How the 1975 made their iconic, Tumblr-defining music video for "Robbers"

Within the past year, many found themselves nostalgic for “2014 Tumblr” and all of its sartorial delights. Fuzzy images of Alexa Chung, lipstick stained cigarettes, and Doc Martens found their way back on Instagram and in the sprawls of TikTok, with the aesthetic trending once again.

Alternative music at the time undeniably had a hand in crafting the look —  you can almost hear it in the images that got reblogged — from Sky Ferriera’s smudged eyeliner to Alex Turner’s leather jackets. But at the forefront of the movement was the 1975, who pioneered the black and white saturated visuals, convincingly turned sexy, unadulterated lyricism into abstruse poeticisms, and prophetically soundtracked a new generation of music appreciation. Once Matty Healy crooned,  “You look so cool,” on their 2013 self-titled debut track “Robbers,”  Tumblr sleaze found itself a mantra to accessorize the aesthetic.

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It’s that same kind of passion that the band wanted to evoke in the music video. Having already filmed a few videos for their other self-titled tracks (“Girls,” “Chocolate,” and “The City”), “Robbers” was, visually, the band’s debut in their rockstar personas. “Once the cameras start rolling, you can be anyone,” says Tim Mattia, the music video’s director. 

Inspired by ’90s cult film True Romance, the video centers on a couple (played by Healy and actress Chelsea Schuchmann) who are deeply in love and plan a robbery to finance their alcohol and drug dependencies. Punctuating the band’s transition from an internet niche to becoming the one of the biggest rock bands of the decade, the “Robbers” music video had all the pillars of the band’s future. We see two young lovers and their whirlwind, Bonnie-and-Clyde-like romance turn tragic through narrative visuals, pop culture references, and loving someone so much that it feels like you’re the only ones left alive — themes that preceded the band far beyond the music video. 

Alternative Press spoke to director Tim Mattia, stylist and art director Alexis Johnson, and producer Taylor Vandegrift about how the video came together and the influence it holds today.

[Courtesy of Tim Mattia]

How the concept for “Robbers” came together

A year prior to the production of “Robbers,” Mattia had directed the band’s music video for “The City,” which became the first of six videos Mattia and the band collaborated on. The band’s manager, Jamie Oborne, sent Mattia the song after having just moved to the U.S., detailing the concept of a robbery, and a modern interpretation of Tony Scott’s 1993 cult classic True Romance.

“I think they got a taste for Americana, which I loved,” Mattia says.

A few months prior, Mattia had worked with producer Taylor Vandegrift of Cineaste Films on a music video for Parade of Lights. Vandegrift explains that they both agreed that they would have to work together in the future, and by March 2014, he says he was “riding in a 50-seater bus with cast and crew from Frisco to Los Angeles after a six-day tour around California shooting a Boodles Gin commercial, when an email from Tim’s rep in London came in.” The email included the treatment and the track for “Robbers,” which Vandegrift admits was his first introduction to the band. But after opening those files, he was instantly hooked, and began working on a bid after looping the song for an hour.

“Not only did I love the track and treatment, it didn’t hurt that True Romance was one of my favorite films at the time, and still is today.”

Vandegrift then approached stylist and art director Alexis Johnson after seeing her work on James Vincent McMorrow’s trilogy for his album Post Tropical. Having also been a fan of True Romance and intrigued by the idea of a fast-paced, doomed romance, Johnson was delighted to be a part of the team.

Before production started, Johnson rewatched the Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette-starring film to prepare, and additionally cites Larry Clark’s photography book Tulsa, Donald Cammell’s 1970 film Performance (which starred another rock star, Mick Jagger), and Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 classic Romeo + Juliet as inspiration for the styling and production design.

[Courtesy of the 1975/YouTube]

Finding the perfect location

“Goal No. 1: Tim and I wanted to make the best film possible, period,” says Vandegrift.

It was filmed over two days in Taft, California, located on the edge of the San Joaquin Valley. It’s hard to imagine what the video would be like set outside of a deserted, gravelly roadside town, but with the limited budget and time that was allocated for the set, scouting a location without skyrocketing prices became its own challenge.

“Tim wanted a location that felt real and gritty, but wasn’t overly shot and featured in every music video that we had seen in the past 10 years — so, for starters, we had to get out of LA,” Vandegrift says.

The video had a few days, several locations with a determined script, and a relatively small budget to make it all happen. Vandegrift scouted several locations for the video, including Lucerne, Apple Valley, Adelanto, Lancaster, and Palmdale. None of them were quite right, though, which led him to revisit James Vincent McMorrow’s video series, which was shot in Taft. He says, “The next day, my Production Manager and I packed our bags and made the two-hour drive north.” So for the next three days, they scouted Taft, Maricopa, and McKittrick, going door-to-door to find the perfect diner, house, theater, and dilapidated pool for their set.

