The Breakfast Show 2007-08-02 – Interview with Bellamy
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This transcription may contain some inaccuracies.
B - Matthew Bellamy
J - Jason Whalley
D - Lindsay McDougall
M - Myf Warhurst
J: Good morning, you're on Triple J with J and the Doctor and uh, I think it's time to take a random call this morning, uh who've we got there on line one?
B: Uh, it's Matt here.
D: Oh
J: Uh, Matt, Matt who?
B: Uh, Matt, Matt Bellamy.
J: Matt Bellamy from Muse
B: That's it, yeah.
J: Oh my goodness, good grief. How are you sir?
B: Uh, I'm great yeah. It's great to be talking to you again. How are you doing?
J: I'm quite well, quite well. How have you been?
B: Uh, not bad you know, same as usual, just on the road, touring around, I mean uh, I'm in ? at the moment, just about to do a gig tomorrow night, and then uh yeah, down to America and uh, looking forward to coming back to you guys.
J: To Australia?
B: Yeah, uh, you don't know?
D: No, you tell us.
B: Yeah yeah, we're coming to do a tour there in uh, in October. No, is it October? I've blown it now. No, not, November. I think it's november, sorry yeah. We'll be playing in uh, yeah. A bunch of cities in your great country.
J: Oh, very exciting
D: And before you do that you're doing um, some great festival in Las Vegas, it's all brand new and shiny, with a roof on, Rage Against the Machine is that right?
B: Yeah that's right, yeah. I mean we weren't actually uh, because we were planning to have a bit of time off during that, during that period, but once I found out Rage Against the Machine were playing, I, I would've, uh, you know I'd have probably just flown over there just to see them play let alone get payed to go and play with them, you know, that's the, that's kind of like uh, a dream come true really, 'cause that's my, that's my favourite, probably my favourite live band to watch, and to get the chance to to play with them, is uh, is going to be great, you know, and also I love Vegas. I'm uh, I'm sort of, I'm pretty into playing poker you know, so.
J: Ah ... right ...
B: Basically getting, uh, you know, a payed holiday to go and play poker, and see my favourite band. You know, it's uh, it's a good job.
J: And potentially loose all of your money. And, er,
B: Yeah. I'll uh, I'll gamble it all away that night I imagine.
M: Do you, do you have a secret shame perhaps? You know, like when you're in Vegas you might be popping along to maybe a Middler and Cher show?
B: Uh, actually, uh Elton John invited me to come and watch his gig once and uh, but it was all a bit weird, I met him in the, where is it, in the Q awards and uh, he sort of, he gave me his sort of private room number and, and his E-mail to his hotel, and I felt a little bit uncomfortable I must admit.
D: So tell us more, tell us more.
B: Uh, well no, it was a bit weird. It was like, you know, I think it was kind of like, I wasn't sure if, I think he might have been, sort of hoping I might come to his room and, uh you know, I don't know. A bit, a bit of an edgy one you know. But I, but I think I'll skip that one, put it that way.
J: Wow, my goodness. 'cause he's known as, is he know as a bit of a, a bit of a punisher in international music circles, like he's always kind of just, punishing the young up and coming groups.
D: Would he do a lot of talking at you rather than with you?
B: Uh, no, he seems very pleasant you know, he seems like a very uh, a very gentle man.
J: So why didn't you go to his room?
B: Um, lets just say, um, how can I put this in a politically correct fashion, um, um, I'd, I'd rather play poker. Lets, lets, lets just say that.
J: Play poker. And he hasn't asked you to uh, you know, work with him?, on any sort of musical projects?
B: Um, no he hasn't mentioned that no, but maybe, yeah maybe one day, he's a great piano player actually. I think he's a, yeah, a good song writer obviously. So yeah, maybe we'll do a, do a musical together.
D: Ahh, that would be good.
J: Muse, the musical, starring Elton John as Matt Bellamy. Hey, um, hey what I would love to see, Matt, um, because you are playing with Rage Against the Machine, have you ever jammed with Tom Morello?
B: No, no, I've only, I've never really, I've sort of bumped into him once in a, in a sort of, in a hallway at a gig, and I went "Hello Tom" and he didn't know who I was, and he thought I was a fan or something, so I'm hoping, I'm hoping this time maybe they'll know more about us because we'll be playing with them, so I'm hoping this time I might be able to muscle my way in and have a chat with the band and I'll pretend not to be a fan, I'll pretend to be just sort of, you know, just a fellow musician.
