The band that rose without trace - part one
When someone like Queen’s Roger Taylor describes you as ‘probably the greatest live act in the world today’, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve arrived. Paul Sexton discovers that Muse’s emotional connection with its diehard fans will provide a unique source of strength and musical invention for a long time to come.
If the bands that stay together the longest are the ones that stay in touch with their fans, then Muse will be packing out the enormodomes of the world for decades to come.
The rock trio have long been the most popular thing to come out of Teignmouth in Devon since cod. Sixteen years together, and a dozen on record, have never brought the merest suggestion of internal strife or indeed a whiff about their personal lives.
But the real secret of Muse and their immense fanbase of diehard devotees lies in something frontman Matt Bellamy tells me, in a break between seemingly endless tour dates. Not only do they feel in touch with their audience, they’re actually beginning to think and write like them. Not so much a rock band and its disciples, more a co-operative life force; these are the men who put the ‘us’ in Muse.
‘There are some songs recently,’ Bellamy explains, ‘where we’re using the pronoun “we” much more than “I,” because that tends to work in the bigger live environment, when people are singing along. With that feeling of being overwhelmed by the audience on a regular basis, you start to tune into a collective emotion. You’re not thinking so much about your own feelings all the time, you start to tune into what lots of people are thinking.’
Muse have been working on the craft of becoming one of the best live acts in the world as long as they’ve existed, and if you ask them which of their countless awards means the most to them, it will always be the ones that recognise their stagecraft, be it their Brit, NME or Q trophies.
Early in 2011, the band will get one of their most prestigious endorsements yet, opening for U2 in South America in March, at enormous shows in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. ‘We’ve done our own tour there once before,’ Bellamy says, ‘but obviously U2 are doing monstrous gigs, like three nights of 80,000 each, so it’ll be a great chance to play for a massive audience. And it’ll be nice because the pressure will be off , you don’t have to play so long and you can chill out and enjoy yourself.’When someone like Queen’s Roger Taylor describes you as ‘probably the greatest live act in the world today’, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve arrived. Paul Sexton discovers that Muse’s emotional connection with its diehard fans will provide a unique source of strength and musical invention for a long time to come.
If the bands that stay together the longest are the ones that stay in touch with their fans, then Muse will be packing out the enormodomes of the world for decades to come.
The rock trio have long been the most popular thing to come out of Teignmouth in Devon since cod. Sixteen years together, and a dozen on record, have never brought the merest suggestion of internal strife or indeed a whiff about their personal lives.
But the real secret of Muse and their immense fanbase of diehard devotees lies in something frontman Matt Bellamy tells me, in a break between seemingly endless tour dates. Not only do they feel in touch with their audience, they’re actually beginning to think and write like them. Not so much a rock band and its disciples, more a co-operative life force; these are the men who put the ‘us’ in Muse.
‘There are some songs recently,’ Bellamy explains, ‘where we’re using the pronoun “we” much more than “I,” because that tends to work in the bigger live environment, when people are singing along. With that feeling of being overwhelmed by the audience on a regular basis, you start to tune into a collective emotion. You’re not thinking so much about your own feelings all the time, you start to tune into what lots of people are thinking.’
Stars of the stage
Muse have been working on the craft of becoming one of the best live acts in the world as long as they’ve existed, and if you ask them which of their countless awards means the most to them, it will always be the ones that recognise their stagecraft, be it their Brit, NME or Q trophies.
Early in 2011, the band will get one of their most prestigious endorsements yet, opening for U2 in South America in March, at enormous shows in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. ‘We’ve done our own tour there once before,’ Bellamy says, ‘but obviously U2 are doing monstrous gigs, like three nights of 80,000 each, so it’ll be a great chance to play for a massive audience. And it’ll be nice because the pressure will be off , you don’t have to play so long and you can chill out and enjoy yourself.’
When Muse were presented with their 02 Silver Clef Award this past July by no less a heavyweight pairing than Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, Taylor described Muse simply as ‘probably the greatest live act in the world today’.
