In the first print interview from The 1975 as they prepare to release their fifth album ‘being funny in a foreign language’, frontman Matty Healy invites Rolling Stone UK into his home to go deep on the highs and lows of an emotional couple years of his life and what lies ahead for the band.
In the wide-ranging profile, Healy discusses love and what he thinks romantic love is, co-producing being funny… with Jack Antonoff, the masculinity crisis, what it means to be a man, and how he has helped younger artists that find themselves being cancelled online.
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Matty on refusing to apologise now:
“I won’t be doing any apologies nowadays. I'm not apologising for stuff, just because I don’t think you should or I should or anyone should who isn’t a bigot or a racist or violent or a criminal. I don’t believe that I am. So, I just want to make sure there’s context, so I don’t have to.”
Matty on helping younger artists who are getting cancelled:
“I’ve almost got this big brother – not Orwellian, actual big brother – relationship with them because I am one of their peers… My phone’s like Samaritans if you’re getting cancelled.”
Matty on the stripped-back sound of the new 1975 album and its theme of love:
“I’ve always wanted to make something very, very intimate and something that allows you to be witness to a moment… I wanted to write about the culture war but also write about being in love and ‘Yeah, fuck all that, let’s kiss’ or shit that’s a bit cringe.”
Matty on co-producing the album with Jack Antonoff:
“We had a series of conversations, and one of the things was about ‘macho versus tough’ where we wanted to make something that wasn't macho, but that felt quite tough and grown up and real.”
Matty on the masculinity crisis:
“What is being a man for men who ‘being a man’ isn’t some meta-performance piece about deconstruction? The only form of masculinity that is celebrated is one that deconstructs it. So: in a dress. I don’t know what it is to be a man if you’re not just deconstructing being a man and having that celebrated.”
Matty on…The 1975 never breaking up:
“There’s always been a lot of ‘will they, won't they’ with my band? Will they split up? Will they not? Will I get over drugs in order…? And I've always leant into that, because I like that. I love the drama of it. And I think that now I’ve realised, not in a non-sexy way, but The 1975 aren’t going to split up. What happens with The 1975 could be a myriad of things, but splitting up is not really going to happen.”
Interview by Hannah Ewens.
Matty Healy is photographed by Samuel Bradley for Rolling Stone UK.
