- 6/20/2025
YungBlud and his producer Matt Schwartz take us through their 9-minute song, Hello Heaven, Hello.
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00:00When I was doing that vocal, in my head, I was like, don't stop. Don't fucking stop.
00:04Hello, I'm Youngblood.
00:06I'm Matt.
00:07And this is behind the song, Hello Heaven Hello.
00:18I think everyone's so, like, mind blown that we put out a nine-minute song in 2025,
00:24but we never really set out to be like, let's make a nine-minute song.
00:27When we were creating, it took like a week to write it.
00:30It just didn't want to end, and it was really a compound of different ideas.
00:35Once we finish the first part, which is Hello, we knew that's going to be an intro for the album.
00:41It's like, hello, which actually has a double meaning, right?
00:45You know, hello actually means goodbye, goodbye to my old self, and, you know.
00:49To me, like, controversially, like, Hello Heaven Hello isn't on Idols.
00:53It's like the prelude to it.
00:55Idols starts on Idols 1.
00:56But when you, like, watch West Side Story or, like, Bernstein or anything like that,
01:00or, like, traditional opera would have an overture, and it would have, like, a prelude to the piece,
01:05where it would almost, like, build the world before you enter it.
01:09Like, I can see, like, the buildings getting constructed, and when you're in Hello Heaven Hello,
01:13we wanted to set a precedent out of the gate that this is an album that is completely limitless
01:18in terms of its imagination.
01:20We had the synth line, the ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
01:23was from another idea that we'd started, like, five nights ago.
01:26And I remember, at, like, 3 in the morning, I sang, like,
01:29Hello, are you out?
01:30And I remember in my ear, like, in my headphones, I was like,
01:33Wow, this really felt like I was beginning a story.
01:38like the way I sang it on it on that night was what's in the record the first hello I was like
01:42we're keeping it I would sleep under the studio so I could hear what they were fucking up to when
01:49I went to bed if they were like changing things or ruining shit and we made like my guitar player
01:57Adam was in the room with Matty and I heard this Ben out Ben out better down bum bum bum bum and I
02:05thought I was dreaming it because I was asleep and I was like you know I mean when you're having
02:10a good dream and you like dream about a song and you wake up and you forget about it I walked upstairs
02:15and it wasn't a dream they were making that section at the end of the synth line that had
02:20been kind of this through line for it and I'll never forget it I literally walked into the booth
02:25and said that was a little boy to the end of the chorus was pretty I sung it in one didn't I yeah
02:30it was crazy first thing we did in the song was you came up with this like merged synth line that
02:44goes all the way through net the whole nine minutes of it this goes the whole way through it was like
02:59such a it was like a connector to be honest because it was like every time we would finish a section
03:04how can we deviate how can we change how can we like take a left turn here and it worked over so
03:09many ideas that we ended up fitting together I think when one part inspires multiple ideas then
03:16you end up with a nine minute song he started that and then he brought a really deep bass in
03:20and I just said hello I don't I don't know why I think I was probably like testing the mic or something
03:25and I was like whoa that feels good dude I'll never forget feeling that I was like whoa
03:37that bass really I just remember I had the synth and the bass I don't know like I felt like I woke
03:44up or something and everyone in the room was like so I kind of kept going and then I don't know why I
03:50just was like what is something that everyone in every country of the world can unify under or come
03:58together with or knows how to say and that was hello Dom actually played all the original drums
04:03on the record you know all the ideas that we put down and then we're like shall we try and get Ben to
04:10play it or not because Ben did a session with us I just basically said to him me fucking drummers playing
04:16the fucking songs on the record I played everything and drum wise because I really hear where melodies
04:22can go when I play the beat so I knew that I wanted hello hello on the high hat and then when I came in
04:31I'm just got you together to got you got you got to do got because in my head I was already playing
04:36like fucking Wembley I think when I was writing these parts when when they were re-recorded by Ben
04:41my drummer was the most incredible drummer fucking in the world to me you know I mean some of the
04:48fills were strange because I hear them differently like if you're a drummer you're not going to play
04:52like double snares or you're going to change arms and hands in a certain way whereas I wasn't even
04:57thinking about that I was kind of just writing whatever I heard or just like dropping into bars
05:02which is kind of a drummer's worst nightmare but because I've known Ben since I was 15 he really went there
05:07give him a spin of the drum part it's sick when it like launches in
05:15and then this bit
05:19I basically sent him the songs and he scored it all so he played it exactly as I wrote it
05:23so it was really sick but he played it with such a great feeling
05:26his feeling is just unbelievable the difference is insane you know someone can play the same chords
05:32the same notes on a guitar bass or drums and somebody else will play exactly the same part and suddenly
05:37it's just oozing you know whatever it needs to ooze
05:46that's the original synth part that we talked about earlier that kind of carries us through
05:50it's almost like a spine the synthesizer glued together hello and then this goes into heaven
05:56and so hello heaven hello the vocal that is recorded is basically me coming in hearing their
