Matty Healy

Matthew Timothy Healy (born 8 April 1989) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of the pop rock band The 1975. He is recognised for his lyricism, musical eclecticism, provocative onstage persona characterised as performance art, and influence on indie pop music.

Born in London and raised largely in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge, Healy formed The 1975 in 2002 with his schoolmates at Wilmslow High School. After signing with independent record label Dirty Hit, the band released four extended plays before releasing their self-titled studio album in 2013. They followed it with I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016), A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018), Notes on a Conditional Form (2020) and Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022). Each of their studio albums reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and charted on the Billboard 200, garnering critical praise and appearing in numerous publications' year-end and decade-end lists.

A vocal advocate for LGBTQ rights and climate change mitigation, Healy's songs and performances also deal with themes including internet culture, masculinity, the social and political milieu as well as his personal life and relationships. He has been described as a "spokesperson for the millennial generation" by Rolling Stone, "the enfant terrible of pop-rock" by Pitchfork, "a cannily self-made bad boy" by NPR, an "expert provocateur" by Slant Magazine, and "iconoclastic" by NME.

Healy is the recipient of four Brit Awards, and two Ivor Novello Awards including Songwriter of the Year, and has also been nominated twice for the Mercury Prize and Grammy Awards.

Early life Matthew Timothy Healy was born on 8 April 1989 in Hendon, north London. He is a son of actors Tim Healy and Denise Welch; they divorced in 2012. Both are of Irish descent, and from the North East of England. His maternal grandfather was a drag queen, He lived in Melbourne from the ages of two to four but spent most of his early years living on a cattle farm in Hedley on the Hill, Northumberland. The family moved to Alderley Edge in Cheshire when he was nine.

Healy's parents were working actors of stage and television for much of his childhood, with his mother becoming a celebrity figure in his teens. He himself had no interest in acting Byker Grove and Waterloo Road. His parents were music fans, introducing him to soul and Motown, and his father socialised with many musicians including Brian Johnson of AC/DC (who became Healy's godfather), Rick Wakeman of Yes, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra. His mother's godfather, screenwriter Ian La Frenais, introduced him to Ringo Starr. The first guitar Healy ever played was used by Dire Straits to record "Romeo and Juliet". He has said this early proximity to musicians meant the possibility of "being a rock star was part of my reality."

Healy was a quiet child, with recurring vivid nightmares. and started doing karate by seven eventually earning a black belt by his teens. For the first twelve years of his life he was an only child "so there were a lot of video games, a lot of Michael Jackson videos, a lot of singing and dancing to myself and self-involvement." Unlike his younger brother, He has remembered this aspect of his childhood as "exciting" rather than "distressing".

Privately educated at Lady Barn House School and King's School, Macclesfield, Healy was expelled from the latter for starting a fight club. He then transferred to the local comprehensive Wilmslow High School, where he met and befriended his future bandmates. subsequently attending music college for three months before dropping out. The Academy of Contemporary Music website lists Healy as a 2007–2008 alumnus, obtaining a Vocals diploma. Years later, Healy called school "a tedious imposition, getting in the way of me being a pop star". He eventually met George Daniel who took over as the band's drummer. Daniel recalled that Healy was "the most outwardly passionate person in school — endearing, and intimidating". Before making their own music, the band covered punk and emo songs while hanging out at their school's music hall and at Healy's house.

After leaving school, Healy persuaded his bandmates to attend universities in Manchester to keep the band together. While he briefly attended music school, he had short-lived jobs at FatFace, as a barista at Caffè Nero, and as a delivery boy at a Chinese restaurant. Healy's mother worried about his future but his father "believed in [him] unquestioningly".

2012–2014: Rise to fame Before settling on the band name the 1975 in 2012, they played under various names – Talkhouse, the Slowdown, Bigsleep, Drive Like I Do – around Greater Manchester. Healy recounted that the final name came from the scribblings found on his copy of the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac that were dated "1 June, The 1975". thumb

The 1975 were rejected by every major record label, The band subsequently released four extended plays from 2012 to 2013 – Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars, and IV.

