icast.com - interview (april 2000)

"I think maybe it's just 'cause we were a little bit bored and wanted to do something." So states Matthew Bellamy, lead vocalist and guitarist for Muse. The trio, consisting of Bellamy, drummer Chris Wolestenhome and bassist Dominic Howard, met in the sleepy little town of Teignmouth, Devon in the U.K. and started playing together when they were 13. A few years and several name changes later, the band released two EPs on Dangerous Records (1997's Muse and 1998's Muscle Museum). U.S. labels started showing interest after a 1998 performance at In the City, and they signed with Maverick Records on Christmas Eve. Their debut album, Maverick, has been winning accolades on both sides of the Atlantic, and the band was recently named Best New Band by New Musical Express (NME), one of the UK’s leading music magazines. We caught up with Muse as they were about to play a set at the Metro W, a small venue in Washington, D.C. It's a bit of a change from the stadiums they'd been playing, as they'd just finished a tour as the opening act for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but that didn't bother them. As Matthew put it, "If there's four people there and they're not even interested, we'll just look at each other and just really get into it. That's why we're doing this, [why] we got into it in the first place." The Cure for Boredom? Start a Band iCAST: So, when was the first time you decided that you wanted to make music? Matthew Bellamy: [to Dominic] When was the first time you made music? Dominic Howard: It was when I was 12, and there was a few people who liked music, liked listening to music, at school, and we decided to learn some instruments and get in a band. And at the start we couldn't play, we were pretty crap. So we just started playing other people's songs, and that carried on for a while, then it got boring. And then we decided to form this band. There was not much to do in the town where we came from. I think that's probably the early stages, why we started making music. Was there any other reason? Lack of Christianity in the Western world, or the fact that we're the first computer generation and we've got no emotions whatsoever, soulless beings looking for some way to feel connected to other people? Maybe it was that, but I think it was more because we were just bored. DH: We were just sick of drinking cider and getting beaten up. iCAST: Tell me about that first process of making music and the first song you wrote and why. MB: I think the first song we did was "Small Minded", which was when we were 15 years old, and it's about the small-minded attitudes of people in our town. We didn't approve of this. Now the world, you know, is just not good enough for us, so we've got to change the world so it suits us. And that's what we're in the process of doing right now. And the ideals are breaking, crumbling. Ideals breaking- - that's what life's all about, really. iCAST: You actually use "rule the world" and "being No. 1" as a metaphor, and right now you were saying you had to change the world. Do you see yourself as a force to rule or change the world? MB: As regards to world domination and the need for power, which often come from small people with small phalluses [much laughter].. Dominating the world. When I talk about the world, when I talk about "you" and "me" in the album, I'm talking about my world, my own place, my own reality, obviously things through my own sense. DH: Expressing them, that's what you're doing. MB: I take it naturally, just take it as it comes, so to speak. Translating from Piano to Guitar iCAST: You’re touring as a 3-piece, so that means you can't have the same arrangements you have on the record. Is that difficult for you? Because it seems like that's integral to some of the songs. MB: We have a 3-piece, and I actually play the piano, and I played the piano well before I played guitar. But then I stopped playing guitar and I started to write on the guitar. And I found when I came to make the album I thought, "Right, I'm going to use some piano stuff, and I'll replace some of the guitar parts with pianos and organs, melatron" Melatron's like the first sampler ever invented, it's really nice. So I use some keyboard instruments on the album. But when you see us play live, what you're seeing is the song, how it was written with us three. You'll see me write songs like "Sunburn," which is all the piano part. [But] that's actually just the guitar part, played on the piano. When we headline in England and stuff, and places where the record company has given us a budget to hire some nice instruments, we take a piano. But in this case, we can't do it. Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit iCAST: You’ve won NME's Best New Band award. One thing that was really fascinating to me is the power of the English music press and the sort of frightening monopoly they have on the English consciousness, so that they can actually create a trend instantaneously across the entire country. What it was like to be nominated? It must have made you feel really great. But also, it's a double-edged sword, the English press. MB: What's a doubled-edged sword? iCAST: Well, because they like to cut you both ways, they like to build you up and take you back down again. DH: We won the Best New Artist NME Award, which was a real surprise because we didn't expect to win, and with the bands we were nominated against, we thought they were just going to clean the floor with us. MB: The other reason why it's strange is because the NME -- DH: The NME, it's voted for by the readers. MB: Which is interesting because- - DH: Because they haven't been that behind us in the past. MB: Like, they reviewed our single, and they said -- DH: "This is the worst thing I've ever heard: shit, shit, shit, shit." That's what it said in the review. Whereas all the other bands had