J: Can you imagine, you know Tom Morello and Matt Bellamy together you know, with your various guitars and your effects and your amplifiers, you'd be unstoppable, you'd be an unstoppable musical force.
B: It would be, it would be a good laugh. I think he'd, I think he'd outshine me to be honest, but I think you know, it'd be great to have a jam with any of those guys.
J: I don't know, I don't know. I mean, Matt were you, at school, were you sort of, the legend, were you the guy that kind of, all the kids would kind of, that would come around and sit around and watch you shred on your guitar?
B: In school?
J: Yeah.
B: I was, I was, I was probably known as a piano player in school. I was playing like a lot of boogie-woogy blues piano. I sort of entered a, I sort of, I was a complete sort of, no one was really interested in me at first, when I was about twelve or something and I played this talent contest and I won some award, and suddenly, like the next day I suddenly had two girlfriends, which was great, and it went on from there, and I suddenly thought to myself maybe music is a good direction.
J: Wow.
D: What was your favourite song to woo the ladies when you were say, 15, what was, what was you know, a big hit on the piano for you?
B: You mean me playing, or playing a CD? I would just play like, boogie-woogie blues pianos you know, that would tend to go down very well you know, like a little blues jam you know, like, a little bit of Ray Charles or something. That would, that would always seem to go down very well. Not, not, not really, sort of er, when you're that age it wasn't really into the, you know all the love songs and the wooing, and all that, it was just like, play a little blues jam and make people laugh, and that was the end, maybe you'd get a little kiss at the end of the night you know.
J: You're on Triple J with J and the Doctor and we're talking randomly, it seems, to Matt Bellamy of Muse who's coming to Australia which is very exciting. The last time we talked to you Matt, you were experimenting with new sounds in the South of France.
B: Was it, was it that long ago?
J: I, I think so, or you'd just been there maybe?
B: Was that when we were making the al- Must have been when we were making the album. Yeah.
J: I, I think so. I remember you saying, that you'd had to reel yourself in from, sort of, busting out some of the more symphonic stuff.
B: Yeah yeah, that stuff is starting to come back and haunt me again now. There were a few bits and pieces that we kind of set to one side that were a little bit too, a little bit too progressive and symphonic for the kind of album we wanted to make and er, so er, we were kind of loosing our minds down there you know, songs like Take a Bow and Knights of Cydonia were probably perceived as commercial singles at that point you know, when we were in the South of France, that'll give you an idea of what the, you know, Take a Bow had a catchy chorus you know so uh, there was uh, there was a whole bunch of other songs that were really a bit more, just a lot of waffling on the piano, a lot of orchestration and stuff. Which uh, which I think we could probably do, we could extend on that one day but I think for, yeah at that point we were kind of going up the wall a bit, and I think everyone was getting a bit agitated with the, with the lack, the lack of rock that was going on.
J: We heard that you may be employing a full orchestra for your next album, are you going to explore these symphonic desires a little further and more fully?
B: I think, I think there's some stuff that I'd like to do like that, but whether or not we could make a whole album out of it I don't know you know so, but the thing is with the, you know, the way the industry is now, you know, you don't necessarily have to release albums, you can just release, you can just release EPs or you can release things online you know, or give stuff away or whatever you know. So I think, I think with the flexibility of, of the way people can get music out to the fans now, I think maybe it opens up the possibility for us to do like a, you know like a sort of twenty minute symphony as just a one off composition, it doesn't necessarily need to be an album, or, or, a , a sort of single, it can be just its own thing you know?
J: Why not. With Elton John and Tom Morello helping out.
B: There you go, that's it.
D: Who in the band, Matt, is actually the one who stands their ground and requests you bring the rock back, which one is it in the band? Who takes it further away and who brings it back?
B: I'd, I'd, I'd say both Chris and Dom. They both tend to do their best to reign me in from er, from er, from losing the plot you know, so I think you know, every now again Dom will sort of say you know, come on, lets just do a proper, lets just do a proper riff and just get on with it you know. I think, so yeah it's a bit, maybe Dom so more than Chris I'd say.
J: We're talking to Matt Bellamy from Muse, you guys have sold millions of records, um you know, numerous awards all around the world. What, what did it feel like, when Justin Timberlake said you were the best band out?
B: That was, that was, it was an honour. It was, no, it was, it was a surprise I'd say, yeah. That would be the, the genuine answer. I'm surprised that he would uh, even have heard of us let alone listen to our music you know. I suppose uh, I'm still waiting to see our music rubbing off onto his uh, his style of music, so, if we're his favourite band then, you know, I'm hoping that his next album well have a few uh, a few riffs on it, or a few, a few uh, you know, Rachmaninov piano solos featuring in uh, in the middle of some uh, some Timbaland rap, you know, rap break.
J: Or maybe just some boogie-woogie blues.
B: Yeah, there you go.
J: To entice the ladies.
B: That would work.
J: Um, well hey you guys, you guys are playing in November in Australia, um we have the dates right here.
B: Yep. We're looking forward to that, yeah.
J: Saturday the tenth of November Supreme Court Gardens in Perth, Wednesday the fourteenth of November the entertainment centre in Adelaide, on Thursday the fifteenth of November Rod Labour Arena in Melbourne and Saturday seventeenth of November at the entertainment centre in Sydney and Wednesday twenty first of November in, on the River Stage in Brisbane, tickets go on sale Friday the 17th of August um, now you mentioned that you'd like to work with Elton John on some sort of musical comedy, we here at Triple J have a musical based on the life of Bono, um, when uh you come to Australia could you possibly guest star in our musical?
B: Yeah, well what would my part be?
J: You could play anyone you want.
D: He could play himself
J: You could play yourself. You can play um the part of Larry, the Edge, um, Penelope Cruise ...
D: Bob Geldof ...
J: Anyone.
B: Uh, the Edge, the Edge would be good. I think I could do a good Edge impression.
J: Excellent. Have you got a ...
B: I should shave, I should shave my hair off and wear a hat, you know, that would be a good start.
J: Yeah that would be very very good, and get a delay pedal, but you've probably got several of those I would imagine. Hey speaking of pedals, or uh effects, are you going to bring the um, the Kaoss, the guitar with the Kaoss thing attached to it, the Kaoss pad attached to it?
B: Uh yeah, but I need to get a new one made, 'cause I kind of accidentally on purpose broke it in ..
J: It was too chaotic.
B: ...in, in, yeah, in Japan we uh, in Japan I got a bit carried away at the end of the gig and threw my guitar, and it sort of smashed into a strobe light, and, and it broke the Kaoss pad. So I'm a little bit disappointed about that, so I need to get a, I need to get a new made so uh, but hopefully by the time, by the time we're there I'll definitely have, I'll definitely have a new one yeah.
J: I think if you're, if you're going to smash your Kaoss pad, it has to be it has to be into a strobe light. Hey, have you got a name for the tour yet?
B: Um, what, the one in Australia?
J: Yeah.
B: I think uh, I'm really uh, I don't know, give us a name, uh, you ...
J: I was thinking ...
B: You can name the tour, how about that.
J: Something you said recently, which I think is a great name for a tour, private jets for climate change.
B: Okay, well we certainly won't be using any of those over there. Um, but yeah. I don't think, I don't think we want your climate to change actually, you've got the best, one of the best climates out there. Uh.
J: Well that's what you said about Live Earth, has uh, has anyone come back to bite you on the arse for that?
B: Well no, I think a few people came back and said that's actually fair, a fair comment really, and I mean, the only way we, we were invited to do that gig, but we couldn't get to it because, well we could've got to it but would've involved you know, uh getting private planes and that just seems, completely, you know, hypocritical to be, to be doing a gig about climate change whilst taking private jets you know, and I think you know quite a lot of the bands that did play there were forced to use private jets you know, you know I, I could name names you know, but I'd rather not.
J: Go on.
D: Go on.
J: Go on.
B: Well no, quite a few of the big American rock bands, lets put it that way, you can, you can narrow it down from there.
J: Ah, Red Hot Chili Peppers ...
B: Were using, not just private jets, but some of them were using private jets each, you know, for individuals.
J: Woah.
B: I think to be, to be doing that whilst doing a climate gig is just uh, that's just going too far for me you know, so I'd rather not be a part of it.
D: Come on Matt you can give us the name. Who was it?
B: I can't do that, I can't do that, no. That would be wrong.
J: I'd like to live in a word where I was forced to use a private jet. Well, thank you very much Matt for joining us this morning, thanks for your random call.
B: Thank you, yeah its been a pleasure.
J: Some very exciting news there for all Muse fans across the country. You're on Triple J, that's right music coming out in the Private Jets for Climate Change to 2007.
D: He can do better than that.
J: Bonno: The Musical Tour.