Will of the People (album)

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New album promo pic[1]
Muse album
Name Will of the People
Tracks TBA
Total length TBA
Recorded 2020–2021
Writer/composer Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard, Christopher Wolstenholme
Producer Muse, Aleks Von Korff
Art work TBA
Publisher TBA
Format(s) TBA
Catalogue № TBA
Release date 2022 / TBA
Chart position N/A
album chronology
Simulation Theory
Will of the People
Singles
WontStandDown.jpg


Information

Matt first hinted at working on new Muse material in an interview with ALT 98.7 FM backstage at the ALTerEGO Festival in January of 2020 where he said that the goal for 2020 was to work on new Muse material, allthough the plans were probably halted due to the coronavirus pandemic as the three were unable to get together due to the lockdowns. Bellamy instead focused on releasing his solo material. Matt also hinted on working on Muse material in a May interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio, saying that he has a few pieces written that are suited for Muse.[2] In an interview with Rolling Stone, also in May, he said that that the idea would be to record the album in 2021 and potentially go on a tour in 2022. [3]

Bellamy confirmed he started writing the new Muse album in an interview with The Jaded Hearts Club Band for The Sun.[4] He also hinted at the band working on the next album in a brief Instagram comment in March 2021.[5]

In the interview, Bellamy said the following: "I started writing when all the protests and all the chaos were kicking off. It’s a weird thing to say but it suits the music I write. It keeps you a little bit on edge.".

Bellamy jokingly said, in an Instagram comment reply on Dom Howard's Instagram post, that the album would include "emotional gasps and many usages of the word ‘soul’.".

Recording

In an interview with NME, Bellamy said that he'd like the idea of the band "totally resetting" and going back to their hometown of Teignmouth, Devon to rehearse and record the next album. It appears however, that this was not the case, as the first studio pictures that started to emerge were from Bellamy's studio, located somewhere in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and later sessions took place at Abbey Road Studios. The first proof of Muse being in the studio was an Instagram post of Matt playing a piano, posted in March of 2021, however work likely began even earlier.

Aleks Von Korff, who previously worked with Muse as an engineer on Simulation Theory, and produced Bellamy's solo material - songs like Tomorrow's World, also posted a picture from this L.A. studio, with the wooden Kawai piano. It is presumed he's also producing the album or at least some parts of it. According to him, the studio, named by Von Korff as "The Black Lodge", had been fully built in early 2020.[6] The studio has previously been seen during the recording sessions for the debut album of Matt's cover band/supergroup The Jaded Hearts Club, aswell as during the recording of Simulation Theory.

Between April and June 2021, they took a break from recording, to work on a remix of Origin of Symmetry. In early June, Chris came to L.A. to join Dom and Matt continuing work on the album.[7]

In November of 2021, Adrian Bushby posted a picture of him and Howard at Abbey Road Studios, tracking drums, hinting at the album being partially tracked in there.[8] Prior to that, on July 24th, 2021, Muse also posted a picture of Bellamy holding one of his Manson guitars, posing infront of Abbey Road Studios with the caption saying "Good to be back".[9] Bellamy also posted a picture of Bing infront of Abbey Road Studios around that time.[10] This makes the upcoming album the first of their LPs to (also) be recorded at Abbey Road in 20 years, when Origin of Symmetry was recorded at the studios.

On December 1st, 2021, Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer at Sterling Sound Studios posted a picture of Bellamy and Howard sitting on a couch. This implies that the band finished recording the album and it is already being mastered. [11]

The album has been, compared to previous releases, recorded in almost complete secrecy, with very few images from the recording sessions themselves, and no real info as to what we might expect from it, up until Matt's snippet of Won't Stand Down was streamed live on Instagram.

Release

On December 25th, 2021, Bellamy made up for the lack of a muse.mu Christmas present with a short livestream from his Tesla, on Muse's Instagram profile, showcasing part of Won't Stand Down, as seen on the car dashboard, together with a track number "4", meaning it'll likely be the fourth track on the album. The 60 second stream was then screen-recorded by a few people, with copyright bots deleting the post, and revealing the song name in the process, meaning that the song was, at that time, nearing it's release. Matt's minute-long stream can be listened to here. The then approaching release of the song was teased once again on Muse's New Years Eve Instagram post, when they wrote a caption saying "Looking forward to WSD. We'll see you on the other side!" under a picture, before quickly replacing "WSD" with "2022".

Won't Stand Down was subsequently announced a week later, on January 7th, 2022, on Muse's social media[12], after the "https://wontstanddown.muse.mu/" site has been spotted being already online a day earlier. Together with it also came the single artwork (which was leaked through source code via the wontstanddown website a few hours before it's official unveiling), and a new promo image of the band. The song could be pre-saved and pre-added on Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music at wontstanddown.muse.mu, and was released on Jan. 13th on all afforementioned digital platforms. The single artwork and the music video also included a monogram image, displayed on the characters' suits. It has been theorised that it might be linked to the album name, which appeared to be the case, as the album is titled "Will of the People", which goes along with the letters in the monogram itself.

In Matt Bellamy's Instagram story, posted on March 2nd, 2022, when Bellamy went over the guitar tuning for Won't Stand Down, he also mentioned that a second heavy song will appear on the album. With this, he further confirmed that Won't Stand Down will indeed appear on the upcoming album.[13]

On March 9th, 2021, Muse posted a short, half-minute video on their YouTube, simply titeld "MUSE", which depicts statues of the band's heads being torn down by a group of rioters in the middle of a desert, while wearing masks from the Won't Stand Down music video, with a choir of Matts singing the line "The Will of the People", the name of the upcoming album (and likely an upcoming song also). The release date is yet to be announced.[14] Additionally, the graffiti on the statues, shown at the end of the clip, are speculated to show all song titles (however this has not been confirmed yet), including (apart from "Won't Stand Down") the following writings; "Liberation" & "Will of the People" on Dom's head, "Compliance", "Die" & "Kill or Be Killed" on Matt's head, and "Ghosts", "Won't Stand Down" & "Euphoria" on Chris's head, with two more unrecognisable writings. Dom's head also includes "IX" written on, meaning "9" in roman numericals.

Tracklist

Incomplete, obviously

Personnel

Incomplete

Muse

Production

  • Aleks Von Korff - Additional production, Engineering, ATMOS Mixing
  • Adrian Bushby - Engineering
  • Joe Devenney - Engineering assistant
  • Dan Lancaster - Mixing
  • Rhys May - Mixing assistant
  • Chris Whitemyer - Technical assistant
  • Andy Maxwell - Abbey Road assistance
  • Tommy Bosustow - Abbey Road assistance
  • Chris Gehringer - Mastering

Ninth album recording gallery

References