Muse are hardly renowned for coy understatement: witness their monolithic live shows, which have variously hurled pyrotechnics, lasers, acrobatics and possibly the kitchen sink at the audience, and won the Devon trio myriad best live band awards.
After all, this is a group that, in a Spinal Tap-esque coup de (dis)grâce, prevented MTV Europe from broadcasting Slayer’s performance with their giant stage prop – a UFO – after it demolished the channel’s ariel.
“Apparently MTV had 20 minutes of dead air,” laughs drummer Dominic Howard. “We were expecting Slayer to come out and beat us up in typical metal-style.
“Although I don’t know how annoyed you can be at a flying saucer that gives birth to an alien woman, who does an elegant acrobatic dance hanging upside down.”
Well, quite. Alas, even for a band so versed in the art of stadium spectacle, certain ideas have had to be left by the wayside.
“In America, we wanted to fly this massive zeppelin into the crowd and project loads of video onto it, and have these big lights beaming down like Independence Day. But,” sighs Howard, “of course, that got completely blown out by Mr Health and Safety.”
When Muse play Old Trafford Cricket Ground tomorrow it will be the crowning moment of a year in which they’ve cemented their place at the top of rock’s premier league. When their audibly ambitious new album, The Resistance, was released last autumn, it topped the charts in 21 countries (and reached number three in the US); to date, it has shifted in excess of eight million copies.
The subsequent tour took in closing down Teignmouth to perform a triumphant open-air homecoming gig, support slots with U2 (“I got given drunken advice from Bono,” he chortles. “He was definitely a bit like ‘Stick with it – you could be as big as us’.”) and at Glastonbury, Muse provided an unforgettable festival moment: a crowd-engulfing version of U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name, featuring The Edge on guitar.
For Stockport-born Howard however, Glasto had an added emotional resonance. In 2004, when Muse headlined the event, his father collapsed and died from a heart attack, shortly after witnessing their set on the Pyramid Stage.
“For the band, it was great, but on a personal level, it definitely felt pretty strange,” he admits.
“I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it. I felt like I was playing it in memory and in honour of him. I had to be able to think like that, just to be able to go through with it all.
“As much as it was a great gig, it was uncomfortable for me. Only time can help you deal with that kind of thing, unfortunately.”
It’s hard to begrudge Muse their eminence. Theirs is not an overnight success story. Formed while at school, they were initially written off by critics as a destitute man’s Radiohead, only to rise up the margins and prove the doubters wrong.
“It’s funny that people thought we were a bunch of depressed kids,” reflects Howard. “We definitely took things more seriously then – or a lot more to heart. But we quickly got over that and started enjoying ourselves.
“But we didn’t take any of the press criticism on board because we always felt like outsiders – and still do.
“We’re grateful for the negative reaction because it let us go off and do whatever the hell we wanted. And,” he declares with a flourish, “here we are.”
What’s new to Camp Muse is their newfound status as tabloid paydirt, thanks to compact frontman Matt Bellamy’s romantic entwinement with Hollywood A-lister Kate Hudson.
“It doesn’t affect anything really,” disclaims Howard. “We just laugh about it. We’ve been quite lucky in the past, because we’re like the biggest non-famous band in the world.”
To outsiders, the relationship appears odd – proof that the geek will, if not inherit the earth, then at least he’ll get the girl. Over the years, he’s forged a reputation as a bit – euphemistically put – eccentric.
Bellamy’s love of political conspiracy theories and apocalyptic sci-fi is reflected in his portentous lyrics, but Howard admits the band sometimes have to ‘rein him in a bit’.
“Sometimes Matt talks about doing some kind of collaboration with (conspiracy theorist) David Icke,” he laughs. “And that’s a bit on the edge because he genuinely believes the Queen’s a lizard. But he wants to get him involved, either in a spoken monologue in a song or through giving a talk at a gig.
“So there’s a fine line of madness – and I’m going to make sure he doesn’t cross over it.”
After living in separate countries for the past few years – Howard residing in the south of France, bassist Chris Wolstenholme in Dublin and Bellamy on Lake Como in Italy, where he counts George Clooney as a neighbour – Muse plan to move to London midway through 2011, commencing work on their sixth long-player.
“I think in order to make music in a comfortable environment, where family and things like that are involved, we all need to be close to each other,” explains Howard of the decision.
You suspect that their wish to spend more time together is also a side effect of having been pushed to the brink while recording The Resistance.
Not only was it the first album the group had self-produced – thus amplifying the pressure – but during the end of the sessions, Wolstenholme checked himself into rehab in order to curb his alcoholism.
“I think, musically, we got through it,” elucidates Howard candidly.
“But it wasn’t the most comfortable of album making experiences. Generally, he was just being excessive and having a lot of problems with booze. So we spent a lot of time wondering where he was – even when he was in the room. I guess it threw more weight on my and Matt’s shoulders.
“It’s going to be interesting and exciting to work together again,” he continues, “because he’s going to be there mentally more than he’s ever been. Finally it’s going to feel like there’s another opinion hanging around that isn’t clouded by anything.
“The easy option,” states Howard of that period, “would have just been to slam the door and walk out. But after 16 years, we’ve been through worse than this. It just hasn’t been made public. And we’ve always thought about the bigger picture.
“Let’s be honest,” he grins. “It’s all about being the biggest band in the world. U2 are not going to be around forever. They’ve got to finish at some point and who’s going to take over? At the moment, it’s between us, Coldplay and Radiohead. It’s going to be a sprint to the finish line.”
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