Exclusive! Yungblud on visiting India: You have to be ready for the spiritual enlightenment you get from India

Barely a day into his India visit, Dominic Richard Harrison — better known to the world as Yungblud — has already eaten a vada pav, sat in a taxi, played cricket with locals, and soaked in the energy of the city. And he has already made plans for his next visit. “I will be here for three weeks in September,” he shares. In Mumbai for his first-ever performance in India at Lollapalooza, the British rocker shoots exclusively with Bombay Times. He speaks about why this trip feels deeply personal, why this phase of his life feels spiritual, and how, for him, music has always been about people—not platforms. Excerpts:


‘I’ve wanted to come here for years’For Yungblud, India was a place loaded with personal history and long-standing curiosity. “My granddad was stationed here during World War II. My father and I have wanted to come and visit for years, and where I’m from in the north of England, there is a massive Indian population. A lot of my friends growing up were of Indian origin. So, I’ve wanted to come here as a tourist my whole life, let alone a musician. I knew I’d love it here,” he says.

‘Musicians are fans first’On stage, he insists, the exchange is mutual. He shares, “People forget that on stage I get to watch a show every night. People think they’re coming to see me. I come to see them, too. Musicians are fans first. I get to watch fathers and daughters or fathers and sons find something in common. I get to watch people kiss, friends turn to each other and say they love each other when they’d never normally say it. Music evokes emotion and fearlessness.”


‘Some days I want to wear a skirt, some days I want to wear my biker chaps’Dominic, who challenges the traditional ideas of masculinity, talks about what he unlearnt about masculinity. “I don’t have to hold it in,” he says, adding, “I don’t have to carry it on my own. To be emotional, to be truthful in my emotional state, is the strongest thing I can do. Some days I want to wear a skirt. Some days I want to wear my biker chaps and feel my testosterone. Both are fine. It’s all masculine if I choose it to be.”


‘My dream is to build BludFest in India’So why did it take him this long to visit India? “I’ve been on the road since I was 15 years old, so every place has been related to music. It’s the first time I’ve ever been invited to play here. My dream is to build BludFest (a festival curated and launched in 2024 by the singer) in India. I want to go to Kolkata, Delhi and everywhere else. I really want to put my time in here because it’s in complete alignment with what I’m about,” says the British rocker, who is known for tracks like Parents, 11 Minutes, Hope For The Underrated Youth, Fleabag and Lowlife. He adds, “There is energy and madness, but there’s also a deep-founded love, respect and depth. Sometimes in the UK and America, conversations can be shallow, and music can be shallow. There’s a history here, so you can tell that the culture and history have impacted everyone. It’s beautiful. I’ve spoken to a lot of friends, and they just said you have to be ready for the spiritual enlightenment you get from India. Now I’m 28, and I’m a lot more open to it. A lot of people said you have to experience India with the depth, openness and gratitude of a 28-year-old man, not a 19-year-old boy who just wants to rage and play rock music.”

‘The reason I got into music was that I felt misunderstood’The conversation inevitably turns inward — to identity, legacy and what Yungblud wants his music to stand for. For him, redefining rock was never about rebellion for the sake of it, but about restoring its original intent. “I wanted to find a new rock. Rock became outdated in its mindset. It was quite misogynistic and aggressive; it wasn’t inclusive. Even though the fundamentals of the early rock and roll music were about shattering those barriers. Over the years, it got lost. It became divisive instead of unifying. I want to bring a new sense of love, equality, unity and accessibility back to rock music,” he explains.
That mission, he says, was born from feeling unseen. “As a kid, I was energetic and wild. I was too much for people, and it made me feel unimportant. My ambition is that every human being who encounters this community feels a sense of importance — like they belong to something, with unity and love,” he opens up.

‘I was potentially going to drop the name Yungblud’Explaining the distinction between South Yorkshire’s Dominic and rocker Yungblud, he says what began as an armour, eventually became something far bigger than himself. He explains, “It started as a superhero I could turn to — my most fearless self. I was potentially going to drop the name Yungblud, but it was BludFest that made me fall in love with the name. Yungblud saved my life in the same way it saved others. Dom changed as a human being, but Yungblud isn’t mine anymore. I can’t change this. It means too much to people. Now, Dom exists under Yungblud.”

On Sunday, YungBlud will also be selling be meeting his fans at a pop up showing his merchandise made in collaboration with Indian designer Aaquib Wani. "I wanted to empower an Indian artist, I could have come here in a normal t-shirt but why will I do that? I have a massive fans. So, I want to embrace the culture," he concludes.
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