Biography
Muse is an English rock band comprised of Matthew Bellamy (lead guitarist, vocalist, and pianist), Chris Wolstenholme (bassist, and backing vocalists), and Dominic Howard (drummer).
Childhood
Matthew, Christopher, and Dominic are childhood friends who hailed from Teignmouth, Devon. For Matthew, Teignmouth wasn’t a good town to live in, as he explains: “The only time the town came to life was during the summer when it turned into a vacation spot for visiting Londoners. When the summer ended they left and took all the life with them. I felt so trapped there. My friends were either getting into drugs or music, but I gravitated towards the latter and eventually learned how to play. That became my escape. If it weren't for the band, I would probably have turned to drugs myself.”
All three members of the band are not originally from Teignmouth, but from other English towns.
Matt was born in Cambridge on the 9th of June 1978 to George Bellamy, the rhythm guitarist of the 1960s English rock group, the Tornadoes, who were the first English band to have a number 1 hit in the United States, and Marilyn James. They eventually moved to Teignmouth when Matt was 10 years old.
When Matt was 14, his parents got divorced. "It was okay at home, middle class, we had money,” Matt says. “Well until the age of 14. I think I almost got everything I wanted until the age of 14, yes. Then, everything changed, parents got divorced, and I went to live with my grandmother, and there wasn't that much money. I have a sister who's older than me, she's actually my stepsister: my dad had her from a previous marriage, and also a younger brother. Until the age of 14 music was part of my life since it was part of the family circle: my dad was a musician, he had a band, etc. But it's only when I moved in with my grandparents that I started playing music myself. It was like a need to me.”
Matt moved in with his grandmother, which helped him find out that music was a need for him. He played piano since he was 6, but with the absence of his parents, he turned towards the guitar. His parents and older brother played with a Ouija Board to contact the dead, which he discovered when he wandering downstairs late at night. His interest with the Ouija Board grew bigger at the time of his parents’ divorce. “It was exciting to go to school and to tell 10-year-old kids all about it, as they found it all quite scary and I was quite impressed that I was doing something that was scary to other people but that wasn’t to me. I did get quite into that.” His beliefs changed after one correspondence predicted the first Gulf War a year before it started. “My beliefs in the whole thing changed. I now believe that you’re contacting something in your subconscious, which is quite different. Something that you might not have known was already there. That’s probably more realistic than thinking you’re contacting somebody who’s already dead. And I do practice that.”
Chris, however, was born in Rotherham, Yorkshire, on December 2, 1978. His family moved to Teignmouth when he was 11. His mother would buy record regularly, which would influence him to learn how to play the guitar. Later on, he would play drums for a post-punk band. He would eventually give up the drums to play bass for Matt and Dom, who struggled with two bassists in a different band.
Dom was born on December 7, 1977, in Stockport, England. When he was 8 years old, his family moved to Teignmouth. He learned to play drums about the age of 11, when he was inspired by a jazz band performing at his school.
Formation of Muse
Dom played drums for a band called Carnage Mayhem, when he met Matt. By that time, Matt didn’t have a stable band yet. Not long after, Matt was drafted by Dom and his band members as their guitarist. It was at this time that Chris would meet both Matt and Dom. At the time though, Chris was playing drums for another band in town. As time passed by, Matt and Dom’s band would fall apart, leaving them without a bassist. Fortunately, Chris would give up drums to play bass for them.
“I met Matt and Dom quite a few years before the band started because we went to school together – they were at school ahead of me, but I knew them from seeing them around town. Then a load of bands popped up out of nowhere where we lived – all of a sudden everyone wanted to play the guitar and be in a rock band. I was in a band, Matt and Dom were in another band, but theirs was on the edge of self-destruction and mine was falling apart too, so we got together from there,” Chris, on how he got together with Matt and Dom.
They would rename the band Rocket Baby Dolls, and with a Goth image, they entered a battle of the bands competition. "I remember the first real concert we've ever made was for a band competition,” says Matt “We were the only real rock band; all the others were pop or funk-pop, kinda Jamiroquai if you want. We knew we had no chance to win - we were not the best musicians - it was a matter of 'fitting'. So we did the best we could, we took advantage of our feeling of being 'different'. We came on stage with make up all over our face, we were very aggressive, we played very violently and then we broke everything on stage. All that to say that the will, the attitude meant a lot to us. So we won. And I think that psychologically it changed many things in our heads. Because we came to lose, we expected to lose. And we were angry somehow. And we had just realized at this time that we could replace lots of things. We realized that emotion, the vibrations that you create are as important as your technical skills. We had just discovered something: music is a matter of emotion.” It was during this time, that the band would name their band Muse.
Origin of ‘Muse’
According to Matt, Dom, and Chris, they chose the name ‘Muse’ because it was short and it looked good on a poster. The first they heard of the word was when someone in Teignmouth suggested that the reason for a lot of the populace becoming members of bands was due to a muse hovering over the town.
Muse’s First Gigs
“The first gig we did, we dressed up a little bit like the Cure actually, we tried to look very Gothic, and we had all black make-up on. The band was called Rocket Baby Dolls, it wasn't called Muse. We did this one-off gig, and I think it's the only time we ever did it. After that we just got bored with back-combing our hair.” says Matt.
Muse was often asked to play covers, which they hated. They were determined to play their own music, which would cause them a great number of gigs. On October 1995, Dennis Smith, the owner of Sawmills, a recording studio in England, discovered them playing in a Cornwall village. “Matthew has an incredible range of thoughts. He’s got such an imaginative and creative mind, which was obvious in those early days, always challenging and wanting to get into very deep conversations that took 20 years of adult life to come to terms with. An older head on much younger shoulders is how I’ve always seen him.” says Smith, on his opinion on Matt’s creativity.
Smith would later offer them free recording time at his studio. With this offer, they were able to release a self-titled EP under Sawmills’ in-house label, Dangerous. They attracted many fans across England, as well as the attention of Steve Lamacq, an influential British music journalist, and the weekly British music publication NME. Smith subsequently co-founded the music production company Taste Media especially for Muse.
Despite their success, British record companies were reluctant to back Muse. According to them, they were concerned that their music sounded similar to Radiohead. Despite this, a few gigs were arranged for them in the United States, which sparked a strong interest from Madonna’s record label, Maverick. Maverick would later on sign Muse to a record deal on Christmas Eve, 1998.
Upon their return from America, Taste Media would arrange deals for Muse with various record labels in Europe and Australia. They would release another EP, Muscle Museum EP, which sparked more interest for them. John Leckie, the acclaimed producer who had worked with Radiohead, the Stone Roses, Weird Al Yankovich, and The Verve, was brought in to produce their first album, and on October 4, 1999, Showbiz was released around the world, following the success of Uno and Cave, Muse’s first two singles from Showbiz.
Showbiz
Muse's first album, Showbiz meet with mixed response from local critics. According them, Showbiz sound was similar to musicians like Queen, Jeff Buckley or Radiohead, yet this did not stop their success – Muscle Museum and Sunburn were released as successful singles with Unintended being their first single to hit the top 20.
Showbiz showcased Muse’s aggressive music style, as well as their emotional style. Some of their songs, such as Sunburn, referenced the difficulties they had while trying to establish themselves, as well as lyrical references to love and money.
Showbiz proved to be a modest success, selling 700,000 copies worldwide and still counting.
With the success of Showbiz, Muse landed spots on big festivals, including the Glastonbury festival, in which they were awarded a gold disc for the sales of Showbiz, and the Reading festival. Along with those festivals, a tour of Europe, Australia, and Japan followed. They capped off a successful year with the release of the Showbiz box set in France, containing all their singles from Showbiz, and Random 1-8 EP for Japan, featuring 8 b-sides. They were nominated for the Best New Act award at the Brit Awards and won the same award at the NME Awards.
With the success of Muse’s debut album, they were able to secure a considerable fan base throughout Western Europe.
After a year of gigs throughout Europe, Muse went back to the recording studio to record their follow-up album to Showbiz. John Leckie was approached again to produce their second album, Origin of Symmetry, along with David Botrill. Their second album was considered a change in direction, as Matt explains: “When we did the first album we'd only done a few gigs in London, no major tours. We've learned so much about how we want to be from touring with other bands because of the way they are on stage. If we recorded them in the way other bands do I'd be worried that it would sound the same as them. We've used wind chimes to set up entire backdrops... bits of bones, Llama claws and bubble wrap. It sounds much more atmospheric.”
Origin of Symmetry
Origin of Symmetry was released on June 18, 2001 and it meet with critical aclaim. The song Plug in Baby was released as the lead single of the album, it reached the number 11 spot in the hit charts, the highest spot for any Muse single at that time. Their second single, New Born, would also reach the top 20. This contributed to the album’s respectable chart position at the number 3 spot.
Origin of Symmetry would have made a huge impact on the American music scene, but Maverick had reservations about the album’s falsetto vocals, which they considered to be not radio-friendly, and asked Muse to change some of their songs prior to the American release. Insulted, Muse left Maverick, preventing the release of the album in the United States.
Origin of Symmetry proved to be heavier and darker than Showbiz, and showcased Matt’s falsetto technique, as well as his distinctive piano playing, inspired by the works of Rachmaninov and Chopin, Matt’s favourite composers, as well as his heavy guitar riffs. It also featured Muse’s experimentation with unorthodox instruments, such as a church organ, Mellotron, animal bones, and so much more.
The release of this album saw Muse winning multiple awards, such as Best British Act at the Kerrang Awards, as well as nominations for three Q Awards, which were Best Album, Best Live Act, and Best Producer. The release of this album was also followed by a massive world tour, with visits to Australia, Japan, Germany, Austria, France, and many more. Muse released two more singles before releasing another album, which were Bliss and a double-a side, Hyper Music/Feeling Good.
On July 1, 2002, Muse released a 2-disc album containing multiple b-sides and live version of some songs. This was accompanied with a release of a DVD containing a documentary and a live performance in Paris, which they considered best gig back then, as Matt explains: “Towards the end of touring ‘Origin of Symmetry’, we played our biggest gig at the time in Paris. We felt that we were playing our best gigs then, and agreed that we should capture it. The first album [‘Showbiz’] was a bit of a grind, a lot of doubt, but we’d approached the second album with a positive carelessness both in terms of the album and the touring. We felt that we had to remember that. We brought along one of our mates who’d lost his job, so he became the party organiser and documented a lot of it on video camera. At the time I felt all that wasn’t going happen again, coming out of yourself and reaching that moment of freedom that you really want. I think a lot of people get in bands without wanting to be famous or successful – a lot of it is about wanting to be free of the constraints of society. That was what I experienced at the time.” Both entitled Hullabaloo Soundtrack, this proved to be a moderate success. Along with this release was the release of an EP in France and Japan, entitled Dead Star EP, which featured the double-a side from Hullabaloo Soundtrack, Dead Star/In Your World as well as a cover of Franki Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. Muse capped off a wonderful year by winning the Best Live Act Award at the Kerrang Awards, as well as selling 1.3 million copies of Origin of Symmetry around the world.
Muse took another break from touring to record their third album. This time though, they dropped John Leckie as their producer and worked with Paul Reeve, John Corfield, and Rich Costey. “He was the man we originally thought of working with for the rock tracks. He'd previously mixed some great rock records - Audioslave, Rage Against The Machine's ‘Renegades’, The Mars Volta - but in the meantime he'd been sending us discs of other people he'd worked with like Philip Glass and Fiona Apple and was trying to convince us that he should do the whole album. We reworked Apocalypse Please with a more aggressive sound, without too much over-production, and it sounded better. In the end he did do pretty much all the album, and mixed it as well. He understood what we were trying to achieve. The main thing with Rich was that his mixing technique was pretty precise. Every cab would have about 10 microphones on it and they would all be placed with mathematical precision. I remember spending a whole day playing the guitar and seeing Rich outside with a measuring tape and a spirit level! He was making the slightest adjustments, millimeters at a time to get it so there was perfect phase” Matt says, regarding on how cool it was to work with Rich Costey.
Their third album was to be uplifting, but with the recent events regarding the United States and United Kingdom going to war at the Gulf and Iraq changed all of that. “We started off with a full orchestra, experimenting, pushing it right over the Queen mark - 98 backing vocals, 32-piece orchestra and all sorts! We did two songs like that and kinda lost our minds,” says Matt. “We ended deciding to get back to basics. We re-recorded some of the stuff with the orchestra, toned it down a little bit. It sounds a lot harder now than I expected. In terms of general context, the world's changed in the last year, the world events of the last year and a half. It's not that we're a political band but I think it's impossible to avoid those things. I think there's a lot of apocalyptic stuff going on in a lot of the songs. While we were recording all the war (with Iraq) was coming out and we were in the process of recording while watching that. The direction definitely took a pretty harsh change in the middle of it all. In relation to the album it's come across more as a general fear and mistrust of the people in power. It's about moments of extreme fear, and a fair bit of end of the world talk.”
Matt also explains how different the third album would be compared to Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry: “In the past I was layering guitars quite a lot but this time I wanted to get just one guitar part to stand out and be just perfect. On the last album for example, on songs like Citizen Erased or Micro Cuts, I did a lot of multiple guitar parts. But when I went to do it live, I actually found myself simplifying the guitar parts and found that the simple parts were much more effective and much more powerful sounding. So in making this album, instead of recording the songs in layers, I was actually working on the parts a lot more before I recorded them.”
Absolution
After months of experimentation, recording, and mixing, Absolution, Muse’s third studio album, was released on September 29, 2003, it again meet with critical acclaim. Absolution featured Muse’s continuation of blending classical influences into their hard rock style, with songs such as Butterflies and Hurricanes and Ruled by Secrecy. Unlike their previous albums, Absolution featured a very dark theme – the end of the world, as well as reactions to that situation. This theme draws mainly from Matt’s continuing interest in conspiracy theories, theology, science, futurism, computing, and the supernatural. His interests with these themes stemmed from the death of his uncle, who was killed by the IRA.
Along with the release of this album, Muse released two singles, Stockholm Syndrome, which was a download-only single from their website, and Time is Running Out, which proved to be their breakout hit, reaching the number 8 spot in the UK charts.
Muse finally received mainstream critical acclaim in Britain, and with a new American record deal, Muse started their first international stadium tour, with stops at Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, France, Iceland, and many more.
To end the wonderful year of 2003, Muse released another single, Hysteria, which received critical acclaim due to its pounding bass line and has also become a staple of the band. They also won the Q Innovation Award as well as the Best Album and the Best British Band Award at the Kerrang Awards.
To start off 2004, Muse toured Australia, Japan, where Chris lost his wedding ring that was eventually returned to him by a fan, France, and the United States. During a small gig in Atlanta, Matt was injured by being hit accidentally with his guitar when they started to play Citizen Erased. The gig was stopped at once. “I didn't feel any pain at first. Then I spat out this liquid and there were gushes of red stuff spurting out all over the microphone. I ran backstage and started puking up. At first you could feel the stitches stretching my face as I sang but now the only problem is that they seem to be disappearing into my lip” Matt says, regarding the pain. Dom also noticed that Matt was badly injured. “I knew it was bad as soon as he turned around, there was blood dripping everywhere” he said.
Matt recovered just in time to continue their North American tour, with a stop at the Coachella Valley Music Festival, as well as stops in Utah, Toronto, and Vancouver. Absolution was a certified hit in North America, being one of the only British bands to be a big hit in America. Sing for Absolution was released as a single at the eve of their huge European festival tour, being another Muse single to reach the top 20.
While touring, Matt has a very interesting habit: Poker. “I'm really into the mind games of poker,” he explains. “I'm more ruthless than the other two so I've been taking all their money. It can get boring. In Barcelona I had to go to a casino to play with some pros. I still made around 500 euros. You know the Channel 4 poker programme Late Night Poker? My ambition is to appear on that. But the stake is £1500 and I'm not quite good enough yet.”
Muse started off their big festival tour in Europe with a stop at the Pinkpop Festival, as well as the Rock am Ring and the Rock im Park in Germany. On June 27, 2004, Muse headlined the Glastonbury Festival. This performance featured a fantastic set from them, ending the memorable night with Stockholm Syndrome. Matt described this gig as “the best gig of our lives” during their set. Sadly, a few hours after headlining Glastonbury, tragedy struck. Bill Howard, Dom’s father, died from a heart attack after attending the festival to see them. “It was the biggest feeling of achievement we've ever had after coming offstage”, Matt says. “It was almost surreal that an hour later his dad died. It was almost not believable. We spent about a week sort of just with Dom trying to support him. I think he was happy that at least his dad got to see him at probably what was the finest moment so far of the band's life.”
With support from his bandmates and his family, Dom decided to stay with the band and continue with their tour. Their next single, Butterflies and Hurricanes, would be dedicated to his father.
As their tour carried on into the United States with the Cure Curiosa Tour, Chris would injure his wrist due to a collision with The Cooper Temple Clause bassist Didz while playing football, throwing many festival dates in doubt. However, they managed to find a temporary replacement in Morgan Nicholls, bassist for the UK hip-hop act The Streets, and with Chris playing keyboards and providing backing vocals, they managed to continue their tour, with a storming show at the V Festival on August. Muse would continue their tour with a stop at Australia and touring the rest of North America. Their visit to North America would feature Muse playing new material. During this tour, Muse would win the Best Live Act at the Q Awards, two MTV Europe Music Awards for Best Alternative Act and Best UK/Ireland Act, and another Best Live Act award from the UK Festival Awards. Muse would end their spectacular year with two special Christmas gigs at Earls Court, which were sold out.
As 2005 started, while Matt was on vacation at the Kingdom of Bhutan, Chris and Dom would win a Brit Award for their inaugural Best Live Act Award. They also won an NME Award for that same category, bringing Muse’s award tally from 2004-2005 to an astonishing seven awards.
Muse continued their tour on April with several gigs in the United States for the MTVu Campus Invasion Tour. During this tour, Muse would play four new songs while heavily mixing their setlist. Also, Muse would name the four new songs with anagrams on the setlists for fans to solve. It eventually became two treasure hunts, which lead to fans winning bikes signed by Muse. Stockholm Syndrome was also released as the third single from Absolution in America, despite being released two years ago as a download-only single.
Muse would end their tour and their year with a performance at the historic Live 8 concert in Paris, though they were originally scheduled for the London leg. Shortly after, the Absolution box set, containing all of their singles from Absolution, was released in France. Also, they were finally able to release Origin of Symmetry in the United States with a new record deal under Warner Music, after completing their contractual commitments with Taste Media.
Along with a lengthy break from touring, Muse started to record new material for their fourth album, produced again by Rich Costey. They started recording the fourth album at the Miraval Studio in France, yet problems with the management, as well as ghosts and bats caused them to move their recording in New York, where most of their album was recorded. Like Absolution, the band took their time recording, since there were no deadlines and events on their calendar – an ideal time to do something different. According to Chris, they worked on one song at a time, and if they liked it, they kept it. While recording, Muse won another award – the MTVu Woodie Award for International Woodie. They would also release another DVD – Absolution Tour DVD, which featured their Glastonbury headlining set, re-edited and mastered. It would also feature some of their gigs, including Earls Court. By this time, Absolution had sold well in the Europe, selling a million copies.
Black Holes and Revelations
After spending half a year recording and mixing, Muse released their fourth album, Black Holes and Revelations, on July 3, 2006, to an extremely positive critical reaction. Different from their previous albums, Black Holes and Revelations featured a wide variety of alternative music themes, from classical to techno. Black Holes and Revelations also referenced more of Matt’s interest in conspiracy theories, with themes directing their fascination with space, Mars and Cydonia, the Book of Revelation and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. According to Matt, there is one main theme in general - the tension and fear hanging in the air around the world. He explains, “The 50s was an era of worldwide tension, of nuclear fear and of war. Today, we’ve come back to this feeling, like at the end of a cycle. There’s even been a rise in the interest in space. This theme, the connection between current tensions and those from long ago, can really be heard on the album.” Accompanying the release of the album was the release of its first single, Supermassive Black Hole, which reached the number 4 spot in the UK, making it their biggest UK hit to date.
Muse started to tour again with a performance at BBC Radio 1’s One Big Weekend, in which they performed a few songs off the new album as well as songs from previous albums. Matt, Chris, and Dom were a bit anxious about this performance as Matt explains: “We're a little bit rusty obviously, but we'll give it our best shot. We are looking forward to playing; it's good to do a gig after such a long break. It sort of kicks our arse back into gear and eh yeah I'm looking forward to it. We'll probably play a few new tracks there, and obviously a couple of old ones as well, and yeah - I'm looking forward to it.”
Following this performance and various promotional TV appearances, Muse continued on their tour, which consisted mostly of festival appearances, with a notable headlining slot at the Reading and Leeds Festival, which would be one of the highlights during their tour, as Chris explains: “The biggest highlight for me was headlining Reading last year. We went there as kids and I think it was 10 years to the day that I saw Rage Against The Machine play – and that was one of the best gigs I’d ever seen! Their show has embodied my perception of Reading ever since, so to be on the same stage headlining 10 years down the line was a pretty good feeling. Out of all the festivals in Europe, Reading is the best rock crowd you’re ever going to get. No matter what time of day you’re on, you know the crowd are going to be mental – you don’t get that at any other festival.” The tour carried on with various dates in North America throughout the summer. During this leg of the tour, they would release another single, Starlight, which proved to be the band’s biggest hit in America, climbing to the number 2 spot on the US Modern Rock Chart. Muse would later begin a large arena tour in Europe, with three sold out dates in Wembley Arena. During their tour of Europe, they would release another single in the UK, Knights of Cydonia, which was described as “six minutes and one second of pure genius.” While touring, they won another award at the MTV Europe Music Video Awards, winning the Best Alternative Act and Best Live Act Award. During the Awards, Justin Timberlake commented that they were the best band there when introducing them before their performance of “Starlight”. Also, Brandon Flowers, lead vocalist of The Killers, mentioned Muse while they received the Best Rock Group award. Muse would spend the rest of the year touring Europe.
As 2007 approached, it was announced that Muse would be the first band to play in the newly-rebuilt Wembley Stadium, on June 16. Following the announcement, the first night was sold out in 45 minutes, prompting the organizers to add a second show on June 17.
Muse started 2007 with a tour of South East Asia and Australia, with a headlining slot at the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia alongside Tool. During their tour of South East Asia, Muse won another award at the BRIT Awards, winning the Best Live Act award. They were also nominated for Best Album and Best British Band Awards, but they lost to Arctic Monkeys.
On March 2007, it was announced that Muse would not be the first act to play at the newly-reconstructed Wembley Stadium. Instead, it would be singer George Michael who would be the first act to play in the 90,000-capacity stadium.
Their 2007 world tour continued to another United States tour, with dates supporting punk band My Chemical Romance. After a show in Williamsburg, Virginia, members of My Chemical Romance’s band and crew, as well as Muse’s crew suffered from severe food poisoning, causing the cancellation of several shows. This prompted fans of My Chemical Romance and Muse to send death threats to the chef who served them meals after their tour.
Their world tour carried on despite this matter, with headlining spots at the Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Pinkpop Festival, and the Isle of Wight festival. During these performances, Muse surprised their fans by playing old songs, including Micro Cuts, Blackout, and Unintended, which made its return to setlists after a 6 year absence.
For their Wembley gigs, Muse invited several bands to support, turning this spectacular into another summer festival. For the night of the 16th, The Streets, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Dirty Pretty Things were supporting, and for the 17th, My Chemical Romance, Billy Clyro, and Shy Child were supporting.
After their Wembley gigs, Muse will continue their tour with stops at Monaco, France, and many more. It was recently announced that they will also tour America again, with a gig at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden, while Cold War Kids will be supporting them on this American tour.
The Resistance
A fifth album, The Resistance, was released on the 14th of September 2009.
The first single, Uprising, included a remix of the title song by Does It Offend You, Yeah?, as well as "Who Knows Who," a collaboration with The Streets. However, the first song released from the album was not "Uprising," but rather "United States of Eurasia," which was made available as a free download from the official website at the conclusion of the Ununited States of Eurasia treasure hunt.