in my opinion.

LUNA: It’s not just the things you say. Through reading interviews with you, you can’t hear how you talk about these things. Because you’re not only passionate about it, but you live and breathe this shit.

YUNGBLUD: I hope we get to see each other every year forever and see how this thing progresses because I love doing interviews with you. Every time we get another year older, we’ll have a better perspective on the world, and that's cool. That's the way music should be and that's the way I think journalism and music photography [should be]. Collaborating with artists over the years that you speak with, like Charles Peterson, who did all the grunt shit. Over the years, you just learn a little bit more and your interviews get a little bit more deep and a little bit more different, and that's cool.
Who knows where we’ll find ourselves in our next interview. YUNGBLUD is out now on all streaming platforms, and you can catch him in the US and overseas on The World Tour, which runs through July 25, 2023.

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