(MUSE) Tapping Into Muse
1st November 2001
Playing live is what inspires Bellamy and the boys, finds Andrea Mullaney
Muse tend to be grouped alongside Coldplay as the latest nice young student favourites - but in reality, it seems they're more like the new Spinal Tap.
Singer Matthew Bellamy is honest enough to admit it too. "Last year, I decided to have this concept of white cones hanging down (on stage) and trying to make them look like they had souls trapped inside of them by having lights in them, and making all this improvised choral stuff as an introduction," he recounts, in true David St Hubbins style.
"I got into a cone at the end of a gig and it fell on top of me. I got trapped inside it, and had to roll behind the drum riser until the crowd had left. Until then I hadn't seen Spinal Tap - someone showed it to me after that, and I realised what a jerk I must have looked like."
Aww. It's clear now why the band, who hail from the sleepy town of Teignmouth, Devon, have been embraced by the metal fraternity, winning Kerrang magazine's Best British Act award this year.
As they mingled with the likes of Marilyn Manson, initial descriptions of them as simply Radiohead-lite seemed increasingly unlikely. It came as something of a relief to the band, who were getting fed up with comparisons to the Oxford band.
"For me it's really good to win the award, because it's a sign that what we're doing is being seen as hard rock. When we first came out, everyone thought it was like whingeing indie crap or something," reckons Bellamy.
Among their detractors, in fact, were the similarly student-beloved Stereophonics, who launched a feud with Muse recently that dimly echoed the great Brit-Pop war of Oasis v Blur (1994-5 and recurrent).
Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones took a minute off from berating the music press to diss Muse for allegedly demanding £30,000 to play a support slot, cuttingly adding, "I could get a Radiohead tribute band for less."
But Muse, still clinging on to their nice guy status, refused to meet the challenge. Bellamy claims he knows nothing about the whole affair. "I don't know what he's talking about. We've met him a few times and I thought he was a cool guy and got on with him. I'm just a little bit shocked by all that."
Still, Muse could end up having the last laugh, as they've been tipped to be one of the first of the new crop of British rock bands to really make it in America, after touring with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters. While many UK bands don't tend to have the stamina it takes for the relentless touring needed to break the States, Muse seem to thrive on it.
"In terms of how different artists promote themselves, for us touring is the main way of people getting to know us," says Bellamy.
"For me, playing live is the form of promotion I trust the most, because I know people are seeing us for who we really are. I've found in the past that people have only really understood what we were about when they saw us live."
And of course, it means he gets to indulge in all manner of Tap-tastic flights of fancy. Turn those amps up to 11, boys.
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