“We had to not care to make the album that we did in the end. We made a really, really honest record; a record we wanted to make, and for us, it was really uncompromising. I know we make pop music but we just wanted to make a really free record and that was the record that, in turn, went on to be our most commercially successful and globally accepted. My only intention was to show what we do. To be these ambassadors for this generation of millennials who consume music in a certain type of way. It’s been amazing for us. When you stop trying so hard, it kinda works.”, Matty Healy told us.

“At no point did I think about the critics or being objectified or worried," he continued. "I think I’ve idealised that album recording process as me just creatively gallivanting around the studio, doing whatever I wanted. I’d convinced myself I didn’t really care. ‘I don’t give a fuck about awards; I just want to make records. I’m going to be a pop outsider, don’t include me in anything. Oh, Mercury nomination, that does feel quite nice.’ Maybe I do care about these things.”

“I live these records. I do a show, go to a hotel room, work on music and document my psyche. But it makes me think, if somebody does put as much heart into what they do as we did with that record, then it should be commercially successful. So, I have been a bit surprised, but I have been a bit, ‘Yeah, too fucking right’, too. I worked really hard and I can tell that song connects with people. What I’ve done now is start to accept the fact that The 1975 is more accepted in different worlds.”

“In my mind, that record is tied to the idea of becoming known. Not a desire to be famous but wanting people to know who my band is. There’s an element of ego involved in that, an element of jostling for position and for people to take you seriously or think you’re cool."

That's the useful thing about reading Healy back now: the self-mythologising is rarely only theatre. It is theatre, obviously - this is The 1975, everything has layers and only those who really care can fully decode all the levels - but buried in the monologue is the clearest map of the next move. He can puncture his own pose in the same breath, admitting, “Maybe I do care about these things.” He can also clock the band’s strange borderless reach before everyone had it spoon fed to them in the lead up to 'A Brief Inquiry... years later.

The lesson is not that every contradiction needs a powerpoint, but that Matty often understands where things are going before everyone else. As we wait for what The 1975 does next, it's worth remembering this is a band that exist in the half spaces, writing what will become the canvas for those who follow. If you don't get it yet, you probably will soon.