British rocker Yungblud has shared the guitar-heavy single “Fleabag” as his first official single release since the arrival of his 2020 album Weird! last December. The track was premiered during the singer’s takeover slot on BBC Radio 1.
“Fleabag” was written by Yungblud with Amy Allen, Andrew Wells, and Gregory Aldae Hein while Wells worked on production with Chris Greatti and Mike Crossey. Adhering to the musician’s deep-rooted artistic honesty, the track approaches the topic of Yungblud finding himself lost in the identity of himself as an artist and feeling judged.
“I wrote ‘fleabag’ in a really dark time of my life, when a lot of people around me had an expectation about what I should be,” Yungblud said of the track. “To tell you the truth it’s about being f—–g gutted about people judging me and trying to tear me down. I felt so alienated, I felt so alone.”
In the song, Yungblud sings about fading away and trying to change himself at a time where he feels as though no one can love him for who he truly is. “Cause I’m just a fleabag, nobody loves me / Send me to rehab, somebody touch me / I’m not your monkey / I’m not your puppet / I’m just a fleabag, nobody loves me at all,” he declares on the chorus.
“When everybody else has an expectation of what you should be or have their own version of your truth it messes with your brain because you start to think ‘maybe they’re right, maybe they do know what’s best for me, maybe I should change who I am,’ but ultimately I believe to my core – its the foundation I built my whole ideology around, that self-expression and the right to be unconditionally yourself is the best thing you can be,” he said.
“Nobody should determine how you express yourself except YOU. You are brilliant, you are beautiful, you are individual just by breathing. This song is a kick back. A kick back against the world, a kick back against my friends, against my family and some of my fanbase. I am who I am, all I want to do is spread love and lead with my heart. I’ve always told people to be themselves, sometimes I have to remember that message myself.”