I still remember the dawning realization, via Swiftie Nation, that Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was about Matt Healy and not Joe Alwyn. The Swifties really believed TTPD would be the album where Taylor finally explained to them why Joe Alwyn was a villain and why they should rip him to shreds. Instead, TTPD was full of songs about Healy and their brief, chaotic and intense relationship in 2023. If you ask me, Midnights had a lot of stuff about the end of her relationship with Alwyn, which is funny because she released Midnights when she was still technically with Alwyn (but probably fooling around with Healy). In any case, Tay’s relationship with Healy really f–ked her up and she dealt with it by writing A LOT of music about him. Will Matt Healy do the same? Nope.
When writing music, Matty Healy would rather not touch on his personal life. During an appearance on Joshua Citarella’s Doomscroll podcast on Tuesday, Oct. 22, The 1975 frontman revealed his thoughts on writing songs about previous relationships.
“Last year I became a way more well-known public figure for loads of different reasons. The only reason that I was interested in is kind of like, what I was doing,” Healy, 35, who dated Taylor Swift for a few months in 2023, said.
“So I think that a lot of artists, they become very interested in their lore, or they become interested in the things that have happened outside of their art that people know about, and they want to address that,” he continued. “And fair enough, do you know what I mean?”
On The 1975’s first record, Healy was more open to writing about heartbreak and “all these stories about relationships” — but he doesn’t feel the need to do that anymore.
“I would kind of just be lying if I made a record about, I don’t know, all the stuff that was said about me or my casual romantic liaisons or whatever it may be that I’ve kind of become known for, just because I was famous,” he said. “I think that that’s an obvious thing to draw from. And I’m just not interested in it. And I think like, the maintenance of the status quo is something that I always fight against. So the idea of making a record about something that personally happened to me, that by the time I put it out is gonna be like two years old, I see people doing that as well, and it’s not interesting.”
Why is this so funny to me? “I think that a lot of artists, they become very interested in their lore.” It’s true! It’s crazy that Matt F–king Healy is the one pointing it out too. Taylor LOVES her lore. Taylor is obsessed with adding to her lore and directing the narratives about her lore. As is her right – she’s made a lot of money on dissecting and adding to her lore, and her fans love it too. Now, do I believe that Healy will never reference his thing with Taylor lyrically or musically? Eh. I honestly don’t listen to The 1975 so I have no idea if their music is ever confessional or directly “about” certain relationships. But I bet Healy will write some music about Taylor or about everything around it. I mean, he’s still referencing Taylor and their relationship in interviews, you know? Granted, that’s what people ask him.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.