The band began to build momentum in late 2012. Radio DJ Zane Lowe, who was then at the BBC, gave airplay to the EP Facedown, and the band had radio success with "Sex" and "Chocolate", and released their debut album, The 1975, in 2013. In reviewing the album, Michael Hann of The Guardian said "the best of the writing here – and it works better at length – is fabulous." The band sold out three nights at London's Brixton Academy, supported the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, and played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

2015–2017: Breakthrough The band released their second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It, in 2016. It landed at No.1 at the UK Albums Chart and also topped the Billboard 200 with 108,000 equivalent units sold, becoming the longest album title at No. 1 in the chart history.

They premiered the lead single, "Love Me", simultaneously scheduling a support tour in Europe, North America, and Asia. They premiered the second single, "UGH!", on 10 December on Beats 1. The album's third single, "The Sound", debuted on BBC Radio 1 on 14 January 2016. The 1975 released the fourth single, "Somebody Else", on 15 February on Beats 1 before the album's release. "A Change of Heart" premiered on Radio 1 on 22 February, four days prior to the album's release. Their performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2016 was highly praised with NME hailing Healy as "Britain's Greatest New Popstar".

Alexis Petridis of The Guardian praised Healy's "witty self-awareness and deprecation" elaborating that he "has an eye for a prosaic detail that undercuts the air of bustling self-importance". The album reached number one in both the UK and US,

Healy directed the music video of Pale Waves single "Television Romance", which he also co-produced.

2018–2021: Critical acclaim A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships, the band's Mercury Prize-nominated third studio album, was followed by Notes on a Conditional Form in 2020; both of which topped the UK Albums Chart.

In 2019, Healy received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Song for "Give Yourself A Try" from their third studio album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. The album also won a Brit Award for British Album of the Year. In 2020, the band won Band of the Decade, Best British Band, and the Innovator Award at the NME Awards.

Healy's most critically acclaimed songwriting is the song "Love It If We Made It". The song's lyrics are inspired by tabloid headlines of articles covering social and political events of that period, such as police brutality, Black Lives Matter ("selling melanin and then suffocating black men"), the death of Alan Kurdi and the refugee crisis in Europe ("a beach of drowning three-year olds"), Colin Kaepernick's anthem protest against racial injustice in the US ("kneeling on a pitch"), verbatim quotes from Donald Trump ("I moved on her like a bitch"), as well as direct quotes of Trump's tweets ("thank you Kanye, very cool") and a quote from Trump's presidential campaign t-shirt ("fuck your feelings"). The song also refers to post-truth politics, attention economy, prison system in the US, information overload, and the death of rapper Lil Peep. Healy has described it as "a montage for the times, but it's not going to change the times. It doesn't provide a solution." The song's lyrics earned Healy the Best Contemporary Song award at the 2019 Ivor Novello Awards, where he was also awarded Songwriter of the Year.

Healy and George Daniel of the 1975 co-produced No Rome's EP RIP Indo Hisashi, which was released in August 2018. In 2021, he and Daniel produced Beabadoobee's solo EP Our Extended Play, which was released in March 2021. In October 2021, Healy guest-opened for friend Phoebe Bridgers at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on her Reunion Tour where they performed the first live duet of the 1975 "Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America".

2022–present: Further success In 2022, Healy wrote and produced, with Daniel and Jack Antonoff, the 1975's fifth studio album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, which gave the band its fifth consecutive number one in the UK. Songwriter of the Year at the Ivor Novello Awards, and won the British Rock/Alternative Act at the 2023 Brit Awards.

In April 2023, the band released Live with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which reached number two in the UK. The Observer, Evening Standard, and Metro among others. In a review of the tour, Rolling Stone wrote, "Healy and co. have set an extremely high bar for other gigs this year. Part performance art, part rock show, all bolstered by some of the best pop songs to have emerged in the last decade. It should be considered a defining blueprint on how to do arena shows."

