Matty Healy: 'Art, sex, drugs, religion. It’s just about losing yourself' | British GQ

Masey Healy thank you so much for your artwork today what is the title of the artwork what is it what is the title of this artwork it's called they used to be a rave they're not I don't know why I called it that but I think which is because I've been spending a lot of time in Manchester recently and I found myself walking around saying that all the time it used to be a rave there, now it's a build-up, Pam, but you know, thanks for having it to start with, it's been really nice. I made a bit of a mess, but it's been nice to do this and I've done it with someone let alone, and is this your normal process without people?

Is this something you thought about? from before or did you

just

go straight to it, it's not particularly painting, it's not, I don't know, I mean, I guess my life is, my life is designing things that you've done so much music on and I'm working on other things. records of people and obviously there's a lot of visual design in what I do with 1975 and there is that, but it has a purpose and painting doesn't really have a purpose for me so I've never shown any desire to show anyone or do anything with it Or it's

just

something fun.

I think the question is always whether it's a way to get something out of my entire life. I'm a big boy. I don't have a normal job. I can get up in the morning and make music, so it's another thing that's very, very fun and then yeah, I love it, I love it, I love it and this is not a dirty word, this is German, right, it's Danish, is he president? I think he is German, so what does this mean? It means art. I think I'm being a little sarcastic. I think in another language that gives you a little insight.

Wow, that's buddy. It is multinational. What was the last thing you painted, obviously, before this? then we brought paintings the day I bought a painting here there was another one there mmm it was another piece that was quite similar since it doesn't have a name, what is the title, which is very important, yes, a little confusing too, yes, exactly. um, but I'm very busy so I rarely have time to feel pain and I'm very fortunate to have worked with such a talented group of people who are so close to me now that I've reached a stage in my career where I can delegate a little and that's how I am, yes, I can be part of all these wonderful things that I can do, I can do it in a different way every day, you know, how have you found that process now? being able to delegate is not I've never been able to delegate I've always delegated I think we've worked autocratically my whole life like someone has a vision and and it's and it's and there's a democracy that surrounds that, but um what I mean is that my team , Sam, Jamie, Patti, Edie and Tobias, we're so close now that they understand my language, I don't have to go, they know what I'm trying to do and they become more my hands, you know?

I mean, it's easy and that just comes with time and confidence and, um, just getting better at what you do. You know, I'll get back to art again. Yes, I imagine you will receive quite a bit of fan art. I do. Are there any found? I noticed that you have received us, it particularly stood out that the people are amazing, which I am not good at drawing and I find drawing fascinating because I find anything that I have no natural inclination or ability to do. I like a realistic drawing. I find it incredible. I would not know where to start.

I would not know where to start. Look at our sonorous black boy and draw a picture of him. I could not do it. I would love to but I can not. and then some of the drawings they make are like photographs of me that surprise me. I mean, if you talk about art it's difficult, right? Because I think our live show is our current truly artistic statement visually, um and the One thing I take away from this is that and the reaction I get is not if it's inspiring or not, if it's inspiring and you know, we talk about politics, We talk about progressive ideas, but the inspiration I see.

It's that young people or people come wanting to do that, wanting to make art, they want you to make something a little bigger than them and that's art, isn't it? It's something that's a little bigger than you because we're as small as me. I'm so small and you know, I have so much insecurity unless you know that anxiety is so flawed and then these kinds of things are not like that. I'm not digging up my own work, you know, art is a place, a place. where you don't have to worry about that kind of thing and I think art is very important to me because it is the only option I have left when it comes to the desire to get lost, which is as important as what we have, our

religion

, the sexual

drugs

. sex

drugs

all done is not a path to salvation no, they don't have a good sex life not that we have to be personal about it, but our drugs sex

religion

religion is unfortunately not an option, especially if you live in England and are all forms of

losing

yourself

and I think I see it showing kids having that moment of freedom, which is one of the only times I feel really free when I'm on stage, not because people are looking at me but because I'm fulfilling my purpose and that is why art is important, although it can be superficial and it taught me more than the leaders and I have learned more from the artists who aim towards utopian ideals than from the politicians and leaders who actually try to create them and them.

That art taught me much more artists have taught me much more than anyone else, that brings me to what I was going to talk about with a brief question. You have about I love it if we make it. You put. I moved towards her like. I'm excited to be accused, obviously, of politicians talking about Trump, um, with that in mind, have you seen a change in masculinity over the years? Well, yes, yes, I have seen masculinity. Well, not really, I mean, when George Michael and Prince died so close together. With each other I was a little recalcitrant because I realized that they were two people who had really opened up boundaries regarding how we perceived sexuality, homosexuality, you know, like the lyrics to You know is it sign of the times by Prince and talking about AIDS and stuff.

