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Being Funny in a Foreign Language, the 1975s fifth album, was born from reflection.
They started to brainstorm: What is the 1975?
What does the 1975 look like out of your peripheral vision?
What would a 1975 Halloween costume be?
Its black and white.
Lets admit that its black and white, Healy says.
And its front mancentric.
Not to put me at the front, but it is.
And its memorable songs.
Then there were Healys personal reflections.
So when we started making it, the working title wasAt Their Very Best.
It was like we knew that we were in better shape in general: philosophically, intellectually, creatively.
50 or something, so it wasnt actually that that provoked it.
I just felt like a bit of a paradox.
Do you think entering your 30s had anything to do with reflecting?Yeah, massively.
When I was growing up in the 90s, the coolest people in culture were my age.
Everyone was early 30s, late 20s that was the aspirational thing.
So all of the tropes: addiction, individualism, fucking narcissism, nihilism.
And thats all very cool and sexy and appropriate and fun in your 20s.
But when you start to move out of that period of your life, ideas like family?
More kind of modernist ideas start to creep into your life.
Happiness
Im happiest when Im doing something that I know is good / Thats happiness for me.
These lines are like this accidental sample of yourself.
Theyre a duo, and they started sending me music.
And that sample was in there, and I always loved it because I thought its interesting.
Then, after we cut the record, we were listening to it at different tempos.
What about that statement made it stick out to you?Something about it was just quite charming.
Earnestness is way harder; sincerity is harder than irony.
Give me purpose over happiness.
Ill do anything in the pursuit of purpose, and I dont know why.
Ive definitely realized that there was a time and a place on each song.
I was even challenged on that when I was making Im in Love With You.
From a craft angle, how do you actually write a verse like that?
Its rhyming, at the end of the day.
You know, Dr. Seuss was great at it; youve got to be able to do the rhyme.
I do like a rhyme.
Do you know the songChocolate?
The song Chocolate is essentially how I write.
I did all the rhymes and the rhythms that had words.
It didnt really have lyrics.
I made a bit of a shape.
I still write the same way.
I couldnt fit blue hair in there.
I did find it easier this album.
It did flow a little bit more.
I recognize that that is always part of my expression: talking about the ever-increasing culture war around me.
Fans could look at this and read it as a specific detail about you.
So what I tend to do is write the line.
So the more specific you think youre being, the more universal youre being.
And your therapist goes, Are you sure you dont feel likethis?
And are you sure that it doesnt meanthat?
Maybe actually, yeah, that is what the lines about.
And thats what love feels like.
Maybe thats why I was drawn to put that line in there about my Black girlfriend at the time.
Its way easier to make a joke or, as we say, take the piss.
But what Im saying is that people used to ask me, Why would you say this about yourself?
Why would you describe yourself in this way?
I was like, Because thats not hard.
Thats all Ive ever done, and thats easy.
Its scary, when you dont think that youre Leonard Cohen, to try and be.
And thats the first thing thatGeorgesaid to me.
He said, That sounds like a cover.
It sounds like a song that has always existed because its the sentiment thats always existed.
Its probably my most successful exercise ever, because I did try and do that.
Im doing this for me, so all of this proving myself is for me, really.
This bridge ends up being sung by Carly Holt, your bandmate Adam Hanns wife.
I wasnt thinking about the profundity of it, or I wasnt thinking about fitting it into a record.
I was just thinking about it being quite pure and blissful.
Just practically, what happened was that I didnt like that bridge.
I wrote a bunch of different bridges.
So that felt real.
What wouldnt feel real is if Bad Bunny turned up on track ten or something.
We wanted to keep it in the family.
Having that guest changes the meaning of the song, in turning it into this conversation.
The sentiment was there; I knew what I needed her to say.
I didnt know that it had its own word.
That sticks out to me for something that you were just talking about, about airing your own criticisms.
And Im in the studio putting down this really raw thing.
I was like,Fuck it.
I was just writing, which is why theres too many lines about being canceled on the record.
Then I listened to the whole album back, I was like,Oh fuck.
People are going to think that I really care about the cancel thing.
If you are an artist like me, your partners tend to be from your world.
The language of gaslighting, I think, has actually been good.
It can send arguments down a never-ending spiral, but that was a true thing that I was saying.
I wasnt like, Oh, I didnt know that I was gaslighting you.
I was like, Oh shit I didnt know there was a word for that.
Now that youve said that back to me, Ive realized I do do that a bit.
In an argument, we all do you cant not have done it.
Its a defense mechanism.
But Ill notice shit and be like,Okay, right.
I got that.I thought it was an interesting revelation.
What youre saying is what stood out to me about it: this acceptance in those lines.
Its not an argument, just, like, Yeah, see this.
In relationships, youve got to hear people.
I think that its delivered in a way that it does come across like that that its not cynical.
You know that Im being pretty openhearted, even if Im being a bit me.
Thats the truth of the song.
A bit of a hypocrite.
If everythings polished and correct and earnest and direct, eventually its like,Wheres the smell?
Wheres the human shit?And thats what I like: the stuff that I can smell a bit.
The stuff that feels human and maybe a bit more uncertain, but its real.
Looking for Somebody (to Love)
I wanna show him hes a bitch!
/ I wanna fuck him up good!
/ I wanna smash the competition go and kill it like a man should!!!
I think we spoke about the whole record apart from Looking for Somebody (to Love).
That was one that I skipped for time, actually.
Unless you want to talk about it.I think that its important because its the one song that is political.
It wasnt saying, You shouldnt do this; we shouldnt do this.
It was saying, Should we be doing this?
Do you like this image?
Looking for Somebody (to Love) is about men.
Of course theyre a psychopath theyre fucking whatever.
Youre thinking about youth on this album.
Im in a fucking band what was that for a job?
Im smoking weed, and Im still a kid.
But then I think about the realities of what it would be like to be 17 now.
Its fucking insane, the things that you have to be considerate of or educated on.
And I really empathize.
Maybe because Im coming to an age that, lets say, Id have a baby.
Thats not an unrealistic thing to happen to me.
Id have my concerns about the world from a different perspective.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
