SebastiaN MUSE LoverS ForeveR

Muse are promoting their latest album in the US

The band had to abandon the show at the city's Cotton Club after Bellamy struck himself with his guitar during the set.

He was treated in hospital following the incident on Saturday, and the band were forced to cancel a show in Philadelphia planned for Monday.

Bellamy has now recovered, and the group are playing a scheduled show in New York City on Wednesday night.

A band spokesman said it had been a "relatively serious" incident but Bellamy had thankfully felt well enough to press on with the tour.

"He hurt himself - and his pride a little," said the spokesman.

Muse, who will co-headline this summer's V Festival, are in the States promoting their latest album Absolution.

It starts with the sound of massed armies approaching and ends with a single dying power chord: it's called Apocalypse Please and it's the opening track on Muse's extraordinary new album Absolution. From here on in it's a non-stop lunatic ride through some of the grandest, most unashamedly epic guitar music ever created, taking in mournful death marches (Blackout), sound-and-fury riffing (Stockholm Syndrome), and thunderous end-of-the-world anthems (Time Is Running Out). In the months leading up to the album's release, Matt Bellamy told the press that the coming Muse record would be more 'uplifting' than previous efforts. We needn't have worried. From its portentous opening bars to its final, desolate climax, Absolution is about as 'uplifting' as a nuclear holocaust.

"So we decided to take a break from it over Christmas. When we came back in the New Year we opted to work with this guy Rich Costey (Rage Against The Machine, The Mars Volta) and it all took on a more minimalist approach." Of course, what Matt Bellamy considers "minimalist" is what the rest of us would describe as "absolutely bleeding monumental" - and, sure enough, Absolution is shot through with mad effects, unorthodox scales, and jaw-droppingly inventive guitar sounds. TG caught up with him during Muse's recent Australian tour and asked, 'How on earth do you do it?'

- The guitars on the new album sound immense. What's your secret?

Well in a studio environment you can really test amps out against each other and find out what sounds best. I went through a lot of different cabs and heads but ended up using a Diezel head with a Soldano cabinet. It was the best sound I could find so I used that on everything. And I'll be using that exact set-up live as well. The good thing about the Diezel is that it's MIDI controllable, which means I can plug my guitar straight into the amp and have the effects just going through the effects loop.

What I use is a Line 6 Echo Pro, which is actually a studio unit. And because it's MIDI-controllable, it means I can have it on a rack next to the amp, leaving the signal between the guitar and the amp completely clean. It just goes straight from me into the amp, with the Echo Pro running parallel. So when I hit my MIDI foot-controller the amp brings it into the loop.

- How did you go about capturing those sounds in the studio?

Basically the cabinet had about 20 microphones in front of it! I couldn't tell you which particular ones were which, as there were so many different microphones there. But all of the leads were coming into a mixer. Obviously the mixing desk was a really big one and because we're only a three piece band, we would put a lot of mics on our instruments and mix different microphones together to get a sound. We would just go through them all and on some songs, we'd have like four mics on at once while others would have just one. Then on some other songs we'd have a little of all of them. That approach gave us a lot of manoeuvrability. We actually mixed the album on the same mixing desk that the Beach Boys used for Pet Sounds. That was Rich's (Costey, producer) idea.

- How did your approach differ from previous albums?

In the past I was layering guitars quite a lot but this time I wanted to get just one guitar part to stand out and be just perfect. On the last album [Origin Of Symmetry] for example, on songs like Citizen Erased or Micro Cuts, I did a lot of multiple guitar parts. But when I went to do it live, I actually found myself simplifying the guitar parts and found that the simple parts were much more effective and much more powerful sounding. So in making this album, instead of recording the songs in layers, I was actually working on the parts a lot more before I recorded them.

- Did you use any weird tunings?

It's mostly in standard tuning. But there were a couple of songs where I used different ones, like on Stockholm Syndrone, which has a drop D tuning, and Blackout, which has standard tuning all the way through but with the D string dropped down to a Db, just for a couple of notes at the very end. And on Thoughts of a Dying Atheist I have a capo on the 10th fret.

- Did you experiment with any new guitar techniques?

I've been influenced a little bit by a System Of A Down especially on songs like Stockholm Syndrome. I was getting into that kind of fast speed metal-type riffery, which is something I've never done before. Actually I know I'm going to completely contradict what I said before but, on Time Is Running Out, instead of recording the normal chords, I actually broke the chord down into its individual notes and recorded them all individually, and kind of built up the chord that way.

- You mean the same approach that Def Leppard used for Hysteria?

