Will of the People (album)

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New album promo pic[1]
Muse album
Name Will of the People
Tracks 10
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 of "4", possibly being the fourth track on the album. The 60 second stream was then screen-recorded by a few people, with copyright bots deleting the posts, and revealing the song name, 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 wontstanddown.muse.mu has been spotted being online a day earlier. Together with it also came the single artwork (which was leaked through source code via the 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 the afforementioned site, and was released on Jan. 13th on all afforementioned digital platforms. Almost two months later, on Matt Bellamy's Instagram story, posted on March 2nd, 2022, when Bellamy went over the guitar tuning for Won't Stand Down, he 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, 2022, Muse posted a short, half-minute 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 masks from the Won't Stand Down music video, with a choir of Matts singing the line "The Will of the People", the supposed name of the upcoming album (and likely an upcoming song also).[14] The animation was produced by California-based animation studio, Frame 48, with creative direction from Jesse Lee Stout of Metaform Studio, head sculpting made by 3D designer Tyrone Yarde and key art produced by digital artist Tiago Marinho.

The graffiti on the statues, shown on the possible album artwork at the end of the previously-mentioned clip, is speculated to show all song titles (however this has not been fully confirmed yet); including (apart from "Won't Stand Down" & "Compliance") the following writings: "Liberation" & "Will of the People" on Dom's head, "Die" & "Kill or Be Killed" on Matt's head, and "Ghosts", "Won't Stand Down" & "Euphoria" on Chris's head, with two more writings, which have yet to be deciphered (one supposedly being "Fuck off" on Matt's head). Dom's head also includes "IX" written on, in roman numericals, which likely stands for the album being their ninth one, while the monogram from the Won't Stand Down single artwork and music video also appears on the three heads as graffiti. It's not been confirmed whether the image at the end is the actual album artwork, while the release date, and the tracklist itself, still have to be officially announced.

Both the Won't Stand Down single artwork and its music video include a monogram image, displayed on the characters' suits and throughout various places across the music video. The monogram also appears on the supposed album artwork. It has been theorised that the monogram might have been 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 (WOTP).

On March 11th, 2022, it was discovered by Muse fans that the index code from the previously mentioned site, wontstanddown.muse.mu, contains basic album info, including the presumed tracklist and anagrams for each song which will appear on the album. The same day, Muse announced a new single, Compliance, to be released on March 17th, 2022, available for pre-saving on mu-se.co/compliance-prerelease.[15] On March 14th, 2022, the site has been updated with resolved anagrams for song titles, however the tracklist has not been announced yet by Muse.

Tracklist

Based on data from JSON output off of wontstanddown.muse.mu

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

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

Art

Ninth album recording gallery

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

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

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

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

  • "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)

  • "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)

  • "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)

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

  • "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

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

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

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

  • "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)

  • "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)

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

  • "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)

  • "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)

  • "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)

  • "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)

  • "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)

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

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

  • "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)

  • "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)

  • "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)

References

  1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CYb-0PFL5xU/
  2. ↑ https://youtu.be/wGHqxU-63HM?t=292
  3. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/muse-matt-bellamy-interview-coronavirus-quarantine-999208/
  4. ↑ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/12884819/matt-bellamy-thought-jaded-hearts-club-were-the-beatles/
  5. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/lxdvdb/new_album_on_the_way_confirmed/
  6. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CX6KyANuNT8/
  7. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CP6Xo7IjPs1/
  8. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CWBaoDFtHHk/?utm_medium=copy_link
  9. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CRtsMriBtpm/
  10. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CTFAGKPjCx5/
  11. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CW9SHCXPtJy/
  12. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CYbuFCOKPfv/
  13. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Muse/comments/t5fv8w/from_matts_instagram_story/
  14. ↑ https://youtu.be/nzHnwHzp9o4
  15. ↑ https://twitter.com/muse/status/1502298309368631296
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