BBC 1999-08 – Muse Want To Tell You You're Not Alone

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Muse Want To Tell You You're Not Alone

Sitting around a white plastic table with foam cups of tea, Muse look knackered. Hardly surprising considering they’ve just come off stage. "There was such a great vibe out there", smiles Drummer Dominic. "The Reading crowd’s always really up for it, but we’ve still got a lot to learn about playing live."

Frontman, Matt’s chewing his lip. "The biggest lesson I ever learned about playing live, was at a Battle Of The Bands competition. We entered it when we were 15." Muse’s bass player, Chris, nods. "It was our first ever gig. We couldn’t play at all so we went over the top and trashed loads of gear. We were basically pretending to be Nirvana."

"The other bands were really good musicians - really tight", says Matt, "but we won. I realised then that you don’t need to be a good musician to be a great performer". He looks at the others and laughs, "but we have tried to learn to play since then".

Along with Madonna’s company Maverick, Muse are signed to a total of four labels - Motor in Germany, Naïve in France and Mushroom Records in the UK. "When English bands sign international deals", says Matt, "their music gets sent out to people on the other side of the world who’ve no idea about who that band is. If our stuff is sent out to someone who’s never seen us play live or who hates our sound, how’s that person going to sell Muse?".

Dominic leans forward. "All the companies we’ve chosen love us. They signed us as a priority in their country, so we get top representation world wide." "Yeah", nods Matt, "and we’re the first band to get ourselves signed in this way. It could all go wrong tomorrow, but to be honest I don’t know how".

When Muse first started out five years ago, their then manager told them to stay well away from London. "Thing is", explains Dominic, "if we’d done London at the beginning, we’d have found ourselves playing to a room full of A&R people and no one else - the vibe would have been really depressing. We had to wait ‘till we’d built up a solid fan base. A&Rs are more likely to take you seriously if they see you playing to a crowd that’s really into your music".

Dominic sighs, "Ever since we started there’ve always been people who really f***ing hate what we’re doing". Matt looks at Dominic, "I don’t want everyone to love our stuff anyway!". He picks at his foam cup, "I like the kind of audiences we’re getting now. We just need more of them and hopefully the new album will pull them in". As for what Muse would like people to get from their music, Matt smiles, "A sense that they’re not alone".

See also

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