Yes exactly! I did that on a couple of songs, but I always stayed within the realm of one overall guitar part. Like if I was doing multi-layer guitars, I would break down the strings into smaller parts, so it wouldn't get too out of control.

- You're famous for using unique custom-made Manson guitars. Did you use anything more conventional on Absolution?

Apart from the Mansons I just used a Gibson SG - I think it's a 1962. It's technically a Les Paul but looks like a SG, as back then Les Pauls used to look like what SG's look like now. So it's basically an SG but it's got this really fat neck, much fatter than a normal SG, with a tremolo on it as well. I used that guitar on Hysteria and on Time Is Running Out.

- What's your backline like these days? Are you still using Marshall JCM2000s?

I had to completely change my amp set-up for this record. When I was starting out years ago, I was using quite a lot of different amps really, often three at the same time. I had a Matchless, a Fender Deville and a Marshall stack, all with loads of effect pedals. I was kind of thinking it was getting to be too much gear to be carting around. I also found that going through all the effects was taking away from the tone of the guitar. So I ended up stripping it all down and starting from scratch. And that was when I started using just the JCM 2000, which - along with a Line 6 delay (DM4) and a Digitech whammy pedal - was all I used for the past couple of years.

"But now I've completely changed my sound because I've found this new Diezel. It's a German high gain valve amp and the sound of it is just unbelievable. They're very rare and very hard to find. You can only get them hand built, but the sound you get is absolutely pristine! It's got four channels with four different valves in them that create completely different tones. I used that for virtually everything on the album.

- Do a lot of your riffs and guitar lines come from just the band jamming together or do you actually map them out ahead?

A lot of the riffery stuff does come from jamming with the band, just kind of playing through stuff and suddenly something will happen and we kind of go with it. But at the same time again I'll spend a lot of time on the piano. It's such a different mood when I play the piano. But then when I pick up the guitar, it's like I can't believe how powerful it is and how much more stuff you can do with it. So the first few minutes after I pick up a guitar after I've played the piano for hours, I seem to come up with loads of ideas, simply because of the contrast.

- Does your fondness for the piano influence the way you play guitar?

Well the first instrument I got into was actually the guitar. The piano was just something that I would play just for fun every now and then. When I was 13 or 14 it was the guitar that made me really want to get into music. I wasn't into classical music back then; I was into grunge and Jimi Hendrix and stuff. So what got me into the guitar was more the loose and out of control kind of improvisational guitar playing, with lots of mistakes. But then when we recorded our first album [Showbiz] I started to become interested in the piano again, because we had a song on the album called Sunburn and it didn't sound very good on the guitar so I had to work it out on the piano. It took me ages because at that time I hadn't played the piano for many years. But when we recorded it I was very happy with the result and at that point I decided to start working on the piano more.

- So it was only once you'd got into piano playing that you embraced the more technical, classical side of things?

Yes. I don't know why that is, but I think it could be something to do with the early 20th century piano music [that I was listening to]. It's very emotional but at the same time quite technical as well. I found that an interesting concept because with the guitar it seemed you could only be either emotional or technical, and it seemed you couldn't do both. But the piano helped me understand that it was possible to make music that was technical and also emotional at the same time. So for that reason I think the piano playing started to influence the songwriting on Origin of Symmetry, and probably a lot more on this album as well. It obviously has an influence on the way I'm thinking about playing chords on the guitar too.

- Do you do get to do much writing when you're out on the road?

Yeah, ideas are always coming and going in soundchecks and when you're hanging around in hotel rooms with your acoustic or whatever. I don't usually write stuff down because I kind of believe if something is good, then you'll just remember it. I think it's the same as when you hear a catchy tune or something you really love and it sticks in your mind. The same thing applies to when you're writing music. You shouldn't have to write things down and make demo tapes of everything you do.

- Have you ever thought about doing a solo album?

I don't know, I can't see a reason why I would want to work with a different drummer or a different bass player. In terms of exploration, maybe other people could be added to the band - that's something I imagine we could try. But in regards to Dom and Chris, if I was ever going to make music there's no-one else I would really want to work with.

- What are your thoughts on the current British rock scene and on bands like The Darkness?

Well I do know The Darkness very well. It's a very retro '80's sound. I find music that is retro very entertaining but it doesn't really say anything to me about my life. It's not something I can really relate to but at the same time, I can appreciate it from an entertainment point of view. I think that's the same with the garage punk music that's going on as well. It's entertaining and interesting but nothing I can relate to. Personally I'm more interested in music that is looking to move forward as opposed to moving backwards.

- What can we expect from Muse in the future?

