014 // give yourself a try

welcome to the music for cars era, ushered in with the lead single and music video for give yourself a try.

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SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hello and welcome to episode 14 of Television of Your Mouth, a 1975 podcast. After a little bit of a break, I am back, and together we are entering the music for cars era of the 1975. So put away your neon pink and black platforms, disobey, and then look at your phones because I'm going to be talking about the music video for Give Yourself a Try, the first single and music video off the band's third album, A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. If you're new to this podcast, welcome. And if you haven't already, I would go back and listen to the previous episodes, especially the one for somebody else, where I'm joined by director of the music video and a few other music videos by the 1975, Tim Mattia. But if you're new to this podcast as well, I always like to talk about the greater story around the album when starting a new era, where Maddie and the band were at, their intent with the album, some cultural events and conversations that were happening at the time, because this context is very important when looking at the music videos with a critical eye. What was that thing Kamala said? Something about we all exist in the world and the contexts in which we live or something about coconuts. I don't know. The last time we saw the band in music video form was technically January 2017 with the release of the Loving Someone music video, which was recording of the performance from the O2 in December 2016. Their last live performance was at the Latitude Festival on July 10th, 2017. So think about that for a second. When I like it when you sleep was recorded and released. Trump hadn't been elected yet, Brexit ruling hadn't happened yet. All of these big cultural moments that were fallouts from these decisions were happening while they were on tour. So there was a lot of material for Maddie to work with when it came to lyrics. So of course we got songs like Love It If We Made It on a Brief Inquiry, and a more honest, self-reflective album. Being the workaholics they were, the teasing for Music for Cars era actually started while the band were still on tour promoting I Like It When You Sleep. In February 2017, Maddie tweeted, Quote, The Neck the next record's called Music for Cars. That's the title, and it references our second EP or our third EP, end quote. I can just imagine like Maddie's just like I don't know, in bed or like on the toilet, and he just like sends this tweet out into the universe without the rest of the guys knowing, and ever and it just causes like a ruckus online. In April 2018, Maddie went on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio One show and confirmed the title Music for Cars and announced a 2018 release, saying, quote, the album has always been called that, and we were always going to do a trilogy of records. I'm not saying that after this record, it's the end of the 1975, but it's definitely the end of an era. End quote. In classic, not dramatic at all, fandom fashion, some fans ignored the last bit of Maddie's statement about this, not being the end of the band, and chose to believe they were going to break up after the completion of the trilogy. Which of course did not happen. The title Music for Cars was inspired by one of Maddie's musical heroes, Brian Eno, which was also an influence for the Give Yourself a Try music video, but I'll get to that later. Talking to NME, Maddie said, quote, Music for Cars was an EP named for our love for Brian Eno. We're using it as the album title now because of how meta and self-referential everything has become in the world of the 1975. And Music for Cars was always my favorite title of everything we'd ever done, so it kind of made sense to wrap it up that way. End quote. Music for Cars is actually my favorite EP the guys have done as well. So obviously the album title, Music for Cars, didn't stick because, as we all know, it became a brief inquiry into online relationships. I'm not sure why they decided to drop the title, but we do know the title of the album comes from Gene McHugh's essay, The Context of the Digital Colon: A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. Maddie was in London riding the train and spotted a passenger reading the book You Are Here, Art After the Internet by Omar Colaiff. I'm sorry if I mispronounced that. But that essay was included in the book. A large part of the content explored on the album is Maddie's addiction to heroin. The recording of the album was put on hold in the fall of 2017 so Maddie could attend a three-week rehab program in Barbados. I won't go into too much detail on Maddie in the addiction because Maddie has spoken publicly at length about this and his rehab story, the most recent being his Zane Lowe interview from 2022 to promote being funny in a foreign language if you're interested. But this is important to note to understand all of the experiences that were shaping the music and videos for this era. I can only speak for myself, but as a fan, I knew Maddie was doing drugs. I mean, most musicians do, but he openly talked about it and referenced it in music. But as a collective fandom, I don't think we realized how bad it had gotten for him behind the scenes. But finding out he went to rehab wasn't a surprise for me personally. The lead single and music video for Give Yourself a Try were released on May 30th, 2018, the exact same day on Annie Max Radio One Show. Here is a clip of Maddie talking to Vivo in 2018 about the Give Yourself a Try music video.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Give Yourself a Try was the first video. I wanted to capture the excitement and the kind of frenetic energy that was in Love Me. The video is kind of about the performance of reinvention. From the the psychiatry scene at the beginning to the desperation in the performance in a mirrored room, a kind of a metaphor for self-reflection, which this whole period of making a record was. I suppose that this video stands at odds with the other videos. Whether it felt like a primary statement or not, I'm not sure, but we'd made an album by this point. We hadn't made a group of singles. I hadn't been thinking, oh, how would do we butter them up? Just thought let's like put the This is the first song on the record. Put it out. So the Eno and Frit no Pussyfooting artwork was where we got the idea of the mirrored room. We hadn't rehearsed, it was a music video. So we'd not played as a band, and it was about 40 degrees in that room, and we had to do it a take at time. If you think about how we did that shot, because you can't see cameras, so the front wall here, piece of glass, but it's a two-way mirror. Everything inside is a mirror. The look, the hair and the makeup is based on Lady Gaga. There's that photo of Lady Gaga, I don't know where she was, she was a thing, but she had orange hair and purple makeup. It was wild look. The tailored trousers, the height of the trousers, the shortness of the blazer, the reference to kind of post-punk ideas. We look like a fucking band. You know, that's who I want my band to look like. And this was the first time that I was like, yeah, we're a band, we're an identifiable thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

