Muse | |
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![]() Muse, from left to right: Matthew Bellamy, Christopher Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard.
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Background information | |
Origin | Teignmouth, Devon, England |
Genre(s) | Alternative rock Progressive rock New prog |
Years active | 1994–present |
Label(s) | Helium 3, Warner Bros. Records, Mushroom Records, Taste Media |
Website | muse.mu |
Members | |
Matthew Bellamy Christopher Wolstenholme Dominic Howard |
Muse are an English rock band that formed in Teignmouth, Devon in 1994. Since their inception, the band has comprised Matthew Bellamy (vocals, guitar, piano), Christopher Wolstenholme (bass guitar, vocals, keyboards) and Dominic Howard (drums, percussion). The band are known for mixing various musical styles together, the most prominent being alternative rock, classical music, and electronica.
Muse have released four studio albums to date. Their first, Showbiz, was released in 1999, followed by Origin of Symmetry in 2001, Absolution in 2003 and Black Holes & Revelations (2006), which garnered the band a Mercury Prize nomination and a third place finish in the NME Albums of the Year list for 2006.[1] Muse have also won other music awards throughout their career, including five MTV Europe Music Awards, five Q Awards, four NME Awards, two BRIT awards and four Kerrang! Awards. Their most recent release is HAARP, a live album released in 2008 that was recorded during the band's performances at London's Wembley Stadium on June 16 & 17, 2007.
Contents |
The members of Muse played in separate bands during their stay at Teignmouth Community College and Coombeshead College in the early 1990s.[2] The formation of Muse began when Matthew Bellamy successfully auditioned for the part of guitarist in Dominic Howard's band. They asked Chris Wolstenholme, who played drums at the time, to learn to play bass guitar for the band. Chris agreed and took up lessons.
In 1994, under the name Rocket Baby Dolls and with a goth/glam image, the group won a local battle of the bands contest, smashing their equipment in the process.[3][4] "It was supposed to be a protest, a statement", Bellamy said, "so, when we actually won, it was a real shock. A massive shock. After that, we started taking ourselves seriously". Shortly after the contest, the three decided to forego university, quit their jobs, change the band name to Muse, and move away from Teignmouth.[5]
After a few years building a fan base, Muse played their first gigs in London and Manchester. The band had a significant meeting with Dennis Smith, the owner of Sawmills Studio, situated in a converted water mill in Cornwall.
This meeting led to their first proper recordings and the release of an eponymous EP on Sawmills' in-house Dangerous label,[3] with a front cover designed by Muse drummer Dominic Howard. Their second EP, the Muscle Museum EP, reached number 3 in the indie singles chart and attracted the attention of influential British radio broadcaster Steve Lamacq as well as the weekly British music publication NME. Dennis Smith introduced the band to Safta Jaffery with whom he had recently started the record label Taste Media. Muse signed with Smith and Jaffery and recorded their first three albums, 'Showbiz'. 'Origin of Symmetry' and 'Absolution' with Taste Media.
Despite the major success of their second EP, British record companies were reluctant to back Muse, and many sections of the music industry asserted that, like many of their contemporaries, their sound was too similar to that of Radiohead. However, American record labels were keen to sign them, flying Muse out to the U.S. to play showcase concerts. After a trip to New York's CMJ festival, Muse signed a deal with Maverick Records on 24 December 1998.[6] Upon their return from America, Taste Media arranged deals for Muse with various record labels in Europe and Australia, allowing them to maintain control over their career in individual countries.
John Leckie, who produced The Bends by Radiohead and had produced for the Stone Roses and The Verve, was brought in to produce the band's first record, Showbiz. The album showcased the band's soft style, and the lyrics made reference to the difficulties they had encountered while trying to establish themselves in Teignmouth.[3][4]
The release of this album was followed by tour support slots for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters in the United States. 1999 and 2000 saw Muse playing major festivals in Europe and gigs in Australia, accumulating a considerable fan base in Western Europe, particularly in France.
During production of the band's second album, Origin of Symmetry, the band experimented with unorthodox instrumentation, such as a church organ, Mellotron, and an expanded drum kit. There were more of Bellamy's high-pitched vocal lines, arpeggiated guitar, and distinctive piano playing. Bellamy cites guitar influences such as Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine & Audioslave), the latter evident in the more riff-based songs in Origin of Symmetry and in Bellamy's extensive use of pitch-shifting effects in his solos.[7] The album also features a reworking of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse's "Feeling Good". Muse successfully sued Nescafé in 2003 when they used Muse's version of "Feeling Good" in a television advert without permission, donating the £500,000 compensation to Oxfam.[8]
Celine Dion was also threatened with legal action in 2002 when she planned to name her Las Vegas show "Muse", despite the band owning the worldwide performing rights to the name. Celine Dion offered $50,000 for the rights but Muse rejected this with Bellamy stating that "We don't want to turn up there with people thinking we're Celine Dion's backing band". Eventually Dion was forced to back down.[9]
The album was well-received by critics; Dean Carlson of Allmusic commented on the album saying, "...if you want to sound like Radiohead when even Thom Yorke doesn't want to sound like Radiohead, you might as well take it to such preposterous, bombastic, over-the-top-levels".[10] Whereas NME gave the album 9/10 with Roger Morton writing, "It's amazing for such a young band to load up with a heritage that includes the darker visions of Cobain and Kafka, Mahler and The Tiger Lillies, Cronenberg and Schoenberg, and make a sexy, populist album. But Muse have carried it off".[11]
Maverick had reservations about Bellamy's vocal style on this album (considering it not to be "radio-friendly"), and asked Muse to change some of their songs prior to U.S. release. The band refused and left Maverick, resulting in Maverick's decision not to release Origin of Symmetry in the U.S. The album was finally released in the U.S. on 20 September 2005, after Muse signed to Warner.
Having built up a strong reputation as a live band over the course of the Origin of Symmetry tour, Muse decided to release a live CD and DVD. The DVD, Hullabaloo, featured live footage recorded during Muse's two gigs on consecutive nights at Le Zenith in Paris in 2001 and a documentary film of the band on tour. A double album, Hullabaloo Soundtrack was released at the same time, containing a compilation of B-sides and a disc of recordings of songs from the Le Zenith performances. A double-A side single was also released featuring new songs "In Your World" and "Dead Star". The song "Shrinking Universe" from Hullabaloo Soundtrack was used in trailers for the 2007 film 28 Weeks Later.
In the February 2006 edition of Q Magazine, Origin of Symmetry was placed 74th in a fans' poll of the 100 greatest albums ever.
In 2003, a new studio album, Absolution, was released. Produced by Rich Costey, who had previously produced Philip Glass and Fiona Apple, the album demonstrated a continuation of the experimentation displayed in Origin of Symmetry, while maintaining a sense of the band as a three-piece. The album yielded the hit singles "Time Is Running Out" and "Hysteria".
The album is built around the theme of the end of the world, and reactions to that situation; despite the apocalyptic theme, Muse described it as an "uplifting" album, with a positive message coming through in songs such as "Blackout" and "Butterflies and Hurricanes". The theme draws from Bellamy's interest in conspiracy theories, theology, science, and the supernatural. The song "Ruled By Secrecy", for example, takes its title from the Jim Marrs book Rule By Secrecy, which discusses the secrets behind the way major governments are run. Many lyrics on this album have political references, such as the music video for "Time Is Running Out", which takes place in an unspecified government office.
Finally receiving mainstream critical acclaim in Britain, and with a new American record deal, Muse undertook their first international stadium tour. It continued for about a year and saw Muse visiting Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and France. Meanwhile, the band released five singles ("Time Is Running Out", "Hysteria", "Sing for Absolution", "Stockholm Syndrome", & "Butterflies and Hurricanes"). The US leg of the 2004 tour began ominously as Bellamy injured himself on stage during the opening show in Atlanta.[12] The tour resumed after several stitches and a couple of days.
The band also played at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2004. After the festival, the band described the concert as "the best gig of our lives".[13][14] However, drummer Dominic Howard's father, Bill Howard, who was at the festival to watch the band, died from a heart attack very shortly after the performance. "It was the biggest feeling of achievement we've ever had after coming offstage", Bellamy said. "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".[3]
Muse then continued their tour. Their last dates were in the U.S. and at the Earls Court arena in London, where they played an extra date due to the high demand for tickets. They won two MTV Europe awards, including "Best Alternative Act" and a Q Award for "Best Live Act". At the end of 2004, Vitamin Records released The String Quartet Tribute to Muse by The Tallywood Strings, an album of instrumental string versions of some of Muse's songs. Muse also received an award for "Best Live Act" at the 2005 BRIT Awards.
The band finished touring in January 2005, then visited the U.S. in April and May On 2 July 2005, Muse participated in the Live 8 concert in Paris, where they performed their singles "Plug In Baby", "Bliss", "Time Is Running Out", and "Hysteria".
