(MUSE) Muse's Matt Bellamy on madness and musicality, money and the music press and why mellowing out isn't an option...

Total Guitar

July 2001 - Issue No #85

Matt Bellamy goes mad, gets heavier...

 Using human skulls as percussion on the new album, hanging out in karaoke bars with the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and the Foo Fighters, drinking to excess, claiming that his local police force were corrupt drug dealers, public rows with the Stereophonics...what's going on with Muse and, more particularly, Matt Bellamy? 

 The latest controversy? Muse were rumored to be supporting the Stereophonics this summer on their Day At The Races dates but allegedly turned the Stereophonics down, asking for more money than was on offer £25,000 in total, say the 'Phonics. Kelly joked that they could get a Radiohead tribute band in to take their place, and added "they just sound so much like the other band, I can't buy it". More directly he said that Matt was "a bit of a knob" and a "fucking idiot". 

 Sitting in a deserted Camden bar - having just been photographed with his new custom made Manson guitar (more on that later), Bellamy remains typically unfazed. So what's his side of the story? - "They didn't offer us a gig in the first place" he begins. "So I don't know where they've got that from. It's a weird misunderstanding between agents," he says sounding confused by Jones' comments. "I'm offended by what they said because we did a couple of gigs with them and got on really well, and I find it difficult them calling us money grabbers when they demanded so much more money that we apparently did to play the Reading Festival." Matt ended the row by responding in the NME by saying that they would only support the band now for "two million and would advise them to use their wood-chopping skills to build me a private portaloo". Ahem.

 So that aside, are Muse - and particularly their charismatic singer, songwriter and guitarist Matt - cracking up? Nah: not these guys.

 "I think it was just the fact that we did a lot of press while we were in the middle of making an album so I was talking quite randomly a lot of the time," reflects Bellamy. "It could be perceived as madness, but I think a lot of it was exaggeration from the music press as well."

 Whether Teignmouth's most famous exports are mad or quite sane, did this come across as a slightly difficult album to record - was it? "It was okay?" says Matt.

 "We got it done on time and everything - but only just before we had to do some dates." 

"I love it. I've listened to it a lot now and I'm really cool with it. I'm a lot happier with my performances - both guitarwise and vocally - now than on the last album recently and I just kept thinking, 'Ah, I could do that better'. A lot of the time on the new album we were trying to catch some of the live energy, and a lot of it was recorded with all three of us altogether." 

 Now that the eagerly awaited album has been released, it's evident that the band's first release was no one-off. Origin Of Symmetry is a very big album - big guitars, big production, big songs - hell, big everything. Couple this with their always excellent live performances, and Muse are now a serious musical force to be reckoned with. And considering the amount of live dates they've now accumulated - building up a solid and loyal fanbase along the way - capturing that live feel on record seems like an obvious progression. 

 "We're trying now, more than ever to incorporate a sense of improvisation, and spontaneity in the way we play. We've learnt to structure the songs in such a way that they sound slightly different each time. Only subtly - it's not about going off and doing big solos every time - just playing the parts differently each night. It means that every night for us is going to be different, too."

 The very act of just watching Matt perform live is tiring enough in itself. He has an extremely physical relationship with the guitar which marks him out as a modern-day Pete Townsend. His unique stage act involves such wildly swinging guitar - around his head, pulling windmills, and dashing to his knees whilst still playing. "Why? It's just a good laugh really," he shrugs. "If your music and your performance is just static, you come across as a depressing person. But when the music sounds emotional...it's about being honest about who I am. And basically it's just good fun."

 TG even witnessed him playing behind his head a la Hendrix at the Astoria last year. Is this a regular feature? "I'm not sure about that," he says sounding slightly bewildered. "I dunno - have I ever done that? I'm sure I've only done it once, and I didn't play anything, it was just pure feedback and noise. Anything I do on stage, it's improvised, spur of the moment. And I don't really think about or practice those moves," he insists, keen to emphasise the spontaneous nature of his guitar performances. And there won't be any guitar carnage (ie trashing) on stage this time around, either, he adds. "It's a bit silly, I feel now. Sometimes I couldn't help doing it, but it was never planned. If you break stuff too many things start going wrong - amps start going down and so on - and I want to start avoiding that. If you do it early into the tour, it just ruins your sound for the rest of your shows, too." 

 Capturing the "live" sound aside, what can Matt tell us about the new album: is there a major sonic shift from Showbiz? Apparently not. "It's not a huge departure from the last album at all. I think it's important with the second album not to contrive the change, so we've been honest. The differences are that it sounds more like a three-piece band. And generally, it's a lot more heavy. The thing with the songs on the first album, when we played the songs live, a lot of people said they were more raw and aggressive sounding, which we liked. And that's more apparent here."

 And is this the album what Matt expected it to be? "Yeah. What we wanted to do was to record an album that we wanted to tour with I'm sure if we go on a long time as a band, we'll start making less noisy albums. But at this point in my life, I just want to jump around on stage, y'know"

As far as TG is concerned, Bellamy is definitely one of the most exciting and sophisticated players to have emerged in the last two years or so. Matt looks visibly embarrassed when we tell him this. But, surrounded by bands content to rely heavily on power-chords, Matt can't help but be a guitarist to watch. 

 "A lot of people feel that musicianship takes away from emotion and I think that Nirvana...and Sonic Youth...their motto was, 'the more technique the less emotion you put into it.' But I disagree with that. I think there's a line to be drawn between being completely just technical and incorporating some aspects of technique into your playing...For me it's about pushing the human body to what its limitations are. And that in itself is an emotional experience. It's not about just being robotic. It's about using what you've been given to its maximum potential in every album. There's a lot less chords altogether."

 Last time TG spoke to Matt, he revealed that there would be, 'more acoustic flamenco guitar work' on the new album, nodding to classical players such as Villa Lobos and Francisco Tarrega whom Matt often speaks highly of. We've already heard their B-side to Plug in Baby, Bedroom Acoustics, but how much of a look-in does this style of playing get on the new record? 

 "There's actually one track on the album like that which has made it" (Screenager) he confesses. 

 "There's diminished chords going on, and I use a lot of scales on it. It makes it sound a bit Nick Cave/Tom Watts-ish, quite dark. But yeah, it's the only track that is like that, the rest of it is a bit full-on and more rocking". Yep, Matt has not mellowed, and being just 22, why should he? "One of the songs that was acoustic we ended up doing an electric version of, and we liked it a lot more. I suppose at this time in my life, I don't want to be sat in a chair playing acoustic songs."

 In the meantime, they can bask in the success of their biggest hit to date. Plug In Baby which reached number 11 and got them a place on Top Of The Pops; was Matt a bit miffed they just missed out on the top 10? "Oh no" he says. "Number 11's great. I'd rather remain slightly around the edges of where the mainstream stuff is happening because then you're more likely to have a long term thing hopefully."

 And album number three? "I don't know. There's a few songs we've written of a more mellow nature, and I wouldn't want to release them now because I'd be afraid that they'd become singles, and as soon as you do that sort of 'mellow' music, it's like you veer off and become coffee table music. I'm reasonably able bodied at the minute. I'll save the acoustic for when I get old." 

 So how does he feel about being on the cover of a guitar mag? "It's quite funny. I used to buy them when I was younger, looking for cheap amps. I once saw by Primus tabbed, and I remember looking at all these ridiculous notes and thinking I could never play them." One listen to Muse's new album, will tell you: it's a different story these days.    

Words: Helen Dalley, pictures Gavin Roberts