Over the weekend, The 1975 took the stage at Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival, where lead singer Matty Healy criticized the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws and kissed his bandmate Ross MacDonald during their set.
“I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with,” Healy told the crowd.
This didn’t go over to well, as after their Friday performance, the rest of the festival was canceled, and the band has apparently since been banned from Malaysia as a whole. Julian Casablancas — of the other lineup acts, The Strokes — opened up about his thoughts on the situation in several Instagram comments.
“It def helped the white outsider awareness yes, for sure,” Casablancas replied. “I felt the same. had no idea. but when you look into it, it likely will change little to nothing in Malaysia. It’s like saying you helped awareness of injustices in n korea… not one of those situations where twitter pressure’s gonna work, they don’t care, govt is intense there.”
Los fans del Matty Healy atacando a Julian solo por escupir verdades. pic.twitter.com/iWp1n8Yw2U
— Fernanda Torres (@MaferGooner) July 23, 2023
“many thing to fix but we should be strategic was all,” he added. “Wasn’t commenting on the thing – just an outider thinking it would make any difference in Malaysia… it appears to have more negative consequences… your nit allowed to show straight public kissing affection there i believe… it’s a different world not his job to come fix then bail… if he stayed and went to jail then damn, respect. but i think he just made a joke/ laughted and flew home first class imm guessing.”
In the days since, according to The Star, 18 police reports have been filed about The 1975’s set.