DocRock Show (1999)

Your album is called "showbiz". What's the idea behind the title? There is a song on the album, which is the middle song and that is a live performance. On a lot of the songs we use pianos and mellotrons and other instruments we don't use live. How did you get John Leckie to produce your album? He is a very nice man. He came to a few gigs in america. He came to New York to see us before we got signed. We liked his previous work, he has done so much. It is just great that we had the chance and the money to make an album with him. How long did the recording of the album take? About four or five weeks. What is the favorite lyrics you ever wrote? I'm not very good at writing lyrics. Who or what made you wanna become musicians? I was always interested in doing music from a very young age on. I think it was at the age of eleven. No i think it was when i came to school, when i thought:"No i can't do that, i have got to do something else!!" When i was 14-15 i went on holiday to decide whether i go to collage or do music and the decision was music. What would you do without "Muse" today? I think we would be painting houses. Any work can be good if the people you are with are good to work with. The work that i did was not very nice but the people i was working with were just great friends and i really had a good time. We often helped each other and it was really positive. What do you think about all the comparisons that are made with your music, like Radiohead or what ever? It's nice, it's fine it doesn't bother us. With the first album of a new band people look for a place where it came from to be this. When we make the next album people say that it comes from the first album and they say: "It's not as good as your first album". People just look to the past because it is easy. Radiohead or Jeff Buckley, they are a different generation, they are like 10 years older. The sort of thing that they are doing is not appealing to what we are doing. We are 21, what we are doing is different, it's younger and we are not interested in singing to people who are 35. They are a different generation. You supported Bush on their tour and you did a lot of support tours. What is the best and what is the worst thing about supporting? You get to know good bands, you play to a lot bigger audience. You meet a lot of people you have never met before. It's also a challenge to make yourself interesting. It is often enjoyable to be ignored, it can be a pleasure. Does it affect your playing on stage when people don't pay attention on you? Sometimes we just look at each other and it is really funny. The only bad thing about it is the catering and it depends on the band that you are supporting if you get any soundcheck. Mostly you only play like half an hour. Do you see difference between the audiences in the various countries you played? The main difference is in how many records we have sold. In France the people are crazy, they are chasing us down the street. In France we can headline venues like 2000 people and the whole tour is sold out. England is not quiet as hysterical, there we play much smaller places. It is different in Germany. We have done a gig in Munich and a gig in Cologne. They went mad in Cologne. But when you are supporting a band it is usually the same everywhere. Do you often use the Internet? Yeah. What do you think about this whole MP3 thing? Oh, I think it is good but not for us. It's good because it is good. But if you are a record company it is not good. It is different from our point of view. I don't know. The worst thing that could happen is that everyone gets the album for free and the record company makes no money and drops you. What will happen to Muse in the future? Touring, more and more and more. Maybe a new album at the end of the year. We will do a lot of festivals in the summer. www.infomusic.de/

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