EXCLUSIVE: ​The 1975’s Matty Healy dishes on new album Notes On A Conditional Form

The 1975 are every inch the band of the moment. With three UK number one albums under their belts, rumours surrounding the band’s impending fourth studio album have been flying.

So too have lead singer Matty Healy’s ninja kicks it appears, as the singer hobbled into the press area of the Music Producers Guild Awards on crutches, after a misadventure involving Jiu Jitsu resulted in a “gammy foot”, apparently.

Having picked up two awards at this year’s ceremony - UK Album Of The Year for A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, alongside Self-Producing Artist Of The Year - we can safely say things aren’t in danger of slowing down for the four-piece.

And that’s before you consider the band are on a rare night off, mid-way through their UK arena tour.

It comes as the release date of forthcoming album Notes On A Conditional Form has been pushed back, yet again - an announcement that was made by Healy from the stage of the band’s recent Liverpool gig. The highly anticipated offering will, however, retain the band’s love of the unconventional.

“It’s a funny old record; like most of our records it tends to get stranger and stranger,” notes Healy.

“It’s a long record; it’s 22 tracks. There’s a song called If You’re Too Shy Let Me Know which comes out pretty soon - actually it comes out next.”

And with the news that US songstress Phoebe Bridgers is set to make an appearance on the new album, we wanted to know a little more about how the collaboration came about.

“With Phoebe Bridgers we just started sharing memes with each other and then we realised we had the same sort of humour,” notes Healy.

“There are artists on my label like beabadoobee and stuff who are doing backing vocals. Phoebe just graces the record in like a Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel kind of way.

“We’re just a bunch of geeks that love records,” notes Healy. “We both love country music and there’s a lot of folk music on this new record. There’s a lot of funk, there’s a lot of Joni Mitchell and that sort of thing.”

As for the process, it’s safe to say the new album comes as the result of a pretty immersive recording experience.

“We moved into a house and it was just these super-extended sessions, so there was a lot of time for mistakes and embracing limitations. It’s the first record I suppose that’s just us in a room. It’s 17 years of being in a band together. It’s a real life set up.”

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