THE MAN BEHIND THE THE

Peter Lalor - SUNDAY OBSERVER - 1986


Matt Johnson, the man behind The The, is a serious young man.

I had the chance to catch up with the 25 year old in the Elsternwick Hotel when he was down to host Countdown.

Matt was a little nervous about doing the show. ‘What’s it like, this Countdown? It’s not a heap of rubbish is it? He asked. ‘In Britain, all pop shows are disgusting.

This is the problem with promotional tours – you just don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for.’

The brilliant young musician has been touring the world for the past six months flogging his new album, Infected.

‘It’s been really gruelling but I have to do it’, he said. ‘I don’t get much commercial airplay anywhere so I have to work harder to get people to listen to the album.’

Matt recorded film clips for every track on the new album. He explained: ‘Because by the time it’s had its run around 100 million people will have seen the videos.

‘In April we’re staging an International Infected day and the tracks will be shown in clubs across the world.

‘Later on it’ll be released as a home video.’ The The is one of the many English bands which never play live.

Matt said: ‘I gave up playing live four years ago, I just don’t seem to have the time, I’m too exhausted at the moment;.

‘Recently people have been offering us a lot of money – a real lot of money – to play live but it’s a bit like an amateur fighter entering a title fight, the expectations would be too great.

‘I’d like to get a band together and work on my singing – the only time I ever sing is when we record.’

He admits he’d like to do live work but being away from it for so long makes him worry about cutting it. As there’s such to be huge crowds flocking to see the The The shows, Matt doesn’t want to disappoint them and make a fool of himself at the same time – a dilemma which faces other studio bands.