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Muse.
The release of third album ‘Absolution’ has seen Muse establish themselves as one of Europe’s biggest live drawcards. They’ve just completed their first ever arena tour, and have been named as headliners at Holland’s Pinkpop Festival this year. Singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy is understandably happy, if a little surprised.
"It’s been great. It’s the biggest tour we ever did; I think across the whole tour we’ve played to 250,000 people. I was quite nervous ‘cause there’s only three of us in the band - I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to play those kind of gigs - but I think that some of the songs on this album have got quite epic sounds and I think that works in the arena size."
He’s not kidding. ‘Absolution’ is an astonishingly big sounding record, sonically leaving most of 2003’s efforts far behind. Bellamy is aware that didn’t automatically guarantee Muse would be playing larger shows. "We thought we’d probably play one or two – one in London or one in France, that type of thing – but the whole tour ended up being in between 8000-15,000 type venues; and a couple of them about 18,000 as well. When we first booked the tour we just laughed and said to our agent ‘we don’t believe we should be booking these kinds of gigs at all,’ and we were nervous there’d be no-one turning up. But it went really well in the end, and it’s quite a weird feeling actually playing those kinds of gigs, ‘cause I’ve seen so many other bands play there and I always wanted to be able to get there but thought I’d never get to with just us three, you know?"
As a band that has been a regular on the European touring circuit over the past four years, there was no trepidation in tackling these larger stages in their own right. "I think it was 57 festivals in one year. We did every major European one, because we weren’t that known around Europe, so we played all the new band slots and we did a few in Japan as well. But it’s nice to play a big gig like that and know that everyone knows the songs as well." Bellamy himself is one of the more physical frontmen around. "Yeah, I like a good run-around, but ‘cause I’m singing a lot, and playing guitar, when I get a chance not to sing I like to just run around a bit, and get a bit loose," he laughs.
The Big Day Out will see Muse finally getting the exposure they deserve in this country, and there’s no doubt they’ll turn more than a few heads. There’s always been a devastating urgency to their music (Bellamy’s ability with both guitar and keyboard adding to their arsenal) that has set them apart from every other English rock band around. This stems largely from the fact that they are so readily influenced by sounds from across the Atlantic.
"In terms of rock, yeah; I mean I don’t think English bands have produced any decent guitar riffs for at least ten years," he says, laughing. "England definitely has some great song-writing bands, bands that write great lyrics and great unusual structures to songs, but America has always been a bit more ahead when it comes to rock and hard rock music. I think we found ourselves somewhere in the middle of all that - we like both sides. Its only in the last year or so that we’ve started listening to groups from the seventies, like Led Zeppelin and Queen and it’s quite refreshing to know that there was a time when the English did actually rock," he concludes, laughing again.
With Metallica the dubious headliners, and the Strokes snorefest following their slot, Muse may be the last opportunity for any real rock action on the Big Day Out’s main stage. Bellamy’s ready for the challenge. "Watch out for flying beer bottles, yeah? I’ve never actually seen them before, I’ll be interested to see what they’re like. And I s’pose we’ll have to play a proper rock set, you know what I mean? And grow some mullets just in time, yeah? See if we can cash in on the mullets?"
Timo Maas and Paul Oakenfold have both remixed Muse in the past,
and there is more to come. "There’s a DJ called Kid Alex - he’s
from Germany - who might do a remix of TSP or Hysteria
or something like that. Also a guy who used to be in The KLF
who’s got a group - a project called Black Smoke - he might
be doing a remix as well. We going to send out the music to
him in the next couple of days and see what happens." They’ve
also reinterpreted their own material, most spectacularly in
the form of Hyper Chondriac Music, an almost hymnal take
on the ‘Origin Of Symmetry’ track Hyper Music. Which
came first? "The way I work is quite weird - the chord structures
usually come first. And I’d say for that reason the chord structure
and the melody of Hyper-Chondriac, but I’d never actually
played it. In my mind I had that kind of chord structure and
that kind of melody and whilst we were playing this fat riff
I just suddenly thought ‘what happens if this carries on and
goes into that kind of chord structure?’ It’s quite difficult
to say, but I’d say probably Hyper Music came first.
Hyper-Chondriac was in my mind before Hyper Music
came but I didn’t actually play it."
So as 2004 rolls in, Matthew Bellamy is happy with where his band finds itself. "It’s cool you know, we’re still the underdogs and that’s the way I like it. We’re not too big too quickly. We’ve just gradually built on what we’ve been doing. I’m looking forward to coming out to Australia; we missed it on the last album so it’s nice to come out there. We’ve wanted to play the Big Day Out for a long time. I think this album is going to feel much more complete in terms of touring than ‘Origin...’ because that was very concentrated in Europe and Japan. But I think this album will take us to Ausralia and also to America so I get a feeling this album’s gonna open up a bit more of the world."
You owe it to yourself to be there.
Wade Howland
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Muse play the Green Stage at 5.30pm.
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