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"We didn't do anything. We didn't mean for this to happen," says Matt Healy of The 1975, as he reflects on the band's massive 2013. "All we did was make records in our bedroom and put them out on our mate's indie label, and then everything started going insane."
As 2013 draws to a close, it's safe to say that The 1975 are one of the real success stories of the year. After seven years of toil and major label rejection, the band struck gold with singles 'Chocolate', 'The City' and 'Sex', scoring huge radio hits which led the way to a No.1 album when their debut was released in September 2013. Not bad for 'four stoner muppets' from Manchester...
"I don't even have time to speak to my mum," frontman Matt Healy tells Gigwise (and he's speaking about Denise Welch of Loose Women fame here), as he discusses the band's incredible 2013. "All of this stuff we have had this year, all this statistical information, like a No.1 album etc, it's all very flattering and it's all amazing and it does catalyse a certain something in you, but what it has also made us realise the reason we're doing this is because we love making music.
"If we have the opportunity to just keep making music, and if people are made happy by that, then that's the only thing we're worried about," he adds, as he considers the challenge ahead to maintain the momentum. "We're not really worried about anything. What have we got to worry about?"
The 1975 have toured non-stop in 2013
The 1975 were pretty much impossible to miss during 2013's festival season, having performed at almost every event in the UK and Europe this year, but when it comes to picking one highlight of the year, Healy finds it remarkably easy to single out the band's best bit.
"You know what, it was Reading and Leeds," he says. "That was a fucking homecoming. We had been on tour around the world, we'd seen our band grow and grow and that was our peak. It was one week before the album came out, and you couldn't get near the tent."
A week later, the band were No.1 on the UK album charts and their place on the UK music scene was secured, but will they be taking it easy in 2014? Hell no. If anything, it's getting even busier. The band have already confirmed their 2014 tour schedule which already includes huge headline gigs at The Royal Albert Hall and Ibiza Rocks - plus a show at next year's Isle Of Wight festival.
"We're on this tour until December 2014. We know the dates up until December. There's no rest for the wicked, so anyway, sleep when you're dead innit," he says of their relentless tour schedule, although he does pause to admit that their Albert Hall gig is something of a highlight on the horizon.
"It was quite a moment, it was quite emotional for me to be honest," says Healy of the announcement of the show. "We haven't even done our three nights at Brixton Academy, which are our pinnacle. We can't even believe we're doing that, so to announce Royal Albert Hall before we've even played those shows is incredible. What am I supposed to say? It feels like you imagine. It feels like you have announced a gig at the Royal Albert Hall. I have seen Eric Clapton at the Albert Hall, I've seen BB King at the Albert Hall. It's a real moment, a bucket list moment."
Below: watch the video for The 1975's breakthrough hit, 'Chocolate'
Their extensive tour schedule, however, means fans will be waiting a long time for new material, but despite a 12 month wait until they can work on their second album, Healy already has a second record shaping up, with a number of demos already in the bag.
"We've already recorded seven or eight songs for the next album already, so we'll just keep doing that for another year and then January 2015, we're going to go into the studio," he says. "I think there might be an EP at the end of 2014. Round about this time next year. We want the next album to come out two years to the day after the first one."
So in that case, expect album number two to drop on 2 September, 2015. And as for the sound? Well, things could be very different on album number two, with Healy revealing the band have embraced their love of old school pop and R&B fully for the next record.
"There have been times when I've not had the environment to write in the way I used to," he says of the new material. "I never used to write just on an acoustic guitar, but I found myself doing that. There's a couple of songs that are really, really personal and acoustic, but there's a lot of R&B, eighties-inspired pop music on there.
"It sounds a bit like Bobby Brown at the moment, Alexander O'Neal. That sort of thing."
But while it's male singers guiding the sound, Healy is looking to modern rock greats to inspire the quality of their second album, and reveals he hopes to follow in the footsteps of Radiohead and their ever-evolving sound.
"I think what bands like Radiohead did, the reason they are so great is that every time they bring out a record everyone says 'That's THE Radiohead record, they'll never define themselves more'. The reason they do, is everything they bring out is a distillation of everything that proceeded it," he says of Thom Yorke and co. "It's always what made them brilliant - but amplified and I'd like to do that. I'd like this record to be more sporadic.
"I want the new album to be more ambiguous stylistically. It's going to be fun."
Thank you very much, Matt Healy of The 1975. Now go and get some sleep. You're going to need it...
