More about: Muse
Band also share video for 'The Handler'
Muse have revealed that they want to turn new album Drones into a musical - and have also unveiled a video for new track 'The Handler'. Check it out below.
The operatic space-rockers, who are no strangers to concept album, are surely the perfect fit for a stage musical? Well, it looks like the band agree.
"I think it would be great to be able to do that at some point!," said bassist Chris Wolstenholme when quizzed by Music Feeds about the possibility of a musical. "I think in the immediate future obviously it’s still an album that the fans haven’t heard, you know, so all we can really think about at this point in time is getting the album out and going on tour.
"But yeah, it would be great to be able to have it incorporated into some sort of musical or something, you know, it’s not something that we’ve ever done before, it would be very exciting to be a part of it."
The band have also been gradually releasing tracks and videos from Drones ahead of its release next week, this week dropping 'Reapers' and 'The Handler'. Now, they've released a lyric video for the latter - check it out below.
"Quite often, me and Dom [Howard, drummer] don’t always 100% know what’s going on lyrically," said Wolstenholme of the album's concept. "I know Matt had said it was a concept album and he’d had this sort of Drones idea – but you know, he didn’t really elaborate on it too much initially.
"It wasn’t really until we got to the rehearsal process – we sort of had this process of recording a lot of our rehearsals so that we could constantly go back and check against things that we’d done the previous week – and as this process sort of got deeper and deeper, you know, Matt was obviously starting to throw a lot of lyrical ideas down. And that was really when the concept became obvious to me, and that was at the point when I realised that this wasn’t just, you know, some sort of loose concept that he’d come up with, it was a real kind of story, it was something that was kind of obvious throughout that album from start to finish."
Muse release Drones on 8 June before they headline Download Festival alongside Slipknot, Kiss, Marilyn Manson and many more. See here for tickets and information - or win tickets here.
6. The Resistance: While it contains that blend of pomp, pop, rock and classical that only Muse can pull off, as a result it seems to have quite a shimmer but lacks the focus and substance of its predecessors. While it contains some of the band's finest moments (the title track, 'United States Of Eurasia' and the 'Exogenesis' trilogy), one can't help but feel that as a whole the LP is a little incomplete.
5. Showbiz: Awww, Showbiz. We love you, we do. In many ways, Muse arrived on the scene as a band fully-formed, with this debut containing all of the ambition that they would later fulfil. Every song on the record has a charm of its own, however the rock element of it all seems a little muted, with the band themselves admitting that it sounds a little nervous and restrained - not something you'd associate with the Muse of today. Stlll, wait for them to play those opening, rumbling bass notes of 'Muscle Museum' live and watch a room explode.
4. The 2nd Law: 'Survival' aside, this was certainly Muse's most 'complete' piece of work since Black Holes And Revelations. From the subtle electro majesty of 'Madness' to the apocalyptic Prince sex-funk of 'Panic Station' via James Bond rock of 'Supremacy' and the bitter but graceful anti-capitalist lament of 'Animals', this record is almost Statesman-like in its poise and is the sound of a band knowing what they do best and sounding more than comfortable in their own skin.
3. Absolution: The album that took them from the world's most successful cult to Glastonbury-headliners, this was the record Muse had always threatened to make - the globe-conquering statement of intent, loaded with doom, love, fire and ambition. A record that starts with a song declaring the end of the world, everything else is a wild ride for humanity to save their own souls. There's a richness and fullness to the vast variety of sounds along with Bellamy's fully-realised lyrical concept. From the moshpit-fuelling 'Stockholm Syndrome' to pop smash 'Time Is Running Out' via the dizzying frenzy of 'Hysteria', mini opera 'Butterflies And Hurricanes', Smiths-esque 'Thoughts Of A Dying Atheist' and truly sublime 'Endlessly', there are just too many fan favourites to mention.
2. Black Holes And Revelations: The one that finally saw Muse's success in the UK and EU matched in the US. Where do you go after your previous album declared the end of the world? Well, space - it's the only way. From the aghast horror of the modern world of 'Take A Bow', their best single 'Supermassive Black Hole' and the sweet pop euphoria of 'Starlight' through to Depeche Mode finesse of 'Map Of The Problematique, the thrash-rush of 'Assassin' and the intergalactic battle for survival and modern guitar anthem that is 'Knights Of Cydonia', there's a clarity and maturity to match the sheer insanity and scope of all that's going on. They went supermassive themselves off the back of this LP, headlining Reading & Leeds for this time and selling out multiple nights at Wembley Stadium.
1. Origin Of Symmetry: The sound was inspired by playing countless festivals and their summer of stadiums with Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and the ideas shaped by magic mushrooms, classical music, post-millennial tension and a fearless abandon, OOS was when Muse truly took a step in their own direction with a sound an attitude like no other. Any album containing 'Newborn', 'Space Dementia', 'Plug In Baby', 'Citizen Erased', 'Microcuts' and 'Megalomania' was always going to be a masterpiece, but OOS adds up to be much more than the sum of its parts. It's an artful journey in operatic melodrama, an existential modern rock classic and their true masterpiece. Can Drones top it as Bellamy claims? Time will tell...
Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.
More about: Muse
Photo: Press
