The The serves as the creative vehicle for Matt Johnson, a singer and songwriter whose output has spanned new wave, post-punk, dance-pop, and country with equal agility. The project surfaced in 1979 and secured its first commercial foothold during the 1980s through the albums Soul Mining, Infected, and Mind Bomb, each blending melodic synth-pop textures with incisive, socio-political alternative rock; the more guitar-driven Dusk of 1993 likewise earned strong critical notice. Johnson then withdrew for fourteen years, focusing on scores for documentaries, feature films, and art installations, before reviving The The for live dates in 2017. The concert album The Comeback Special appeared on his Cinéola imprint in 2021, and Ensoulment followed in 2024 as the band’s first studio collection in more than two decades.
Johnson entered the world on August 15, 1961, in London and grew up in the rooms above his father’s pub, the Two Puddings, a gathering place for both celebrated figures and underworld characters. He also absorbed music at nightclubs and dancehalls run by his uncle, where he witnessed performances by Howlin’ Wolf, the Kinks, and Muddy Waters. At eleven he assembled his earliest group, Roadstar; three years later he took a job as tea boy at the DeWolfe music publishing firm, advancing to assistant engineer in its studio within another three years.
Following the 1979 breakup of the duo the Marble Index, Johnson launched the initial version of The The alongside synth player Keith Laws. After their first show supporting Scritti Politti, the band released the single “Controversial Subject” on 4AD in 1980. Contractual requirements compelled him to issue the 1981 LP Burning Blue Soul under his own name, while he also contributed guitar to the Gadgets and placed a track on the Some Bizzare Album compilation.
By 1982 The The had effectively become a Johnson solo endeavor supported by a shifting roster of musicians; the unreleased album The Pornography of Despair was recorded that year but set aside. The 1983 single “This Is the Day,” cut with Orange Juice’s Zeke Manyika, anchored the proper debut Soul Mining, an album steeped in dance-inflected pop. Health problems kept Johnson sidelined through much of the next year, and The The resurfaced only with 1986’s Infected, a wide-ranging reflection on contemporary Britain. Assisted by Neneh Cherry, Art of Noise’s Anne Dudley, and Swans’ Roli Mosimann, the record was paired with an ambitious full-length video; it reached number 14 on the U.K. chart and entered the top 100 of the Billboard 200.
The 1989 release Mind Bomb restored The The to a genuine band configuration, with Johnson joined by ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, bassist James Eller, and former ABC drummer Dave Palmer. Although less overtly pop than its predecessor, the album became a commercial step forward, peaking at number four in the U.K. and again appearing on the Billboard 200. The same lineup carried over to 1993’s more streamlined Dusk, whose rock-leaning sound and Johnson’s darkly literary lyrics drew further praise; the album climbed to number two in the U.K. and re-entered the Billboard 200.
Hanky Panky, issued in 1995, introduced another shift as Johnson enlisted guitarist Eric Schermerhorn, keyboardist D.C. Collard, harmonica player Jim Fitting, and drummer Brian MacLeod for a somber set of Hank Williams covers. After some 1997 sessions, the next full studio album arrived as 2000’s NakedSelf, featuring Schermerhorn alongside the new rhythm section of Spencer Campbell and Earl Harvin. Both releases reached the U.K. top 50. Following tours in 2000 and 2001 the band went dormant.
Johnson remained active, establishing the independent soundtrack company Cineola and scoring films such as 2009’s Tony, 2010’s Moonbug, and 2014’s Hyena. He also launched a publishing imprint to release his father Eddie’s memoir of running a storied East London pub and issued occasional standalone singles. In 2010 he began the Radio Cineola shortwave broadcasts, which previewed forthcoming material, shared works-in-progress and previously unheard collaborations, and hosted political and social discussions. On Record Store Day 2017 The The returned with the single “We Can’t Stop What’s Coming,” featuring guitarist Johnny Marr, and embarked on its first tour in seventeen years. After two London performances Johnson released the triple album Radio Cineola Trilogy, comprising End of the Day (a collection of The The songs reinterpreted with international collaborators), The Inertia Variations (Johnson narrating John Tottenham’s poetic cycle over atmospheric music), and Midnight to Midnight (drawn from his twelve-hour U.K. Election Day broadcast and the electronic score for Johanna St. Michaels’s documentary on The Inertia Variations).
Further 2018 tour dates were documented in the multimedia package The Comeback Special, which included a live album, a book, and a short film directed by Tim Pope; the recording, made at the Royal Albert Hall, appeared in 2021. Ensoulment, The The’s first studio album in over twenty years, was released in September 2024. Co-produced with Warne Livesey, the engineer of Infected and Mind Bomb, the record also featured longtime associates guitarist Barrie Cadogan, bassist James Eller, keyboardist DC Collard, and drummer Earl Harvin.
