But theyre not disappearing into fame just yet.
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MacDonald runs up a hill, a trainer behind him.
Hes made me run round this house six times, he says, panting.
The first time I spoke to Healy was in the eye of that storm, at the Sunset Marquis.
He could barely hold his head up.
Putting his spliff down, Healy offers a hug.
He is now a recovering heroin addict.
His hair is a Mohawk of salt-and-pepper.
In five years Im gonna be gray like David Byrne, he says, looking healthier than ever.
Healy skipped todays session.
I bitched out, he says.
Its typical for him to exclude himself in favor of working on music.
Hes not only finished one album in L.A., hes started another.Notes on a Conditional Formis due in March.
I havent been social for a year, he says.
You havent been social since I met you.
When people come over Im gregarious, adds Healy.
We might go to Drake tonight.
Oborne scoffs, Is Drake playing this house?
They wont be going.
These days, Healy mostly socializes online.
Weve DMd before, but I quit social media recently.
Its a constant consultation, isnt it?
Our generation is trapped.
Were going via New York for Pitchfork who nowlovethe 1975.
The world is funny, man.
I work on music, dont talk to anybody.
Give me a better one.
Show me the other big band whos fucking amazing.
What is the 1975 now?Its not a rock band.
But were an R&B band before were a rock band.
I dont think about it when it comes to making music.
I hear something I love and go,Lets do that.
I wanna be everything.
Im so excited about the present.
If you become a household name on this third album youll lose some cult kudos.
Do you think about that?I dont.
I can see that were popular because I know whatThe Faderis; all these avenues that talk about us.
Its just me and George producing the record.
Us in a house with no shirts on.
You havent gone into a massive studio.Exactly, no [Alan] Moulder.
Weve done it humble, like the early EPs.
I never think about us becoming a household name.
You have Adele/Ed Sheeran tiers.
Were still the biggest band nobodys ever heard of.
Im not like Kanye.
I wont go to the Beverly Center, paparazzi turn up, and itll be a shutdown.
But I also dont have passive interactions with people.
Its either intense FUCK ME, I LOVE THE 1975!
YoutoldBillboardthatyoure the most interesting band making music.
Was that bravado?It was read as that.
This is why I want to do interviews on film.
You dont write the spiel where I said: Take out heritage artists Radiohead, Foo Fighters.
Then new bands Lets Eat Grandma, Idles.
Whats left is us.
Were headlining festivals on the second album the night after Foo Fighters, before Beyonce.
There are no bands at our stage doing anything as interesting.
Im not saying: Im a fucking legend.
Would you like there to be one?Im not competitive!
But the fact that there isnt one has nothing to do with me.
Would it be nice to open doors for other bands?I dont care.
Im not a purist.
I dont think that groups of people who make music are gonna go out of fashion.
The only interesting things happening in punk are girl bands because its something new within the form.
I do like Idles.
Theyre a punk band of 30-year-old blokes.
Ill tell you who: some people who they probably know.
When I started, thats what I was doing making records for my mates.
Then I realized maybe I could have an impact on the world.
You continue to write from an outsiders perspective because you havent disappeared into fame.
You are your audience.Im the same person.
Im not socially awkward, but I dont go outside.
I watch a lot.
But I mean emotionally.
I dont go to the pub.
I dont go to a party.
I have a private life.
When I go outside I only really exist as Matty from the 1975.
But … Oh, it doesnt matter.
What?Thats what [the song] I Couldnt Be More in Love is about.
It sounds like its a love song, but its about what happens when no one cares anymore.
What about these feelings Ive got?
I dont know about opening doors for people.
This record has been written in real time.
How close was the last song written to you releasing it?Oh, fucking days!
The vocals come so late.
Four days before it came out I finished the lyrics.
Loads of songs were down to the fucking wire.
If you dont take risks, you dont get rewards.
Is the material on this album from before you got clean?Mostof it.
George wrote the instrumental to Love It If We Made It in 2015.
You know where Dirty Hit is?
Grenfells round the corner.
My idea for Love It If We Made It was a list of press headlines.
I was so upset.
Thats when the song became this outward exorcism.
Its stuff thats happened.
Its what I was worried about.
Ive always been staring death in the face.
Always an existentialist, a nihilist.
I just wanna have a baby now.
Then Ill stop doing that.
You want to have a baby now?Im too busy, but do you ever think that sometimes?
Well, at least thenmewill go away!
Id like to become a vessel for somebody elses happiness.
Thats where I get meaning in life.
I make music; it makes people happy.
I find everything else a bit hard.
I love my girlfriend.
Whats your relationship with Kanye?Its sad to see somebody so famed for self-awareness lose that.
Hes supporting regressive ideas.
He seems really, really mentally ill.
The album is titled after online relationships.
The 1975 wouldnt exist without the internet.No!
I remember a time when the internet was a thing that somebodys big brother had in their room.
Now everything is online, right?
Whats the foundation of reality?
What does it mean in 30 years?
Were gonna burn up in a ball before then anyway.
Presumably, when you were in rehab you were offline …No, I wasnt!
Whos Steve?Steve was my doctor.
It was a new facility in Barbados.
Just me on my own.
I wanted to get clean, so I told them everything.
I said, Ive got these in my bag, blah, blah.
They made an assessment.
What was in your bag?Pills.
Steve asked what I thought of people being on the internet there.
I dont think its good for people ripping themselves off drugs at their worst.
I wasnt [at that stage].
The removal of my relationships wouldve been negative.
Id caught myself talking shit, talking like an addict.
By the time I got to rehab everybody was supportive.
So you were tweeting from rehab?A bit.
I was mainly on YouTube.
Id go down right-wing rabbit holes watching all this mad rhetoric.
