But because we’ve been a band since we were 13, the musicianship of the other guys is ingrained in the way I write and think – so I write for them and it becomes embellished. “In the end, George lives a two-minute walk away. “We’re going to record the next album here.” Has he told the three other band members of his plans? “Well, me and George, when we first looked to buy places to live, we put offers on places next to each other.” George Daniel is the band’s drummer and co-songwriter. The attic is a small room he is turning into a studio. Next door is a bathroom plastered in gold and silver discs. Healy is a devout atheist, but loves religious iconography.

On the next floor is his bedroom, with a mattress on the floor and a crucifix on the wall above. View image in fullscreen At Coachella festival in California in April. He gives me a tour of the house: a Rothko print on the wall a noticeboard with reminders to pay the milkman, the water bill and council tax on one side and the words “Sit”, “Look at me”, “Stay” and “Leash” on the other. A torrent of overlapping words, opinions and plans pours forth. Yet when he starts to talk, there is no stopping him. His eyes are half shut, as if they can’t quite face the daylight. Healy looks as if he’s just got out of bed, though to be fair, he always looks like that. “The world needs this album.” It went to No 1 in both the UK and US. Who on earth would remember that mouthful? Even more challenging was the concept, every song written in a different style. Their follow-up, I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It, was as romantic as it was wilful. Their first album, simply called The 1975, topped the UK charts in 2013. Sure enough, Healy and co were proved right.

That’s your problem, they told the industry in response: you don’t understand the way people listen to music these days. So you’re just as likely to hear the blue-eyed soul of Hall and Oates, the post-punk fuzz of My Bloody Valentine, the garage hip-hop of the Streets, or the boy band pop of One Direction in their music quite possibly all in the same song.įor ages, the music industry didn’t get the 1975, dismissing them as more human jukebox than a pop band. The 1975 are the ultimate pop magpies even Healy calls them copyists. But that doesn’t quite tell the story, either. In fact, the band is most obviously inspired by the 1980s – a nod here towards Duran Duran and INXS, a wink there at Scritti Politti and Yazoo. The name came from a random inscription on the back page of a book of beat poetry by Jack Kerouac (“1 June The 1975”). You might assume that it was a significant year for the band, but not a bit of it.

144 note music box