An unofficial and unauthorised DVD biography containing no Muse music called Manic Depression was released in April 2005; the band was not involved with the project and did not endorse the release.[15] Another DVD, this time official, was released by the band on 12 December 2005, called Absolution Tour. The official release contained re-edited and re-mastered highlights from the Glastonbury Festival 2004 and previously unseen footage from London Earls Court, Wembley Arena, and the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. Two songs, "Endlessly" and "Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist", are hidden tracks on the DVD taken from Wembley Arena. The only song from Absolution not to appear on the live DVD is "Falling Away With You", which has never been performed live to date.[16] Absolution eventually went Gold in the US.[17]
In July 2006, Muse released their fourth album, co-produced by Muse and by Rich Costey, titled Black Holes & Revelations. The album was released officially in Japan on 28 June 2006, in Europe on 3 July 2006 and, in North America on 11 July 2006. The album charted at No. 1 in the UK, much of Europe, and Australia. It was also a success in the United States, reaching No. 9 in the Billboard 200 album chart.[18] Black Holes & Revelations was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize, but lost to Arctic Monkeys. The album did, however, earn a Platinum Europe Award after selling one million copies in the continent,[19] The album's title and themes are the result of the band's fascination with science fiction and political outrage.[20][21] In August 2006, Muse recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios for Live from Abbey Road.
The first single from the album, "Supermassive Black Hole", was released as a download on 9 May 2006 and accompanied by a music video directed by Floria Sigismondi. It was later followed by general releases as a single the next month, all ahead of the main album release. The second single, "Starlight", was released on 4 September 2006. "Knights of Cydonia" was released in the U.S. as a radio-only single on 13 June 2006 and in the UK on 27 November 2006. It also had a six-minute promotional video filmed in Romania and was featured on the popular video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. It was also voted number 1 in the world's largest music poll Australian Radio's Triple J Hottest 100 for 2007. The fourth single from the album, "Invincible", was then released on 9 April 2007.[22] Another single, "Map of the Problematique", was released for digital download only on 18 June 2007, following the band's performance at Wembley Stadium.[23] The track "Assassin" is featured on the video game Guitar Hero World Tour.
Prior to the release of the new album, the band resumed making live performances, which had halted while recording, making a number of promotional TV appearances starting on 13 May 2006 at BBC Radio 1's One Big Weekend. The main live tour started just before the release of their album and initially consisted mostly of festival appearances, most notably a headline slot at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2006.[24] The band's main touring itinerary started with a tour of North America from late July to early August 2006. After the last of the summer festivals, a tour of Europe began, including a large arena tour of the UK.[25] The band spent November and much of December 2006 touring Europe with British band Noisettes as the supporting act. The tour continued in Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia in early 2007 before returning to England for the summer. Possibly their biggest performances to date were two gigs at the newly rebuilt Wembley Stadium on 16 June and 17 2007. Both Wembley concerts were recorded for a DVD/CD titled HAARP, which was released on the 17 March 2008[26] in the UK and 1 April 2008[27] in the USA. The title refers to the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a scientific research program aimed at studying the properties and behaviour of the ionosphere.
The touring continued across Europe in July 2007 before heading back to the US in August where they played to a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden, New York.[28] They earned a headline spot on the second night of the Austin City Limits Music Festival on 15 September 2007, after The White Stripes cancelled their performance. Not long after, they also performed at the October 2007 Vegoose in Las Vegas alongside bands like Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, and Queens of the Stone Age.[28] Muse continued touring in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Scandinavia before moving on to Australia and New Zealand. Muse played their final show of the Black Holes & Revelations tour as headliner of the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas after playing to sell-out crowds throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand.
A number of individual live appearances also occurred in 2008. In March, they played concerts in Dubai, Johannesburg, and Cape Town.[29] On 12 April they played a one-off concert at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.[30] The band also performed at a new gig in Marlay Park, Dublin on 13 August and were set to play at a gig in Belfast on 14 August. However, the Belfast date was dismissed according to The Belfast Telegraph.[31] Kasabian and Glasvegas supported Muse on their Irish date.[32] A few days later, they were the headline act at V Festival 2008 (reportedly the only UK festival where the band are appearing this year), playing in Chelmsford on Saturday 16 August and Staffordshire on Sunday 17 August.[33] They also hinted at the possibility of a future stadium tour or concerts in South America.[34]
On November 4, 2008, "Supermassive Black Hole" was released as part of the Twilight movie soundtrack. [35]
Between May and August of 2008, the band played an 8-date tour in Mexico and South America, as well as a performance at Marlay Park in Dublin with support from Kasabian and Glasvegas a few days before their headline slots at the English V Festival. Despite suggestions from the band themselves, no new material was debuted at these summer concerts.
On 2 August 2008, a collaboration song between Muse and The Streets entitled "Who Knows Who" was leaked on Muselive.com, which coincides with an interview published by NME on 14 April. Bellamy stated in the article that he "would like to do England's answer to Rage Against The Machine".[36][37] The self-labelled "jam" consists of a funky wah-wah centric verse with a heavily distorted chorus based on the main riff from Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker". The song also features guitar effects similar in form to those used by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, a band which has been an influence on Muse's music. The song was met with mixed review from fans, but a message from the band on the official forum confirmed that the song was genuine, though the track was never intended to be a serious release.
