Is this one of the reasons, I ask, why 1975 – unlike quite a few other high-profile music acts – decided not to hold back their album for release until the autumn. He doesn’t need to provide answers through his work, he implies, but rather a sense of optimism. He says he makes records that ask questions about certain things he worries about that hold mirrors up to him and to the world around him.
'Greta Thunberg is the most punk, the most badass person I’ve ever met in my life. From out of nowhere he tells me his social background “is middle-class suburban nothingness and growing up back then part of me made a point of either having no identity or searching for it”. He talks nine to the dozen and proceeds to hold forth without prompting. Known for outlining his vulnerabilities with effortless candour, he has generated what fans regard as a unique relationship with them. If anything, the very likable Healy has pinned down here what many people love about and want from him. When it comes to songwriting, what I know is what people want, and what they want are truth and relatability.” “The very best of the form is when I feel I have been personally addressed. These stimuli, he adds, are also investments.
“A lot of the big artists who are part of streaming culture have the ability to hold people’s attention for three or so minutes, and they do it all the time via single track after single track. My issue with wanting to be an artist that needs to be self-expressive in this way is to react accordingly and do the same kind of thing. “Superstars such as Cardi B or whoever they are now,” he says somewhat disingenuously, as if he doesn’t know, “are expected to address their audience in a real-time manner. The problem is getting the music out in a way that will have the biggest impact and the largest reach.Īccording to Healy, the idea of curating, filtering or deconstructing the interface (which includes various social media channels) between art and the audience has gone. The two can easily be merged, he reckons. You can be an engaging, intelligent mixture of each, of course, the combined result connecting not only with the chin-stroking nature of the zeitgeist but also the sing-along aspects of a decent tune. Yet here he is – stuck in the middle between the responsibility of the former and the perceived flimsiness of the latter. There has always been a sense that Matt Healy, lead singer and primary songwriter of UK band The 1975, wanted to be more a spokesman for a generation than just a mere pop star. Matt Healy on the band’s new album, what will be ‘normal’ after Covid, and Greta Thunberg being a 'badass'