Musing Over Change

Although English three-piece rockers Muse had already built a reputation for constantly pushing their sound into new areas, last year's The 2nd Law (their sixth studio album) took it to extremes. The dubstep of The 2nd Law: Unsustainable had fan forums confused, excited or aghast when part of it was teasingly released as a first taste of the new recordings. Then there was the overtly electronic tone of Madness and the funky Panic Station, which was more reminiscent of '80s Prince than Muse. According to the band's bass player Chris Wolstenholme their desire to try new things has always been paramount, and despite the risk of losing them, their fans generally stick around. “Every time we make an album the first thing we talk about is the need to make an album that's different,” he says. “Of course we had concerns with the last one that there was the possibility that there were certain elements that people wouldn't connect with. In particular songs like Madness or Follow Me went in more of an electronic direction then we've ever gone before. I think it was the first time we actually put the guitars down for a bit to see how we'd cope without them.”

Recalling the early years though, Wolstenholme reveals that the danceable Panic Station wasn't actually something all that new to them as a band: “It's the first time we've done anything funky on record but in all honesty it is very similar to some of the stuff that we used to do when we first started. Then we went through a period in the mid to late '90s where that kind of music just wasn't particularly cool and we completely moved away from that, and I don't think we ever envisaged a time where we would ever come back to it! And then all of a sudden Panic Station's on the album and it just goes to show that I don't think there's ever anything that you will never do.”

The other main change on the latest album is that Wolstenholme wrote two of the songs himself. The fact that he also ended up taking lead vocal on both was not part of his plan though. “This was actually the first time I'd ever presented full songs to the band as I used to have real trouble writing lyrics. But the biggest shock was I didn't really ever expect to sing them and that was something that was pretty uncomfortable for quite a long time. If you'd have told me even two years ago that I'd be standing up in a stadium singing a song I would have said no way.

“We usually do the album and then say, 'Shit, how are we going to do this on stage?'” he laughs. “I think in the early days, there was one band and it was the same band that played in the studio as on stage. But when we'd made a couple of albums and had a bit of studio experience we got to that point where we thought should we let being a three-piece put limitations on what we're able to achieve in the studio? And the answer to that was no, we shouldn't. I think when you're writing a song you should serve that song as best you can in the studio and if that means having fifty people on it then you should do it or if it sounds great as a three-piece then you should do that. Then when you play live you're in a big room, you've got a massive PA, and you don't need all those additional layers because people just get so absorbed by the power and the volume so you can get away with it a little bit more.”

Needless to say the resulting stage show is every bit as extravagant as has come to be expected from the band. With a giant inverted pyramid of screens and lasers blasting away it's hard to believe that it's a scaled back set. “The original things that we come up with just grow and we end up with these really overblown ideas that won't work anywhere. We then have to strip it back into something that's realistic to tour with and doesn't take ninety trucks to carry around.”

Whilst they have felt pressure to put on increasingly spectacular shows Wolstenholme hints that the band may try something more intimate in the future. “We played a small show in London in February and it had been so long it felt almost like the first time we'd played a gig in that kind of size venue. We were all amazed at how much we enjoyed it; there was something really refreshing about turning up at a gig, having a quick sound check, not having to check video, not having to check lights, just walking on stage with your gear and a very simple light show. And you look out at the crowd and they're still going mental and then you think to yourself, 'Well, why do we spend all that money putting pyramids in because they loved us when we had nothing!' I think it might be something that we consider at some point, to go out and do a full tour of two or three thousand capacity venues.”

For now though they are only looking as far ahead as Australia at the end of the year as Wolstenholme concludes: “We're getting to that point where we're thinking about the next album so it's like do we carry on touring into next year or how quickly do we want to get an album out or do we want to take a break?”