The 1975's Matt Healy says he'd be a "pussy" if he boycotted Coachella in this political climate

Apr 22, 2019 13:55

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In an interview following his band's Coachella performance last weekend, The 1975's Matt Healy had this to say about boycotting the festival over Philip Anschutz's conservative political donations:
It's weird, like, I feel a bit weird talking about Coachella because I always feel like there's this underlying element of stuff that isn't said because of its affiliations, kind of anti-lgbtq and pro-gun kind of affiliations. And, um, I don't just bring it up randomly, it's just that a lot of people are asking me about Coachella, I feel like it's a bit anathema to the person that I am to not address it. It's not, I don't even know - you know what I'm talking about, right? And it's, um, it's an awkward one and I don't know if I have an astute opinion on it. I don't, I think that - I think that - and sorry to take it to them [?? I think?] but I think it's important that I address these kind of issues if I'm somebody who, um - so it's like I think that because we're all interested in popular culture and music, um, I think that we are all very aware of Coachella and it's affiliations, the negative affiliations. I think it's often used as an excuse to say, "oh you'll never find, you can't really find a conglomerate or an enormous company that has a completely clean moral slate." That sometimes often is an excuse but it's also true. I think the fact that people are so vocal about Coachella is that it's something for youth culture and youth culture are the most vocal people about it and we're very aware of it. I just think that when we start saying "we need to boycott" - I don't know about as a customer or as a person but as an artist when we start saying, "you need to boycott this, you need to boycott this place, you need to boycott that place," it requires such a level of intellectual consistency in that way that, if you start saying, "I'm not going to a certain country because I don't believe that their government is representative of my values." Do you know what I mean? You're not going to find many governments with morally clean slates. So what I'm saying is I understand it and of course but it has to be intellectually consistent. And I'm an artist so my issue with it is, I have stages - that's how I spread my message and my music and my message and my music is one of equality, it is one of progressive thought, it is one of supporting gay people, it is one of supporting people of color and other minorities and I almost feel like I'd be a bit of a pussy if I didn't turn up to a festival that does have those affiliations and have Eric Garner getting strangled behind me and, you know, like, showing images of things that we should all be concerned about. I feel like, as an artist, that's kind of my job, to turn up and be like, "this is fucking bullshit." So that's how I feel about it.

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lgbtq / rights, coachella, politics

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