“Are you ready, boy?”
It’s a question that is so much more than just a title for YUNGBLUD‘s first feature-length film. Four words that are permeated throughout it despite not always being uttered, lingering in the background of every striking shot, every frenzied performance, every stark admission being uttered. Documented in the limbo period between the final pieces of Dom’s fourth album ‘Idols’ being positioned and it being revealed to the world, four years of persevering to create something as true to who he is as possible, it’s a question that feels like it knows what it is coming. That everything is about to change, that things are about to get much bigger than they already are. However, it’s whether YUNGBLUD is prepared for it.
And in the documenting of the first-ever play-throughs of these 11 songs, it feels like the answer to that is gloriously unanimous.
There are few more perfect backdrops to such a state of limbo than Berlin. It is almost a character in its own right within this seven-day story. A city that is as chaotic or peaceful as you want it to be, the pavements and buildings representing so much euphoric expression and historic pain. It’s a place that you can see throughout Dom has an affinity for and a connection to.
He feels like he can be himself here.
Because with so much of Dom’s journey up until now, it feels like he has had to play the part that has been handed to him. Fit the mould that he never wanted to be cast in. And with ‘Idols’ as the catalyst, and the famous Hansa Studios as an awe-inspiring base camp and playground, this is the most unflinching that he has ever been in the public eye.
Sometimes it is joyous. Shots of Dom and his gang sharing a massive Chinese takeaway or sitting on the stunning spiral staircase that leads up to the studio’s main room remind you that this is just an enormous group of friends living the dream together, sharing in the surrealness that this is what they get to do. The same can be said during a segment between Dom and guitar tech/stage manager Ben Jackson, driving through the city’s storied streets in a vintage car and sharing a tale about a wild night of techno, substances and nakedness strips away any sort of pretence of stardom and replaces it with best friends being just that.
Other times, it is tense. An argument between Dom and his long-time producer, Matty Schwartz, about adding a drum fill to the performance of ‘War’ feels raw, as if it isn’t the first or last time the two have butted heads in this way. Considering that Matty reminds us that he chucked Dom out of his studio the first time they met several times, you soon realise that conflict is a cornerstone of their intensely loving relationship. At another moment, Dom loses his cool with himself when he cannot hit the high notes that make up the bridge of ‘The Greatest Parade’, calling himself shit and stating that he is letting everyone down.
But not shying away from either side of the coin, no matter how uncomfortable and vulnerable it may be, only adds to the electricity when things all slot into place. Because when Dom and his band lock in, they look and sound unstoppable.
‘Hello Heaven, Hello’ is elegantly electric, ‘Ghosts’ has everybody in the studio, cameramen and all, hollering and ‘Zombie’ is utterly heart-breaking, delivered like everything depends on it. Director Paul Dugdale does an impeccable job of melding intimacy with grandiose, managing to pinpoint the moment that Dom completely loses himself in every song, be it through capturing the twinkle in his eye or the shirt being waved around his head. Bold, brash and bodacious, if every show that YUNGBLUD plays from now on sounds as good as this, then everybody else had better up their game.
The whole film seems to exist within a yin and yang of carnage and contemplation. Of the night before, where passion rules the roost, and the morning after, where reality hits and it needs to be dealt with. Of letting whatever feels right in the moment bubble over and then coming to terms with why that feeling was summoned. To capture that balance in this way, with the mask thrown to one side and the true nature of what it means to find freedom in real time, is absolutely spellbinding. It makes the 110-minute runtime feel as breathless as it is beautifully personal, a true pleasure to behold the inner workings of what is a genuine phenomenon.
It also serves as a potent reminder that Dom is still learning. Still growing. Still figuring out so much of who he wants to be and what he wants to be remembered by. A tear-stained conversation with Matty about the pressure of this path, the mention of the 27 Club hitting like a freight train, at the film’s climax, before a stunning rendition of album closer ‘Supermoon’ puts that all into even more perspective.
As honest as it is heartfelt, wondrous as it is warts and all, this is a document that will be looked back on in years to come as the moment that YUNGBLUD knew that it was his time. A pitch-perfect display of musicianship, humanity and what it means to harness magic when it is presented to you.
So, are you ready, boy?
You better believe it.
‘Yungblud. Are You Ready, Boy?’ is in cinemas on August 20 and 24.
YUNGBLUD returns to the cover of Rock Sound as part of our Brit Summer Issue. Preorder your magazine, poster, t-shirt and souvenir programme, only at SHOP.ROCKSOUND.TV
