The 1975‘s Matty Healy has praised Jack Antonoff for his work on the band’s forthcoming album ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’.
The singer said in a new interview that Antonoff’s reputation is often that of being a “busy”, in-demand producer but that he wanted to stress just how “good” and incisive a producer he is. Antonoff, who also fronts Bleachers and Fun, is known for working with high-profile stars including Taylor Swift, Lorde and Florence + The Machine.
Explaining to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 how the collaboration came about, Healy said: “We spent the whole of 2021 trying to figure out what [the new album] was. It wasn’t as obvious as it seemed by the time we got to the beginning of this year and made the record. We tried loads of different things. It was like some kind of continuation of ‘Notes [On A Conditional Form’] for a little bit.
“And then what happened was Beabadoobee was making a record and Jack Antonoff was maybe going to do it,” he said. “So that’s when me and Jack Antonoff started talking about that. I love Jack’s work, and those Lana [Del Rey] records in particular – like some of my favourite stuff. So we were talking about that. We became friends talking about production and what I was doing and what he was wanting to do and what I was wanting to do. And then I kind of just thought, ‘Well, this is like a really nice new energy.’
“Because we are so closed, me and George [Daniel – The 1975 drummer and co-producer], we’ve always been so closed. ‘Why don’t you like come down to the studio and see what happens?’ And then he did. And then ever since, we were just great, great friends. And Jesus, man, I think that guy has a reputation for being busy, but I can tell you, he’s just good. He’s so good. What he does is identifies what an artist is really good at or where the truth is coming from.”
Healy continued: “Jack’s like, he’s like me, you know what I mean? He’s like culture vulture, he’s full of references. He knows his shit, man. He understands what artists need at any given moment. And it happened very, very naturally. And I think that we were just feeling loads of stuff out. And all these things just kind of came together. Yeah, and me and Jack were just like talking about music and then those conversations, me, Jack and George. And then those conversations became about a 1975 record that felt more live. And then I was a bit like, ‘Well, why are we talking about this? Why don’t we just do this?'”
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Healy went on to say that he thinks ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’, The 1975’s fifth album which drops on October 14, will appeal to the band’s “day one” fans.
“On this record we were just like…we started to solidify like who we were. Like, ‘What is the 1975, how would you do an impression of the 1975?’ And I think that we just want to do what we want to do. But I think that I did realise that, I did have a moment where I thought, I think fans – day ones – they’re going to like it,” he said.
Antonoff co-produced the band’s comeback single ‘Part Of The Band’, which was released last month. In a four-star review of the track NME‘s Ali Shutler wrote that the group are “clearly confident in their stature as one of the most provocative yet revered groups going, and are content doing their own thing”.
The 1975 yesterday (August 3) shared another new song from their forthcoming album called ‘Happiness’ and also announced a North American tour.
Tickets for the tour go on general sale next Friday (August 12) – you’ll be able to purchase yours from here.