Read this: YUNGBLUD is the weirdo this generation needs
Speaking of what the song is more directly about, YUNGBLUD continues: "I always have such a clear subject, but with this it was like the world needs to just give me a second, and it explores so much in there. It explores sexuality, in terms of you’re gonna lock me in the closet but I’m coming out. It explores racism, with everything that went on with [Black Lives Matter].
"And I think it is just a song about liberation and energy. I just want to send all of my love and energy to everyone. I want people to put it on if they are feeling down. I want people to be able to go somewhere else to feel better. Because I know that’s what it’s all about. All I’m here to do is to make people feel like it’s alright to be who they are because by doing that it makes me feel like it's alright to be who I am."
YUNGBLUD later discusses learning guitar, and how he came to figure out that music "cannot be defined by a rulebook, ever".
"I don’t really get along with people telling me what to do, I’m not that good at it," he explains. "So I stopped lessons and my mum was like ‘You need to do lessons, you need to teach yourself direction, Dominic. You need to be able to follow orders.’ And I just was like, I want to play what I want to play.’ I think that was one of my earliest memories where music cannot be censored or cannot be defined by a rulebook, ever. If I have something pushing me, the push back is where the magic happens."
Watch the full interview below, featuring acoustic performances of Strawberry Lipstick and his April 2020 single Weird!: