Will of the People (album)

Cover art

NFT cover art

Monogram/Back cover art

Original album monogram

Muse album
Name	Will of the People
Tracks	10
Total length	37:35
Recorded	2021
Writer/composer	Matthew Bellamy, Dominic Howard, Christopher Wolstenholme
Producer	Muse
Art work	Tiago Marinho
Publisher	Helium 3, Warner
Format(s)	CD, LP, download, cassette, NFT » LP+CD (Signed Standard Bundle) 2LP (Signed Vinyl Bundle) 3MC (3x cassette) (Signed Cassette Bundle) CD+LP+3MC (Deluxe Music Bundle)
Catalogue №	0190296383731 (CD) » 019029638375 (LP, Special Edition, Cream) 0190296383861 (LP, Special Edition, Neon Yellow) 019029638762 (LP, Special Edition, Red & Black Marble) 5054197181931 (LP, Zoetrope)
Release date	26th August 2022
Chart position	N/A
album chronology
Simulation Theory ← Will of the People
Singles

Information

The goal of the album, ever since ideas for it arose in late 2019, was that it would explore current events in the world. Since a lot has happened during these years, it, thematically, explores everything from Black Lives Matter protests, to the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, to the 2021 Capitol riots, and much more.

According to Muse, "Will of the People was created in Los Angeles and London and is influenced by increasing uncertainty and instability in the world. A pandemic, new wars in Europe, massive protests & riots, an attempted insurrection, Western democracy wavering, rising authoritarianism, wildfires and natural disasters and the destabilisation of the global order all informed Will of the People. It has been a worrying and scary time for all of us as the Western empire and the natural world, which we have cradled us for so long are genuinely threatened. This album is a personal navigation through those fears and preparation for what comes next."

In an interview with Zane Lowe, upon announcing the album, on March 17th, 2022, Bellamy said about it, that the label originally planned them to release a best-of compilation of existing songs (later elaborating on that, saying that a "Best-Of Album" possibility is in their contract). They instead decided to make a new album, which, musically, encapsulates and recaps the Muse's best work from past albums. As Bellamy said in an interview with a French radio station "RTL 2" in June of 2022, with the release of Origin of Muse and Origin of Symmetry's 20th Anniversary Remix, the band listened to a lot of their old music during the writing and recording process, and were thinking about certain things and ideas that they tried to do in the past, but they didn't work out. As an example, he mentioned Kill or Be Killed; Saying that "2 to 3 times in our career, we've tried to create something that kind of...resembled metal or something, but we couldn't quite go there". As such, as mentioned by Bellamy on the Zane Lowe interview, the album goes "all the way, from metal, to pop, to my first version of an Adele piano-like song, to electronica", featuring songs like Kill or Be Killed, which is "the best prog metal song they've ever done that could've been on Drones", becoming a fan-favourite after just a few live performances, and We Are Fucking Fucked, which he sees as "the weirdest, darkest lost B-side of Muse's life", while also including songs like Liberation, which is, according to NME, a Queen-like ballad song and Verona, bringing "purity to the nostalgic electronic textures", as described by Warner themselves .

In the same interview, he mentioned that he let Dom Howard take the lead in terms of decisions on this album, jokingly saying that this is why the album, from start to finish, took so long, saying that Howard took time with the process. On top of that, he added that the album was self-produced by the band themselves, however it was made with help and assistance from Aleks Von Korff.

Taking in account previous mention of Bellamy's idea of 'era blending' and 'best-of' album, Will of The People presents songs that are reminiscent of their previous albums, Will Of The People harks back to songs like Psycho and Uprising; Compliance seemingly a new feature, presents influences from the 90s with a texture from Simulation Theory; Liberation is a song that could have been released on The Resistance; Won't Stand Down, presents patterns and verses that could have been present on Origin of Symmetry with its metal influence with the strings; Ghosts (How Can I Move On), a song that could be the one that Matt described as an 'Adele type of song'; You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween, a song that could be released Simulation Theory with its 80's inspired sound ala Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me; Kill or Be Killed, is intriguing due the mix of influences, ranging from Absolution, and Black Holes and Revelations to Drones with its metal riffs; Verona presents sounds similar the ones from The 2nd Law, like Follow Me and Madness, with its synths and U2 esque patterns and riffs; Euphoria, similar to the songs from Simulation Theory, presents synths straight out of the 70s and 80s, similar to the works of Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder; Finally, the closer, 'We Are Fucking Fucked', presents sounds harking back to Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry and The 2nd Law with a riff similar to Knights of Cydonia.

Background

After the Simulation Theory World Tour ended in 2019, Bellamy came up with the idea for the album, which, according to his interview with NME, was that they'd "make it a bit more about what’s actually happening in the world right now", adding "what I didn’t know was what was about to happen." Later, in January of 2020, Matt first publicly hinted at working on new Muse material in an interview with ALT 98.7 FM, backstage at the ALTerEGO Festival. He said that the goal for 2020 was to work on new Muse material. The plans were brought to halt 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. Later that year, in May, Matt further hinted on working on Muse material in an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 Radio, saying that he has a few pieces written that are suited for Muse. In an interview with Rolling Stone, also in May, he said that that the idea would be to record the album in 2021 and go on a tour in 2022.

Later, in 2021, Bellamy further confirmed that work on the new Muse album has begun, in an interview with The Jaded Hearts Club Band for The Sun. 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." Additionally, 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’.".

Bellamy also had once got imbued with the recent label's request to release the greatest hits album of Muse's iconic songs from each eighth album they recorded, but they turned down the request and instead, they decide to produce a new album that combined with all various sounds and influences from each of their previous album into a new and fresh package with an additional comment by him as "a greatest hits album - of a new songs - essentially" during Matt's interview with NME and the band interview with French radio talk show.

The album, and its release date (August 26th, 2022) was finally announced on March 17th, 2022, together with the release of Compliance. The announcement, being six months apart from the release date, was met with mixed feelings from fans, however, since then, one more song has been released, another one performed live, and the fourth song still planned to be released before the album drops. Ordering the album from the official muse.mu website gives the buyer an exclusive chance to access the ticket pre-sale code for future gigs.

Recording

In a 2019 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 album. This was, however, not the case, as the first studio pictures that started to emerge were from Bellamy's own studio, located in downtown Santa Monica, California, where, in March of 2021, the first proof of Muse being in the studio came from The album was both written and part-recorded in this L.A. studio. With Chris in the UK and the rest of the band in the USA, and with all the lockdowns, this was mostly done remotely.

Producer 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. According to him, the studio (location-tagged by Von Korff on Instagram as "The Black Lodge") had been fully built or re-built in early 2020. The studio was previously seen during the recording sessions for the debut album of Matt's cover band/supergroup The Jaded Hearts Club, aswell as during bits of the recording of Simulation Theory.

Between April and June 2021, the band took a break from recording, to work on a remix of Origin of Symmetry. In early June, Matt and Dom joined Chris in the UK, continuing work on the album. With the entire band back together in person, recording continued at Abbey Road Studios in London, in the summer of 2021. The band were also joined by Muse's long-time engineer, Adrian Bushby, who posted a picture of him and Howard at Abbey Road Studios tracking drums. This makes the upcoming album the second LP to be partially recorded at Abbey Road, after 20 years, when Origin of Symmetry was recorded at the facility.

On December 1st, 2021, Chris Gehringer, mastering engineer at Sterling Sound Studios posted a picture of Bellamy and Howard sitting on a couch, with the entire album at the mastering stage during that time.

Release

First WOTP promo pic for Won't Stand Down

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. The 60 second stream was then screen-recorded by a few people, with copyright bots deleting the posts, hinting at the song being near its 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!", 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, with wontstanddown.muse.mu spotted being online a day earlier. Together with it also came the single artwork and a new promo image of the band. The song was released on January 13th, 2022, on digital platforms.

Almost two months later, on March 2nd, 2022, Bellamy posted an Instagram story in which he went over the guitar tuning for Won't Stand Down, while mentioning that a second heavy song will appear on the album.

On March 9th, 2022, Muse posted a short, half-minute album teaser video on their YouTube, simply titled "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 mirror masks from the Won't Stand Down music video, with a choir of Matts chanting the line "The Will of the People", name of the album and title track, with album artwork displayed at the very end of the video.

Two days later, on March 11th, 2022, it was discovered by Muse fans that the index code from wontstanddown.muse.mu, contains basic album info, including the tracklist and anagrams for each song which will appear on the album. The same day, Muse announced a new song/single, Compliance. The song, and its music video, leaked on March 15th through Vimeo, before being deleted from the platform on the same day. A day later, anagrams from the wontstanddown index code were also resolved, leaking song titles and the tracklist. Compliance's music video was announced together with the album name on March 16th.

The album's release date has finally been announced, together with the release of Compliance, on March 17th, 2022. It is available for pre-ordering via willofthepeople.muse.mu and is set to be released on August 26th, 2022.

Matt reportedly said, to one of the fans after one of the London Apollo charity gigs, in May of 2022, that they intend to release two more songs before the album drops. A day after the second gig, on May 11th, Apple Music began to show the track duration for the title song, while a few days later, on May 13th, a release date for the song was set up for it on Amazon. This led fans to speculate, that Will of the People would be the next single from the album. The song was later leaked on May 26th, 2022, while the official release date of June 1st was announced a day later, on May 27th.

After being played on every gig of the Will of the People Summer Festivals Tour in June & July of 2022, it was announced by Muse on July 13th, 2022, that Kill or Be Killed would be the next song to be released from the album. It was released on July 21st, 2022, at 3PM BST. This is also the last single before the album drop.

Due to the fact that some people were able to get hold of the album earlier, on August 22nd, short snippets (phone recordings) of the unreleased songs from the album were leaked on Twitter, exception being We Are Fucking Fucked. A day later, on August 23rd, the fifth single was announced by Muse, being You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween. The single, and it's music video, are due to be released on August 26th, together with the album.

On August 1st, 2022, it was announced, that Will of the People would also be releasing as an NFT, available on the platform called "Serenade". Limited to 1000 copies, it is the first new music format to be charted in the UK since 2015, when music streaming data started counting in the charts, alongside CD, LP and download sales. The NFT cover art is slightly different to the standard one, featuring a purple/blue colour scheme, instead of the orange/blue one, and also featuring Muse's signatures on the digital cover itself.

The album was well-received amongst critics, with Kerrang rating it 4/5, and Riff Magazine rating it 9/10. Mark Beaumont of Classic Rock Magazine also rated the album 9/10, while Record Collector rated Will of the People with four stars and Gigwise gave the album a score of 8/10.

Artwork & Design

With Jesse Lee Stout back as their creative director, all the design and creative elements from the live shows, the music videos, and the rest of the art, are again intertwined with each other, like during Simulaiton Theory. The first design element of the album was the monogram (shown in the picture), consisting of letters "W", "O", "T" and "P". It first appeared on the single artwork for Won't Stand Down.and was already speculated at that time, that the monogram might be linked to the album name. The monogram makes appearances throughout the entirety of the album era.

The artwork, made by Portuguese digital artist Tiago Marinho, is set somewhere in a post-apocalyptic city, located in the middle of some desert (the design is very similar to the post-apocalyptic London, shown on the Sing for Absolution single artwork), and shows large demolished statues of the band's heads, with a group of rioters, later revealed to be the "masked hackers", standing next to them. The character of this "masked hacker", also dubbed as "Will" (hailing from the album's name), wears a reflective mask, which, like the monogram, also appears throughout the entire album cycle.

On the cover, each of the three demolished heads has graffiti sprayed all over them. These include the WOTP monograms scattered on each of the heads, aswel as names of songs. Other words written as graffiti include "Die" and "Fuck off" on Matt's head, both lines from the songs. Dom's head also includes "IX" written on it in Roman numerals, standing for the album being their ninth one. This is the first artwork since Black Holes and Revelations to not feature the Muse logo, or the album name on the art itself. It is also the second album artwork in a row / second main album artwork alltogether, to feature the bands' faces.

The story behind the album artwork is represented in the music video for the single, Will of the People.

Touring

On March 20th, 2022, several fans have spotted graffiti and stickers with the, then unknown monogram, in and around the Shepherd's Bush Empire area in the Shepherd's Bush district of London, UK. It was unknown what exactly this meant at the time. Some have suggested that it's just a marketing campaign, while others have suggested a surprise show is going to take place soon. Two fundraising concerts were announced a week later, in support of the album, on March 28th, which took place on May 9th and May 10th, at London's Eventim Apollo. Muse supported War Child & Médecins Sans Frontières on night one, and The Big Issue on night two. Prior to these two shows, a very small gig, kept in complete secrecy, was performed on April 7th, 2022, at Exeter's Cavern Club. The gig was recorded for "Jim Beam's Welcome Sessions".

The rest of the Will Of The People Theatre Tour was announced in June of 2022. On it, Muse will be performing in smaller venues across Europe and the USA. Some of them haven't seen Muse perform live in almost 20 years. The tour is set to happen after the Will Of The People Summer Festivals Tour.

A bigger headlining tour, simply called the Will of the People World Tour is set to take place in 2023, with the first shows announced in the UK all taking place in outdoor venues.

Tracklist

CD/Digital

1. Will of the People – 3:18
2. Compliance – 4:10
3. Liberation – 3:06
4. Won't Stand Down – 3:29
5. Ghosts (How Can I Move On) – 3:37
6. You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween – 3:00
7. Kill or Be Killed – 4:59
8. Verona – 4:57
9. Euphoria – 3:23
10. We Are Fucking Fucked – 3:36

Vinyl

Side A (One)

1. Will of the People – 3:18
2. Compliance – 4:10
3. Liberation – 3:06
4. Won't Stand Down – 3:29
5. Ghosts (How Can I Move On) – 3:37

Side B (Two)

1. You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween
2. Kill or Be Killed
3. Verona
4. Euphoria – 3:00 – 4:59 – 4:57 – 3:23 – 3:36
5. We Are Fucking Fucked

Will of the People gallery

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  Front cover

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  NFT cover

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  Monogram/Back cover

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  CD

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  Vinyl

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  Spotify Exclusive Vinyl

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  Collector's Edition Vinyl

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  Zoetrope Vinyl

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  Blue Cassette

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  Red Cassette

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  Yellow Cassette

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  Signed Cassette Bundle

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  Signed Standard Bundle

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  Signed Vinyl Bundle

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  Signed Deluxe Bundle

Personnel

Muse

• Matt Bellamy - Vocals, backing vocals, guitar, guitarviol (track 4), keyboards, piano, synth programming, chanting (track 1), production
• Chris Wolstenholme - Bass, backing vocals, production
• Dominic Howard - Drums, percussion, drum programming, production

Additional performers

• Elle Bellamy - Chanting (track 1)
• Bing Bellamy - Chanting (track 1)
• Caris Wolstenholme - Chanting (track 1)
• Ernie Wolstenholme - Chanting (track 1)
• Buster Wolstenholme - Chanting (track 1)
• Teddi Wolstenholme - Chanting (track 1)
• Tabitha Wolstenholme Tolhurst - Chanting (track 1)
• Indiana Wolstenholme Tolhurst - Chanting (track 1)

Production

• Aleks Von Korff - Additional production, engineering, mixing (track 7), ATMOS mixing
• Adrian Bushby - Additional engineering (track 7)
• Joe Devenney - Engineering assistant
• Serban Ghenea - Mixing (tracks 1-3, 5-6 & 8-10)
• Dan Lancaster - Mixing (track 4)
• Dave Emery - ATMOS mixing (track 2)
• Bryce Bordone - Mixing assistance (tracs 1-3, 5-6 & 8-10)
• Rhys May - Mixing assistant
• Chris Whitemyer - Technical assistant
• Paul Warren - Technical assistant
• Andy Maxwell - Abbey Road assistance
• Tommy Bosustow - Abbey Road assistance
• Chris Gehringer - Mastering

Art

• Jesse Lee Stout - Creative direction
• Tiago Marinho - Artwork
• Nick Fancher - Photography

Ninth album recording gallery

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  "Might as well! Good way to spend a Friday, chasing one of the all time great synth sounds 🦾" (video) (5th February 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "One of these kinda days ☺️❤️🍝" (16th February 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Brought a few toys from home into work 🤗🎹" (27th February 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "ty @kawaipianos for this beauty 🤍 sounding innnnnncredible 👌🏻" (12th March 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Who can name that tune?" (video) (12th March 2021; Matt's Instagram)

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  "Havin a blast with the @uaudio OX Amp top box. Making some naaaasty 🤘🏻 things and the OX is coming through in a huge way!..." (6th April 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Havin a blast with the @uaudio OX Amp top box. Making some naaaasty 🤘🏻 things and the OX is coming through in a huge way!..." (6th April 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Havin a blast with the @uaudio OX Amp top box. Making some naaaasty 🤘🏻 things and the OX is coming through in a huge way!..." (6th April 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Being Dom Malkovitch 🎨 @roxannebettycreative" (12th April 2021; Matt's Instagram)

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  "The producer still needs naps. He wanted to let you know the new album is sounding fat and to hope you are all keeping well and healthy 🙏🤟🏼🥁" (23rd April 2021; Dom's Instagram)

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  "Old fashioned time at the studio bar after a nice long week of tracking 🥃😌" (23rd April 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Studio dog best dog 😍" (13th June 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Good to be back" (24th July 2021; Muse's Instagram)

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  "Drum tracking with @muse at @abbeyroadstudios a couple months back. In my happy place with @domhoward77 and the gang 💕🎵" (8th November 2021; Adrian Bushby's Instagram)

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  "girl wouldn’t stop chewing on cables, so put her in my lap while working. not the most productive day but probs the cutest.🤍" (24th November 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "@muse" (1st December 2021; Chris Gehringer's Instagram)

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  "Spent the last year and a half in this space after putting it all together in the summer of 2020. ⁣As this Christmas is pretty much the first full break I’ve had since then - been nice to scroll back and reflect on things! Feelin grateful 🙌🏻 Happy Holidays y’all 🙂" (video) (25th December 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Spent the last year and a half in this space after putting it all together in the summer of 2020. ⁣As this Christmas is pretty much the first full break I’ve had since then - been nice to scroll back and reflect on things! Feelin grateful 🙌🏻 Happy Holidays y’all 🙂" (25th December 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Spent the last year and a half in this space after putting it all together in the summer of 2020. ⁣As this Christmas is pretty much the first full break I’ve had since then - been nice to scroll back and reflect on things! Feelin grateful 🙌🏻 Happy Holidays y’all 🙂" (25th December 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Spent the last year and a half in this space after putting it all together in the summer of 2020. ⁣As this Christmas is pretty much the first full break I’ve had since then - been nice to scroll back and reflect on things! Feelin grateful 🙌🏻 Happy Holidays y’all 🙂" (25th December 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Spent the last year and a half in this space after putting it all together in the summer of 2020. ⁣As this Christmas is pretty much the first full break I’ve had since then - been nice to scroll back and reflect on things! Feelin grateful 🙌🏻 Happy Holidays y’all 🙂" (25th December 2021; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "THURSDAY! 1.13 #wontstanddown @muse 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻" (video) (10th January 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "THURSDAY! 1.13 #wontstanddown @muse 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻" (10th January 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Don’t let your memes be dreams. Also, cabinets def sound better with a few @mansonguitarworks headstock shaped holes in em courtesy of Matt." (6th February 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "I used this GuitarViol (Kind of half fretted mini cello with a guitar tuning) to record the pizzicato strings for the verse of #wontstanddown Recorded around 12-16 takes to sound orchestral. @muse" (video) (7th February 2022; Matt's Instagram)

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  "Coupla DPAs, a 122v, some a-ha…and boy you got a stew goin’ 🎻👨🏻‍🍳 Pizz strings on the guitarviol for Won’t Stand Down 🤘🏻" (7th February 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "@moogsynthesizers 16 channel Vocoder as featured on the new @muse single Compliance 💙💛♥️🤖 Plenty of amazing vocoders out there but there’s really nothing quite like this thing for me 🥰 I’ve had a ton of fun with it so far" (video) (18th March 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "From the #WillOfThePeople studio sessions." (video) (5th July 2022; Muse's Facebook)

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  (13th July 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram Stories)

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  "Reminiscing on the ‘Halloween’ tracking sessions. This was a fun one; we tried 10+ different combinations of drums before settling in on these..." (25th August 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)

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  "Reminiscing on the ‘Halloween’ tracking sessions. This was a fun one; we tried 10+ different combinations of drums before settling in on these..." (25th August 2022; Aleks Von Korff's Instagram)