Muse (Interview 1999) - transcription

c.1999

*STUDIO SETTING*

MATTHEW: Hi, we're called Muse. This song is called "Sunburn."

(SUNBURN plays)

DOMINIC: My name's Dominic, and I play the drums in Muse. 

MATTHEW: My name's Matthew, and I sing and play guitar.

CHRISTOPHER: My name's Chris, and I play the bass.

(SUNBURN cont)

MATTHEW: In school we were about sixteen, in an art lesson. And someone, I think it was one of our teachers, said something about 'Muses'. And we didn't know what it meant, so we looked it up in the dictionary and thought, 'That's a good name'. But the main reason is because it's only four letters in the word, when you put it on a poster it looks big. Bigger than all the other bands. Four letter name. Short names are good. 

(SHOWBIZ CONT)

Ry Cooder
(remind you of anyone?)

MATTHEW: I started doing music when I was very young, about the age of thirteen. I used to play a lot of um, Spanish guitar. I learnt a lot of Spanish guitar. I grew my nails so I could do Spanish guitar music, and then I started learning electric guitar, and I was very influenced by Blues music from Ray Charles, Ry Cooder and Robert Johnson. 

DOMNIC: Yeah, we all met at school when we were like thirteen, and there was a band that me and Matt were in, called 'Gothic Plague'. Pretty dark (chuckles)...and eventually there was quite a few school bands going around playing other peoples songs, and eventually everyone sort of lost interest really, apart from us, and we decided to start doing our own thing. We got Chris in the band, at about sixteen...

MATTHEW: We couldn't really...we couldn't play at all, and uh, we entered this competition with all the bands in the local area...all the bands from where we are from, which is Devon. South West. It's like mostly countryside, and beaches where we live. And all the other bands, they were very sort of older funk bands, sort of 'pub rock', you know what I mean? And uh, we entered a competition with these bands, and we knew we couldn't win 'cos we couldn't play at all, so we wore lots of like makeup, and demolished...or sort of like smashed up all the stage, and got all our friends to do the same, and I think that we actually won the competition, and that was a big, big shock, 'cos erm we didn't think we were good musicians. We thought we were terrible. We were terrible...but it was the attitude, and the vibe that won us the competition, and I think we realized then, that's what music is about. 

(UNO plays)

Q: Comparisons with Radiohead are inevitable, but can you talk about the fact that you are sort of 'second wave'. 

MATTHEW: I think the main reason is because, we use the same producer, John Leckie. Who did The Bends, and also around the time when they djd that album, Jeff Buckley was still alive, and I think the way he sings comes out in my voice sometimes and (I'm not sure) but I think...I think...when people see us live and they realize that we are much younger, and uh, there is only three of us, and our music is aimed at people our age and younger, we don't expect to win over people who are thirty. 

(CAVE plays)

MATTHEW: I think the main thing is that the band has been together for six years, and in that time we have all grown together, we have all learned our instruments together, so we are quite experienced with playing. We've played like gigs all over England, many many times, like touring small, small places up until about...up until the start of this year. 

The "Showbiz" title is referring to an act that we all play every day in life, more so than "Showbusiness", you know, it's more about everyday life, and how we hide behind personalities that we create for other people. 

(MUSCLE MUSEUM plays)

Q: Do you like life on the road?

CHRISTOPHER: Yeah, it's good. I mean, the tour bus gets a bit sweaty sometimes, and it's a bit smelly...

DOMINIC (off): Sweaty bus...

CHRISTOPHER: But it's yeah, it's good fun. We play every night.

MATTHEW: Yeah, before it was always like we used to have our own cars, and we used to like stack up the cars with equipment and drive for like hours to play. Now...now you sort of like put it all on the bus, and other people set it up for you, which is very nice.

DOMINIC: It's good. You wake up in a different city every day, and so, get to play to different people every day, and we are just getting a chance to travel around the world at a very sort of early stage.

(MUSCLE MUSEUM cont)

MATTHEW: People take an interest in something, and then they take an interest in something else. This may last for one year. This may last for ten years, you know. It's an enjoyable experience. It's a big learning experience. You get to see people differently. And you see different sides of people. I will probably end up being a painter and decorator in ten years time.