The Drink Talking

Muse, if you are reading this… I’m sorry. It wasn’t my fault.

The day was the first of June, the event was the Green Energy Festival, the location was Galway. This hack was off duty, taking full advantage of the beer and atmosphere following a storming show by three-piece Muse in the big blue tent that now springs up every summer like a giant demented blue mushroom. Then the call came through. “You’re interviewing Muse in ten minutes.” Boy was I regretting having those last eight beers.

Even gonzo journalism was classier than this. I figured that the title of Muse’s second album, Origin Of Symmetry, alluded to an ‘order in chaos’ theory that I might be able to pull off. Try to look intelligent.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Matt Bellamy cast some light on the order/chaos thing: “It’s how sound waves are like pure chaos coming into your head and somehow we decipher that, and I find that weird. Loads of random bits of stuff and violent playing, and we try to make something out of it that is pleasurable to the ear.”

So what do I do then? I challenge Matt to a bet. We both share one talent and that’s saying the alphabet backwards. With 20 cigarettes at stake (although Matt does not smoke) we both had a go, in the end agreeing to call it a draw. I had to then consider asking some questions.

Draw on your own experience, I decide. Origin Of Symmetry is a rocking album. Of the two types of hangover, (the dementia and the depression), I tell Muse that I reckon that it makes a perfect soundtrack to the dementia side of things. “We’re in the dementia side,” agree the band. Matt elaborates: “Especially on stage, just going slightly mad and enjoying it and pushing it and maybe not even caring. You have got to make the most of it.”

But there is always comparisons made between Muse and a certain band called Radiohead. I ask if, no offence, Queen’s pre-Bohemian Rhapsody stuff might be a more accurate comparison. “I suppose it’s like hard rock combined with not being afraid of excess and flamboyancy,” says Matt, the natural spokesperson for the band. I wonder if he can ask a few questions on my behalf.

In preparation for a gig the Muse boys tell me that they eat two bananas and listen to some Rage Against The Machine. Then they pace up and down, breathing deeply through their noses. Anyone who has seen them live will know that they need energy for their shows. They have even smashed the occasional guitar, or as Matt says; “I don’t really try to smash them, I am more into gestures of grandiose.” He smashes them.

“You are pin-ups now, you know,” I tell the band, abandoning the favoured question based interview for, well, telling the band stuff.

“You were voted one of the sexiest blokes in rock,” says Dom (the drummer) to Matt. Chris, the bass player, sniggers a bit to himself. “I don’t know where it comes from,” responds the singer. “I don’t really understand it, I am a small thin man…”

A few stories about groupies later the interview draws to a close I spill the beans about how it came about to be that I was in such an ‘unprofessional’ state. The lads shake my hand, smiles all around, and we say our goodbyes. Muse then present me with a parting gift. I leave Castlegar Sportsgrounds with one more dodgy interview under my belt, and a banana.

Muse release their second album on June 15th entitled Origin Of Symmetry.