{"id":2012032,"date":"2026-06-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2012032"},"modified":"2026-06-26T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T04:00:00","slug":"matt-bellamy-on-rediscovering-his-own-muse-i-cant-live-without-music-that-feeling-came-back-to-me-on-this-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2012032","title":{"rendered":"Matt Bellamy on rediscovering his own muse: \u201cI can\u2019t live without music \u2013 that feeling came back to me on this album\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/muse_nme_exclusive_2000.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"template-id-2749694\" class=\"post-2749694 tdb_templates type-tdb_templates status-publish post\">\n<div id=\"tdi_65\" class=\"tdc-zone\">\n<div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_66  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div id=\"tdi_67\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_1400 td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_68  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_70  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_breadcrumbs tdi_71 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-breadcrumbs \" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_71\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span>News<\/span><i class=\"tdb-bread-sep td-icon-right\"><\/i><span>Music News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_title tdi_72 tdb-single-title td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_72\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Matt Bellamy on rediscovering his own muse: \u201cI can\u2019t live without music \u2013 that feeling came back to me on this album\u201d<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_73 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_73\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>As Muse release 10th album \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019, the frontman tells NME about overcoming heartache and unknown, taking advice from pal Chris Martin, \u201cpushing past the lazy point of middle age\u201d for a \u201csurprising late-stage renaissance\u201d, and their attempt to build a spaceship <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_75 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_75\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> Andrew Trendell<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_76 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_76\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2026-06-26T08:00:00+01:00\">26th June 2026<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> <!-- .\/block --><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_77\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_1400 td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_78  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_80  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span8\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_81 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_81\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure>\n                                    <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"696\" height=\"442\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/muse_nme_exclusive_2000-696x442.jpg\" alt=\"Muse, 2026. Photo credit: Tim Saccenti, exclusive for NME\" title=\"Muse, 2026. Photo credit: Tim Saccenti, exclusive for NME\"><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">Muse, 2026. Photo credit: Tim Saccenti, exclusive for NME<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vc_row_inner tdi_83 article-content-row vc_row vc_inner wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column_inner tdi_85  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-inner-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Muse\u2019s Matt Bellamy has spoken to <em>NME<\/em> about overcoming \u201cpersonal struggles\u201d to rediscover his need for music on new album \u2018The Wow!\u2019 Signal\u2019.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>READ MORE: Muse \u2013 \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 review: space rock icons\u2019 best album in 20 years<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Teignmouth space rock trio release their 10th LP today (Friday June 26), with <em>NME<\/em> hailing it as \u201cundoubtedly their most consistent and satisfying album since 2006\u2019s \u2018Black Holes &amp; Revelations\u2019 \u2013 doubling up as either a knowing gift to the fans or at least a response to any concerns that Muse had long disappeared too far up their own supermassive blackholes.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad0 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span>  <\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-article-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Named after a powerful and mysterious signal received in 1976 and believed to be from aliens, the album deals heavily in Bellamy\u2019s desire to fill the void of the \u201cunknown\u201d, particularly in the wake of his split from model, actress and mother of two of his children, Elle Evans.<\/p>\n<p>The frontman met <em>NME<\/em> outside a caf\u00e9 in London\u2019s opulent Primrose Hill, near where the band were deep in rehearsals for their upcoming run of North American shows. \u201cI\u2019m good, just getting ready for the tour,\u201d he told <em>NME<\/em> upon arrival. \u201cI\u2019ve just been to the gym. I\u2019m feeling good. I love the album, and I\u2019m looking forward to playing it live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While fans in the UK and Europe might be hoping for the tour to give a glimpse of their winter arena gigs, Bellamy shared that the US dates would be more pared back to fit in the amphitheatres they\u2019ve booked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the only viable summer tour in America that\u2019s outdoors unless you\u2019re at stadium level, which we\u2019re not in the US,\u201d he admitted of their more modest Stateside following, compared to the rest of the world. \u201cIt\u2019s in between arena and stadium size, but the issue is you can\u2019t do the craziest production. It\u2019ll be a similar production to what we used last summer, but with a few step-ups and a few customisations for this show. But when we come back to the UK in November, that\u2019ll be a brand new really cool production.