Recent Avril Lavigne collaborator and Mick Jagger's personal rock life-raft, Yungblud, is decidedly a Gen Z rockstar. What does that even mean? Well, that he's different from the "older" contemporary rock acts that he just can't "relate" to anymore, like the 1975 and Arctic Monkeys.
In a cover story interview for Rolling Stone UK with journalist Hannah Ewens, the 25-year-old from Doncaster, UK, opened up about the current state of the music in mainstream British media — and how he sees himself set apart from that crop.
"When I look at the 1975 and Arctic Monkeys, they're such a different generation to me," the artist born Dominic Harrison said, perhaps mistaking the former for the year they were named after and the latter for some long-extinct form of ice age-era simian. "When they speak, they're profound now," he explained. "I don't want to be profound yet, I want to be on the fucking tarmac, on the ground."
The musician continued, "I love Matty [Healy, 33] and I love Alex [Turner, 36] but I don't relate to them as much as I used to. They're older and it's all very serious." Healy's onstage meat-eating definitely qualifies, and AM have inarguably been making their most elaborate music ever.
"We're absolutely a generation apart," Harrison added, "there's a big difference between us. Different brains, different way of communicating." In terms of musicians he's actually able to relate to at the moment, the artist named Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Mac Miller and Lil Peep.
This might point to a cultural divide between the UK and North America, because Gen Z just got its first US member of congress with Florida's 25-year-old Democratic candidate Maxwell Alejandro Frost — who excitedly tweeted that he was going to see the 1975 in concert to celebrate winning his campaign.
Of his own musical sagacity and legacy, Harrison went on, "I wanna be that feeling of throwing paint at the wall and sometimes it's gonna be a masterpiece and sometimes it's gonna fucking suck. I look at truly great British artists like Amy Winehouse or Arctic Monkeys or Sam Fender, they have their critically acclaimed albums on [album] one or two or three. I am not like them, I will never be like them."
"My masterpiece is not Back to Black or Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," the artist clarified. "It's a 35-year career of making other people feel like they can express themselves. They are about the music; I am about the fucking people."
Elsewhere in the profile, Yungblud discussed why TikTok is "like grunge" to him: "It's the same shit as when someone shaved their head for the first time with punk," he told Ewens. "It's just expression every time."
The kids are alright or something!
In a cover story interview for Rolling Stone UK with journalist Hannah Ewens, the 25-year-old from Doncaster, UK, opened up about the current state of the music in mainstream British media — and how he sees himself set apart from that crop.
"When I look at the 1975 and Arctic Monkeys, they're such a different generation to me," the artist born Dominic Harrison said, perhaps mistaking the former for the year they were named after and the latter for some long-extinct form of ice age-era simian. "When they speak, they're profound now," he explained. "I don't want to be profound yet, I want to be on the fucking tarmac, on the ground."
The musician continued, "I love Matty [Healy, 33] and I love Alex [Turner, 36] but I don't relate to them as much as I used to. They're older and it's all very serious." Healy's onstage meat-eating definitely qualifies, and AM have inarguably been making their most elaborate music ever.
"We're absolutely a generation apart," Harrison added, "there's a big difference between us. Different brains, different way of communicating." In terms of musicians he's actually able to relate to at the moment, the artist named Billie Eilish, Lil Nas X, Mac Miller and Lil Peep.
This might point to a cultural divide between the UK and North America, because Gen Z just got its first US member of congress with Florida's 25-year-old Democratic candidate Maxwell Alejandro Frost — who excitedly tweeted that he was going to see the 1975 in concert to celebrate winning his campaign.
Of his own musical sagacity and legacy, Harrison went on, "I wanna be that feeling of throwing paint at the wall and sometimes it's gonna be a masterpiece and sometimes it's gonna fucking suck. I look at truly great British artists like Amy Winehouse or Arctic Monkeys or Sam Fender, they have their critically acclaimed albums on [album] one or two or three. I am not like them, I will never be like them."
"My masterpiece is not Back to Black or Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not," the artist clarified. "It's a 35-year career of making other people feel like they can express themselves. They are about the music; I am about the fucking people."
Elsewhere in the profile, Yungblud discussed why TikTok is "like grunge" to him: "It's the same shit as when someone shaved their head for the first time with punk," he told Ewens. "It's just expression every time."
The kids are alright or something!
