The age of rock band superfandom is apparently over – except, of course, if you’re The 1975. The Manchester quartet has built a deep and complex bond with its audience, which swells in size with each new album.

Led by rakish 29-year-old frontman Matty Healy, The 1975 regularly leave Easter eggs for their true believers to dissect, from song lyrics and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them music video moments to cryptic social media posts. That mutual devotion pays off in ecstatic live shows, with thousands-strong crowds hanging on every song and strut.

The 1975 releases its much-longed-for new album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, this month. The subsequent world tour will reach Australian arenas in September 2019 – proof that our appetite for the band has never been stronger.

Their last visit here was way back in January 2016, right on the cusp of their lavishly-titled second album, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it. Those songs are now established favourites and a new crop is ready for the live set lists, including ‘Give Yourself A Try’, ‘Love It If We Made It’, and ‘TooTimeTooTimeTooTime’. We’ll have nearly a full year to get acquainted with A Brief Inquiry before the shows, and there’s even talk of a follow-up album, Notes on a Conditional Form, in 2019.

To set the stage for the band’s return, let’s dive deep into The 1975 fandom.

It’s All In The Songs

The 15 songs on A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships will be closely analysed and debated online – just the way The 1975 like it. Instead of wiping the slate clean with each new album, the band always weaves in little salutes to their past glories. As Healy once told Rolling Stone, the Easter eggs he found in video games “kind of started my love of subtext”.

I like it when you sleep was full of winks and call-backs, like in ‘Lostmyhead’, which picked up the thread of 2012’s ‘Facedown’, or ‘The Sound’ mirroring ‘She Way Out’. Stay tuned for an exhaustive Reddit thread on every reference contained in A Brief Inquiry. We can guarantee there’ll be loads.

Their Videos Are For (And With) The Fans

The band’s self-referential streak is particularly alive in their music videos, much to the delight of devotees. 2016 anthem ‘Somebody Else’ was a particular goldmine, with rich visual nods to earlier efforts like ‘Robbers’ and ‘A Change Of Heart’.

The guys fashioned another hunt for clues in the new ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ video, which follows Healy on a happy skip through Easter egg-laden streets. From the number ‘1975’ above a door to a cameo from their Dirty Hit labelmate No Rome, they know how to tempt that replay button.

Then there’s the mood-enhancing video for ‘TooTimeTooTimeTooTime’, yet another early hit from A Brief Inquiry. This time, the band recruited diehard fans to lip-sync the lyrics against a backdrop of pulsing colours. (Also, that eye-popping colour scheme recalls 2013’s ‘Girls’ video, because of course it does.)

Social Media Is Easy For The 1975

On A Brief Inquiry lead single ‘Give Yourself A Try’, Healy quips about his status as “a millennial that baby-boomers like”. At heart, though, he’s a millennial that millennials like, fuelling his clued-in cohort one tweet at a time. He shouts out new artists, fumbles over spelling (with gentle corrections from his 830,000 followers), drops offhand clues and goes on retweeting sprees. In short, his is the opposite of a bland PR-managed account.

For his part, Healy gives as much as he gets. The band’s frontman is constantly talking to — and about — fans on social media, in interviews, and on TV. He likes, retweets, and responds to adoration from fans of the band on the daily, proving this relationship is a genuine two-way street.

The 1975’s long-time manager and Dirty Hit co-founder Jamie Oborne is also well-known to acolytes, who watch his Twitter feed intently for any hint of news.

The band memorably flexed their social media savvy back in 2015, deleting all their accounts and setting off a firestorm of speculation. They were back soon enough with a new aesthetic, riding a wave of free press. School is in session.

They Get The Zeitgeist

Unlike some of their safer arena-filling peers, The 1975 make music for the present moment. Recent single ‘Love It If We Made It’ name-checks Donald Trump, Lil Peep and Kanye West, but it’ll still sound urgent for years to come. The same goes for ’Give Yourself A Try’, which imbues #millennialproblems with lasting emotion. Put simply, fans of The 1975 feel seen.

For the latest example of The 1975 nailing the zeitgeist, look no further than their turn in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. The set featured a couple of their new songs, plus a cover of Ariana Grande’s viral blockbuster ‘thank u, next’. Given the mutual appreciation Healy and Grande’s show on Twitter, the match-up was meant to be.

And guess what? The fans already love it.

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(Lead image courtesy of Sony Music)

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The 1975’s new album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships is out now!