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3938407\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3938407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3938407\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/muse_brixton_MAIN.jpg\" alt=\"Muse live at Brixton Academy, 2026. (Photo by Joseph Okpako\/WireImage)\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3938407\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muse live at Brixton Academy, 2026. (Photo by Joseph Okpako\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad1 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"taboola-mid-article-title\">Recommended<\/h5>\n<div id=\"taboola-mid-article\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With the band famed for their blockbuster live productions, we had to ask if there\u2019s anything he could tease about plans for the arena show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cErm, we\u2019re trying to build a spaceship \u2013 as you do! The quote came in and it\u2019s more expensive than some of these houses, and that\u2019s saying something around here,\u201d Bellamy replied, gesturing down the street of multi-million-pound Victorian townhouses. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to work with that, build a spaceship, do some new stuff with lasers that\u2019s never been done before, and yeah, it will be a classic. It\u2019s going to be more in the space, sci-fi realm, which I think is cool for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Does said spaceship fly?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make it fly,\u201d the frontman told us. \u201cI don\u2019t think it will. That\u2019s the thing that costs more than a house, but it will be something cool, I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad2 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span>  <\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-article-2\" class=\"lazy-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Despite these extraterrestrial ambitions, Muse\u2019s new album is their most human in decades, with Bellamy tackling his internal turmoil after a tough period of \u201cpersonal struggles\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say that for the last few albums, I was thinking about external things, like politics, the world, the future, even sci-fi and fictional things, you know, but not my own internal stuff,\u201d he shared. While looking to the sky for answers, this time Bellamy\u2019s feet were firmly on planet Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the rest of our interview below, where the frontman told <em>NME<\/em> about rediscovering his own muse, dealing with hard times, his connection to the fans, taking advice from Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin and The Rolling Stones\u2019 Mick Jagger, and what the future holds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>NME: Hello Matt. Now 10 albums into your career, what does music and the vehicle of this band do for you at this stage?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Bellamy:<\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s the thing with this album. I went through difficult personal life things this past year, so making this album reminded me of making music when I was a kid in my teenage years, back when music was everything. \u2018I can\u2019t live without music\u2019 \u2013 that feeling came back to me on this album. Music became a lifeline again, a catharsis, the thing that I held on to, to hold on to my identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn those early years, you didn\u2019t have any success, you didn\u2019t have any guaranteed tours happening or anything. It was just, \u2018This is who I am, this is who I want to be, this is what I need to do to express myself\u2026\u2019 Then you go through that success period. For the last 10 to 15 years, my life has generally been very good. Nice family, kids, blah, blah, blah. I\u2019ve been through a few minor difficulties here and there, but generally speaking, music didn\u2019t always become what I had to do; it was just what I chose to do. This has been an important album for me, both emotionally speaking with what it\u2019s about, but it also reminded me again of why I got into music. It\u2019s a little bit of a surprising late-stage renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Were you jumping into music to fill a void from something suddenly missing?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s trying to understand the unknown. The most difficult points in your life are when you don\u2019t have any answers and you don\u2019t know what to do or what the future looks like. You feel lost, alone, and that you don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening. It\u2019s confusion and searching for answers inside yourself. That\u2019s really the best place for an artist to be. When you have a period where you feel like you\u2019re in control of your life and your career, where everything\u2019s going well, that\u2019s a really hard place to write from. I didn\u2019t want that to be true, but I\u2019ve just proven it to myself because I do think it\u2019s the best album we\u2019ve done in a long time. I\u2019m like, \u2018Damn, I\u2019m going to have to live a life of turmoil to make good music! How annoying!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>And that\u2019s been missing from your recent albums?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was David Bowie who spoke about the need to create characters. There are some albums I\u2019ve done where it is very good, like \u2018Drones\u2019 or \u2018The Resistance\u2019, where there\u2019s a little bit of delving into fictional \u2013 being inspired by <em>1984<\/em>, thinking about sci-fi stories or what I would do if I was going through military training. I don\u2019t think you can beat authentic, real-life experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are sonic references or echoes of earlier Muse on this album. Were you mining those sounds because you were feeling similar feelings?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may be more that, yes. It didn\u2019t occur to me at all that something like \u2018Hexagons\u2019 or \u2018The Dark Forest\u2019 sounded like early Muse. I didn\u2019t see that, but when we put \u2018Hexagons\u2019 out, the fan base was like, \u2018This is Muse!\u2019 I was like, \u2018What are you talking about?\u2019 I can see it in \u2018Cryogen\u2019. That was me forcing myself to do a song on just guitar, bass and drums, just sticking to a three-piece. With what the song\u2019s about, I wanted it to be raw, histrionic, emotional, a little bit out of control. That was maybe more of a slightly conscious lean into early Muse, but with the rest of the album, I\u2019m not quite so sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there a concept to this record beyond \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 and responding to that call being received from the unknown?