What the immediate future holds is a load of arena shows around Europe. It's the first time we're doing that kind of thing so we're getting in all these video screens and we're going to put on a big kind of show. We're also planning to do a fair bit in America, as last time we didn't do much over there. On this album we're definitely going to do a lot more touring over there. Apart from that, I really can't say what's going to happen in the long-term future. I can't see that far ahead.

Over a weekend in June in 2007, UK's prog rockers Muse played to a massive crowd of 150,000 delirious fans - all captured on this month's DVD release, HAARP, Live at Wembley Stadium. Are Muse the biggest band in the world? asks Jodie McLeod

It was the most closely contested Triple J Hottest 100 of all time – the difference between the two top slots, a lousy 13 votes. The winner wasn’t Australia’s biggest band, Silverchair, but the unlikely English (Devon, in fact) prog band, Muse, with their song ‘Knights of Cydonia’, clocking in at the very un-radio friendly length of six minutes.

It was a good year, a cherry on the top for a band that on a summer weekend in 2007, took to the stage at London’s new Wembley Stadium – the first band to play in and sell out the $1.6 billion stadium – once again demonstrating their unquenchable ambition to become the world’s best live band.

When they brought their Stadium tour through Sydney, Time Out caught up with Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme and spoke tours, nerves and Harry’s Café de Wheels.

You guys are really big in Australia now, but has that always been the case? The first time we played in Australia we played in a RSL. That was in 1999. We played to maybe 50 or 60 people. We did a couple of tours in Australia on our first album, and then we didn’t come here at all for the second album. And then it wasn’t until Absolution where we did the Big Day Out. Things didn’t really seem to be moving forward in Australia at all. And all of a sudden it all went crazy. And since then we’ve kept coming back.

When in Sydney, where do you go? We like Harry’s. We were sitting there eating pies looking down at the mudflats [it was lowtide], and it was covered in rats. It was weird eating and watching rats. It didn’t work.

What was going through your mind before that Wembley gig? I think I was pretty much as terrified as I’ve ever been for a gig. But not just that day – I was nervous for the entire week. Any normal gig, even big arenas, you only really get nervous maybe half an hour before the show. The difference between an arena and a stadium is obvious. Sixty-something thousand people, that’s a different story.

How much planning went into the show? That gig was booked nine months before we actually did it. There was so much planning. And it was always there in the back of our minds – we have a huge show on June 16 and 17 at Wembley Stadium. The week leading up to it was where everyone was getting extremely nervous, and then the day before the gig, I felt sick. It was that bad. Obviously excited as well, but I felt sick. And not just because of the amount of people – just the fact we’d never really played a stadium before and we were unsure as to whether our music would work in a stadium. But once we got out there, it was great.

Did anything go wrong? It was quite emotional really. A couple of times I almost felt choked up because it made me think a lot of where we came from – playing in little clubs to 20 or 30 people,
when mates from college used to come and watch us play, and that doesn’t seem like that long ago:
seven, eight or nine years ago. To then be up at this level playing Wembley Stadium, it was quite emotional.

HAARP, Live at Wembley Stadium – Summer 2007 DVD/CD (Warners) is out on Sat 22 March

After initially being derided as Radiohead copyists several years ago, the West Country trio Muse are now routinely described as Britain's best live band.

The old Wembley's inferior acoustics might have tested that reputation, and some George Michael fans complained about the new venue last week.

But Muse's brainy heavy metal and prog-pop was effectively realised in a spectacular 68,000-capacity performance last night.

The first half of Muse's second Wembley show was mildly disappointing, though, not least because an 8pm start meant it was staged in daylight for an hour. That almost killed the atmosphere, as did the announcement that, despite the early finish, we could expect travel chaos on the way home anyway with the closure of the Metropolitan line.

Amid a storm of glitter and cheers, Muse emerged into the middle of the crowd and made their way awkwardly across a walkway to the stage.

They opened with Knights of Cydonia, a combination of spaghetti western music, futuristic electro-rock and end of days imagery.

While it sounded impressive, their stiffness on that walkway seemed to linger in their performance - although at least singer Matt Bellamy's bright red suit meant he was always visible.

Several songs in, though, there was a palpable excitement when Bellamy played the opening notes to their familiar cover of Nina Simone's Feeling Good on his glass-topped piano. "It's a great pleasure to be playing in this beautiful new venue," he said, and the band started to loosen up.

By Invincible - a stadium rock moment equal to U2 - they were hitting their stride.

The stage, sandwiched by giant screens, came to life during the superb Starlight, with a shower of sparks and massive, swivelling satellite dishes that trained spotlights on the audience.

