Muse, from left, Chris Wolstenholme, Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard. Photo / Supplied
Muse, from left, Chris Wolstenholme, Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard. Photo / Supplied
In going back to some of the sounds of its early work, the British band has rediscovered its enthusiasm, writes Leena Tailor.
He spent two decades fronting a Grammy-winning band often praised for its innovative and experimental sounds, but even Matt Bellamy admits being blown away by watching Kiwi songstress Kimbra in the studio.
The Muse frontman was invited by the New Zealander to play guitar on the track 90s Music on her latest album The Golden Echo.
"Just seeing her at work is amazing," says Bellamy, 36. "I thought I was good at multitasking and throwing ideas together, but she's working multitracks - 160 different tracks on a song and every one is like a strange sound effect voice that, if you hear it on its own doesn't make sense, but when you put together ... it's a crazy thing.
"She really is a genius. What she's doing is cutting-edge. I couldn't believe it."
When the time came for the British rockers to return to the studio for their own record, the trio turned to another part-time New Zealander, Robert "Mutt" Lange.
The American mega-producer, who owns substantial land in the South Island, has worked with everyone from AC/DC to Lady Gaga and ex-wife Shania Twain.
"He's done loads of genres, but we were trying to direct him towards the rock side," says Bellamy.
"Obviously, we don't want to come out with a Shania Twain-sounding album."
"He's an eccentric guy," adds drummer Dom Howard. "He hates the political system and just wants to plant trees and hang around nature, but he's the most musical producer we've worked with and has a real understanding of melody, harmony and arrangements, rather than just coming from an engineering point of view."
Producing its last two records themselves, the band experimented with orchestral work in 2009's The Resistance then electronic beats in 2012's The 2nd Law, which featured songs like Madness.
But, after the band found its creative endeavours in the studio weren't as easily projected on stage, when it came to the forthcoming seventh album, Drones, it returned to guitar-based rock, which sparked its early success.
"We wanted to get back to our roots and reconnect with why we started playing," says Howard, 37. "There's more big guitar riffs on this album and that was the intention - to make something we could go on stage and head-bang to!
Watch the music video for Dead Inside by Muse:
"The last album was diverse stylistically, so this time we wanted to make it sound like an album - not like a load of random tracks."
Strengthening that cohesiveness is the underlying subject matter, which tells the story of a man losing hope and giving up on the world, before finding his way back.
The material was partially born of Bellamy's split from actress Kate Hudson, with whom he has a 3-year-old son.
"I can't link that too much to my personal life because I've got this tabloid situation," he laughs. "Which is really embarrassing and detracts from everything.
"A lot of the emotions expressed throughout the album are things I've felt at different points of my life - not just recently. The album is quite autobiographical in its emotional content, but it isn't based purely on recent events.
"It has a conceptual arc that follows the journey of someone losing hope and the context is a relationship ending. Then it goes into a person joining the military and battling these dark forces of losing control and giving up on themselves."
Dead Inside and Psycho anchor on that despair, and Defector and Revolt switch gear into a more upbeat vibe, as "the person regains control of themselves and their ability to believe they can change things".
"If you listen to Dead Inside or Psycho on their own, it's very dark but the idea is you have to go to dark places sometimes to find your own strength," explains Bellamy. "So there's a positive message in the album."
Watch: The official lyric video for Psycho by Muse:
Behind the emotional content is the explanation of the record's title. Drones refers to technology overriding humanity, with Bellamy citing Guardian articles about the ethics of drone warfare.
"There's an individual journey of this person wanting to regain control of himself, but also a grander journey of wanting humanity to regain control of itself over technology.
"I don't know why I'm so into this stuff, but that's what I was thinking about."
Releasing the record on June 2, the group will embark on an extensive tour, which should hit New Zealand next year.
Bellamy is a wine enthusiast - he and Hudson have their own label in Santa Barbara - and he is looking forward to a glass of Cloudy Bay sauvignon on arrival. He also hopes to bring his son, Bingham, Downunder but for now is lapping up the LA sunshine, slathering sunscreen on his face while chatting to Living in Santa Monica.
"Years ago, I didn't like LA but, as time goes on, I'm becoming more based here because I've got a child here, so I'm locked in. I've reluctantly learned to love it and now I genuinely do.
"I've got more connections here now than in England, so I feel more at home - and am getting used to burning up!"