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs humanity, what do we do as humans and individuals when we don\u2019t know the answers to anything? We search for the answers. Where do we search? We look at the stars, we invent religions, we imagine aliens. It\u2019s hard to put a concept on that. For an album to have a concept, you have to have control. You create a beginning, a middle, and an end. This album is accidentally out of control. I haven\u2019t really pieced it together yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there is a theme, it\u2019s about searching for a higher power and not knowing what that is: whether alien intelligence, God, [or] AI becoming God. Then obviously, a personal relationship breakdown is clearly a theme of the album. How do those two things go together? I don\u2019t know. When people go through difficult periods, the solution isn\u2019t searching for love. People go through loss, people go through grieving and breakups where the immediate solution isn\u2019t to find someone to love. It\u2019s to find out what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>That question of \u2018What am I without X, Y or Z\u2019?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. It sounds cheesy and teenage angst-y, but it\u2019s existential confusion. That\u2019s really what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s not necessarily teenage angst if the question becomes much heavier later in life\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA midlife crisis, maybe? When you\u2019re young, you have this whole life in front of you to make changes, to make repairs. When you get older, you sometimes start to have that feeling. I say it on \u2018Shimmering Scars\u2019: \u2018<em>I can\u2019t start again<\/em>\u2019. I\u2019m too old now, and I\u2019ve lost a little bit of that ability to just start again and meet someone new. I\u2019ve done that cycle too many times now, and I\u2019m at a different level of existential cynicism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>With this being your most personal record in so long, how do you feel about putting so much of yourself out there, or at least putting this side of yourself out there?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in an unusual phase where, in reality, perceiving reactions from the fans is just kind of like noise. I haven\u2019t thought about that really until I started doing interviews, then I was like, \u2018Oh my God, how am I going to talk about this?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you and say that there are things I don\u2019t want to talk about because what actually went down isn\u2019t what people might think. It was something very unusual to do with health, mental health, having to be a single parent with no co-parent for a lengthy period, having to cancel a tour to be there for my children, things like that. It was a very unusual, unpredictable period, and I thought to myself, \u2018How am I really going to talk about this in interviews because it\u2019s going to be really uncomfortable?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s really the cause of the album. I would like for people to be able to infer some of the things that went down from the album itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>And now you have to play these songs live\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I started rehearsing these songs and thinking about the live show, I\u2019m so caught up in what it makes me feel that I\u2019m so in it and not really able to worry or think about what anyone else thinks. That\u2019s a very interesting feeling. That might be a new thing. In the early years, it was a combination of both. I had to express myself, but I did have the fear of what people thought because my ability to make a living depended on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was 19, 20, 21, I didn\u2019t know what my future was then, you know? Caring about what the press said or what the fans thought did matter. Now it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s a personal thing. When I play these songs, I\u2019ll be feeling them and feeling what they meant to me. I don\u2019t have the mental capacity to process what other people think about them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do you feel about doing that in a stadium?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember the first few years of Muse touring, and I wasn\u2019t really looking at the crowd or feeling what they were feeling; that came as we got bigger. It might be that when I play some of these new songs for the first time and get a positive reaction, that in itself might be an unbelievable feeling of connection with strangers. That might be the thing that is part of my journey. Instead of finding religion or God, any kind of higher power or aliens, I found this fan base. When I have these crazy ideas or expressions and they respond to it, that is maybe the answer for me. I\u2019ve never allowed myself to think that way because for decades, you think, \u2018OK, this is temporary, you can\u2019t connect to your audience, you can\u2019t rely on that your audience will always be there\u2019. That can be the demise of people that have huge success in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen your audience goes away, which it always does in older age, people crumble. That\u2019s when they turn to drug addiction or lose their mind. For the first time ever, I\u2019m letting myself believe that they\u2019re going to be there for me. I need them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3942136\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3942136\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3942136\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MUSE_Cryo_press_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Muse, 2026. Credit: Tim Saccenti\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3942136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muse, 2026. Credit: Tim Saccenti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s interesting, as when you guys first emerged, you didn\u2019t seem to care about the outside world \u2013 it seemed like you were separate from trends and seeing how much you could get away with\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were three things going on back then: the end of Britpop, nu-metal in America, and then the new exciting thing was The Strokes, The White Stripes, that retro rock \u2018n\u2019 roll thing. We didn\u2019t fit in with any of those things \u2013 and that, in hindsight, was a blessing really. The fact that we somehow found an audience without being part of a trend is amazing, and I think that\u2019s why we\u2019re still here. We are the definition of alternative, and I\u2019m very, very happy about that. We\u2019ve never been in fashion enough that when the limelight moves away from you, you\u2019re just finished.