Watch the 1975 Talk Revamped Aesthetic, New LP’s ‘Easter Eggs’
Following their Saturday Night Live debut, the 1975 are planning to release their sophomore LP, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It. Building off the sleek design of their self-titled 2013 debut album, the band returned from a social-media break with a new look, trading in black and white for neon pink. “It was just kind of a natural evolution that we always had in mind,” drummer George Daniel told Rolling Stone when he and singer Matty Healy stopped by the office. “We kind of always knew we would evolve into color. It was parodying everything up to that point, and bursting into Technicolor was a good way to aesthetically [reinvent ourselves].”
“With the pink, we were very aware that everything we had done up until this album had been a set of contradictions and juxtapositions,” Healy added. “Very colorful music with a noir aesthetic.”
Inspired by fan edits Healy scoped out on Tumblr, the new incarnation of the 1975 is self-referential and a bit cheeky (see single “Love Me”), and also represents the band’s reflection on their newfound fame. Healy and Daniel gave RS the details on what to expect from their next LP, to be released on February 26th.
Can you tell me the story behind the album’s title?
Healy: It was something I said to a girlfriend of mine at the time. Like all situations, I’m sure it wasn’t quite as poetic as it sounds.
Daniel: No, it wasn’t on the set of Romeo + Juliet by Baz Luhrmann.
Healy: Exactly, it was all about making decisions and about conviction because we came off the last album very tired from touring. We had gone from an unknown band to known about so we were being objectified and known about. We were kind of fearful of certain things, and we made the decision that the only thing that was going to remedy that was to make a record that was just about the truth and not about what we thought we should be saying. Because of that, I just decided early on that that was the name of the album for no other reason besides that I really liked it.
Daniel: It’s the antithesis of an eponymous record, really.
When did you start working on it?
Daniel: We started bits of it on the road. The way we’ve always written is quite unorthodox in terms of a band because it’s programmed before it’s taken to a live environment or taken to instruments. My laptop is the hub of all things sounding kind of robotic; then we’ll bring it to fruition. It was kind of easy to work on the road compared to some bands that may need to get in a room in order to write a song.
Healy: It’s hard to say though because there are songs on this record that precede the first album. The first album was weird as well because it was written well before people knew who we were. We were already making new music by the time that album came out. It’s been a long time.