a good review; they insulted them intelligently. But [for us] it wasn't even an intelligent insult, it was just [like popping a balloon] So we had a year of that, and then they suddenly went, "Ah!" I think because we won the award, because we'd toured so much, we won the award from people voting or whatever. I think that's made the press sort of like us a bit, which is going to last maybe for a few months, I reckon. When the new album comes out they'll kick us in the ass real hard. This made us think that the press can sort of rule the country and influence a lot of people. But it made us think that all the people that read the mag are not necessarily that influenced by what they write about every band. The Power of the Internet MB: I think as the Internet grows, old forms of media, like press, radio and film, all are becoming a bit less influential, because people are realizing that you can just choose what you'd rather see, rather than see -- know what I mean? I think people really are discovering a lot of new stuff through the Internet. Much more so than people talk about. Because a lot of stuff I'm into now, I realize I discovered it first through talking to people on the Internet, from different places, who say, "Oh, this band from my country" like Belgium or whatever, SoulWax, good band from Belgium. I heard about that ages ago on the Internet, but I would never have heard about that if it was the English press. So now, everything you're supposed to say about that band, I don't care, because there's someone I know and I'm friends with who I e-mail a lot and they told me that band's good. And that's what counts, because it's someone I know. I think that's the way forward. iCAST: I know you have a Web site but do you guys participate in the Web a lot? Do you spend a lot of time on the Internet? DH: I spend a bit of time. We participate in keeping the site updated, trying to keep that fresh. Chris Wolestenhome: It’s all being redone though, so it'll be fresh and new. MB: So far it's been just one pretty basic site, but over the next couple of weeks we're updating it and it's becoming much more personal to us and the stuff that we want to put on it. Feeling the Vibe More iCAST: You've just come off playing with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and you're playing a very small venue tonight. What's that going to be like for you? MB: I think that fundamentally, we do sort of play or ourselves, that's not a bad thing. But that's because for the first few years of this band, we were playing to no one a lot -- and I think that affected us, in the way we felt about communicating with other people. And now, when we're talking about Chili Peppers for instance, we were playing more outwardly going, to the audience, because there were people there. But if there's four people there and they don't want to see you and they're not even interested, I mean, we'll just look at each other and just really get into it. That's why we're doing this, [why] we got into it in the first place, from just playing DH: all together. And I think as well, what we've picked up now is just feeling the vibe more and getting some music just for ourselves, over the last few months. American Influences iCAST: Is this your first real American tour? What's it been like driving across the country? DH: We toured around the Midwest quite a lot, so we saw lots of small college towns and towns built around the college, which is quite strange, because there's not a lot around apart from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell, Burger King. So it's nice to come back to a city, a big city. MB: I had some good times. Dayton, I had a great time. Because the places we've been touring remind me of where we come from. t's bars, people having a good time together. There's not really too much distraction, it's just people. And that's a lot like where we're from. So I enjoyed it a lot. iCAST: A bunch of your lyrics seem concerned with the relationship between the artist and his audience, and the sort of business culture that sort of lubricates that relationship or that connection. There's a lot of judgment in your songs: self-perception, what people see of me, what choices am I making, feeling judged, judging yourselves MB: In the album, talking about the word "show" and the way the word show is used, I'm talking more about just the show we all put on, in every day life, anyway. When I'm talking about relationship, you can see I'm talking blatantly about relationship to the audience but it's a relationship more so to everyone outside of me. I don't know, I find that an interesting subject, how people relate to each other and how people perceive the world and how they're influenced and stuff like that. It's basic stuff, really, isn't it? iCAST: I read a bunch about you being inspired by American music instead of English music, I don't know if that's true or not. MB: I’m influenced by European music, of course. I'm influenced by European folk music. I love a lot of Spanish guitar, lots of stuff like that. I listened a lot of classical music -- stuff like 20th century Romantic Period type music, like Berlioz, Chopin, Rachmaninoff -- I like epic stuff. And that's mostly European. But in terms of rock music, we're talking about DH: We’re talking about Rage Against Machine, Primus, Nirvana. MB: Jimi Hendrix and The Band Of Gypsies -- The Band of Gypsies, from England. The Police, that's an English band. But there's a few. I think 3-piece bands like Primus, Nirvana and the Police, they influenced the way we play live, especially. But in terms of making albums, we're much more open than just being a 3-piece, choosing arrangements we can find. DH: Cheers, the American Internet. We'd just like to say thanks, bye, and we'll see you at the end of the year. Jenny Toomey and Shoma Aditya

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