Matty Healy claims Greta Thunberg was rejected for a musical collaboration by "bigger artists" than The 1975.
The climate change activist made her musical debut on the group’s new album ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’ on the track ‘The 1975’ – the eponymous title given to the instrumental song which opens the band’s albums – in which she read an essay over minimal orchestral backing, and the 31-year-old frontman was delighted to help the teenager be "documented in a formal place".
He said: "There are so many tweets and endorsements, transient statements about Greta. But I really wanted [her voice] to be documented in a formal place in pop culture."
Matty claims Greta, 16, was rejected by other artists because they are only interested in being "progressive but safe".
He told the Sunday Times magazine: "I feel like big statements will be made by pop stars, but they’ll do it when the cultural narrative has massaged a subject enough for it to be not really a statement any more.
"A narrative needs to be seen as progressive but also safe. I call it ‘workshop woke’."
Since the track was first aired, the band received "a lot of s**t", including an open letter from MP David Davies, who accused the group of hypocracy, and Matty hit out at the backlash, insisting he should be able to address issues of concern, even while still figuring out how to make changes to help himself.
He said: "It was a really passive-aggressive, smarmy letter, but it’s from the Houses of Parliament, which I think is dope. He was saying how laughable it was that we would promote all of these ideas while still touring and using fuel.
"I always knew I was going to be called a hypocrite or a champagne socialist, but the idea that no one should say anything or try to help if they haven’t 100% figured out how to be carbon neutral, along with the rest of the world, is a really illogical way of thinking about the problem."
Meanwhile, the ‘Chocolate’ hitmaker admitted he rarely listens to his old albums because they make him so "emotional".
He said: "I would call myself pathologically nostalgic.
"I very seldom can listen to 1975 records because they make me so emotional, not because they’re so brilliant, but because I’ve put pretty much the sum of my experiences over the last 10 years into them. It’s like a little movie about my life. Time is kind of like death, isn’t it? I’m just a bit of a sad boy. I feel the weight of stuff."
The 1975: Greta Thunberg was rejected for collaboration by ‘bigger artists’
