(MUSE) Making of Showbiz
Pinkpop
1999
(EXTERIOR - A LONDON STREET)
Q: Where are we?
MATTHEW: This is, uh, RAK Studios (points to a sign) Look, RAK. This is where we made our album, which is called Showbiz by the way.
(INSIDE)
MATTHEW (opening a door): It's like three different studios here. This is where The Cure were, when we made our album, and Pavement were down there. And erm, this is where we made ours. So, it's nice when there are lots of bands all together, and like they meet up and have dinner and stuff, it's a very social place.
(Follow to mixing deck)
Q: So, how much time did you spend here?
MATTHEW (playing with his shoe): We were here for about four weeks all together. We did the other half of the album down in Cornwall, where we are from. The studio down there is very secluded, very like hidden from everything, whereas this is much more open. Regarding this studio, John Leckie chose this place because of this desk, which is like a really old thing, which you don't really find anywhere anymore. It's like an old vintage desk. It has a certain sound to it, and as you can see, like everything here is pretty old. There is not like very modern here. There is no computers and things like that, so you know, it's all down to the bands to create their atmosphere.
(CUT to Muscle Museum)
JOHN LECKIE: I originally started at Abbey Road Studios as an engineer, and this was back in the early 70s, and so, um I engineered all sorts of different sessions for different producers. I worked with Mickie Most, I worked with Phil Spector, George Harrison and John Lennon*. I worked with Pink Floyd, and lots of groups around at that time.
MATTHEW: He came to see us play, and he liked us and everything, and we sort of became good friends then. And he was with us when we went to America when we were first looking for these record deals. He was with us. We decided that if we ever got enough money, we would do the album together like here, and in Cornwall. Luckily we did. We got to know him about maybe five months before we actually made it.
(STUDIO FOOTAGE)
MATTHEW: We would sort of roll in at about three or four, and just do nothing. Just sit around and eat, and talk about what we are gonna do later. And as it got darker, or whatever, into the night, that's usually about the time when ideas are at their best anyway, and um, so it was usually very late at night and working until late. And when we had finished, John Leckie would always, he would always bring in some of these old records of stuff that I had never heard before. It was actually John Leckie who told me about Tom Waits and stuff, and he'd like play like these Tom Waits records, and I was really getting into it. And late at night when we'd finish, he'd just like turn all the lights off, and just listen to like...listen to like weird stuff.
(THE TOUR CONTINUES - MATTHEW WALKS INTO A ROOM WITH A GRAND PIANO, SOMEONE IS SINGLY GRANDLY OFF)
MATTHEW: This is the studio. These panels here we made into like, little rooms, like with the vocals. And there was a big thing...we drew a big curtain we had here to make it seem like more close and stuff, and we'd have like separate lighting and stuff like that. And um...here...there you go.
Q: So, the piano, was that a place where you spent a lot of time?
MATTHEW: Yeah. The piano is really good for like, working out arrangements, and I replaced a lot of the guitars with that piano there. Like a lot of the songs, Sunburn and Cave. Almost any piano stuff you hear on the album, it was done on that piano there.
(CUT TO MATTHEW PLAYING THE PIANO, AND STARING THOUGHTFULLY OUT OF THE WINDOW)
JOHN LECKIE: The thing with Muse is that they play their instruments very well, but they don't have much studio experience. So, um, I was surprised actually, how good they were in the studio really being from trying different things, being open to different ideas...
MATTHEW (sitting on the floor, cross legged): So, when we were doing things, he'd say like 'Oh, that sounds...that sounds like what you are trying to do, is the ending of this song by David Bowie' in some album or something, and it's like...he sort of...and I never even heard that record in my life, but he sort of knows the sort of sound effect that I am looking for.
JOHN LECKIE: It's quite funny, because I kept referring to Falling Down as 'the blues song'. And you know, 'You know 'the blues song', let's rehearse 'the blues song'. And one day Matthew came up to me and said, 'Why do you call that 'the blues song?'. What is blues? I said, 'Matthew, it's blues because of the way you sing that note on the guitar chord, it becomes a blues song, you know. 'Ahh, I didn't hear about this. I had better check this out. I had better check some blues out'.
MATTHEW: When we first formed, we called ourselves 'Muse', but we entered this competition which was like a Battle Of The Bands competition, like a competition of local bands playing with each other. And um, we knew that we would probably lose, cos Muse had just started, and um, the songs we were writing were quite serious and stuff like that, so we invented this other band, 'Rocket Baby Dolls', which was like very glam. You know, like, we wore lots of make up and sort of the music we played was much more punk and aggressive, and we actually won the competition. But that was actually the first gig we ever did as Muse, but we called it 'Rocket Baby Dolls', and I think as the band's gone along, I think we have always had this, you know, this double sort of persona, hidden inside.
(CUT TO SUNBURN ACCOUSTIC IN THE STUDIO)
JOHN LECKIE: I think what Matt got off in the studio, is that sometimes in the studio you can trash things, like you can use a cheap old microphone to record, or you can put the microphone on the floor under the table. And Matt said, 'Oh, you know, you can't do things like that." You know. I said, 'Well of course you can, this is what you do...and he's meant to be the young rebel, and I'm saying 'Let's put the microphone up here or something, and see what it sounds like'. So I think he got off on some of those crazy ideas and things.
(CUT TO SUNBURN ACCOUSTIC IN THE STUDIO)
MATTHEW: I think...I think the most important thing that I learned from John was the importance of...of...you know being of like, concentrating on getting the performance...because...I mean, that sounds simple, but a lot of bands nowadays they record something, and if they get it wrong...the drummer doesn't play very well, or the bass player, or whatever...you can sort of fix it...because like nowadays you get these computer editing systems, and um, they are very complicated and they are very modern. And, you go into them and you can like fix little tiny things, like little discrepancies, and you know, little mistakes on the bass-drum. You can like fix them. I think what John taught me, was like, you know those discrepancies are like the thing that makes it human, you know. Those are the things that make it what it is.
(CLOSE OUT - MATTHEW IS PLAYING BOOGIE-WOOGIE AT THE PIANO. CHRISTOPHER HAS TAKEN OVER DOMINIC'S DRUMS, AND IS DRUMMING ONE SNARE IN TIME, ANOTHER ON DOMINIC'S HEAD. DOMINIC IS PRETENDING TO PLAY STAND UP BASS WHILE PUTTING AWAY HIS EQUIPMENT)
NOTES
For Rocket Baby Dolls one and only gig see article "MP joins Battle of The Bands"
*Lennon called him "Lickie"
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