Like that and, of course, masculinities changed, I mean, but no. Maybe I'm unfortunate or privileged to not have been that interested. I got slapped around a bit in Manchester for having long hair and looking puffy when I was. a teenager but he didn't get things for being slightly different it's like I've never been interested in masculinity as an idea because I've never been afraid of it maybe it's the duality of my father being a working class welder who graduated as an actor who became a more bohemian character like he was a working class boy he used to be a boxer I saw that I witnessed masculinity and that role model in my life but all his peers were gay and liberal and colored and I'm lucky to have never witnessed it of so many prejudices, you know, I don't know much about masculinity and its traditions because I'm not that involved in it.

I love fashion. I love women's clothing. love, you really care so much, but it seems like people do this is what I mean, yeah, this is what I mean. Sometimes I'm a bit like who cares, but then I realized a lot of people care because GQ was over a couple of months ago. We did this big State of Man survey about what it means to be a man now and all the results we got were that it's really confusing and it was... I guess from your point of view as someone who seems very comfortable with his masculinity. . to see if you've seen a change in different generations or in

yourself

, but isn't it confusing just being one person?

He is confusing but isn't he confusing old man? Isn't it confusing being a woman? there hasn't been More like a conversation for women, yes there was, but it probably should have been because you know how hard it is, because if this is part of the reason I want to be filmed instead of published, because We can all see that I don't know. I don't really know, so when we have a conversation about this, I think about it, sometimes we do it in print. I ran into a problem because you couldn't write something that you obviously know I'm going through, so I don't know how to do it.

I've always been quite girly, a bit flamboyant and was occasionally knocked off my feet, but fat people are bothered by them and, really, country people are bothered by them. I think I would love a more lenient set of social circumstances, but if so, no, it hasn't been that bad for me, but let me, actually, at that point, I don't think a brief investigation would have this element of how the world modern the modern world scary time scary time can we really pick a time other than now when we would all rather live like before civil rights like 1895 1500s the 1940s break up the roman tomes we have son of the romans?

Not personally, but things should be better now shouldn't they, yes of course they should be. I was just saying I'll never be careful, sheep, you know, I don't know, we need to be better, I mean, love, if we make it, yeah. You know we have to do better, but we have to do more. I need to do more. I think the responsibility doesn't particularly fall on the individual when it comes to climate change because I feel like a tick when I'm cleaning. I get my mom's ideas and then I fly to the United States and get into a tired 40-inch truck to take me to the hotel.

I feel ridiculous, but I think that is going to come to a greater shine in a larger corporation or does the level need to change in the album that includes so many themes in the lyrics is like spitting out all these problems that we currently have. Is there that feeling of working in full gear to get everything out? Does this element exist? I think it exists. that one of the reasons we are so aware of the negative aspects of time cutting is because we have created what you call an algorithm or software that life is chaos, horrible things have always happened and wonderful things happen every second and then we wake up in the morning and tune into this algorithm that keeps us informed about every detail of the chaos that happens until we go to bed, of course our anxieties will increase, you know, I mean if that gives us a clear perspective and clear of the world we really live in.

I'm not sure, but of course we're going to be hypersensitive because we designed it as an idea, you know, I don't know what the answer is. solve that how do you get away from things? How do I get away from things? Well, it's easier for me because it's a different relationship. I think I've said this before in an interview, but my relationship with social media is slightly different, maybe not yours, but I like it a lot, especially for young people because my relationship with social media is what I do and the of most young people is what I am and these are very, very different things and that can really play with you, you know who, how you perceive yourself. how you perceive reality, so I don't have to, you know, I get a little bit like everyone else when I have too much access to Twitter or Instagram, but that's like anything it's just endorphins and all that kind of stuff that They were programmed for you.

I know this is the longest you've ever gone without social media because it's called OTG off the grid. It was something I did on tour. You totally disconnected. I did it for a couple of months. I did it at the time because I can't crack my iCloud password so I don't have any apps, but that's good, it's really good if we want, it's a happy mistake, I've learned that if you want to have your Twitter or whatever, have it on your laptop. don't have it on your phone if you only have messages and news on your phone you look out the window a lot more you are a lot more inspired you are a nicer person to be around you can also be the annoying person who notices your colleagues or is it like that, Yeah, I hate being that person, that's why I didn't want to make a record like that.

