Matty Healy Interviewed in the New York Times

Matty Healy of The 1975 sat down with the New York Times:

It’s difficult to be big and say — genuinely — that I have zero commercial ambition. There’s definitely a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of thing, which is where, listen, we’ve never known what to do and we’ve never tried to do anything. So the second we stop doing that, we’ll probably [expletive] up. I tend to say no to stuff for money.

I don’t know how you can write this up without it being rude or inappropriate, but I just got offered a four-month tour next year of stadiums with the biggest singer-songwriter in the world that would’ve made me money that I’ve never even seen or heard of in my life.

Ed Sheeran?

Yeah. And I got offered to be main support and do whatever I want. Think about the money you think I’m getting offered — it’s not just offered, it’s what he can afford because of what he makes for shows — and then just triple it. It’s insane. The thing that’s stopped me just doing that is because — I don’t care. It’s not worth it. Not because I don’t like Ed Sheeran. I think he’s, in a lot of ways, a genius. And he does what he does better than anybody else. But opening up for somebody and not just being real, that’s the kind of stuff I think about.

The 1975’s Matty Healy Turns On, Tunes In, and Logs Off

Ryan Dombal profiles Matty Healy for Pitchfork:

Yes, Being Funny in a Foreign Language is quite funny. There’s a mom joke, a QAnon joke, a joke about a 10-year-old who is “obsessed with fat ass.” Taylor Swift, who got an early listen to the record, summed it up in three words: “It’s so funny.” Most of Healy’s friends are comics, and their approval of his work is particularly important to him: He played the album for musical comedian Bo Burnham, and was pleased when Burnham laughed at all the right times. Healy jokes he was furious when he heard Burnham’s 2021 song “That Funny Feeling,” which lists out society’s ills on the eve of destruction, a la “Love It If We Made It.” “He needs to stay in his lane a little bit,” he adds with a grin. “When he did that song, I was like, ‘You motherfucker.’”

The 1975 on Zane Lowe

The 1975

The 1975 talked with Zane Lowe about “Happiness” and working with Jack Antonoff:

“I love Jack’s work, and those Lana [Del Rey] records, in particular, like, some of my favorite stuff. So we were talking about that. We became friends talking about production and what I was doing and what he was wanting to do and what I was wanting to do. And then I kind of just thought, ‘Well, this is like a really nice new energy.’ I don’t… because we are so closed, me and George [Daniel], we’ve always been so closed. “Why don’t you like come down to the studio and see what happens?” And then he did. And, then, ever since, we were just great, great friends.”