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was at Coachella the other week and I bumped into Jack White and Albert [Hammond Jr] from The Strokes. I was just backstage chatting to them and I went, \u2018Fuck, we\u2019re still here!\u2019 We were like, \u2018We\u2019re the guitarists from the 2000s! We did it!\u2019 It was so cool. Maybe there was a bit of a scene back then, but it was defined by being a little bit alternative to the mainstream. I\u2019m very glad we didn\u2019t fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXCrSxVj_gl\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s also a modern sheen to this album. How much of that is courtesy of Bring Me The Horizon producer and your live keys man, Dan Lancaster?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve really had a proper producer for the whole album. Eight songs were produced by Dan and two by Aleks Von Korff, who\u2019s an engineer that we\u2019ve worked with for a long time. It was definitely a bit of an adjustment for us to just let go of the reins a little bit in terms of the sound, the mixing and the production side of things, but we do feel like we shouldn\u2019t be self-producing any more!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re such control freaks around everything we do, so the hardest battle of the whole process was just sitting back and going, \u2018Just let Dan mix this bit, trust that\u2019s going to be good\u2019. You let him go off on one; it sounds fresh, and it sounds like Muse, but it\u2019s a more up-to-date sound. If you put it up against \u2018Origin Of Symmetry\u2019 [2001], it still has the rawness of the performance but it does sound a lot bigger, a lot more present and in your face. He did a great job. That\u2019s potentially the beginning of a longer-term relationship because he\u2019s kind of almost in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beyond the sound, how did Lancaster push you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just pushed us in a way that we\u2019ve not been pushed. That was a little bit of an awkward hump to get over because he\u2019s younger than us. The last time we got told what to do, it was by people who were old enough to be our dads! It was a little bit of an ego hump to get over for all three band members. What Dan was doing more than anything was saying things like, \u2018Make that guitar part better\u2019. He wasn\u2019t necessarily coming up with parts, but just saying, \u2018Do a better thing\u2019. \u2018Fucking sing that better\u2019. I was like, \u2018Easy mate! You work for me!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes a little bit of young blood and enthusiasm in the camp helps. It took a minute to go, \u2018Yeah, he\u2019s right, isn\u2019t he?\u2019 He really helped push us past the lazy point of middle age and get back into pushing ourselves into the uncomfortable zone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>This is the first time you\u2019ve had a guest vocalist on a Muse album with Ellie Goulding jumping on \u2018Hush\u2019\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, I\u2019ll give a little credit to Dan on this one because I\u2019ve never done co-writing sessions or camps. That\u2019s very much the pop world. I\u2019m very good friends with Chris Martin, and he\u2019s been doing that for a long time. Their band was elevated into that pop world, and he\u2019s worked with amazing writers, collaborators and producers. Chris actually got me a Christmas present one year, and it was a book called <em>The Collaborative Way<\/em>. It was his way of saying, \u2018You\u2019re an auto dictator, you need to learn to collaborate\u2019. I read the book and I was like, \u2018Fuck, of course he\u2019s right\u2019. I only managed to pull it off on one song on this album. Dan put together a little writing team, so \u2018Hush\u2019 is the first time we\u2019ve done a collaborative co-write.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did it, the song came together, and by absolutely sheer coincidence, Ellie Goulding was working next door with Marshmello. I\u2019ve bumped into Ellie a bunch of times over the years and we\u2019ve talked about doing something. She just popped her head in at about 11pm. She asked to listen, we had zero planning on this, and someone asked her to sing on it. We just turned it into a duet at that point. She sang it in a couple of takes and an hour-and-a-half later, we had the song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>And it\u2019s heavier than fans might have been expecting\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know, it\u2019s quite fun to have Ellie Goulding singing over an eight-string metal guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now that you\u2019ve been through this profound musical rediscovery, how do you feel about the future with Muse? Will you be doing this until you keel over and die like The Rolling Stones?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s funny you say that, because I met Mick Jagger at a party in LA about a year ago. I was chatting to him briefly, and I only talked to him about one thing. I asked him what his fitness regime was and at what age he started. He told me he started in his 40s, where however long the tour was, he\u2019d work out for that length beforehand. It started out like that, then he said by the time he got to his 50s, he just had to work out all the time, 365 days a year, or he couldn\u2019t do any touring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll see. What it comes down to is whether you are able to stay fit. It\u2019s a boring answer, but 60s? I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll still be up there in my 60s. I think we\u2019ve got another good 10 years left in us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you were to reply to \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 to send something back to the aliens, what would you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018We come in peace\u2019. What else can you say? That\u2019s essential. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s out there. It\u2019s naive to presume that all life that\u2019s not on this planet is good; we are certainly not. Even though the universe is full of beauty and creation, it\u2019s also full of misery and destruction. It\u2019s very possible that another lifeform out there could want to destroy us or take the planet for whatever reason. I think we have to be careful. So \u2018we come in peace\u2019 would be the prime message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 by Muse is out now. Muse kick off their North American tour on Thursday July 2 before UK and European dates begin in November. Visit here for tickets and more information.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_tags tdi_87 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_87\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<ul class=\"tdb-tags\">\n<li><span>Related Topics<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Coldplay<\/li>\n<li>Matt Bellamy<\/li>\n<li>Muse<\/li>\n<li>Rock<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_raw_html tdi_89 \">\n<div class=\"td-fix-index\">\n<h3>You May Also Like<\/h3>\n<div id=\"taboola-below-article\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_91  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span4 td-is-sticky\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-sidebar  tdi_92 td_block_template_2\">\n<p><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-sidebar-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap 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data-img-url=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/muse-press@2000x1270-400x254.jpg\" data-img-retina-url=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/muse-press@2000x1270-800x508.jpg\"><\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    Music News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Check out the epic orchestral parts being recorded for Muse\u2019s new album \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 at Abbey Road<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                    <span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span>                <\/article>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>Muse\u2019s Matt Bellamy has spoken to <em>NME<\/em> about overcoming \u201cpersonal struggles\u201d to rediscover his need for music on new album \u2018The Wow!\u2019 Signal\u2019.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>READ MORE: Muse \u2013 \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 review: space rock icons\u2019 best album in 20 years<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Teignmouth space rock trio release their 10th LP today (Friday June 26), with <em>NME<\/em> hailing it as \u201cundoubtedly their most consistent and satisfying album since 2006\u2019s \u2018Black Holes &amp; Revelations\u2019 \u2013 doubling up as either a knowing gift to the fans or at least a response to any concerns that Muse had long disappeared too far up their own supermassive blackholes.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad0 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span>  <\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-article-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Named after a powerful and mysterious signal received in 1976 and believed to be from aliens, the album deals heavily in Bellamy\u2019s desire to fill the void of the \u201cunknown\u201d, particularly in the wake of his split from model, actress and mother of two of his children, Elle Evans.<\/p>\n<p>The frontman met <em>NME<\/em> outside a caf\u00e9 in London\u2019s opulent Primrose Hill, near where the band were deep in rehearsals for their upcoming run of North American shows. \u201cI\u2019m good, just getting ready for the tour,\u201d he told <em>NME<\/em> upon arrival. \u201cI\u2019ve just been to the gym. I\u2019m feeling good. I love the album, and I\u2019m looking forward to playing it live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While fans in the UK and Europe might be hoping for the tour to give a glimpse of their winter arena gigs, Bellamy shared that the US dates would be more pared back to fit in the amphitheatres they\u2019ve booked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the only viable summer tour in America that\u2019s outdoors unless you\u2019re at stadium level, which we\u2019re not in the US,\u201d he admitted of their more modest Stateside following, compared to the rest of the world. \u201cIt\u2019s in between arena and stadium size, but the issue is you can\u2019t do the craziest production. It\u2019ll be a similar production to what we used last summer, but with a few step-ups and a few customisations for this show. But when we come back to the UK in November, that\u2019ll be a brand new really cool production.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3938407\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3938407\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3938407\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/muse_brixton_MAIN.jpg\" alt=\"Muse live at Brixton Academy, 2026. (Photo by Joseph Okpako\/WireImage)\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3938407\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muse live at Brixton Academy, 2026. (Photo by Joseph Okpako\/WireImage)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad1 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"taboola-mid-article-title\">Recommended<\/h5>\n<div id=\"taboola-mid-article\">\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With the band famed for their blockbuster live productions, we had to ask if there\u2019s anything he could tease about plans for the arena show.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cErm, we\u2019re trying to build a spaceship \u2013 as you do! The quote came in and it\u2019s more expensive than some of these houses, and that\u2019s saying something around here,\u201d Bellamy replied, gesturing down the street of multi-million-pound Victorian townhouses. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to work with that, build a spaceship, do some new stuff with lasers that\u2019s never been done before, and yeah, it will be a classic. It\u2019s going to be more in the space, sci-fi realm, which I think is cool for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Does said spaceship fly?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re trying to make it fly,\u201d the frontman told us. \u201cI don\u2019t think it will. That\u2019s the thing that costs more than a house, but it will be something cool, I promise.