As previously reported, Muse had tentatively started work on album number five, the follow up to 2006's Black Holes And Revelations, earlier in 2008. Drummer Dominic Howard has now explained that the band wrote a few tracks ahead of their headline V Festival slots (16–17 August) and are set to head back to their studio near Lake Como in Italy soon. Speaking to BBC 6music, Howard said, "We're working on new stuff and we're gonna have a couple of weeks off and then in about two weeks time we're back out to Italy to start writing again". He also added, "We've already done a few tracks and it sounds great, so we're just working towards the future".
In a Q&A with the fans on the official Muse messageboard Chris stated that "It would be nice to have the album out in the second half of next year (2009) but we have not set ourselves any targets. It is more important for us to make the best album we have made to date and if that means it comes out in 2010 then we don’t mind. Hopefully it will be sooner though."
The driving force behind Muse's lyrical and musical composition is the vocal style of lead singer/pianist/guitarist Matthew Bellamy. Popular devices in their songs include singing with vibrato and in falsetto ("Supermassive Black Hole", "Knights of Cydonia", "Ruled by Secrecy", "Micro Cuts", & "Showbiz", among others), the use of arpeggiations ("Take a Bow", "Starlight", "Butterflies and Hurricanes", "New Born", & "Bliss", among others), and large or octave jumps in melody lines ("Map of the Problematique", "Stockholm Syndrome", "Space Dementia", & "Citizen Erased", among others). Some of the band's songs, most notably older B-sides, express a more esoteric side in terms of guitar riffs and vocals ("Execution Commentary", "Agitated", "Ashamed", & "Yes Please", among others).
Black Holes & Revelations also demonstrates a heavy influence from Italian music. "I've been listening to quite a lot of music from the south of Italy on this album", Bellamy admits. "I've been living in Italy for a while, and I discovered this music from Naples, which sounds like a mix of music from Africa, Croatia, Turkey, and Italy. It kind of gives it a mystical sound, so I think that's one thing that influenced the album. I like being influenced by things that have a mixed style".[38]
In September 2008, the band received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts each from the University of Plymouth for being recognised as "not only one of the most exciting live bands in the world, but also a band which pushes musical boundaries".[39]
Year | Award | Category | Region | Notes |
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2000 | NME Awards | Best New Artist | United Kingdom | |
2001 | Kerrang! Awards | Best British Band | United Kingdom | |
2002 | Kerrang! Awards | Best British Live Act | United Kingdom | |
2004 | Q Awards | Innovation Award | United Kingdom | |
Kerrang! Awards | Best Album | United Kingdom | ||
Q Awards | Best Live Act | United Kingdom | ||
MTV EMA | Best Alternative | Europe | ||
MTV EMA | Best UK & Ireland Act | Europe | ||
2005 | BRIT Awards | Best Live Act | United Kingdom | |
NME Awards | Best Live Act | United Kingdom | ||
mtvU Woodie Awards | Best International | United States | ||
2006 | Q Awards | Best Live Act[40] | United Kingdom | |
MTV EMA | Best Alternative | Europe | ||
Kerrang! Awards | Best Live Act[41] | United Kingdom | ||
BT Digital Music Awards | Best Rock Artist | United Kingdom | ||
UK Festival Awards | Best Rock Act[42] | United Kingdom | For Reading and Leeds Festivals 2006 | |
UK Festival Awards | Best Headline Act[42] | United Kingdom | For Reading and Leeds Festivals 2006 | |
Vodafone Live Music Awards | Best Live Act[43] | United Kingdom | ||
2007 | BRIT Awards | Best Live Act[44] | United Kingdom | |
NME Awards | Best British Band[45] | United Kingdom | ||
BT Digital Music Awards | Best Rock Artist[46] | United Kingdom | ||
Vodafone Live Music Awards | Tour of the Year[47] | United Kingdom | ||
Q Awards | Best Live Act[48] | United Kingdom | ||
MTV EMA | Headliner[49] | Europe | ||
MTV EMA | Best UK & Ireland Act[49] | Europe | ||
mtvU Woodie Awards | Best Performing[50] | United States | ||
2008 | Meteor Music Awards | Best International Live Performance[51] | Ireland | For Oxegen 2007 |
NME Awards | Best Live Band[52] | United Kingdom | ||
MTV Asia Awards | Bring Da House Down[53] | Asia | For Muse Asia Tour 2007 |
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