To help capture that frenetic love me energy, the band had the director of that music video, the late great Diane Martell, back to direct the Give Yourself a Try video. The video opens with Maddie lounged back, smoking with the Music for Cars logo on screen. The opening of the song plays, and Maddie is talking to someone or something off-screen. And at about 30 seconds in, we realize it's all a farce, and he's talking to a giant teddy bear in a suit and a very adorable top hat. Talking to Radio X in 2018, Maddie said the song is a statement about being a millennial and quote, searching for that truth in amongst things that you thought were going to provide you with the answer. End quote. The band had been touring constantly since their debut album and experienced all the things that come with some level of fame. This particular piece of art is Maddie reflecting and taking stock of the things that actually matter. Once the lyrics come in, we get the full band in the mirrored room. This is the reference to the Frippin' Eno, no pussyfooting album cover Maddie was talking about. And I could be wrong, but I think this is the first music video Patricia styled them for, and this is my favorite styling from music video the guys have ever done. The suits with the cropped trousers, all of their hair. I'm sorry, long-haired raw stands. It's perfection, all of it. I know people focus on Maddie's makeup, but let's give it up for hands blue eyeshadow and his glass guitar. I wonder if he still owns that. To add to the franticness of the video, they did a few things to achieve that. The lyrics will occasionally flash on the screen in caps lock red. We will also get split screen footage of Maddie jumping around someplace else in a red sweater or laying down near statues of I just have in my notes, cherubs. Question mark, question mark, question mark. Um, or the band playing somewhere else in black and white footage. Perhaps a callback to their self-titled roots. I don't know. And I think the constant looped guitar riff adds to it, that frenetic energy. The guys have not been shy about the fact that they pulled this riff from native Manchester band Joy Division and their song disorder. A few critics also likened it to the strokes at the time, and I swear as a strokes fan, I never made that connection until critics pointed it out. I can sort of hear the hard to explain influence, I guess. Critic Stephen Klein from Gigwise back in 2018 said it sounds like, quote, the strokes hard to explain if it were written by Alexa. End quote. Okay, fuck you, Steven Klein. At the one minute 43-second mark, we get a successful microphone swing from Maddie. He did not hit himself in the face. It was a microphone swing that Adam Lazaro would be proud of. Around the two-minute mark, this is where it gets a little too on the nose for me, like a little too corny. We get a split screen of Maddie watching CG-eyed roses bloom in his hands. I honestly forgot about this until I watched it back for this episode. I get that it's supposed to probably symbolize growth in a personal sense, um, but it's too much for me. It's too late coming of age. I understand why they chose to feature this song in an episode of that 13 Reasons Why show on Netflix. The last minute of the video is all focused on the band in the room performing in the close quarters um mirrored room together. And talk about being forced to look at yourself both literally and figuratively. And the video ends with the purposefully mic drop from Maddie. Give yourself a try is a hopeful song full of energy, and it was the perfect way to kick off the music for cars era for the 1975. That era was so much fun, and it was very hopeful. Maddie was getting clean and was approaching life with a renewed perspective, and as fans, like you could feel that in the songs and the live shows. It was a blast. Give yourself a try was nominated for best rock song at the 2020 Grammys. It did lose to Gary Clark Jr. And as of recording this episode, the music video has 16 million views on YouTube. I hope it never leaves the set list. Episodes are written, recorded, and produced by me, Britt. You can follow the podcast on Instagram at Television of Your Mouth, and I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time.