The 1975 share new Americana-tinged song "The Birthday Party"

February 19, 2020

The 1975 have debuted the fifth song and fourth proper single from their anticipated new album Notes On A Conditional Form (due April 24 via Interscope/Dirty Hit). New song “The Birthday Party” is one of the more Americana-tinged ballads The 1975 have ever released, complete with banjo and slide guitar (and also an ’80s-style sax solo). Listen below and stay tuned for the video which comes out at 1 PM Eastern. (Update: out now.)

The song also includes this lyric: “I seen Greg and he was like, “I seen your friends at the birthday party, they were kinda fucked up before it even started. They were gonna go to the Pinegrove show, but they didn’t know about all the weird stuff, so they just left it.”

Speaking about the song and video, Matty Healy told Zane Lowe:

Oh, dude it’s one of the things I’m most proud of. I mean it’s taken us like, it’s not taken us a year. Like but when we started making it like a year ago, it was one of the first things for it. It’s me and my friend Ben who’s like become one of my closest collaborators. He made People with me. I couldn’t read out the credits- … of the incredibly talented people who have helped work on this video. When I put it out, I will do. It’s a, it’s a visual kind of feast and I think it’s very funny. Yeah, we’re really excited about it. It’s kind of a first time that the videos and the music have always been very, very much tied together and come at the same time. But this is the first time that like the video and the song’s kind of almost at the same thing, you know.

Matty also had this to say about the band’s future plans:

eah, I think that it’s a constantly evolving thing. I think that there’s an obvious end to an era with Music for Cars, just because like we’ve come to the end of a decade. Like culture is moving. Like the 1975 has to be a slightly different thing in like, I don’t know what, like two years, you know. I mean it’s, it just will naturally be. So me figuring out what that is, there’s lots of stuff that we’re gonna do. The 1975 doesn’t really operate without each other. So I mean I’m not like giving people excuses. Like one thing that I know that we’re gonna do is that I’m doing a Matty record and George is doing a George record. And we’re gonna produce each other’s records. So that’s gonna happen. Yeah, that, there you go, exactly, there’s an exclusive.

AND, apparently when Matty was 13, he was one of the kids Green Day pulled up on stage when they invite a kid from the audience to play with them:

Oh mate, Billie Joe Armstrong. I was in the back with him for 10 minutes. I remember that. I told you that, didn’t I? With Green Day, I played with Green Day once. So I was like 13 and they did that thing where they get kids up on stage. And I was at the front and then I got up and played bass with them. That was at my first thing. And then I met them years later and told them the whole story and they, they weren’t remotely interested. So yeah, yeah.

As mentioned, The 1975 are touring with Phoebe Bridgers and beabadoobee, including a show at NYC’s Madison Square Garden on May 26 (tickets). All dates are listed below.

The 1975 — 2020 Tour Dates
Feb 21 London, England The O2 Arena
Feb 22 London, England The O2 Arena
Feb 23 Cardiff, Wales Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
Feb 25 Birmingham, England Birmingham Arena
Feb 26 Liverpool, England M&S Bank Arena
Feb 28 Manchester, England Manchester Arena
Feb 29 Aberdeen, Scotland P&J Live
Mar 01 Glasgow, Scotland SSE Hydro
Mar 03 Dublin, Ireland 3Arena
April 27 Houston, TX The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
April 29 Austin, TX Germania Insurance Amphitheater (formerly Austin360)
May 1 Memphis, TN Beale Street Music Festival
May 2 Dallas, TX Dos Equis Pavilion
May 3 El Paso, TX Don Haskins Center
May 5 Phoenix, AZ Gila River Arena
May 7 Los Angeles, CA The Forum +
May 8 Irvine, CA FivePoint Amphitheatre +
May 11 Morrison, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
May 13 Omaha, NE Baxter Arena
May 14 St. Louis, MO Enterprise Center
May 16 St. Paul, MN Xcel Energy Center
May 18 ilwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum
May 19 Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
May 21 Toronto, ON Budweiser Stage
May 23 Washington, DC The Anthem
May 24 Boston, MA Boston Calling
May 26 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
May 29 Hanover, MD The Hall at Live! Casino and Hotel
May 30 Radio 104.5 Birthday show at BB&T Pavilion Camden, NJ
June 2 Pittsburgh, PA Petersen Events Center
June 3 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
June 5 Virginia Beach, VA Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
June 6 Charlotte, NC Spectrum Center
June 8 Jacksonville, FL Daily’s Place
June 9 Miami, FL Bayfront Park Amphitheater
June 11 Atlanta, GA Infinite Energy Center *
June 12 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival * +
July 19 Louisville, KY Forecastle