(MUSE) 2Rock Interview - Haldern Pop Festival 2001

c. June 2001

(Host is Nils Neumann) 

HOST (laughing after introduction in German): This was like, total bullshit. It was like 'great pleasure to have uh, the gentleman of Muse, sitting like, having here like...' (laughs) Um. Haldern. You haven't played this festival before?   

MATTHEW (laughs): Yeah, we have. Yeah. We played two years ago. We were the first band on. Yeah. Yeah.

HOST: So, how do you like it? 

MATTHEW: I can't remember. Yeah. It was alright. Yeah. Last time we played there was only about one hundred people there, and they were just like 'Who are you?' and like 'boooo', and threw a few bottles. And we said, 'We'll come back in two years time'. (laughter)

HOST: What do you like on festivals? I mean, how many have you played this year?

CHRISTOPHER: How many? Not that many actually. We did about fifty last year. We've done about ten, eleven...  

DOMINIC: About eleven or ten this year. But um, it's nice to play outside you know, and meet lots of bands and see lots of music. 

HOST: This festival is like, a really smaller one. Do you think.... when you are on stage, 'okay now, this is easy-going, look, there are about two-thousand people, this is an easy way to do?' When you are confronted with fifty-thousand, it's like, 'Okay, now we have to..."

MATTHEW (laughs): No, it's not really like that, because erm...because sometimes you can only really see...I mean, I don't really look at the audience too much you know, only a little bit, and erm sometimes you can't really tell, when it goes beyond like four-thousand, five-thousand, it just becomes a big (makes a noise)...just a big blur, you know? And erm (giggles - teased by interviewer)...he's lost it...and erm...so then... what I am saying is, I think all it depends on is how we feel about each other, you know, on stage we kind of look at each other, and it's like sometimes we play in front of like, a little gig...we did...we went to Japan, and we were playing in front of like...we did a couple of little secret gigs, like three hundred people, and they were like fucking mental, I mean like mental. Cos it was like wah...and then erm...you know, so it doesn't... 

DOMINIC: "It's like wah" (imitates MATTHEW. CHRISTOPHER loses it, and stars laughing)

MATTHEW: So it doesn't really erm...I don't think it makes a difference, I think it's really how we are feeling with each other, you know? I always contact, you know. We look at each other, and you can just tell...I can always tell instantly if it's a good one.    

HOST: Okay. What is the best gig you have ever played, is there...I mean like, opening up for the Red Hot Chili Peppers...?

MATTHEW: Yeah, that was good...erm (blows cheeks out to think)...I think the last gig we did in Japan was pretty goddamn good.  

(DOMINIC says something)

MATTHEW (cont): The last gig we did in Japan, yeah, yeah...cos we played Japan...we've been to Japan about three or four times. The first time, everyone is like sort of standing there like, and everyone was like nervous, and every time I sort of moved my guitar, everyone went like *makes an excited gasping sound and claps*...and so, the last time I went there, I was just like doing star jumps and all over the place, and we had balloons everywhere, and the whole place just went mental, you know like...it all went crazy, you know like they lost control...

HOST: They said the Japan fans are like, really going crazy

MATTHEW: But apart from that, maybe we did a gig in...erm, gig in Italy...last year which was really, um...bloody hell, we come and played this year...oh no, we played it last year, we did a festival...it was actually the biggest gig we ever did, it was sixty thousand, and we were like really nervous, you know. But it was really good, because it went really well. So you know...

(After the host does a spiel in German, we cut to live footage - PLUG IN BABY)

Q: Shortly before you went into the studio after the last big tour, you were pretty through it. I mean physically, you were very very very...yeah...through it. How came that? What took you the power?

MATTHEW: To make an album?

HOST: No, no no...after the tour...you were like...

(OFF SCREEN it sounds like DOMINIC says something like, "We were knackered")

MATTHEW: Erm...what do you mean? What's the question?

HOST: You were thin, and physically not...you looked like really bad, and healthy not...

DOMINIC: We did so many gigs. We did fifty festivals, and I think...I am sure something was getting messy you know I think at the end. But we just had a little time off. Relaxed, Matt went to the Maldives and did some scuba diving. 

MATTHEW: I went to the Maldives, and uh did scuba diving. You know, diving with fish. I saw sharks, dolphins, everything. And I came up, and I was healthy again, you know. Also, we went to the studio, obviously we went to the studio, with you know, Dave Bottrill...we recorded the songs we had been playing live, and we sort of turned it into a holiday you know, because we recorded the songs very fast. Like um (makes a PFFFFH noise), just done. We did 'em all in about three or four days, and then we had about a week off in the studio...so we erm...were eating mushrooms. 

HOST: It's good, it's good, it's good, it's good

MATTHEW: But that helps, that helps...erm, just like doing something that completely changes your perception of something.

HOST: Now this time, being on tour with Origin Of Symmetry, is that something you would never do again, like you did the last time?

MATTHEW (thinks for a second): Well...I think, think...I...we're doing actually a lot more like, you know, drinking. Like now. But in terms of what I wouldn't do from last time, was all...we did too many festivals...too many festivals to the point where it was unrealistic. You know like, we were like every day we'd do a festival, cos we even did so many, cos you can always do a festival in the daytime, and then get a flight straight away afterwards, and then go to another one. And sometimes, a couple of times...I am sure we did like a two gigs in a day or sometimes, we did like too many gigs. You know? And erm...and erm...and also doing things like TV shows, and interviews and everything, all at the same time you know. So I don't think it was just...our schedule was very badly organized, yeah, yeah. 

HOST: Tell me three absolute no no's you will never do again, like concerning tour, media, press...

(Pause)

DOMINIC - nervous chuckle. HOST stands and gesticulates.

DOMINIC: I'll never not tell... (microphone moves away, cutting him off)

MATTHEW: I'll never erm...I'll never erm...eat...I'll never eat Currito ham in Spain. Again. Cos uh, it used to be my favourite, sort of food, yeah. It is like Spanish ham. I went to Spain and went like "Currito"...you know it's like the nice ham that is like raw ham... 

HOST: I don't know...

MATTHEW: Yeah, yeah, yeah...basically, it's very famous in Spain, and I went and bought loads, and just went waaaah...and ate all of it...and that night I was sick in the bus, in my bunk you know, and that was probably the worst experience in tour ever. Cos I was trapped inside a little bunk on a bus that was driving, so we couldn't stop and I was like bluhhh everywhere, like that. So that was probably...what...eat healthily, that's what I will do from now on. Maybe. 

HOST: For you? 

CHRISTOPHER: I'll never drink Absinthe. Never again. Ever.

HOST: Like, the real...

CHRISTOPHER: Fuckin' hell...it's 70% of something, and it's like...

HOST (to CHRISTOPHER): What is it you like? (?) 

(LAUGHTER)

DOMINIC: Never not stop drinking Absinthe

(LAUGHTER)

HOST CLOSES OUT IN GERMAN. 

CUT TO MORE LIVE FOOTAGE.