Despite only bursting on to the global music scene in the past 12 months, The 1975 have roots which stretch back a decade.
During that time, the Cheshire-born band have morphed through numerous incarnations, although the four-man lineup has stayed. With their first album shooting straight to number one in the charts in September last year, and a US fan-base grappling on to their music sooner than expected, The 1975 have been thrust into the limelight.
But a chat with lead vocalist Matt Healy reveals that his long journey to this point has bred a certain objectivity and maturity. Not beyond his 24 years – as many a condescending journalist might claim – but certainly Matt’s head seems screwed on tightly, even although he admits he doesn’t have all the answers yet.
The 1975, Matt explained, have existed conceptually and musically since 2010.
“Aesthetically, musically and sonically we are a totally different band,” he added, comparing the band to its previous iterations.
“But our mantra has stayed the same because of where we came from. When you start a band at 13, there’s no pretence there. We were playing in a band for the same reasons that we were playing video games or football. It was an immediate sort of fun.
“So you don’t get wrapped up in the idea of it being an art form at that age. It’s because the sounds we were making were exciting and fun. And that has really stuck with us.
Since rising to fame, Matt and his bandmates have been scrutinised by music critics, fellow-bands and listeners with equal voracity. Whether fielding questions about the undefinable genre in which The 1975 sits, what it was like to support the Rolling Stones last year or growing up with his well-known actor parents, Denise Welch and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet’s Tim Healy, Matt has quickly become au fait with life in the media’s glare.
His beautifully crafted lyrics, for one, have been much discussed. From rock music staples of sex and drugs, to life as a twentysomething, Matt has set free his inner monologue for all to see. But he admits he wasn’t prepared for the scrutiny which followed when the band’s self-named album was released.
“When I wrote this album, lyrically, nobody knew who we were. Because I wasn’t exposed to judgment at that time, I wasn’t subjected to any questions such as ‘was I being too honest’ or ‘was this relatable’. It was just a genuine form of me expressing myself, as I would with a diary.
“But now that the album has been embraced, that kind of honesty was picked up as a kind of ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ attitude. But actually, it came from being quite insecure and neurotic. A lot of the things I talk about in the record are elements of my personality that I’m not too comfortable with.”
As to where he feels he belongs on the scale of writer to musician, he’s not overly sure, either. But again, that’s OK.
“I don’t know what I am,” he said honestly. “I would have to go for the boring answer of ‘right in the middle’, because I don’t know yet.
“I know I’m here because of my love of music. The lyrics never resonated with me as much as they did as an adult. I always say, my perfect song would sound like I Wanna Dance With Somebody, by Whitney Houston, but convey the message and conviction of something like Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen. And it’s that duality which has really excited me through my whole life.”
It is that same duality which has both delighted and confounded fans and critics respectively. On the one hand, The 1975 have been likened to Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel, and, on the other, My Bloody Valentine. But you would need a third and fourth hand to continue counting, with the melodic signatures of Sigur Ross, and poptastic beats of Michael Jackson among the other acts to be thrown at The 1975 to see if they stick.
But Matt and his fellow 1975s remain proudly defiant of being put into a box.
“I used to make music only for me. And in the space of a year, that’s changed to making music for millions and millions of people who really care about it, which is really weird,” said Matt.
“So the next step, the only way I can think about it, is making music for like-minded people. I can only give people the benefit of the doubt. If I started writing with an awareness of people who don’t fundamentally understand the band, then I hate to think what we would create.
“I think this next album needs to be a distillation of everything that preceded it. And I think that stylistic ambiguity that we have, that big polarity in genre, needs to be exaggerated, like every second record should do.”
The 1975 will be at the Music Hall, Aberdeen, this Saturday, February 8. Tickets are now sold out, but it may be worth checking the classified section of the Press and Journal for any private sales.