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"td-a-ad id_inline_ad2 id_ad_content-horiz-center\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span>  <\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-article-2\" class=\"lazy-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Despite these extraterrestrial ambitions, Muse\u2019s new album is their most human in decades, with Bellamy tackling his internal turmoil after a tough period of \u201cpersonal struggles\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would say that for the last few albums, I was thinking about external things, like politics, the world, the future, even sci-fi and fictional things, you know, but not my own internal stuff,\u201d he shared. While looking to the sky for answers, this time Bellamy\u2019s feet were firmly on planet Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the rest of our interview below, where the frontman told <em>NME<\/em> about rediscovering his own muse, dealing with hard times, his connection to the fans, taking advice from Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin and The Rolling Stones\u2019 Mick Jagger, and what the future holds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>NME: Hello Matt. Now 10 albums into your career, what does music and the vehicle of this band do for you at this stage?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Matt Bellamy:<\/strong> \u201cThat\u2019s the thing with this album. I went through difficult personal life things this past year, so making this album reminded me of making music when I was a kid in my teenage years, back when music was everything. \u2018I can\u2019t live without music\u2019 \u2013 that feeling came back to me on this album. Music became a lifeline again, a catharsis, the thing that I held on to, to hold on to my identity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn those early years, you didn\u2019t have any success, you didn\u2019t have any guaranteed tours happening or anything. It was just, \u2018This is who I am, this is who I want to be, this is what I need to do to express myself\u2026\u2019 Then you go through that success period. For the last 10 to 15 years, my life has generally been very good. Nice family, kids, blah, blah, blah. I\u2019ve been through a few minor difficulties here and there, but generally speaking, music didn\u2019t always become what I had to do; it was just what I chose to do. This has been an important album for me, both emotionally speaking with what it\u2019s about, but it also reminded me again of why I got into music. It\u2019s a little bit of a surprising late-stage renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Were you jumping into music to fill a void from something suddenly missing?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s trying to understand the unknown. The most difficult points in your life are when you don\u2019t have any answers and you don\u2019t know what to do or what the future looks like. You feel lost, alone, and that you don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening. It\u2019s confusion and searching for answers inside yourself. That\u2019s really the best place for an artist to be. When you have a period where you feel like you\u2019re in control of your life and your career, where everything\u2019s going well, that\u2019s a really hard place to write from. I didn\u2019t want that to be true, but I\u2019ve just proven it to myself because I do think it\u2019s the best album we\u2019ve done in a long time. I\u2019m like, \u2018Damn, I\u2019m going to have to live a life of turmoil to make good music! How annoying!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>And that\u2019s been missing from your recent albums?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was David Bowie who spoke about the need to create characters. There are some albums I\u2019ve done where it is very good, like \u2018Drones\u2019 or \u2018The Resistance\u2019, where there\u2019s a little bit of delving into fictional \u2013 being inspired by <em>1984<\/em>, thinking about sci-fi stories or what I would do if I was going through military training. I don\u2019t think you can beat authentic, real-life experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are sonic references or echoes of earlier Muse on this album. Were you mining those sounds because you were feeling similar feelings?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may be more that, yes. It didn\u2019t occur to me at all that something like \u2018Hexagons\u2019 or \u2018The Dark Forest\u2019 sounded like early Muse. I didn\u2019t see that, but when we put \u2018Hexagons\u2019 out, the fan base was like, \u2018This is Muse!\u2019 I was like, \u2018What are you talking about?\u2019 I can see it in \u2018Cryogen\u2019. That was me forcing myself to do a song on just guitar, bass and drums, just sticking to a three-piece. With what the song\u2019s about, I wanted it to be raw, histrionic, emotional, a little bit out of control. That was maybe more of a slightly conscious lean into early Muse, but with the rest of the album, I\u2019m not quite so sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there a concept to this record beyond \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 and responding to that call being received from the unknown?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs humanity, what do we do as humans and individuals when we don\u2019t know the answers to anything? We search for the answers. Where do we search? We look at the stars, we invent religions, we imagine aliens. It\u2019s hard to put a concept on that. For an album to have a concept, you have to have control. You create a beginning, a middle, and an end. This album is accidentally out of control. I haven\u2019t really pieced it together yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there is a theme, it\u2019s about searching for a higher power and not knowing what that is: whether alien intelligence, God, [or] AI becoming God. Then obviously, a personal relationship breakdown is clearly a theme of the album. How do those two things go together? I don\u2019t know. When people go through difficult periods, the solution isn\u2019t searching for love. People go through loss, people go through grieving and breakups where the immediate solution isn\u2019t to find someone to love. It\u2019s to find out what it\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>That question of \u2018What am I without X, Y or Z\u2019?