YUNGBLUD Samples Iconic Rock Song In New Single 'Tissues'

YUNGBLUD's gearing up to release his self-titled third album later this week, and is giving fans one more taste of what to expect before it drops with "Tissues." The song's opening melody will sound familiar to fans of The Cure — the rocker sampled their iconic 1985 hit, "Close to Me."

During a new interview (via NME), YUNGBLUD went into detail about how the sample came to be, and how he retroactively asked The Cure's Robert Smith for permission to use the track.

“As I enter a new vector of YUNGBLUD, I wanted to dance," he recalled. "I remember when we were making it I was like, ‘I just want to dance!’ I remember we were writing in the studio and the session wasn’t going well it was like midnight. I was thinking about packing it in and going home but then we opened a crate of Bud Light, started putting songs on that we loved and this came on [The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’], and I was just like, ‘Yo we should sample this,’ and every producer in the studio was like, ‘No, but the publishing.’"

"And I’m like, ‘Shut up about the publishing, get it off iTunes, cut it up, and loop it… let’s go,’" he added. "That’s what I said to them I was like, ‘If I can somehow convince Robert Smith to allow me to do this, I don’t care. Like, I’ve won.’ It was beautiful. I just wanted to make on this record music that me and my mates want to listen to. That was the formula. And obviously we grew up with this song.”

YUNGBLUD went on to describe how he first met Smith, which led him to asking permission for the sample. “Previously I’d met Robert Smith in London at the NME awards 2019," he explained. "I’m very much the new kid on the block. The 1975 are over there and Robert Smith is over there. And I’m smack bang in the middle freaking out like, ‘I do not deserve to be here,’ trying to catch Robert Smith’s eye. And I took my mum to the NME Awards."

“About two hours into the awards show, I’d lost my mother and I turn around and she’s talking to Robert Smith and I’m like, ‘NOOOO!’" he continued. "So, I walk over and I’m like, ‘Alright mum, hello Robert, honoured to meet ya,’ and he was like, ‘I love what you’re doing,’ and then I got his email through some connection."

Little did he know that three years later he'd be emailing the famed singer. “I emailed and was like, ‘Hello Robert Smith of the Cure… ‘Close To Me’ – probably the most iconic British beat of all time. May I use it in the song?’" YUNGBLUD said. "And I was like I don’t know what I’m gonna do if he says no. But he got back in a couple days. He types in all caps, Robert. He was like, ‘HELLO DOM, YOU CAN USE IT ALL GOOD HERE, LOVE ROBERT.’ Called my boys up and was like, ‘I’ve sampled ‘Close To Me’ they’ve let me use it.’ It was like a mosh pit – my boys in the North were like, ‘YOOOOOO!'”

Aside from the fact that getting permission to sample a classic song like "Close to Me" is a big deal, it meant something even more to the English rockstar. “I put on eyeliner because of Robert Smith. They represented and personified my happy and my sadness all at the same time," YUNGBLUD reminisced. "As a 15-year-old kid in the north of England in the rain made me feel like I could express myself without filter without conforming. They taught me conforming was death. When I would put on The Cure, I’d celebrate the idea that nobody wanted to talk to me.”

YUNGBLUD is slated for a September 2 release and also features "The Funeral," "Memories," and "Don't Feel Like Feeling Sad Today." Listen to "Tissues" above.