You should do it.
Search for anything anti-liberal and watch three videos.
The adverts you get are fucking wild.
You finishedBrief Inquiry …here, and are recordingNotes on a Conditional Form.Slowly to be honest.
Why do you feel such an urgency to make so much music?I dont know.
Do you not feel really urgent right now?
To articulate that is weird, right?
Im such a drama queen.
Everybody is living their own movie, everybody is the protagonist in the world.
If youre a writer, you want a great ending, right?
I was obsessed:Im gonna do three records.
Weve got artwork for the third.
Thats gonna be it.
What was the artwork for the last record gonna be?Ive still got it.
For the end?Its forMusic for Cars.
Its the artwork for both the records.
Thats longer than a comma, isnt it?
But shorter than a full stop?
Its introducing a new idea.Our Gorillaz moment.
Since I made that decision, Ive shat myself.
Are you too smart to self-sabotage?I care about others a bit more than I care about myself.
Some peoples happiness is contingent on your existence.
When we do an interview, theres this focus on Im a nihilist.
Ive been to rehab.
But Im also a person.
Its important not to sensationalize rehab, damage, addiction because theyre relatable truisms.Theyre slow burns.
Do you think you would be surprised by yourself now, a year after entering rehab?Yeah.
I had to write two letters to myself.
One for in the future if I stayed clean, and one if I didnt.
What else am I gonna do?
Be a fucking junkie?
I would still be doing it if it worked.
[Healy becomes distracted.]
Did you see that fly?
It literally just rolled over and died.
What is your relationship with yourself like at the moment?Eh …
I wanna be … the best I can be.
I want it to be the ultimate release.
I want to do it for people because parking is a nightmare.
The last time I went to a show I was watching 33-year-olds.
They probably got a babysitter.
They have to sit in traffic.
When Im doing press-ups thats what Im thinking about.
It takes a lot for me to go to a show.
Ive got three tickets.
But I love Drake.
Whats my relationship with myself.
Weve talked in the past about getting political.
Why do you think its appealing to pop stars?
Do you think its part of selling the product?Make art and stand by it.
Dont make art thats not political then expect us to listen to you.
I see artists and their main projection isnt related to their music.
If it was in the music I wouldnt have a problem, but it seems opportunistic when its not.
Its easyto learn the rhetoric of the left.
Of course racisms bad, of course women must be heard.
Lets make something inspiring that isnt just part of this stream of fucking talking, right?
Do I sound like an arse?
If youre not going to make art thats important to culture, dont use easy rhetoric to sell it.Exactly.
Youve signed female artists the Japanese House and Pale Waves to Dirty Hit.
How much is the M.O.
of the label to generate more art from a female point of view?Massively.
I like peoples perspective Ive never thought of.
Joni Mitchell is one of my favorite artists.
Shes a fucking alien species to me.
I can never be that.
I want to hear more about it.
Youre going back on the road in January.
Will it be hard without pills and heroin?Yes?
But it wont be that bad because Ive got weed, the lesser evil.
That sounds bad, but I dont care.
Im a fucking person.
I was good at not using on the road.
Its when youre off the road …Way harder.
You toldThe Guardianyou dont like returning to your house.Ive ripped it and turned it into a rental.
Ive moved to West London five minutes from the office.
Does that feel like home?Ive never been.
Ive got it waiting for me when I get back.
What have you learned about your bandmates since rehab?Its reinstated that were brothers for life.
Its not like it was wine, weed, cocaine, then heroin.
You make a choice.
I had a childhood carnal desire to be sedated.
That combined with thinking it was fucking cool.
It sounded like my vibe.
No one I knew was into it.
Im from a small town outside Manchester, not London.
Junkie chic wasnt my thing.
It was always private.
I never wanted to be Pete Doherty.
Did it make you feel separate from your band or audience?No.
It made me feel … better.
Its so busy and loud just being alive.
When you wake up its so fucking loud.
So that kind of gets rid of it.
Im a very addictive person.
Anything that has ceremony Im a sucker for.
How do you deal with the noise without it?You readjust.
It used to be one of those commas I looked forward to.
The reason its so hard to quit is because you have nothing else that does that.
Quitting is cognitive behavioral therapy: Keep doing something, eventually itll become all right.
Sometimes you gotta do it.
Its like fucking getting fit.
Dont moan or figure out different ways.
Theres only one way: not doing it.
Thats how you quit.
Do you feel confident that youre quitting?Um.
If I think about it, I go backward.
Ive tried to distract myself.
Its so hard when theres no answer as to why.
I dont wanna have a baby because of my sense of salvation.
Its okay to think that having a kid can be selfish.Yeah.
Theres not much out there for them.
I worry if theres really any point.
Youre asking if theres a point to having kids?Can we not?
I dont wanna go down this road.
Some stuff me and my missus have to iron out.
You always write about the truth.
Im talking about the buildup to all that shit.
People never clocked on!
Its trendy to be woke.
You weaponize victimhood so anybody thats had a tough time can win a debate.
Thats not a critical course of action.
Nobody ever references how fun it is to be right.
If youre right, you get 400,000 lovely hearts.
Could they be doing it for that?
I dont get it.
I spend so much time on Instagram looking at men who take selfies.
I think Ive taken one.
Youve taken only one selfie?No, wait.
I did an Instagram live video and took a screenshot from it.
Ive never taken a selfie.
Last time we spoke you called yourself pretentious.
You said, just dont write this in a way that makes me sound like a cunt.
Was that a front?I was so lofty.
I thought it was pretentious.
Its an experience learning how to deal with people writing about you.
Id see it and go,Thats not what I said!
It had control of me.
Now I have control of it.