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes. It sounds cheesy and teenage angst-y, but it\u2019s existential confusion. That\u2019s really what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s not necessarily teenage angst if the question becomes much heavier later in life\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA midlife crisis, maybe? When you\u2019re young, you have this whole life in front of you to make changes, to make repairs. When you get older, you sometimes start to have that feeling. I say it on \u2018Shimmering Scars\u2019: \u2018<em>I can\u2019t start again<\/em>\u2019. I\u2019m too old now, and I\u2019ve lost a little bit of that ability to just start again and meet someone new. I\u2019ve done that cycle too many times now, and I\u2019m at a different level of existential cynicism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>With this being your most personal record in so long, how do you feel about putting so much of yourself out there, or at least putting this side of yourself out there?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been in an unusual phase where, in reality, perceiving reactions from the fans is just kind of like noise. I haven\u2019t thought about that really until I started doing interviews, then I was like, \u2018Oh my God, how am I going to talk about this?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you and say that there are things I don\u2019t want to talk about because what actually went down isn\u2019t what people might think. It was something very unusual to do with health, mental health, having to be a single parent with no co-parent for a lengthy period, having to cancel a tour to be there for my children, things like that. It was a very unusual, unpredictable period, and I thought to myself, \u2018How am I really going to talk about this in interviews because it\u2019s going to be really uncomfortable?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s really the cause of the album. I would like for people to be able to infer some of the things that went down from the album itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>And now you have to play these songs live\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I started rehearsing these songs and thinking about the live show, I\u2019m so caught up in what it makes me feel that I\u2019m so in it and not really able to worry or think about what anyone else thinks. That\u2019s a very interesting feeling. That might be a new thing. In the early years, it was a combination of both. I had to express myself, but I did have the fear of what people thought because my ability to make a living depended on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I was 19, 20, 21, I didn\u2019t know what my future was then, you know? Caring about what the press said or what the fans thought did matter. Now it doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s a personal thing. When I play these songs, I\u2019ll be feeling them and feeling what they meant to me. I don\u2019t have the mental capacity to process what other people think about them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do you feel about doing that in a stadium?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember the first few years of Muse touring, and I wasn\u2019t really looking at the crowd or feeling what they were feeling; that came as we got bigger. It might be that when I play some of these new songs for the first time and get a positive reaction, that in itself might be an unbelievable feeling of connection with strangers. That might be the thing that is part of my journey. Instead of finding religion or God, any kind of higher power or aliens, I found this fan base. When I have these crazy ideas or expressions and they respond to it, that is maybe the answer for me. I\u2019ve never allowed myself to think that way because for decades, you think, \u2018OK, this is temporary, you can\u2019t connect to your audience, you can\u2019t rely on that your audience will always be there\u2019. That can be the demise of people that have huge success in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen your audience goes away, which it always does in older age, people crumble. That\u2019s when they turn to drug addiction or lose their mind. For the first time ever, I\u2019m letting myself believe that they\u2019re going to be there for me. I need them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3942136\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3942136\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3942136\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MUSE_Cryo_press_2000.jpg\" alt=\"Muse, 2026. Credit: Tim Saccenti\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3942136\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muse, 2026. Credit: Tim Saccenti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>That\u2019s interesting, as when you guys first emerged, you didn\u2019t seem to care about the outside world \u2013 it seemed like you were separate from trends and seeing how much you could get away with\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were three things going on back then: the end of Britpop, nu-metal in America, and then the new exciting thing was The Strokes, The White Stripes, that retro rock \u2018n\u2019 roll thing. We didn\u2019t fit in with any of those things \u2013 and that, in hindsight, was a blessing really. The fact that we somehow found an audience without being part of a trend is amazing, and I think that\u2019s why we\u2019re still here. We are the definition of alternative, and I\u2019m very, very happy about that. We\u2019ve never been in fashion enough that when the limelight moves away from you, you\u2019re just finished.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was at Coachella the other week and I bumped into Jack White and Albert [Hammond Jr] from The Strokes. I was just backstage chatting to them and I went, \u2018Fuck, we\u2019re still here!\u2019 We were like, \u2018We\u2019re the guitarists from the 2000s! We did it!\u2019 It was so cool. Maybe there was a bit of a scene back then, but it was defined by being a little bit alternative to the mainstream. I\u2019m very glad we didn\u2019t fit in.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXCrSxVj_gl\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s also a modern sheen to this album. How much of that is courtesy of Bring Me The Horizon producer and your live keys man, Dan Lancaster?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve really had a proper producer for the whole album. Eight songs were produced by Dan and two by Aleks Von Korff, who\u2019s an engineer that we\u2019ve worked with for a long time. It was definitely a bit of an adjustment for us to just let go of the reins a little bit in terms of the sound, the mixing and the production side of things, but we do feel like we shouldn\u2019t be self-producing any more!