Matty Healy Addresses Backlash over Podcast Controversy: 'They're Demonstrating Something So Base Level'

"It's just people going, 'Oh, there's a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.' And I kind of want them to do that," the musician said

The 1975 frontman Matty Healy is speaking out on the ways in which he believes comments he made on a podcast about the rapper Ice Spice were misconstrued.

In an interview with The New Yorker published Monday, the musician, 34, opened up about the growing backlash he's received since appearing on The Adam Friedland Show podcast in February.

While on the podcast, Healy told hosts Friedland and Nick Mullen that he’d recently slid into Ice Spice’s DMs, and she had not replied. Upon mentioning the rapper (who has a Black father and a mother of Dominican descent), Friedland and Mullen joked that she was an "Inuit Spice Girl," and continued to joke using Chinese and Hawaiian accents; Healy did not partake, but laughed along with the hosts.

During his interview with The New Yorker, the "About You" singer acknowledged in a March conversation with writer Jia Tolentino that he'd purposely baited his fans "a little bit," but felt that was not the point (Healy's stage persona is that of a "woke" liberal condemning things like climate change and toxic masculinity, though he often blurs lines on what is real and what he considers an acted "bit").

"It doesn't actually matter. Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, 'What's wrong, darling?' and they go, 'It's just this thing with Matty Healy.' That doesn't happen," he said. "If it does, you're either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar. You're either lying that you are hurt, or you're a bit mental for being hurt. It's just people going, 'Oh, there's a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.' And I kind of want them to do that, because they're demonstrating something so base level."

RELATED VIDEO: Taylor Swift and Matty Healy Kiss During Night Out with Friends in N.Y.C. (Exclusive)

Ice Spice — who is a self-proclaimed fan of The 1975 — received an onstage apology from Healy during a concert in New Zealand in April, where he told the crowd he "never meant to hurt anybody."

"Sorry if I've offended you. Ice Spice, I'm sorry. It's not because I'm annoyed that me joking got misconstrued, it's 'cause I don't want Ice Spice to think that I'm a dick," he said of the 23-year-old rapper. "I love you Ice Spice…. It's OK for me to be like, a trickster or whatever, but I don't want to be perceived as mean-hearted."

He continued: "We all get it wrong, and I just have to do it in public and then apologize to Ice Spice and my life's just a bit weird. But I am genuinely sorry if I upset her 'cause I f---ing love her."

Related: Matty Healy Seemingly References Taylor Swift Romance Rumors During UK Festival: 'Is It Sincere?'

The "Princess Diana" rapper recently joined Healy's rumored girlfriend Taylor Swift on stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to perform their new remixed version of "Karma." Though Healy and Swift have been linked since early May, the "Karma" duet and music video were recorded months earlier, Swift, 33, said.

In his conversation with The New Yorker, Healy insisted he was no longer interested in being "publicly correct."

"I've done my decade of trying to be that," he said, in a chat the journalist wrote had taken place one month before his appearance on the podcast. "I'm more interested in actually being wrong, and people seeing that, and knowing what's right because of it."

In a post-podcast conversation, he continued: "I think the whole exaggeration of my s--- throughout the past year and a half, maybe it proves there's something oppositional happening, that I'm getting something out of my system. Because the truth is, I'm really quite anxious. We're all anxious, but at the moment I'm really anxious."

Related: Taylor Swift and Matty Healy Kiss During Night Out with Friends in N.Y.C. (Exclusive)

Elsewhere in the interview, producer Jack Antonoff — who worked with Healy on his band's most recent album Being Funny in a Foreign Language — defended the singer-songwriter as "a deeply sincere person" prone to being "misunderstood because of how much he enjoys a bit."

"If you don't know him, if you don't get him, because you're not really tuned in to the work, you might assume a cynicism that is literally not there," he said.

Healy recently came as close as he has to discussing his romance with Swift at a UK music festival over the weekend, cryptically telling the crowd that he would specifically not be addressing speculation about his love life.

"Is it all a bit? Is it sincere? Will he ever address it?" he asked. "All of these questions and more will be ignored in the next hour. Ladies and gentleman, this is The 1975."

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