"Rock music is in my DNA. It's the first genre I was introduced to; I grew up in a guitar shop with my dad and grandfather. Rock music helped me find my identity as a human being.
The premiere of the nine-minute track, which last night was named Jack Saunders' hottest record on the airwaves of BBC Radio 1, combines elements of pop, punk and rock and has the Doncaster singer reflecting on the past but also looking to the future.
He says of the creative motivation behind the song:
"Rock music is in my DNA. It's the first genre I was introduced to; I grew up in a guitar shop with my dad and grandad. Rock music helped me find my identity as a human being.
"Hello Heaven, Hello" is a journey of self-discovery, goodbye to the past and how you may have known or perceived me before, and hello to the future and where I'm going. It's an adventure that is sonically more ambitious than ever, a journey that is meant to be played in its entirety without holding back or allowing your imagination to be filtered."
His most ambitious release to date, the song began to take shape while the singer-songwriter was on tour behind his 2020 album Weird.
He explained, "I felt like I was starting to repeat myself - I had fallen into my own cliché... I became comfortable. In a way that was good; it meant I had my own style. But I've always said that if people know where I'm going to go, that's my idea of failure."
On the song, he adds, "I was discouraged to release a song nine minutes and six seconds long as a first step after a year because in today's world that's considered a 'risk'. I don't look at it that way at all - I see it as an opportunity. I think risk is the greatest tool an artist has - to put everything on the line in pursuit of the best development and art you can create. Without risk, there is no innovation."
The accompanying video to Hello Heaven, Hello, directed by Charlie Sarsfield, was filmed in the mountains of Bulgaria.
Yungblud's Bludfest will return to Milton Keynes Bowl for its second edition on June 21, with Yungblud headlining the event following sets from Blackbear, Denzel Curry, Rachel Chinouriri, JXDN, Peach, PRC, Luvcat, Master Peace, Cliffords and more. Tickets are on sale now.
Yungblud's latest album is his 2022 self-titled LP. Last year, he released the single Breakdown. | BGNES