In 2022, "Sleep Tight", a Healy and Rob Milton composition, was released by Holly Humberstone in April 2022, and two tracks written by Healy, "Pictures of Us" and "You're Here That's the Thing", are in Beabadoobee's album Beatopia in July 2022. Healy also co-wrote an unreleased song with Lewis Capaldi for his Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent album, and he worked with Taylor Swift on some material for her 2022 album, Midnights. In 2023, Healy provided additional vocals and drums for the Japanese House singles "Sunshine Baby" and "Boyhood" respectively.

In August 2023, Healy and the band headlined Reading and Leeds Festivals for the third time with a "10th Anniversary Performance" of their self-titled debut album released in 2013. This was followed by a concert tour entitled Still... At Their Very Best which commenced across arenas in North America and Europe in September 2023 and ended in March 2024.

Artistry

Influences

Michael Jackson's HIStory show at Wembley Arena in 1996 was Healy's first concert and he has described it as "one of the most memorable and important experiences I think I've ever had." He has named the Streets as the artist that made him know "[he] was going to start a band."

Healy has always been drawn to 1980s music "when pop stars weren't so encumbered with self-awareness. I know that time had its decadence, but there's a real freedom in those records." When the band was recording their debut album, they tried to capture the mood of a John Hughes movie — "the apocalyptic sense of being a teenager".

In 2013, Healy listed his ten all-time favourite albums for Louder Than War. As well as mentions of the Streets and Michael Jackson, Healy listed albums by Glassjaw, My Bloody Valentine, Alexander O'Neal, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Hundred Reasons, Carole King, Peter Gabriel and James Taylor. He has described "darker garage music" like Wookie, Lain, MJ Cole and Four Tet as "so influential to me" and describes "a World Cup, garage or dubstep" as "the only things that make me proud to be English."

In 2020, Healy recorded a podcast series interviewing his musical heroes; he had conversations with Stevie Nicks, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Kim Gordon, Mike Kinsella, Conor Oberst and Bobby Gillespie. Healy has also cited the Blue Nile as his "favourite band of all time", and Talking Heads and Sigur Rós as influences.

Healy has also been influenced by literary figures including Joan Didion, Jack Keruoac, Seamus Heaney, and Arthur Rimbaud, describing Rimbaud's work as "dense and revolutionary". Pitchfork stated that he is "undeniably one of the best and most elastic vocal performers of his generation". The Recording Academy has described him as having "nimble vocals". The New Yorker stated that Healy has a "shape-shifting voice" where "he croons and wails and screams and murmurs, shading his delivery with a variety of personae".

Songwriting The lyricism of Healy is known for its wit, humour, and self-awareness. His musical eclecticism is accompanied by lyrics that are "complex, clever, catchy" streams of consciousness and tongue-twisters, in addition to being "topical, explicit, and relentlessly self-referential." Clash noted that Healy's "lyricism alone finds him a cut above almost all of his peers", and NME stated that he is "undoubtedly, one of this generation's finest wordsmiths." thumb Healy performing in the United States in 2016The New York Times has described Healy as "one of the best contemporary writers — especially outside of rap — on the process of consumption, whether it's drugs or culture or goods". Pitchwork stated that Healy "is cursed with a self-awareness that can turn a simple idea into a galaxy-brain diatribe". The Fader described his songwriting as having "layered, claustrophobic lyrics [which] reveal a man obsessed with fear and fragility, success and failure, endlessly looking for answers about himself and the pop-culture world he uncomfortably inhabits". GQ has dubbed Healy "the poster boy for overthinkers", with Ann Powers of NPR describing him as "an astute social observer who doubles as a confessionalist, offering disclosures that are always suspect: He might be lying every time he opens his mouth." The Guardian has remarked upon his "lyrical frankness: he wrote not about the party life of the 20-something, but about the fallout from the party,"

