The 1975 Talk 'Love Me,' Their 80s Inspirations & Preview New 2016 Album

After releasing their debut self-titled album in 2013, and spending the last two years on the road touring, The 1975 announced on October 8th that they are ready to release their sophomore album in February of 2016. The band has already released the first single off the record, the 80s inspired "Love Me" and a second single that just came out called "UGH!" And if you're loving their sound on the new songs, there is a lot more where that came from.

"Love Me" is the first single off of The 1975's upcoming sophomore album I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It. The song is distinctly different from the band's previous music, embracing a more 1980s pop sound. The guys tell iHeartRadio that they chose the song as the first single because, "it's too ridiculous to follow anything really." 

With this new album, they are very excited about having a different sound and being able to finally share it with fans after having worked on it over the last few years. "Just having different music. Just having a different identity, really." And if you're wondering what the rest of the album sounds like, the band says that "every song sounds completely different form the other ones." However, the rest of the album is still very 80s inspired. 

We recently caught up with The 1975 during exclusive interview where they talked to us about their latest single "Love Me," the song's music video (including that time Matt Healy licked his bandmate's foot), what fans can expect from their upcoming album, and more. Read on below.

On the meaning behind their first single "Love Me":

"'Love Me' is about me [Matthew Healy]. It's about coming to terms with the situation that you find yourself in after a commercially successful record and being a band. I think that it was making light of the place where we found ourselves, this quite lavish, ridiculous part of the social fabric that we're not really used to. We're not like all of our mates, [who] are celebrities and stuff like that. Yet, we find ourselves in a world where that holds a lot of currency and we wanted to comment on that, and say that it feels a bit weird, and a bit that this culture seems to be unjustified for that." 

On why they incorporated the 80s style sound in their song "Love Me":

"I think it's where our love of pop music is. 80's music was super dramatic, when pop music was dramatic, and not in a theatrical way. People were exploring production for the first time in pop music. It wasn't just about the song, it was about how ridiculous it sounded. Like Frankie Goes to Hollywood and stuff like that, the Trevor Horn stuff. Weird Science. Oingo Boingo for example. It was a time where technology came into play vastly. It was a forward thinking time, and trying to capture the ethos of that time without being over referential in like a pastiche is something that we wanted to do." They add, "It's where a lot of our favorite records come from. I think where a lot of people's favorite records come from."

On how their sexy music video for "Love Me" came to be:

"We have a creative hand in everything that happens, so there's not really any idea that doesn't start from us. We wanted to make a video, I think my exact brief was sexually confused Edward Scissorhands buys into his own self constructed nonsense, and that's what we made. I wanted to make a video that was garish and post ironic, and funny and self aware, and quite sexy. We very much knew what we wanted to do. And then we got Diane [Martel], because we knew she would be the one who knew how to do it really, really well. It's like all of our videos, it was a great collaboration."

On how they decided which celebrity cut outs to use in the "Love Me" music video:

"A lot of it had to do with who we could get, who was actually willing to do it, and who I had in my phone, who we vaguely knew. So I could get Rita [Ora]'s number, I could get Ed [Sheeran]'s number, get Harry Styles's number ... so I spoke to all of them. There were people we asked that we couldn't get. It was actually awkward because we're not really like having a go, but kind of taking a piss out of the whole culture that surrounds it, not necessarily the individuals."

Matty adds, "Elvis, I kind of have my arm around him and I like roll my eyes as if to say you know .. It was like me and Elvis get it. And that's kind of making a joke at how rock stars see themselves. And it's not really a joke."

On their favorite part of the "Love Me" music video:

"I like when I lick your [George's] foot because it's so, so distasteful. And I don't know why I did it, and it was a moment that just got captured, and never again. The enormous selfie stick was funny, although, I do regret not actually taking a selfie on it, because everyone says 'where's the selfie?'" 

On what can fans expect from their upcoming album Like it When You Sleep but You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It:

"It doesn't sound like the kind of the art funk that we were going for with 'Love Me.' There are moments of it that sounds like it's from the same time, but then again, if you look at the 80s you've got encompassed bands like The Cocteau Twins and The Replacements, and there are elements on the record where it sounds like that. Still 80s, just different areas of 80s music. It has the stylistic continuity [that] would be described as having this kind of 80s cinematic vibe, but it goes from everything from like Neo Soul, to full on Shoegaze." 

On the meaning behind their album title:

"It was something that was said to a girlfriend of mine [Matty]. Not in the poetic situation you'd imagine — I wasn't on a chaise lounge as she slept on my forearm. But it was something that was said, and it was written down, and it was at a time where, it's not like we were scared, but when you come off three years of touring and your life has changed, and you've got to make a new record, and you want to be proud of yourself, there's a certain amount of fear that breeds itself in you. And I just made the decision to call it that because it was a bold decision, and I wanted the album to be about bold decisions. That's what we all wanted it to be. And it felt like something that would mean I would stick to my guns. Because I knew that people would be like, 'Well you can't call your album that.' But it's not like there are any people, it's just asking my manager, really. We always say, 'oh it feels like the 1975 thing to do,' which may sound a bit wanky, but when you live in a world, it kind of sounds appropriate. It just felt like the honest [and] the real thing to call the album."

Photos: Rachel Kaplan