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re such control freaks around everything we do, so the hardest battle of the whole process was just sitting back and going, \u2018Just let Dan mix this bit, trust that\u2019s going to be good\u2019. You let him go off on one; it sounds fresh, and it sounds like Muse, but it\u2019s a more up-to-date sound. If you put it up against \u2018Origin Of Symmetry\u2019 [2001], it still has the rawness of the performance but it does sound a lot bigger, a lot more present and in your face. He did a great job. That\u2019s potentially the beginning of a longer-term relationship because he\u2019s kind of almost in the band.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Beyond the sound, how did Lancaster push you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe just pushed us in a way that we\u2019ve not been pushed. That was a little bit of an awkward hump to get over because he\u2019s younger than us. The last time we got told what to do, it was by people who were old enough to be our dads! It was a little bit of an ego hump to get over for all three band members. What Dan was doing more than anything was saying things like, \u2018Make that guitar part better\u2019. He wasn\u2019t necessarily coming up with parts, but just saying, \u2018Do a better thing\u2019. \u2018Fucking sing that better\u2019. I was like, \u2018Easy mate! You work for me!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes a little bit of young blood and enthusiasm in the camp helps. It took a minute to go, \u2018Yeah, he\u2019s right, isn\u2019t he?\u2019 He really helped push us past the lazy point of middle age and get back into pushing ourselves into the uncomfortable zone.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>This is the first time you\u2019ve had a guest vocalist on a Muse album with Ellie Goulding jumping on \u2018Hush\u2019\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, I\u2019ll give a little credit to Dan on this one because I\u2019ve never done co-writing sessions or camps. That\u2019s very much the pop world. I\u2019m very good friends with Chris Martin, and he\u2019s been doing that for a long time. Their band was elevated into that pop world, and he\u2019s worked with amazing writers, collaborators and producers. Chris actually got me a Christmas present one year, and it was a book called <em>The Collaborative Way<\/em>. It was his way of saying, \u2018You\u2019re an auto dictator, you need to learn to collaborate\u2019. I read the book and I was like, \u2018Fuck, of course he\u2019s right\u2019. I only managed to pull it off on one song on this album. Dan put together a little writing team, so \u2018Hush\u2019 is the first time we\u2019ve done a collaborative co-write.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did it, the song came together, and by absolutely sheer coincidence, Ellie Goulding was working next door with Marshmello. I\u2019ve bumped into Ellie a bunch of times over the years and we\u2019ve talked about doing something. She just popped her head in at about 11pm. She asked to listen, we had zero planning on this, and someone asked her to sing on it. We just turned it into a duet at that point. She sang it in a couple of takes and an hour-and-a-half later, we had the song.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>And it\u2019s heavier than fans might have been expecting\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know, it\u2019s quite fun to have Ellie Goulding singing over an eight-string metal guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now that you\u2019ve been through this profound musical rediscovery, how do you feel about the future with Muse? Will you be doing this until you keel over and die like The Rolling Stones?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s funny you say that, because I met Mick Jagger at a party in LA about a year ago. I was chatting to him briefly, and I only talked to him about one thing. I asked him what his fitness regime was and at what age he started. He told me he started in his 40s, where however long the tour was, he\u2019d work out for that length beforehand. It started out like that, then he said by the time he got to his 50s, he just had to work out all the time, 365 days a year, or he couldn\u2019t do any touring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll see. What it comes down to is whether you are able to stay fit. It\u2019s a boring answer, but 60s? I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll still be up there in my 60s. I think we\u2019ve got another good 10 years left in us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you were to reply to \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 to send something back to the aliens, what would you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018We come in peace\u2019. What else can you say? That\u2019s essential. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s out there. It\u2019s naive to presume that all life that\u2019s not on this planet is good; we are certainly not. Even though the universe is full of beauty and creation, it\u2019s also full of misery and destruction. It\u2019s very possible that another lifeform out there could want to destroy us or take the planet for whatever reason. I think we have to be careful. So \u2018we come in peace\u2019 would be the prime message.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019 by Muse is out now. Muse kick off their North American tour on Thursday July 2 before UK and European dates begin in November. Visit here for tickets and more information.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/muse-matt-bellamy-interview-wow-signal-tour-plans-3953259&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/muse_nme_exclusive_2000.jpg&#8221;] NewsMusic News Matt Bellamy on rediscovering his own muse: \u201cI can\u2019t live without music \u2013 that feeling came back to me on this album\u201d As Muse release 10th album \u2018The Wow! Signal\u2019, the frontman tells NME about overcoming heartache and unknown, taking advice from pal Chris Martin, \u201cpushing past the lazy point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,78],"class_list":["post-2012032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nme-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2012032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2012032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2012032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2012032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}