Martin Healy Popular Books

Martin Healy Biography & Facts

Matthew Timothy Healy (born 8 April 1989) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who is the lead vocalist and principal songwriter of indie art pop band the 1975. He is recognised for his lyricism, musical eclecticism, provocative onstage persona characterised as performance art, and influence on indie pop music. Born in London and raised largely in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge, Healy formed the 1975 in 2002 with his schoolmates at Wilmslow High School. After signing with independent record label Dirty Hit, the band released four extended plays before releasing their self-titled studio album in 2013. They followed it with I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016), A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships (2018), Notes on a Conditional Form (2020) and Being Funny in a Foreign Language (2022). Each of their studio albums reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and charted on the Billboard 200, garnering critical praise and appearing in numerous publications' year-end and decade-end lists. A vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and climate change mitigation, Healy's songs and performances also deal with themes including internet culture, masculinity, the social and political milieu as well as his personal life and relationships. He has been described as a "spokesperson for the millennial generation" by Rolling Stone, "the enfant terrible of pop-rock" by Pitchfork, "a cannily self-made bad boy" by NPR, an "expert provocateur" by Slant Magazine, and "iconoclastic" by NME. Healy is the recipient of four Brit Awards, and two Ivor Novello Awards including Songwriter of the Year, and has also been nominated twice for the Mercury Prize and Grammy Awards. Early life Matthew Timothy Healy was born on 8 April 1989 in Hendon, north London. He is a son of actors Tim Healy and Denise Welch; they divorced in 2012. Both are of Irish descent. His maternal grandfather was a drag queen, and younger brother, Louis, is an actor. He lived in Melbourne from the ages of two to four but spent most of his early years living on a cattle farm in Hedley on the Hill, Northumberland. The family moved to Alderly Edge in Cheshire when he was nine. Healy's parents were working actors of stage and television for much of his childhood, with his mother becoming a celebrity figure in his teens. He himself had no interest in acting but did appear as an extra in his parents' television shows including Coronation Street, Byker Grove and Waterloo Road. His parents were music fans, introducing him to soul and Motown, and his father socialised with many musicians including Brian Johnson of AC/DC (who became Healy's godfather), Rick Wakeman of Yes, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra. Peter Hook of Joy Division and New Order was a neighbour. His mother's godfather, screenwriter Ian La Frenais, introduced him to Ringo Starr. The first guitar Healy ever played was used by Dire Straits to record "Romeo and Juliet". He has said this early proximity to musicians meant the possibility of "being a rock star was part of my reality." Healy was a quiet child, with recurring vivid nightmares. He got his first drum kit when he was five, and started doing karate by seven eventually earning a black belt by his teens. For the first twelve years of his life he was an only child "so there were a lot of video games, a lot of Michael Jackson videos, a lot of singing and dancing to myself and self-involvement." Unlike his younger brother, Healy "grew up in a party house" and has recalled sleeping "in the bar" of London's Groucho Club on numerous occasions. He has remembered this aspect of his childhood as "exciting" rather than "distressing". His parents both had issues with alcohol and his mother used cocaine to self-medicate during periods of acute depression, including postpartum. Privately educated at Lady Barn House School and King's School, Macclesfield, Healy was expelled from the latter for starting a fight club. He won a King's School talent contest at age 12, with renditions of songs by The La's and Oasis, and told a local newspaper he hoped "to be a pop singer" when he grew up. He then transferred to the local comprehensive Wilmslow High School, where he met and befriended his future bandmates. He obtained GCSEs in Music and English, subsequently attending music college for three months before dropping out. The Academy of Contemporary Music website lists Healy as a 2007–2008 alumnus, obtaining a Vocals diploma. Years later, Healy called school "a tedious imposition, getting in the way of me being a pop star". Career 2002–2011: Beginnings, and early years of the 1975 In 2002, at the age of 13, Healy was recruited by Adam Hann to be the drummer of a band he was forming with Ross MacDonald at Wilmslow High School. When their potential lead singer dropped out after a rehearsal, Healy also became the lead vocalist. He eventually met George Daniel who took over as the band's drummer. Daniel recalled that Healy was "the most outwardly passionate person in school — endearing, and intimidating". Before making their own music, the band covered punk and emo songs while hanging out at their school's music hall and at Healy's house. Their first performance for 200 people was as part of the council-run Macclesfield Youth Bands. After leaving school, Healy persuaded his bandmates to attend universities in Manchester to keep the band together. While he briefly attended music school, he had short-lived jobs at FatFace, as a barista at Caffè Nero, and as a delivery boy at a Chinese restaurant. Healy's mother worried about his future but his father "believed in [him] unquestioningly". 2012–2014: Rise to fame Before settling on the band name the 1975 in 2012, they played under various names – Talkhouse, The Slowdown, Bigsleep, Drive Like I Do – around Greater Manchester. Healy recounted that the final name came from the scribblings found on his copy of the novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac that were dated "1 June, The 1975". The 1975 were rejected by every major record label, with executives confused by the band's genre-hopping approach. Healy later remarked: "We create in the way we consume. We're from this generation, and we don't want to be from another time." After years as the band's manager, Jamie Oborne set up his own independent label, Dirty Hit, and signed the band for 20 pounds. The band subsequently released four extended plays from 2012 to 2013 – Facedown, Sex, Music for Cars, and IV. The band began to build momentum in late 2012. Radio DJ Zane Lowe, who was then at the BBC, gave airplay to the EP Facedown, and the band had radio success with "Sex" and "Chocolate", and released their debut album The 1975 in 2013. Healy said the album was inspired by John Hughes and was intended to be "almost a soundtrack to our teenage years." In reviewing the album, Michael Hann of The Guardian said "the best of the writing here – and .... Discover the Martin Healy popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Martin Healy books.