You know, you are always so addicted to our phones. Yes, were you there too? I'm talking to me, yes. You've got this, so have you ever done something like a no-phone amnesty at a dinner table? If we do it. Yes, everyone puts their phone in the middle and the first person to answer pays the bill, really. Yes, I took everyone to Nobu. I didn't do that so it was funny we you're very determined you wouldn't go for the phone so I'm fine it stresses me out um the phone stresses me out I don't need it and I'm I'm in a band so we have to be together to operate as a business so, who else needs to call me?

My lady came, I did it, she got that phone, she made me in a second, she knows where to get me. You know, I mean, so I don't mind the phone too much, it's the end, it's when something important happens. I want to see people's reaction, you know, they kiss or something, yeah, and we move on to more types of mental health. I'm mentally what is it? The hardest thing about being in a band, learning adulthood, is the hardest thing, but I guess the hardest thing to negotiate, you know, you'll hear psychologists, clinical psychologists, talk about that kind of Jungian idea of ​​when you're a Child, you have all this potential, your potential to be anything, but it's pretty low resolution and as you grow up that narrows and you become one thing and then once you are that thing you know that that thing.

It's what you are and I think for me the Peter Pan analogy with him not wanting to grow up because his yes, Captain Hook is his onlyadult example and he has Wendy, who is a conservative lady who wants to grow up and wants to get married, but he has Tinker Bell, who turns him on and she tells him: pornography she is like all of these she is like you, of course, you get turned on like them because of the absence of a domestic reality, you do not live anywhere and do something for other people, although it is yours, you know that eventually you find comfort in relationships. like I've done it and you know, I mean a person, I actually have a girlfriend and stuff, Ben, but um, yeah, but you get to be a badass rock band, it's not like I'm in a rock band, no.

I'm in a rock band. band I'm in a band I hate rock band but it's pretty good I'd rather do that than do anything else yes and you talked about Peter Pan yes you'll be 30 in April I heard yes how did you do it? I've faced milestone birthdays in the past. I think I just tried to keep my art up to date. I think if I'm representative of where I am artistically, a little research, I felt like it was a good record to make at the age I am. it doesn't feel like a naive record and it doesn't feel like it's too solemn it doesn't sound like a crunchy record at all so i feel 30 i don't feel 30 i feel myself like what are you looking at?

Looking forward to most of your 30s. I don't drink anymore, not that I ever have, but I'm looking forward to it. If you drink too much, I'll see you at 30. I'll get fat when I'm 30. Having a baby, oh no. I'm going to have a baby and I'm going to keep making records, not in some way, although I don't eat the same records, I won't become a boring band, one of my other people's records, so I want to make soundtracks, um, but I I'll do it anyway, that's all in the pipeline, but I just have to finish this current project and yeah, get some farm animals.

I have a pretty big list. When will you start as soon as all of 2021 is over and how will you celebrate in April? So yeah, I'm in, I think. I'm traveling between Columbia and Los Angeles on the same day as my birthday, so if I get there, we'll see that it will be a moment, yeah, yeah. I'll be in Los Angeles, it's around Coachella time. Okay, then I'll see friends and then I'll probably have a big party. You can come a little more. Thank you so much. Oh, I'll make it clear. So you're talking about you being in your thirties, the age you are now. to make a brief question and how happy are you with that album?

Then you're working on another album, so that's two albums in five months. That was the idea. What is it? November. I'll probably come. I'll leave earlier. August, wherever, I'm not very good at math, but whatever, what was the need or the idea of ​​making them so close together? Well, because there is too much music and sometimes two different years now are different than what it was three years ago, regardless of whether it's for better or worse or whatever, our desire for media and culture consumption has become accelerated. Mine isn't that I'm trying to keep up with some consumer market, it just feels like the right thing to do.

What I am going to do? I just made a brief consultation and now I'm doing this interview. I just did a tour of the UK and I'm not going on tour until March. Let's watch Netflix. You know, I mean God. do it and then, but we also live in a world where now we're single as a primary thing, you know, the way is to hold people's attention for three minutes or hold people's attention for 90 hours because now people love it long-form television. people are not discussing a short investigation because of its length people want to invest or they don't want anything in the middle mmm people can deal with levels of literature like The Sopranos Dostoyevsky, you know, I mean, they did war and peace and people charm.

