User:Leannacarpino/sandbox

Matthew Healy
Born	April 8, 1989 London, United Kingdom
Nationality	English
Occupation(s)	Singer and Guitar Player - The 1975
Parent	Tim Healy (father) Denise Welch (mother)

Matthew Healy

Matthew Healy (Born April 8, 1989) is an English singer and guitar player from London, United Kingdom. Healy is best known for being the lead singer and songwriter of his band The 1975.

Early Life

Matthew Timmothy Healy, often known as “Matty”, was born on April 8, 1989 in Manchester, England. He lived a normal life until he was four, when he began playing the drums and found a love for music. His parents lived a life of fame as his mother, Denise Welch was a soap opera actress and his father, Tim Healy was a television actor. Welch began dating Lincoln Townley after the two separated in 2012. Matty attended Wilmslow High School and met some friends, Ross MacDonald, Adam Hann and George Daniel who shared his love for music and the four started playing music together in 2004. They started off with playing covers of punk, rock and pop songs and soon began writing their own music when they were 15. The four decided to take it one stop further and began playing around with names for their group. Following many attempts, they landed on ‘The 1975’. Matty became the primary songwriter for the band and created their style and lyrical pieces. School was not a priority on Matty’s list and finished with three GCSE’s. Despite his mother suggesting music college, he began to think that school was a barrier for his music career, and dropped out after just three months.

Music Career

At the beginning of The 1975’s career, due to his past, Healy played the drums, yet when their original lead vocalist left the group, he took over the spot, along with lead guitarist. The band released their first EP entitled ‘Facedown’ in 2012 and the lead single ‘The City’, became a radio hit. Following this immense success, the bands second EP, ‘Sex’ was released later that year and the hit single ‘Chocolate’ reached 19th on the UK singles chart. In 2013, the group released their first album entitled ‘The 1975’ which held the leading spot on the UK Albums Chart. Following the release of their top ranked album, the band started their first ever tour including the UK, Ireland and the United States. In 2016, The 1975 returned with their second full album entitled ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are so Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It.’ This album sent the group on another tour around the world to the U.K, Europe, and North America. This album took the spot of number one on the UK and US charts. The 1975 released their third album, ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ in 2018. This album displayed a mix of sounds, included a Grammy-nominated single (Give Yourself a Try), and ended up in the number four spot on the Billboard 200. In May 2020, the band's most recent album was released, entitled ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’.

Song Writing

Healy does the majority of the song writing for the band, with the help of Daniel. The majority of songs written for the band are in relation to their hatred towards relationships and dating in modern day society. Specifically, one song on 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships', one song is narrated by Siri, to describe how the internet has become such a large part of life. Through Healy's drug abuse, he turned to music and song writing to release his thoughts and learnings. Earlier albums mentioned his drug abuse quite often, but with the release of 'A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships', his style developed into writing about his journey of recovery. Healy compared his song-writing process to stand-up comedy by stating: “The best comedians are the ones who express their biggest ideas in the fewest words, that’s something I strive to do."

Drug Abuse

From the start of his 20’s, Healy had a severe drug problem that only kept getting worse. In his mid-20s, there was a four year period where the musician was addicted to heroin, peaking in the summer of 2017. Healy described this as “It wasn’t partying too hard, it was the polarity between connecting with 10,000 people and then going to a hotel room by myself. Mass acceptance and genuine loneliness. It was easier to mediate that with drugs.” Before the start of the creation of ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’, Healy decided that he had to end his unhealthy relationship with drugs as a form of coping. He decided for himself that he needed to go into rehab immediately in order to create a successful album. Healy left for Barbados and participated in a six week program of cognitive-behavioural therapy. This time for him acted as a way to think and reflect on his past and what needs to change. Due to this previous addiction, many of the bands’ earlier songs are related to drugs, but more recently, songs are about his recovery from his past life, as a new coping mechanism.

Personal Life

Healy dated model Gemma Jones until 2014. Preceding this break up, he began dating Gabriella Brooks and the two continued in their relationship from 2015-2019,  yet they broke up due to his partying habits. In February of 2020, Healy has confirmed to be dating FKA Twigs through an Instagram post.