06:03idea and like right put me on the mic within like what five minutes ten minutes I was like this is
06:08fucking sick I know exactly what I want to do with this and I heard and I just got on got on the mic and
06:15sang it and I think seeing people go like really like kind of led me to be like I was like performing I was
06:22like dancing it I was like you can hear there's some clicks and pops in there because he sang it
06:33to the mic and it was just so aggressive so sometimes sometimes the mic would distort a little bit or
06:38there was moment and it it's captured the feeling is captured when I was doing that vocal in my head
06:44I was like don't stop don't fucking stop you know I was like literally battling fucking space and time
06:50been like I'd never felt like that before I'd never been I never even knew I could sing that high
06:55I was like literally in that moment like discovering a new part of my voice we finished it and I managed
07:00to kind of sing it a couple of times but when I got into the rehearsal room I vocally can't cheat this
07:05album at all so I've had to start having singing lessons because I think in the past you know when
07:09it's been a little bit more punky you can kind of do a shot of whiskey and just get on and do it but
07:15this this is like no joke singing you know I mean it's not learning how to sing it's learning how
07:20to maintain the ability to control it so it doesn't control you because if it controls you you finished
07:26I think I kind of took everything I'd ever loved every fucking rock record I'd ever loved and amalgamated
07:32it into a vocal and just was like all right I'm gonna fucking sit with the big boys on this one
07:38we were really blessed to have such a fucking important guitar because to just throw a
07:44fucking guitar solo in it's so lame sometimes because you're like oh no it sounds like dad rock
07:50until you land on something that's authentic and that's why we kept going and going and going
07:55until he landed something like this because it's full of mistakes every fucking guitar player at the
08:09minute pisses me off because it's all like guitar playing online is so fucking perfect everything's
08:13got to be virtuoso and perfect instead of like nah give me a fucking bit of your spirit put that on
08:20fucking tape forever fuck playing it well play it like you play it like you mean it part one and
08:26part two was sick but it wasn't special enough because hello at the beginning in part one it ain't
08:32confident enough it's not supposed to be it's like are you out there are you trying you're patient
08:37and we had to land the plane being like yeah man i'm fucking here hello i've arrived this is the slowdown
08:43i think we wrote the other section but we had to get there right it's different bpm
08:48so how do you go from 83 bpm to 94 bpm without losing the feeling somehow um i think it was quite late
08:56and we're quite um yeah tipsy quite tipsy let's call it i want to do something about the automation
09:04on the bpm to kind of rise it but i can't remember if it was a mistake or something instead of
09:08taking it up i took it down to five all the way to five bpm and it just goes
09:14boop boop boop and it's like space and time slows down
09:28we sat for like three hours trying to get the right painting in the right curve and i was like
09:33feels wrong do it again feels wrong do it again for like free like an hour or some
09:38shit and then it felt right it feels like strings and everything comes in when it just kind of like
09:44the universe gave us that yeah and and we really kind of lent a lot on like mistakes and happy accidents
09:51and like him just obviously us just out of our mind he made a mistake and i'm like what the
09:57fuck is that whoa whoa yeah yeah pursue that avenue the vocal let it breathe let let have a moment
10:05and then there was all this whispery chatty things that are that's me just on loop for undefined
10:11saying just different things on the right and on the left
10:13i'm just like off my head just like pause it i was pretending to be antony hopkins and meet joe black
10:25that movie really touched me i ain't even told you this right this is i was like in whatever
10:30state and trip i was in i was like in my headphones like just talking rubbish like thinking about antony
10:35hopkins and meet joe black because i remember the arc of that film when he walks over the hill i'm like
10:41sobbing every time everyone thinks it's like a fucking old man actor it's me just like on loop
10:46for an hour i think they'd gone to eat a chinese or something and i didn't want to leave so i just
10:50like leave on loop 40 minutes later or however long it takes for five lads to eat a chinese meal
10:56that end bit was finished i didn't want to make something that would be like you'd rinse it 25 times
11:02a day like one of them two minute songs that's here for two months and then just disappears into the ether
11:08i wanted to make something that you'll play for the rest of your life when you're on a bus
11:12and you know by the end of the journey like you're going to make your stop when you like wake up in
11:17the morning on a sunday with your best mate or love your life or whatever i wanted you to be able
11:23to play this forever that music at the minute can be really disposable a song like that can't be and
11:28that's why i was really proud of it because when i would show it people before we put it out
11:34everyone would be like that's a bit mad and then they'd text me two days later been like this is
11:38sick and then they'd text me a week later be like bro i've been playing this song like every day
11:42we love art because it allows us to escape and provides a soundtrack to our life that makes it
11:48more interesting or makes us see things more beautifully it's a stream against the grain you
11:53know it's uh that's how you change things not because we were trying to because we loved it
11:59because we shouldn't we like doing things we shouldn't
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