But they topped that with a pair of acrobats attached to huge white balloons that drifted over the audience during Blackout.

Incredibly, the acrobats were able to rotate in midair and descend to within several feet of the crowd.

"You're sensational," Bellamy told the fans, who moshed heartily during Plug In Baby. And for an hour at least, so was he.

Red star: Muse singer Matt Bellamy keeps himself visible on stage

With U2 on tour hiatus until 2011, no other group looks more poised to take over its biggest-band-in-the-world status than Muse, and the British trio proved its mettle with a mighty performance Saturday at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Muse has unofficially received that blessing anyway, opening some of U2's stadium dates last year. Right now, what other band can summon such epic prowess and passion? Coldplay? Perhaps, but that group enchants more than thunders. Muse's greatest songs -- from storm-the-heavens anthems to melodramatic ballads -- are last chances, gambles with fate, challenges to the gods.

Muse always sounded bigger than the theater-size places it first played in the U.S. while already filling much larger venues in Europe. America started to catch on a few years ago, and now the band is huge not just in sound but in appeal. This past week's swing through Southern California included three arena dates -- two weekend shows at Staples and one at the Honda Center of Anaheim -- so the group could've just played a single stadium show like it did weeks ago at Wembley in London.

Employing a battery of video screens that at times looked like giant shards of glass, there were massive views of the band, provocative images that ranged from a DNA helix to anti-war footage, Technicolor nature scenes and more surreal eye candy. The lighting, which included the use of lasers -- almost a nostalgic nod to the '70s -- was equally dazzling.

But those visuals never trumped the music, which always came first, a barrage of art and progressive, glam, hard rock, even heavy metal.

The band played on the large expanse of stage and also above it on risers that seemed to bring the trio of frontman guitarist-keyboardist Matthew Bellamy, bassist-keyboardist Christopher Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard even closer to the full house. This is a power trio, with power in boldface, assisted by longtime tour keyboardist Morgan Nicholls.

The set led off with the big-beat boom bounce of "Uprising," followed by the racing defiance of the title track of the group's current album "The Resistance," its fifth studio set.

Bellamy's Prince-like falsetto quivered over the metallic space funk of "Supermassive Black Hole," and the group unleashed one of several sonic storms for the whipping whirlwind of "Hysteria."

With Bellamy at piano, the band played the eclectic Brit card covering (as it has for several years) the slinky Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse number "Feeling Good," dating to the 1964 musical "The Roar of the Greasepaint, the Smell of the Crowd," a truthful slice of showbiz-success commentary, followed by the group's own yearning power ballad "Guiding Light."

Still Muse's biggest hit across the board, the beaming throb of the cosmic "Starlight" brought the night's loudest sing-along, especially for the refrain of "black holes and revelations" (which surely must have Professor Stephen Hawking smiling back at Cambridge).

The band followed with another winner in the snaking riff and rock 'n' roll abandon of "Plug in Baby," then Bellamy strummed the recognizable opening of "House of the Rising Sun," and the crowd spanning several generations started singing the lyrics as the tune gave way to the pulsing desperation and clutching, crying hope of "Time Is Running Out."

Encore tunes included the overture from the group's ambitious (and perhaps over-reaching) "Exogenesis: Symphony" and the more compact, galloping fantasy "Knights of Cydonia," which closed the evening.

Sure, it's easy to play the band-summit game with Muse: The Who meets Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, melded with Queen and even Emerson, Lake and Palmer for a galactic quest. True, those touchstones and others can be found in the band, but it arrived at its own distinctive sound and style during the 2000s, and some of today's newest bands have described using Muse as a reference point.

Muse always has been built to last, and its steady ascendancy to arena and stadium level has come with shows that deliver much more then some pop flavor that's here today and a footnote tomorrow. It's a genuine concert experience.

At a time -- again -- when great rock doesn't show up much in CHR/Top 40, Muse's Staples performance was a reminder of how potent that experience can be in concert, really more than any other: uplifting, sweeping and far greater than a hit of the season or trend of the year.

Venue: Staples Center, Los Angeles (Saturday, Sept. 25)

SET LIST:
Uprising
Resistance
New Born
Supermassive Black Hole
MK Ultra
Hysteria
Nishe
United States of Eurasia
Feeling Good
Guiding Light
Helsinki Jam
Undisclosed Desires
Starlight
Plug in Baby
Time Is Running Out
Unnatural Selection

ENCORE:
Exogenesis: Symphony, Part 1: Overture
Stockholm Syndrome
Knights of Cydonia