Global music goliath Muse are coming to town as part of the Formula One after party celebrations, which has everybody more than a little bit excited. Undisputed kings of British rock, the band’s four consecutive chart topping albums and back to back top-three US Billboard 200 records is testament to their legendary status, making their appearance at Du Arena one of the highlights of the Abu Dhabi music calendar in 2013.
TOAD wanted to know what to expect from the band when they hit Abu Dhabi next month, so we sat down with the trio ahead of their Yasalam headlining set on November 2 to talk about their current album, The 2nd Law, and just how they’ve managed to stay at the top of the rock world for a decade.
What makes The 2nd Law unlike any other Muse album we’ve heard?
Dominic Howard: I think the album is certainly the most diverse bit of work we’ve ever done. That stems from all the mixed influences that have come into the band, whether it be orchestral music, classical piano music, or just rock, metal, electronic and funk. We like to absorb all of those influences and bring them into the band.
Chris Wolstenholme: I think with each album we do we don’t always know what direction it’s going to take, but the important thing with the ideas we have is that we have to try something new. We’ve never been a band that likes standing in the same place for too long. We spent a lot of time experimenting, and I think that’s why this album has a freshness to it.
Matthew Bellamy: When the band started it was just the three of us with a guitar, bass and drums. It quickly became apparent that some of the songs we were writing required additional instruments. So quite early on we realised that being diverse was going to be important. And I think because of our influences this album almost falls into three separate genres of music. We kind of have electro pop, we have classic rock and we also have pretty much orchestral, soundtrack style music.
How has your previous success affected this album?
DH: The Resistance doing so well blew our minds. We got to play big gigs in countries that we’ve never played before, we played some of the biggest gigs of our lives on that tour and the whole thing was amazing. But I don’t think we feel too much pressure to live up to our past.
CW: I don’t think you really feel of that kind of pressure, because you make music that you want to make and that’s the way this band has always been.
MB: I think we’ve all had to be very open minded to deal with the success we’ve had, and also the different types of music we’ve got into, and the things we’ve had to do because it’s part of being in a rock band. We keep each other in check, because we all remember when we weren’t cool. We’re definitely not cool now, but trust me when I say we were a lot less cool when we were in school and we remember each other then.
What is The 2nd Law?
MB: The second law of thermodynamics tells us that energy basically is decreasing, and unfortunately it seems to be decreasing everywhere. The energy in our bodies, the earth and the sun seems to be gradually cooling down and I became interested more, I suppose, in philosophically what this means. Because evolution and humans seem to be going directly against this second law; we seem to be evolving and wanting to grow and move forward so this is the battle that we face every day.
What did you learn making The 2nd Law?
CW: I think with each album you learn a lot, you venture into new areas and things that we’ve learnt now aren’t necessarily things that we’re going use in the future. I think for us, music is always an education. No one ever peaks when they make music, you can always get better, whether it’s playing your instrument or singing or writing or producing. There’s always improvement to be made and I think that’s what we enjoy about making music; that you will never ever quite feel like you’ve reached the top. You know you always feel like you could do something better.
DH: I think we’ve learned that we’re still not afraid to be open and try new things. I think that’s always been one of the main driving forces of the band, so that when we approach an album we really try to find new ideas and not get too comfortable. Pushing each other out of our comfort zones is something we always attempt to do in the studio, which is great because that’s how you find new ideas. I guess we felt pretty chuffed also that we were able to produce another album by ourselves, so I think that the confidence in the production role was something that we learned more about and certainly realised that we could do pretty well. But the great thing about music is that you never stop learning. There’s always so much more to discover and learn, so we’re always looking forward to that process.
MB: As producers I think we’ve really learnt so much. I’ve learnt how to write for a brass section, and for a choir as well. That’s been the first time I’ve ever done that and that was really great learning how these different instrumentalists think, the different kind of ranges they have, the different dynamics they have and working with them on what they want to be able to offer a piece as well. I think that was a really big learning process.
Also, just having the open mindedness we’ve always had has proven to be really great on this album. We’ve managed to create some almost completely different genres to what we’ve done before, and in the case of Chris it’s been great to have him coming forward as a song writer for the band, and also wanting to be singing. That’s great for me, I can just sit and concentrate on the guitar for a bit. So it’s been lots of new things that have happened.
Why has Muse been so successful?
MB: All I can say is that all three of us are just so willing to keep experimenting. I think that’s the one reason, if I had to point to anything in particular. It’s the most important factor, I think, that’s really what has kept us together and kept the music exciting. I turned up on the last album The Resistance with a kind of symphonic piece, almost a three part classical piece, I was like ‘Hey let’s do this’ and the guys were like ‘Cool yeah great man, let’s go for it’. I don’t think it’s like that in every band, and I feel very lucky. I’m sure the guys feel the same. We’re all just very lucky to be in a band with open minded people who are not afraid to try anything.
Muse will play the Yasalam after-race concert on November 2. The concerts are exclusively for race ticket holders. Visit www.yasmarinacircuit.com for tickets and details.
