In February, Matty Healy sparked controversy over a podcast interview in which he and the hosts appeared to mock a variety of international accents. Appearing on The Adam Friedland Show, the 1975 frontman, Friedland, and Nick Mullen made derogatory comments about women and mocked Scottish, Chinese, Japanese, and Hawaiian accents. Now that podcast episode has been removed from the show's feed, in effect pulling it from services like Apple and Spotify. The episode is still on YouTube.
During the interview, Healy mentioned Ice Spice, whom he said he tried to DM on Instagram. The group then tried to guess at the rapper's heritage by referring to her as Hawaiian, Inuit, and Chinese, while mocking those accents. Later, Healy encouraged the hosts to impersonate Japanese people working in concentration camps — something he joined in on.
At the same time, fans have also dug up information regarding Healy's status with Dirty Hit, the 1975’s record label whose roster also includes beabadoobee, Rina Sawayama, Wolf Alice, the Japanese House, and others. As of April 4, Healy appears to have been "terminated as director," according to public records. Stereogum has reached out to Dirty Hit for confirmation.