[Courtesy of the 1975/YouTube]

What it was like on set

Shot by cinematographer Jackson Hunt, the first segment they filmed was in the house, where Healy sings in silhouette over co-star Chelsea Schuchman, backlit by a window and red Christmas lights. 

Mattia says, “That was the very first thing we shot at about 10 o’clock in the morning. I remember the manager came into the other room where the monitor was — we just looked at each other and were like, ‘Oh, this is magic. This is gonna be okay.’”

According to Mattia, everyone on set was a little bit nervous: Healy, for instance, was cast at the last minute, as the role was nearly filled in by Dakata Battcher, who appeared in the “Sex” music video. There was a hesitance in implying drugs and violence, and it was the first time both Mattia and the band had worked on a narrative video. 

Dusting off any nerves once the karaoke scene was filmed, the foreground for the video was situated, and the shot personified itself as a desirable and synonymous portrait of their music, and what they represented visually.

“That one shot, we were like, ‘This is fucking cool,’” Mattia says.

Taking a risk, they shot the sex scenes next. At the time Mattia thought, “If they go well, these guys are gonna have chemistry and everything’s gonna be amazing. If they go badly, it’s gonna be really awkward … Luckily, they had incredible chemistry, and Chelsea is an amazing actress, and she really guided Matty.”

Mattia and Johnson both explain that seeing Schuchman and Healy together felt like watching two people fall in love straight away. “We’d be out for dinner, and they’d be outside smoking together. Just chatting, and getting to know each other, fully vibing. It was almost like watching an entire relationship in two days,” Mattia remembers. “There was some kind of magic between them.”

[Courtesy of the 1975/YouTube]

The styling

With True Romance setting the tone for the video’s wardrobe and styling, there were specific references that were given a contemporary twist. Red was used in respect to how Scott used the color in his film, as well as the leopard print in the house and Schuhman’s top, which was a shout out to Patricia Arquette’s character Alabama.

The wardrobe was sourced from  Johnson’s costume kit, her own closet, and from some pieces she went out and purchased. When it came to dressing the band and Schuchman, styling them was especially organic, though, because they also ended up wearing some of their own clothing. “I think that’s why she looked so natural and effortless in everything,” Johnson says of Schuchman. “She was very easy to dress.”

Aside from drawing tributes out of True Romance, a raucous, “Jim Morrison-y” character was envisioned for Healy. Inspired by the floral Hawaiian shirt sported by Leonardo DiCaprio as Luhrmann’s Romeo, the now famous “Robbers” blouse was sourced from The Kooples, which is still worn by Healy at live shows as of this year.

In terms of quick changes and SFX, the leopard shirts were recreated for continuity during the actual “robbery” sequence. Three shirts in total were created for blood resets: two clean ones and one with the fake blood on it. “They would run in, and in the 30 seconds we had [when the robbery was taking place], we were taking their shirts off and putting the bloody one on, and the makeup artists [Candice Birns and Andrea Burish were] smearing blood on his shirt, then they’d have to run out and we’d reset,” Johnson says.

[Courtesy of Tim Mattia]

The legacy of “Robbers” 

For both Johnson and Mattia, the music video became a staple in their work, and often gets referenced back to them today. It’s one of the projects Mattia is most proud of, which he understands helped to define some of his narrative-style filming. 

Since the video’s debut, Mattia has continued to work with the band, spearheading videos for their sophomore album, 2016’s I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It (including “A Change of Heart,” “Somebody Else,” and “The Sound”). He’s also gone on to use his narrative style in collaborations with other artists, like twenty one pilots (“My Blood”) and Chris Stapleton (“Fire Away”).

Similarly having taken place at the beginning of Johnson’s career, she credits the video as both a stepping stone and a passage for her portfolio to grow. Any mention of the project was met with praise, and more than a few bursts of, “Oh, you worked on that video!” from potential clients.

Schuchman and Johnson also grew closer as friends. When people would tag Schuchman in photos emulating the video’s star-crossed lovers, she’d send them to Johnson with the sentiment, “You made these costumes!” 

For fans of 1975, the song and video still holds a certain significance, too. It almost feels like a homecoming, and the catharsis of the lyrics — that love is devastating, but it’s all we boil down to — never falters. 

On the first run of the band’s At Their Very Best tour in 2022, the song and video started to recirculate on social media, just as it did almost a decade ago. To further pull us through the time machine, Healy often sang to guitarist Polly Money in a way that emulated the video and even brought fans up on stage to kiss them during the pivotal break between the bridge and final verse, just as he did on their early tours. It gave the band a metaphysical awareness that refers back to their early days when fans first fell for them.

While “Robbers” may not be the first music video that has culturally shifted a genre and how it radiates style, it was certainly a defining moment in Tumblr and alternative culture. “Babe, you look so cool,” was right.