It's like we're in a time where people enjoy that level of emotional investment in something as long as it's rewarding, and I make albums that aren't singles, so I have to make another album too to feel like I've done that. a purpose because otherwise what else am I doing with that level of finding a purpose? Do you ever worry about burning out? Yes, but you're not actually going to die. You're welcome, well, oh, well, yeah, let's do it. I needed a moment. to remember that, so going back to mental health, the essenes like a good conversation to pass on to you after that, have you ever been in therapy or did you go to therapy before you went to rehab?

Yes, there is a combination of both. I went to therapy before. I went to rehab because I tried to detox, always a good plan, take control of your own detox and I have been in and out of therapy. I think it's hard because you need to find the right person, you know, but I think it's just It's important to talk because, like when you say it's important to talk, maybe we, maybe people think it's important to just vent, sometimes It is important to talk to change the environment, to have two hours of time dedicated to something else with the The therapy that resonated most with me was in Quine the horse therapy and in Barbados just because I have a fairly cynical scientific mindset, so I found that the first interaction with the horses, which was just me in a field interacting with them, was complete nonsense, it was just me standing next to a horse saying "it's okay mate" and feeling like I was in some sort of Alan situation Partridge, you know what I mean and then after a couple of days he put me in a round pen with this horse and he taught me a couple of skills where when I noticed certain behavior from the horse I would behave accordingly, I would turn my back, breathe a certain way, put something on the ground and then I would do that and the horse would stop and come towards me.

You didn't leave my side for hours and then I started to think I really understood what they meant because I'm you. I've said this before, well, you start to envy that there were human qualities that I wanted in a horse, you know? like he was incredibly graceful with his time, had the ability to destroy anything he wanted to do, you know, and physically very, very strong, only ate what he should have needed to do, you know, I mean, like was kind of a better person and I was um and it was quite touching to have made sense or anything.

I've spent some time with horses because I'm lucky enough to have a stable at the studio where I work, but I haven't done any real horsemanship, that's what it is. called um but yeah, it was a beautiful experience the horses are on another level, they really are what you would say are your biggest devices now my biggest vice is abstaining from drugs is that advice yeah um, it's not not being able to tour without drugs, it's not not being able to go back to Hackney without wanting to score it's not all that kind of stuff it's just that you know that if you break up with your woman for a good reason, even if you love her, you can understand it, you know you can move on, but if you still love , oh, it's very difficult, you know, I think that would be the best way to describe it and what have you implemented to help you minimize good relationships, all the things that I feel so sorry for other people or whatever it is that we do.

I want to call them drug addicts whatever addicted people are I'm here I'm in GQ I have people interested in Who I am I have a beautiful girlfriend I have an amazing team around me I have four of my best friends I'm in this massive band I didn't lose anything it endangered maybe a little some of my relationships is because of the behavior I took myself to rehab all those kinds of things I knew I was heading reading first of all I had all these things it took me all of that, stop trying even stop doing those drugs all the time yeah You don't have that kind of thing.

It's a nightmare, you're headlining Reading and Leeds, which will be a huge moment, obviously, he released a massive album, another one. one on the way What are you most proud of in your career? Today's headline. I'm reading that it's not necessary. I mean listeners know what I'm most proud of is things like the sense of community in real life. Things that have happened in relationships 1975 like some girls sent me an email saying you sent my team an email saying it's me and my friend we're going to your show in America we met at your first show in Philadelphia in 2013 we are still friends and we ended up going to university together and living together now we have graduated I am getting married she is the bet this makes me look like she is a thousand years old those things are what makes me happiest the most proud it is like leading Reading and Leeds that was my Mecca that was my At Christmas I played Glastonbury a couple of times and I did this thing where I stood in the audience and looked at the band before and when they finished I did the whole "I'm on top" thing and when I went up doing that in Leeds. in Redding it feels like I literally crowd surfed to this stage, so it's going to be amazing and the show is going to be bombastic and it's going to be huge and it's going to be like me and it's going to be a really big art installation, but it's not going to.

Don't be clever of me, it will be a 16 year old boy whose mind has gone crazy. Do you know what you want to remove? I don't want to take anything away from you because the ones that really matter are the ones that you don't even get to experience. I've played festivals where I've been there for an hour and they're great, but I remember the first time we had radio lines on a stage in Reading and it was just lights and chaos. and a cacophony and then that and that's how it must be if I'm present like reading like really present like doing a job.