Healy has stated that he used to consider himself a beat poet, before describing his job as "curating my life through music". Healy often writes about the millennial generation, masculinity, current affairs, as well as his own life and relationships. He has also written songs about his drug abuse, most notably "Chocolate" (marijuana), "UGH!" (cocaine) and "It's Not Living (If It's Not with You)", a song about his heroin addiction and recovery. "Lostmyhead" and the "Ballad of Me and My Brain" were written about his mental state. He has described his songwriting partnership with bandmate Daniel as "symbiotic": "We've got a shared musical vocabulary. Even if we're both working remotely, we're both working together."

He is known to write songs using typewriters as well as pen and paper for the "commitment that goes with the ceremony" of writing. the BBC has characterised Healy as "one of the most iconic frontmen of his generation". The Telegraph has described him as "a compelling rock star, a gifted multi-instrumentalist... whose self-questioning lyrics and uninhibited stagecraft ensured that it was hard to take your eyes off him". The Guardian declared him as "one of music's most compulsively watchable provocateurs thanks to his inescapable charisma, open-mouthed honesty and his band's self-aware and sparkling 80s pop-rock."

Billboard has characterised Healy as "a rock star for a generation that's too clued-in to believe in rock stars," noting that "onstage, he deconstructs his own performance as he goes along". Healy has stated that when he is "on stage, the showman in [him] takes over," and is known to smoke and drink from a bottle of red wine, and flask in concerts. He plays a character while performing saying: "I do the Jim Morrison thing a bit, but I know that you know that I know that this isn't real." Healy, who describes his private self as "soft and quiet",

The 1975's At Their Very Best world tour in 2022 and 2023, which Healy wrote and directed, included a commentary on contemporary masculinity: "It's about how if you're a single guy and you've spent a year or so alone on the internet, you go mental. The show is about looking at masculinity, looking at being famous. It's about being what's real and what's sincere and not sincere." The Observer has described it as "part performance art, part stage play, part Charlie Kaufman movie about a rock star in crisis." Clips from the show went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms, prompting wide media coverage of his onstage actions, dubbing him "a sleazeball" or a "sensitive dirtbag". In Rolling Stone There's a Honey") 2018 – No Rome – RIP Indo Hisashi EP (co-producer, vocals for "Narcissist") 2019 – No Rome – Crying in the Prettiest Places EP (co-producer) 2021 – Beabadoobee – Our Extended Play EP (co-producer) 2021 – Holly Humberstone – "Please Don't Leave Just Yet" (co-writer, co-producer) 2021 – No Rome – "Spinning" (vocals, co-writer, co-producer) 2022 – FKA Twigs – "Pamplemousse" (additional vocals) 2022 – Holly Humberstone – "Sleep Tight" (co-writer) 2022 – Beabadoobee – Beatopia (co-writer for "Pictures of Us" and "You're Here That's the Thing", vocals, guitar) 2023 – The Japanese House – "Sunshine Baby" (backing vocals) 2024 – Charli XCX – "I might say something stupid featuring the 1975 & jon hopkins" (co-writer, vocals) 2024 – Coldplay – "The Karate Kid" (additional production)

Videography

2017 – "Television Romance" Music Video – Director 2019 – "Frail State of Mind" Music Video – Co-director 2022 – "I'm In Love With You" Music Video – Creative director, writer 2022 – "Happiness" – Creative director

Tours The 1975 Tour (2013–2015) I Like It When You Sleep Tour (2016–2017) Music for Cars Tour (2018–2020) At Their Very Best (2022–2023, also writer and director) Still... At Their Very Best (2023–2024, also writer and director)

Accolades

Among Healy's accolades are four Brit Awards, and two Ivor Novello Awards including Songwriter of the Year. He has also been nominated twice for the Mercury Prize and Grammy Awards.