019 // people

WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP it's the beginning of the Notes on a Conditional Form era

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SPEAKER_01 0:11

Wake up, wake up, wake up, and welcome to a new era of television of your mouth, a 1975 podcast. After a little bit of a break, we are entering the Notes on a Conditional Forum era of music videos. Notes is the band's COVID album, is what I like to say. It went through a few delays and was finally released on May 22nd, 2020, about two months into the world being shut down from COVID. And that will be the focus of our episode today. The following day, the right after the single was released on August 23, 2019, the guys performed the song for the first time while headlining Reading and Leeds. And it is my favorite, I think, live performance of people to date. Find it on YouTube. It's it's great. Now technically, People wasn't the first single, okay? Like they released the title track with Greta Thunberg first in July of 2019, but it's not an official single, and there isn't a music video. So now you can't DM me and say, well, actually, Britt, People wasn't the first. I know that, but this is a music video podcast. So People is the first music video from Notes on a Conditional Form. And I know everyone has takes, quote, takes these days, and I have one regarding this album. I guess it's not really a take, but it's a theory I have. And it kind of relates to being funny in a foreign language. I strongly believe that if the pandemic didn't happen and the guys got to fully, you know, give notes its due and do a full notes tour, we wouldn't have gotten being funny in a foreign language. At least not when we did get it, which was a little over two years after Notes was released. I really believe Notes was going to be their last album for a long time. Like this, this indefinite hiatus we're getting now, I think was supposed to happen after Notes. And Maddie pretty much says so in a 2020 interview with Pitchfork that Notes was not the end of the band, but definitely the quote end of an era, the end of the band as we came to know them. Then of course the pandemic happened and that affected everyone differently. And with forced time to slow down, what else were you going to do besides create? Here is that audio clip of Maddie talking about pretty much Notes being the last kind of 1975 album as we knew it.

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When I made this record, I was like, f this is the last 1975 record for ages. Not the last 1975 record, but this is definitely us stopping making music for a bit.

