On May 21st, 2018, The 1975 released their newest single " Give Yourself A Try."
Every year, for June 1st, The 1975 does something special for their fans, sort of as a thank you for sticking by them. This year it was a song, last year it was a historic sold-out performance at Madison Square Garden. It's always something that makes me cry or scream.
Dramatic? Possibly. Am I exaggerating? Not at all.
Here's the thing: when you love music the way I do, a band can become a home, fans can become friends and songs can become a language.
I believe I started listening to The 1975 when I was, like, 16. When I first heard their music I was like "ew what is this? His accent is terrible. This music sucks." But, here we are years later and I care more about them than I do about myself.
See, there's Matty Healy: lead singer of The 1975, problematic fave, emo king, has more personality than the world knows what to do with, annoying but charming and face of the band. He's the type of person that you hate that you love, but you still love him more than anything and nobody can talk crap about him except you.
Then there's George Daniel. He plays drums in this wonderful band. He's also the producer extraordinaire. George is fun but his work behind the scenes often gets overshadowed by Matty Healy. Nevertheless, the mixing and sound that he does is excellent and he makes my favorite band sound better than ever.
Not to mention Ross MacDonald who plays bass and is probably the best singer that's not a lead singer in the whole world. He's funny, has the best beard ever and looks wonderful in a turtleneck.
Last but not least, there's my all-time favorite member Adam Hann, often known as Hann the Man. He plays lead guitar in The 1975. To say he's my favorite person breathing is an understatement. He's quiet but when he does speak, he always says something hilarious!
These are the personalities I've come to adore. I feel so connected to a group of dudes that I've literally never even met and they don't know I exist, but somehow it doesn't matter because they've left this profound impact on me that I can't even articulate.
The 1975 isn't just a band that makes great music. They care about social issues as much as I do. And as a queer kid in a big world, to find a band that's willing to acknowledge that lots of their fans are a part of the lgbtq+ community is huge. It's needed because so often it feels like nobody notices or cares. But they do.
But back to the music. There are songs like “ Me" and “Robbers" for when you need to just let out all of your negative energy through tears. There's “Ugh" and “She Way Out" for when you just wanna dance. And when you're young and in love “Fallingforyou" might be constantly on repeat in your head. There's truly a The 1975 song for every occasion.
They have this amazing ability to be your favorite indie band, while catering to pop sensibilities, displaying some R&B influences and even incorporating gospel into their repertoire. I swear, there is a The 1975 song for you.
But at the same time, this is my band. Again, I've loved them since I was 16-years-old. I've seen them live twice. I was in the pit crying my eyes out because the people I love the most were right in front of me. I want their logo tattooed on my body. I speak and tweet in their lyrics; it's become my language. My life would not be the same if it was not for them, and I know how cliche that sounds, okay? But not only have they had such a heavy influence on my personality, I've made friends online and in college because of them. I owe them so much and I thank them so often.
The songs I've danced to, screamed to at the top of my lungs to, loved to, rolled the windows down and blasted in my car and cried to were being played out in front of me, live.
Even as I'm writing this, The 1975 is on shuffle.
I was and always will be living my life out soundtracked by The 1975.
