YUNGBLUD grew up about 30 minutes away from Arctic Monkeys' hometown of Sheffield, England, and in a new interview with Marvin, the Doncaster-born singer opened up about how the rock band inspired him.
“Alex Turner literally said what I was thinking, and I’d never even met him,” he said about relating to the band's lyrics.
One song that really struck home for YUNGBLUD was from Arctic Monkeys' first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
“'A Certain Romance' spoke to me. I was on a BMX at Campsall fish and chip shop in my Adidas jacket in the pissing down rain listening to the Arctic Monkeys thinking, 'oh my god, they got out. I could,'” he explained. “Even then their music was about inclusion and reality. 'From The Ritz To The Rubble' was legitimately about a night out in the north of England and they took it global.”
In addition to citing Arctic Monkey as inspiration, Dom talked about meeting his hero, another musician from Sheffield: Bring Me The Horizon's Oli Sykes.
“When I used to get made fun of for wearing my goth boots and my skirts and my make up, I would put on Bring Me and that would get me through it and get my anger out,” he explained. one day Oli Sykes, who I’ve loved my whole life and was from Sheffield and was exactly like me, rings me up and goes, 'Do you want to be on a song?' I was like, 'I’m on my way to the studio, right now tonight.' People say don’t meet your heroes, but I like my heroes. So far, they’ve been good.”
You can read the whole interview here.
Photos: Rachel Kaplan for iHeartRadio; Getty Images