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Notes is a behemoth of an album. It took 19 months to record in 15 different studios, and the guys were on the road touring for most of that. With 22 tracks, it is the 1975's longest album, and with its maximalist experimental sound, it hopped from genre to genre. Like there's something for everybody on this album. We get folk, bluegrass, but also UK garage, but also kind of industrial rock and a little new wave synthpop. Like I said, something for everyone, which some people love about notes and some people hate about notes, but to me it's the most 1975 album. I talked a little bit about notes when doing the brief inquiry episodes because the two albums have been linked since the beginning. In February of 2017, while the guys were touring for I Like It When You Sleep, Maddie tweeted Music for Cars 2018. Music for Cars ended up being the name of the era that the next two albums would be put out in. In July 2020, uh Adam Hand gave one of his most extensive interviews to Guitar World, the one of four interviews Adam's ever given. He said Notes was initially conceived as a more quote ambient, ambient electronic influenced album, a sister set to a brief inquiry, but plans clearly changed along the way. But there are definitely tracks on the album that support that claim. There are tracks on this album that are clearly George tracks. And then Adam went on to say, quote, we thought we were going to make a slightly more left field experimental album. Those elements are definitely there, but the majority of the album is straight up songs. I don't think we anticipated that when we set out. End quote. Trying to record an album on the road proved to be difficult. In the same interview, Adam went on to say, quote, it's been an interesting year of being on tour and trying to finish this album, but we would never do this again. It's been super draining for everyone involved, end quote. I might be remembering wrong, and I couldn't find the clip, but there's an interview out there where George basically says they had to release two albums because Maddie started telling people they are releasing two albums. Talking to Fader in 2019, Maddie said, quote, is the price that I pay for having real-time expression in an ongoing dialogue with fans. Sometimes I forget that I'm talking to a lot more people than I think. End quote. You know, not everyone can be Connor Oberst and release two perfect albums on the same day. So before Notes was released, the last time we saw the guys in music video form was for It's Not Living If It's Not With You in the fall of 2018. A music video that was in homage to the talking heads and the band's favorite films wrapped into one. It was very 80s pop, very fun. So why not introduce your next album with something completely different? Perhaps a post-rock Screamo song? Because you know what? Why not? I love when the occasional question will come up on Reddit, uh, what other 1975 songs sound like people? And the answer is none. No other 1975 song sounds like people. On August 22nd, 2019, the band released the song and music video for people directed by Warren Fu, Ben Ditto, and Maddie. The music video is loud, oppressive, and claustrophobic. It starts with an epilepsy warning, rightfully so, and the entire video takes place in a 5 meter by 5 meter cube created of glowing flashing screens. And for my fellow Americans, that converts to a little over 16 feet by 16 feet. So not a very uh big space to work in. And by the way, the video was recorded on one of the hottest days of the year, kind of appropriate for a song off an album with an opening track about climate change. While researching for these episodes, I find the most random sources. This quote comes from director Warren Fu talking to Stashmedia.tv in 2019. He said, quote, culture has been missing music that defies the status quo, so I was excited to hear the band wanted to shake things up with their next video. PFAL is sort of a snapshot of the current state of our world, social media addiction, misinformation, consumption, environmental waste, binge watching, surveillance capitalism, apathy versus activism, all trapped in a box of relentless media. Maddie Healy is one of those rare once-in-a-lifetime generation performers that can pull off this Molotov cocktail of rage and cheeky swagger, end quote. And man, we had no idea that things in the world were going to get much, much worse a few months after this video was released. It's kind of creepy to revisit this now, having lived through the pandemic and countless other world crises. One of the directors for who was also the creative director for this era, uh Ben Ditto, talked to Dazed in 2019 about the use of augmented reality filters in this video. Uh the filters were created by artists John Emini and Aaron Jablonsky from Exit Simulation. Ditto said, quote, each AR filter makes reference to different aspects of surveillance systems, one with glowing yellow data points, one that features scans of the other band members' faces flickering in a ghostly way, and one that moves the performer's eyes and mouth to different locations to evade recognition. End quote. Those filters were later released on the band's Instagram account for fans to try. And Ditto went on to say the song and music video explores a range of quote, utopian and dystopian technologies that reflect current issues surrounding privacy, technology, and the environment. End quote. And I do want to point out that while Ben Ditto did the creative for the songs campaign, the band's usual creative director, Samuel Burgess Johnson, did the graphic identity for the album itself. And the band's longtime stylist, Patricia, did the styling for this video. A lot of people see a resemblance to Marilyn Manson when they see Maddie in this video, and I think that's absolutely correct. But I also see a little of Brian Malko from Placebo. I don't know if anybody else also sees that. When Patricia talked to Dazed in 2019, Marilyn Manson wasn't listed as a point of inspiration when developing this styling. She said, quote, the main inspiration for styling comes from military uniforms, Frankenstein, punk comic books, and Japanese anime. We decided to have matching suits for people as a throwback reference to what we did for Give Yourself a Try last year. Everything is always evolving with Maddie. It's a special journey. He's open to explore and express change, which I think is important and must be reflected in the styling. End quote. And Maddie is very sewer rat to me in this video, and Han has an incredible haircut. He looks like the superhero costume designer from The Incredibles. Makeup artist and Sophie Costa did the makeup for the video, saying, quote, the key reference for makeup is surveillance and AR. The idea was to cover his face in a way of becoming unrecognizable. We used gray eyeshadow to add some depth to the eyes and added a sparkle so the makeup interacts with the lights. We wanted something quite toxic looking. We chose a blue glossy lip as it makes a colder look with the white base. End quote. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I get like toxic looking from the from the makeup in this video, but I definitely get the sense of like um I don't know, it's giving a little more goth to me than than toxic looking. Um but that's just me. Hairstylist Yuzuki Moiroka did use Marilyn Manson as a reference, saying, quote, after I heard the song and concept, I wanted to express something extreme and beyond with the hair. I designed the hairstyles, which are a mixture of different vibes from metal, hardcore, punk, heavy rock. After I got references of Marilyn Manson, I started making the wig by hand. I stitched the hairs in one by one because the wig, I didn't want it to have volume and it had to match with Maddie's hairline. Then we added a wet texture to it to help make it look real and a bit toxic. It looked great moving during Maddie's performance, end quote. Everything was considered for this video down to the guy's nails. Nail artist Sylvie McMillan said, quote, These manicures needed to be artificial looking, but with the performer's personalities in mind. The toxic yellow used for the album artwork was brought to George's hands. I loved the clash in textures and vibrancy between this lured color and the wood of his drumsticks. Toss toxic waste enveloping nature. Gunmetal tones were applied to Maddie's right hand, which is the hand he holds his mic with the most. I wanted his manicure to connect him with his equipment, almost looks like a metallic rash, which I'm really into. End quote. It was conceived while on a bus in Texas the day the abortion bill was circulating in Alabama. And in May of 2019, during their performance at Hangout Festival in Alabama, Maddie made a speech about the abortion bill, not being about the preservation of life, but the controlling of women. It's a great speech. If you haven't heard it, you can find it on YouTube. He told Apple Music, quote, I wrote people on a bus in Texas the day the abortion bill was circulating in Alabama. After playing our show there, we were advised to leave due to Alabama being an open carry state. We did and we soon stopped in a truck stop in Texas. I bought some Cheetos that were next to a collection of knives for incels and various bumper stickers, encouraging women to give oral sex to truck drivers as some kind of trade for the privilege of being in the truck in the elegant presence of such a great man. I was pretty pissed off, I am pretty fucking pissed off, God bless. End quote. And the music video captures that anger and chaos and that feeling of impending doom. I always think of the gray pinstripe suits in this video and often forget the fantastic matching neon outfits they switch into throughout the video. I might even like them better than the pinstripes. And the video is a lot. Coming in at just two minutes and 40 seconds, it is a visual overload and it's supposed to be. It's on purpose. Your eyes don't have enough time for your brain to catch up and process all of the visuals and what is happening. The AR filter overlays give an inhuman, unsettling feeling. All while Maddie's movements are not fluid and he's often not upright, it's too much. And I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I've said this before in past episodes. That's pretty much what it's like living today, right? Like you're scrolling, you know, your Instagram feed and there's a cooking video felt, and then there's a meme, a friend's baby, and an artist's tour announcement in the span of 10 seconds. The gl the guys close their sets during Still at Their Very Best tour with people. I prefer give yourself a try as a closer, but would like to see people stay on for future set lists in some way. So, is this version of the band over? And what I mean is this outspoken nature versus apathy. When things get to be too much, it's easy to slip into apathy, right? It's easier to kind of close your eyes and turn away from the bad stuff. It's easier to be comfortably numb about it. And I think it's safe to say that the 1975 has covered what it means to be young and grow up in the age of the internet. And I think they're done with that. I think they're done exploring that in their albums. I don't know what the next album and era hold for them or if when it's coming. But my one wish though is for pure honesty, no hypocrisy, you know, own it, own your shit, whatever it's going to be. And more guitars, please. Thank you for listening to Television of Your Mouth, a 1975 podcast. Episodes are written, recorded, and produced by me, Britt. You can follow the podcast on Instagram at Television of Your Mouth. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next time.