Yungblud’s new album has joy, pain and ‘sounds like rocket fuel’

British rocker Yungblud’s latest album has all the elements – joy, pain, and collaborative sounds that are out of this world. He hopes it has a certain spirit his sub-culture of fans will love.

A conversation with British rock star Yungblud is like hanging out in the kitchen at a house party in the early morning. There’s no small talk – only his thoughts on life, the universe, and everything.

In Australia, the 24-year-old chart topper sat down with SMARTDaily to explain why his

self-titled third album sounds like the ‘80s.

Dominic Harrison grew up dancing to Joy Division, The Smiths, and The Cure. And with the goal of making a record that his childhood mates would put on, that’s what his new songs sound like.

“It has spirit to it, that is the feeling of listening to Friday I’m in Love, or Dancing With Myself for the first time,” the Gen Z poster boy says.

“Their songs sounded so happy, but the lyrics are so melancholy and painful. That’s what this album is.”

He starts vocalising upbeat drum sounds, saying: “There’s a lot of pain within, yet it sounds like f---ing rocket fuel.”

UK artist Yungblud. Picture: Justin Lloyd

His favourite track – Tissues – even got Robert Smith’s personal stamp of approval. During a recording session Harrison started putting on songs he loved and found inspiration in the 1985 classic Close to Me.

Initially, every producer baulked at the idea of Harrison sampling the music. But he countered, what if Smith agreed to it? Harrison had actually met Robert Smith backstage at the 2019 NME Awards, after his mum – who was his date for the evening – started chatting to the rock icon.

He emailed and asked permission to use “the most iconic British beat of all time”. Lo and behold, he got this response back: ‘HELLO DOM, YOU CAN USE IT ALL GOOD HERE, LOVE ROBERT”.

Memories is another collaborative track, made with pop star Willow Smith. Of Will Smith’s talented daughter, Harrison says: “I just think she’s cool and real and truthful. You know what I mean?

“I think a lot of artists you meet, and you don’t believe ’em, and I believe Willow. I think she’s got this energy, and this truth, and bite about her that’s inspiring as f---. We’re two mental people, I think we’re from the same planet. Definitely not this one.”

Fans of Yungblud’s sophomore EP Weird!, which propelled the alt-rocker to the top of the 2020 charts, will find YUNGBLUD the album to be a complete departure.

“Weird! was an explosion of feeling I’ve had since I was 19-years-old,” Harrison explains. “It was this larger than life painting of expression without filter.” It oscillated between genres, from pop, to rap, and heavy punk.

Whereas YUNGBLUD, which was released last week, is a cohesive piece of work.

“I got to create a sound that start-to-finish makes sense,” Harrison says. “I wanted this to be a reflection of a feeling that you get when you come to a Yungblud show.”

Yungblud loves Australia and says he feels like an Aussie. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

For those that haven’t yet attended a Yungblud concert, what you’re in for is a community of kids who feel a lot like him: alienated, confused, politically minded, and passionate to carve out their own place in the world.

Even if that place is the Kingscliff Beach Hotel in Byron. When Splendour in the Grass was cancelled due to wild weather last month, Harrison pulled together a free gig the old-fashioned way.

He borrowed a couple guitars and put up a poster. Word of mouth did the rest.

Within 45 minutes the 1000-person venue was double its capacity, full of Aussie kids moshing and screaming every single word of Yungblud’s songs like he’s a pop-punk Beatle.

“The police got called,” he says, “it was mental.”

Adding that Australians supported his music even before his home country did: “I feel like I’m an Aussie resident, get me a passport.”

For school discos in his hometown of Dancaster, England, Harrison’s mum would help him straighten his hair, put on skinny jeans, apply nail polish, and lipstick. He sported a look similar to what he’s wearing now. At the time, he felt like an outsider.

But today, the crowds of teenagers at his gigs are dressed up just like him.

When Harrison started touring the UK and Europe in 2019, audiences only grew bigger and louder.

The Yungblud stage persona birthed its own subculture.

“Yungblud is my name, but it isn’t about me,” Harrison says. “It’s a community of people who come together to belong somewhere. It was such a beautiful thing when I found that, and it kept growing.”

Yungblud says this album is much more personal for him. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

There isn’t quite as much to mosh to in this next album, though.

“The other albums are a collection of songs with complete truth intertwined within ‘em. This one’s the first cohesive story, I think,” Harrison says. “That’s the difference.”

“I couldn’t write another album full of mosh pit songs because I’ve got ‘em. I’d be lying to you. Songs are about feelings for me. This one, I wanted to dance, to move, to cry – so it’s so much more personal and emotional than anything else.”

The intention is to surprise people, and reject the notion that any artist must continue churning out more of what made them famous in the first place. Harrison doesn’t want people to be able to anticipate what’s next from him.

Each album should be like a moment in time, he says. Like a smell that could evoke a nostalgia-soaked memory from years gone by.

“So when I come and play a festival set when I’m 55, you can live through the eras. You can remember the feelings. I’ll remember when I graduated college, when I broke up with my partner and that helped me, or I was going through a really shitty, or really great time.”

“I want people to love this album, to hate it, as long as they feel it. That’s my job done,” he says.

YUNGBLUD is out now.