always go for the 6ft duck.
Tat’s a wonderful analogy. Your debut album went to Number One, beating Nine Inch Nails’ hugely anticipated album. Does it feel to you guys like you got big really quickly, or is it more like a continuous climb since you started? I suppose it’s a bit of both. It’s strange the things you become defined by, like statistics - like that whole Nine Inch Nails stuff; it’s not a competition. People have said so much that we beat Nine Inch Nails, I mean, yeah, our album did so well, but do people think that Trent Reznor is sitting at home slapping his knees going, “Ahh those pesky 1975 kids getting in the way of me being a genre-defining artist”? He’s not fucking bothered about our album. It’s been a miraculous ride for any band, and the things we’ve achieved this year have not only been remarkable but unprecedented, and that’s not coming from an arrogant place, it’s just a fact. Tat’s something that’s amazed me and excited me and confused me a lot this year. Tere was a time this year, and I think I’m only just on the other side of it, where I was going through a massive identity crisis, because my reality had been totally polarised, and I don’t think people quite understand how personal this band is. I think that people don’t realise that we had no
intention for our band to be embraced in the way it has been, because we’d resigned to the fact that it wasn’t going to happen. We’d always made music because we could; we were middle class kids, there was a lot we could get away with, so we worked shit jobs and we made music, because making music was so fun. In the same way teenagers dedicate their time to football or Xbox. Tis all comes from making records in my bedroom, and that’s still what we do. We are deeply humbled by the situation that we’re in, and we’re so flattered and enamoured by the connection we now have with people, but it’s a headfuck.
you rather fight a 6ft duck or
It’s like, would
100 tiny ducks? I’d always go for the 6ft duck.
Right, now for the question I’m sure you’re asked every time. You played with Te Rolling Stones. How did that go? Um, it was weird; it was one of those moments when reality and non- reality becomes one. People didn’t like us, by the way. Tat’s never reported. We didn’t have like, a good show. Well, there were 50,000 people there - - I’m sure some of them liked you? Of course, yeah, but the first 4000 people are the people who got up at 4am and spent £1000 on this ticket and they’re stood there in Rolling Stones t-shirts that they bought in the 70s and a cap they got from a fan club in the 80s. Tey don’t wanna see some young, jumped-up R&B-
inspired band; they weren’t fucking interested. I mean, the best part of it was when Jagger was on the side of the stage for ‘Chocolate’ and was singing along and stuff. Te coolest thing was that next to our dressing room we heard music start, and it was their rehearsal room, and they were rehearsing before they went on stage. Tey’ve been in a band for 50 fucking years together, in a band based on just jamming, and now they’re in their 70s, they’re still jamming in a room together before they go on stage. I mean, just think about their lives. Tey’ve been getting away with murder, they’ve never grown up and they’ve never had to. Tey’re still jamming and getting pissed in their 70s.
While we’re talking about the biggest moments of your life, has there been anyone you’ve met, or anything you’ve experienced that’s really stuck out and made you realise how big the band is now? Well, I think because I grew up around it [Matt’s mother is Denise Welch and his father is Tim Healy] I was more used to the idea of ‘celebrities’. I didn’t have the disconnection between real people and people who’re on TV. Sometimes you meet people who meet a celebrity and they genuinely can’t believe it.
How do you feel about fan-attention? You’ve got a good few fan-blogs on
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