- Does anyone still have the poetry book
that inspired the band's name?
- No, you know what, I think I gave that to a girl
like way before The 1975 even became a thing.
Yeah, when I was like 20,
but I think by the age from like 17 to 19
it will have got lost.
- Oh my gosh.
- In Manchester somewhere.
- Somewhere in Manchester.
Well listen, you got a lotta upset fans right now Matt,
because earlier this year, you said, on May 31st,
there was gonna be a single release.
- I know, right?
- 24 hours later, there's no single Matt.
What's goin' on?
- You know what?
I think that I've been saying
that part of the reason I wanted to make two records
is because that's kind of how I express myself
with albums, right?
I'm not necessarily like a singles artist,
but we're in this like, real time expressive phase
in culture, the way that artists are speaking to their fans,
the way that people are consuming music.
So I think that I've not been afraid
to be like change my mind a bunch of times or whatever,
to I'll give you, if you want an official thing,
I did say May 31st, cause I could have done that.
- You could have.
- But my idea was, I was thinkin' about
just dropping a record at that point.
Doin' a single and then just droppin' a record,
and now I wanna do it
in the way that I've done it before
where I put out music first,
so I'm gonna start puttin' out music in August.
- Oh, August? Okay, speaking of music,
let's talk about Notes.
I know you come up with these titles
even before you even make the album.
What is the science behind this title?
- I mean, I think the science behind the title,
it's, it's, you know what,
I want people to hear the record
before we start talking about that,
because I think that like ‚ÄòA Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships,‚Äô
is maybe a more obvious title.
I think that I'll wait 'til the record's out
before I start talking about that.
Just because I like hearing,
but someone might have a better reason than me.
- Right.
- A better interpretation than me.
- I love it man.
I know that you guys are excited
to perform the album on tour,
and I know that you wanna have the big shows,
almost feel like club gigs,
is that still the outlook?
- I think if you can make an arena
feel smaller than it is,
or if you can make people feel like
they have a certain proximity to what is happening
even if they're not as physically close as other people.
People have famously done it very well
at shows that I've seen.
Kanye comin' into the middle of the room,
creating the underneath,
which was like a thing that no one had ever seen before.
Drake with his balloons that kind of came into your face,
you know, like there's all those kind of things,
and I just like art
that makes you feel personally addressed.
Where it's like oh, they're talking directly to me.
Or I feel immediately involved with this.
So that is always my intention.
- So you mentioned so many hip hop artists.
I saw that you're
trying to take a cue from their playbook.
You wanna put out your own festival next year, The 1975?
- That is a hip hop kind of thing.
- Yeah, 'cause of J.Cole, Lil Wayne.
- That's right, yeah.
I think that our label has had this
amazing kind of element to it
where it's kind of,
there's a lot of community behind it,
and with that has come like a lot of kind of culture,
and I think I just wanna celebrate that culture, you know,
that I see every day,
and I think that just puttin' it in a field
is a good way of doing it.
- So looks like it's gonna happen next year maybe?
- Yeah, I'm really wanting to get it together for next year.
- I gotta cross my fingers I get a ticket for that one.
- Yeah, yeah, I'll hook you up.
- Thank you man, appreciate it.
And speaking of tours man,
I saw you had a festival recently in Alabama,
you spoke out on anti-abortion issues.
Why was that important to get that out?
- I was in Alabama the day that it was like happening.
- Oh wow.
- So it was kind of scene of the crime.
I think that it's like, you know,
what is it, like when society's like failing,
you kinda gotta look to artists to lead the way.
It was a bit scary, 'cause it was in Alabama,
but it was also at a music festival,
which is an inherently left-leaning thing, so it felt like
maybe the easiest of places to do it in Alabama.
- Right.
- But I don't stand for those ideas,
and I think that I have a lot of people watching me
so I think it's important
that I stand up for what I believe in.
- Absolutely, and we also stand for some of
this music, man.
Before we get out of here,
gotta ask the final music question.
You and The Japanese House.
Is it gonna happen?
- Yeah, it is going to happen.
She's putting out an EP like pretty soon.
- Okay.
- So I was trying to jump on that.
If I can't jump on that,
maybe we'll do a standalone thing,
but like, I mean I just love Amber so much.
We're so close. - Yeah, she's dope.
And every time,
I don't get to see many people very often
because of what I do,
but when we do see each other,
it's, she's like my favorite person in the world, you know,
so it will happen.