‘We’ve got so many of those awards and we’re so happy with them,’ says Bellamy. ‘There was a while where we were getting them quite consistently. We don’t consider ourselves in the Premier League of rock bands, or whatever you want to call it, we never really saw ourselves that way. But when you start getting the awards, you start thinking “Oh, people are really enjoying this,” and the venues keep getting bigger.’
>Read more in page two<
The rock trio have long been the most popular thing to come out of Teignmouth in Devon since cod. Sixteen years together, and a dozen on record, have never brought the merest suggestion of internal strife or indeed a whiff about their personal lives.
But the real secret of Muse and their immense fanbase of diehard devotees lies in something frontman Matt Bellamy tells me, in a break between seemingly endless tour dates. Not only do they feel in touch with their audience, they’re actually beginning to think and write like them. Not so much a rock band and its disciples, more a co-operative life force; these are the men who put the ‘us’ in Muse.
‘There are some songs recently,’ Bellamy explains, ‘where we’re using the pronoun “we” much more than “I,” because that tends to work in the bigger live environment, when people are singing along. With that feeling of being overwhelmed by the audience on a regular basis, you start to tune into a collective emotion. You’re not thinking so much about your own feelings all the time, you start to tune into what lots of people are thinking.’
Muse have been working on the craft of becoming one of the best live acts in the world as long as they’ve existed, and if you ask them which of their countless awards means the most to them, it will always be the ones that recognise their stagecraft, be it their Brit, NME or Q trophies.
Early in 2011, the band will get one of their most prestigious endorsements yet, opening for U2 in South America in March, at enormous shows in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. ‘We’ve done our own tour there once before,’ Bellamy says, ‘but obviously U2 are doing monstrous gigs, like three nights of 80,000 each, so it’ll be a great chance to play for a massive audience. And it’ll be nice because the pressure will be off , you don’t have to play so long and you can chill out and enjoy yourself.’When someone like Queen’s Roger Taylor describes you as ‘probably the greatest live act in the world today’, you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve arrived. Paul Sexton discovers that Muse’s emotional connection with its diehard fans will provide a unique source of strength and musical invention for a long time to come.
If the bands that stay together the longest are the ones that stay in touch with their fans, then Muse will be packing out the enormodomes of the world for decades to come.
The rock trio have long been the most popular thing to come out of Teignmouth in Devon since cod. Sixteen years together, and a dozen on record, have never brought the merest suggestion of internal strife or indeed a whiff about their personal lives.
But the real secret of Muse and their immense fanbase of diehard devotees lies in something frontman Matt Bellamy tells me, in a break between seemingly endless tour dates. Not only do they feel in touch with their audience, they’re actually beginning to think and write like them. Not so much a rock band and its disciples, more a co-operative life force; these are the men who put the ‘us’ in Muse.
‘There are some songs recently,’ Bellamy explains, ‘where we’re using the pronoun “we” much more than “I,” because that tends to work in the bigger live environment, when people are singing along. With that feeling of being overwhelmed by the audience on a regular basis, you start to tune into a collective emotion. You’re not thinking so much about your own feelings all the time, you start to tune into what lots of people are thinking.’
Stars of the stage
Muse have been working on the craft of becoming one of the best live acts in the world as long as they’ve existed, and if you ask them which of their countless awards means the most to them, it will always be the ones that recognise their stagecraft, be it their Brit, NME or Q trophies.
Early in 2011, the band will get one of their most prestigious endorsements yet, opening for U2 in South America in March, at enormous shows in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. ‘We’ve done our own tour there once before,’ Bellamy says, ‘but obviously U2 are doing monstrous gigs, like three nights of 80,000 each, so it’ll be a great chance to play for a massive audience. And it’ll be nice because the pressure will be off , you don’t have to play so long and you can chill out and enjoy yourself.’
When Muse were presented with their 02 Silver Clef Award this past July by no less a heavyweight pairing than Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, Taylor described Muse simply as ‘probably the greatest live act in the world today’.
‘We’ve got so many of those awards and we’re so happy with them,’ says Bellamy. ‘There was a while where we were getting them quite consistently. We don’t consider ourselves in the Premier League of rock bands, or whatever you want to call it, we never really saw ourselves that way. But when you start getting the awards, you start thinking “Oh, people are really enjoying this,” and the venues keep getting bigger.’
>Read more in page two<
