Morethan arush of ’Blud tothe head
You could never accuse Dominic Harrison, who styles himself as Yungblud, of lacking the requisite desire to make it. When I ask the actor/musician what life would be like if he couldn’t channel his energies into the arts he replies: ‘Probably locked up in a mental institution to be honest. If I couldn’t do music or drama or art, I think I’d be f ***ed.’
There is no doubting his need. He goes on: ‘I have to do it or I’ll die. I’m like a happy shark, if I stop moving, I’ll die.’
With a shock of dyed red air, wearing copious amounts of makeup, the 23-year-old mostly favours a glammy style of punk music. His songs, he says, are for people like him who feel they don’t fit in, whether that be because of their sexual orientation, class, colour or whatever perceived prejudice keeps a young person from being completely themselves. Some may sneer at his assertion that he sees Yungblud as being not a person or an act but a movement.
‘Yungbludain’tmeman.Yungblud’s a culture, a message, a statement,’ he says.
‘Before I release a song, I ask myself three questions. Could anyone else sing it? Am I telling the truth? Do I believe it and mean it with every part of me? If I can’t answer those questions correctly, I’ll drop it.’
The songs on 2018’s 20th Century Liability and the recently released UK number one album Weird! were co-written with a number of producers and musicians. Josh McClorey, former guitarist in Cavan band The Strypes helped him with Strawberry Lipstick, which is a standout on Weird! He relates to me a heartwarming tale of how another song, Mars, came to be.
‘It’s about a young “trans” girl I met (while on tour) in Maryland. Her parents couldn’t understand the idea that she always had been and was their daughter. Therefore, she was their daughter,’ he says.
‘It’s her right and her right alone to decide who she is and know what she is. Her parents thought it was some weird alienistic (sic) attention-seeking phase that she was in. She saved up… and brought them to the show (in Maryland) and the parents saw other kids at the show like her and saw the defiance of my generation to be anything other than who or what we are and accepted her as their baby girl. They said, “We’re so sorry, we were blind to it”. ’
Before taking a shot at being a spokesman for a generation, the former Dominic Harrison was an actor appearing in ITV’s Emmerdale and The Lodge on The Disney Channel. Diagnosed with ADHD while growing up in Doncaster, his parents encouraged his pursuit of the arts as an outlet, but his father, he says, was sceptical about music as a career option.
‘My dad ran a guitar shop and people who were dropped from their labels or were struggling would come and work in the shop for a bit,’ he says
‘So, he was cynical about it but he and my mum always supported me. It was youth leaders or teachers who didn’t understand who I was. People who are in positions of authority loathe people being free because it threatens them. If they think that kid’s not nice or whatever I think, b******s to you man.’
Styling himself a punk, when I tell him I also see echoes of My Chemical Romance and emo progenitors Placebo in his music, he is quick to acknowledge his love of them and their influence.
‘My Chemical Romance said what I was thinking at that time,’ he says ‘What I love in music is people telling the truth. At the end of the day, all I give af *** about is the truth.
‘I’m mad obsessed with Placebo too, I was only listening to them this morning. You’ve put Placebo Brian Molko in my head again now…’
He then sings the lines from the Placebo hit Pure Morning,
‘ “A friend in need’s a friend indeed. A friend with weed is better !”’ I love those bands… It’ s all the same s*** that we’re doing. It’s freedom and just encouraging people to be who they are.’
‘I have to do it. I’m like a happy shark, if I stop moving, I will die’
He then sets out the Yungblud manifesto as we finish our short Zoom chat.
‘When people say, “what does it feel like to be a voice of a generation?” or put that on me. I’m like; “I ain’t a voice of a generation. I’m a voice in a generation. This is what my generation is saying. I’m speaking with the same volume and the same intelligence as the f *****g kid next to me. But I just put it in songs that people can sing.’
nYungblud – Weird! is out now and he is set to play the 3 Arena, Dublin, on November 20.