I completely missed the point, that's not why I wanted to do this, you know, so I'm you. I know I thought it was super, hey, you know, they're doing something that I want, I want it to be like that, as long as I don't cry so much because now I cry all the time and it's lovely sometimes, but sometimes. It's like I paid 30 quid, you can't just come crying, yeah, I imagine it's hard for you to stop, yeah, except it's not even the sad part, but that's when people sing, I always want die, sometimes it's this. big, this big big moment that I've experienced, but not in the same way, it's really new for me Sam and obviously you focus on Reading and Leeds, what's the biggest difference now between being in the band and when you were seeing for the first time?

It's not much, which is the best thing about it, like what we did when we played the barfly, it was Drive like I do it and we were doing the same thing, some of the same songs, some of the new songs that we still have, that we still We are that way. band we're still the same old band we can climb we can play in a club we can play in an arena and nothing's different we're still out there and we get our way man and we really are Do you feel like there's more at stake there? what's at stake in terms of the sizes and scale of what you're doing now, yeah, I don't want to be, but I'm at the stage now where you either want to be a big band or do you want to be a caricature?

I want to be a cartoon, you know? And I can do it because I have control of the style. There is a great band. You have right. You have right. I always want to die again on purpose for a reason. I do not care anything about that. I just want to keep enjoying what I'm doing because that's what people love to see. People are having fun, not indulgently, but as if they didn't know the position. I don't want to know what your question was, the difference between starting and where you are now as a band and the biggest difference and I have a little bit of gray hair, I know part of that is paint, yeah, we're the same guys and we love each other and the difference is that Webb dresses better and a little cooler than they used to be when we were 12, like acceptance and being comfortable with themselves in terms of their identity than when they started, I guess so, but we had to accept that when everyone hated us, so We've been doing that for years.

It has never bothered me so much. Listen if you're in pop culture or live in the worlds we all live in, everything is presented as a destiny, to be happy. an adult Oh, there will be a process, there will be something that happens and then I will get happiness, there will be a process that means I will then become an adult, that just doesn't happen, you know what I mean? So currently, how come but who can? What about happiness? That happiness is overrated. Happiness is that we have fleeting moments of joy. We are not going to obtain happiness because it is not a destiny.

It's like there's this guy and what. It bothers me that everyone says we should be happy all the time. What happens when you're not? You're wrong? Are you wrong as a human being? I always feel like I'm not happy. I must be doing something wrong. no you're not, you're just going through the human experience and happiness is overrated, that gives me a purpose about happiness, you know, music and art, all of this, if I can, it's great and it gives us everything, It gives us things, but it is not important. in the way that, just like the people who at the beginning of the century were working with radioactive material, they chose to do it and they were poisoning themselves and they knew that they were doing it for happiness, no, they were not doing it with a purpose because sometimes it is bigger than the happiness that I am going to give.

I really care a lot about happiness. I worry about myself anyway. If you don't really know what it is, I'm happiest when I do something I know. It's good that's happiness for I, you know, God, I sounded goodintense and probably a little miserable. He's pretty happy, I guess. And moving on to your style, now what outfit you have worn or are wearing gives you more confidence. Trust is comfort to me. My ability to just I like to go out and express myself I like good design I like simple, elegant lines I like a nice Margiela sweater and a nice pair of baggy pants and maybe some gazelles I know him and I'm happy that that's what I like all of that 96 Margiela that was just the best and the hair color you have a little bit today I know you've experimented with different ones over the years mmm which one has been the one you have because you've done them pretty quickly also which one has been the one you liked the most in terms of pretty light blonde, pretty close to the blonde on the professional side, he's an actor, did he get his hair blonde, didn't he do faux dreadlocks and did he put his hair in peroxide blonde?

You'll look good, yeah, did you like it? All those who receive the 29 28 29. All types are bleached. It's kind of a pre-med life crisis, but did you get the feeling you know this is like I looked more like a smackhead than before I went to rehab, so I changed it pretty quickly, okay, and the last question because thank you very much for your time. The Brits are about to arrive mm-hmm, the start was trashed, the place featured some rock and roll on ITV 7:30 Do you expect them to have to cut an advert? What did you make of the British boast?

I'm actually pretty happy because I know you haven't given awards to alternative bands in the past and stuff. So, you're acting like monkeys and all that kind of stuff, but like starting my band when I was 13, we were a real band, you know, I mean, not a single person in that room from Suzy Mermaid's side of the industry has been in our studio. or had anything to do with the creation of our records, so to be rewarded in such a commercial environment for something that is so anathema to those ideas is actually quite humiliating, maybe I'll say that or just say "take your shirt off" or something excellent. thank you so much