Yungblud previews upcoming Depeche Mode-inspired single: “This is a coming of age record”

Yungblud has shared details of his upcoming single ‘Weird!’ in an exclusive interview with NME.

Speaking from lockdown in Los Angeles, Doncaster’s Dominic Harrison revealed new details about the new song, due out on April 22.

“I was going for an LCD Soundsystem and Depeche Mode thing,” Yungblud told NME of the musical inspirations for the spritely pop song – one of his most energetic far. “I wanted a naivety to the song because this is a coming of age record.”

Harrison said that the song written late last year and was inspired by his meteoritic rise, which culminated in a sold-out show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. “The past 18 months were so weird for me,” he told NME. “I nearly lost my mum in a car accident. I was in a relationship and got my heart broken. We blew up and got famous really quickly. I started from depression and thought about suicide again.”

He continued: “It felt like I was walking down the pavement but I felt like I was going to fall down the cracks. It’s just been a dark twisted, mental time. I thought that it was going to swallow me whole and I’d never be seen again – but I came out the other side of it.”

However, Harrison added that the Brixton show provided a new lease of life and mindset to his creativity. He insists that his upcoming second record will have a distinctively different tone to the angst-ridden music thus far.

“It’s a new era for me – it’s an era of optimism,” he said. “I’m not angry anymore. The first album was so angry and leading into the EP [2019’s ‘The Underrated Youth’] I got hopeful and now I feel optimistic.

“This song is about fucking life. I was crying when I was writing this song. I envisioned a couple in Fred Perry and Harringtons and they’re sharing headphones on the bus listening to this song. They’re sat there and know that everything is going to be alright.”

During lockdown, alongside work on his second album, Harrison has been live-streaming The Yungblud Show on YouTube, with guests like Machine Gun Kelly, Ashnikko, Kelly Osbourne and more joining the action, with NME calling the show “a riotous half-hour of power”.

Stay tuned to NME.com this week to read the full interview with Yungblud.

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• ‘Am I depressed?‘ – Help and advice on mental health and what to do next
• Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians
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• YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
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