GIGGING THE MUSE WAY - Muse article [Melody Maker (July 19th, 2000)]
WELCOME MATT: JONATHAN WILSON (WORDS) & LUCY SCOTT-HARRIS (PICS)
For those musicians of a nervous disposition, we advise that you look away now. Read no further the story of Muse on the road, a tour where guitars come to die, basses are nervous and drumkits regularly double as climbing frames.
Yep, the Devon trio of Matt Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme and Dominic Howard certainly know how to channel their angst, piling on the decibel pressure as they head for nihilistic oblivion, splintering guitar wood and all. Amidst all this spit and sawdust, the Muse live crew work their healing magic. The musician’s elastoplast (gaffer tape, basically) is always at hand for repairs, which is what Scott McKenzie is working on when we meet the crew at London’s Astoria venue.
Scott, previously with Super Furry Animals and Saint Etienne, has been responsible for both Chris’ bass and Dominic’s drums since May. As far as the gear-trashing goes, he’s all for it.
“I was on the verge of giving live tech-ing up,” he laughs, “then I got this gig and it’s brought life back into it for me! It makes every day a challenge – you always get to fix something!”
Currently tending to a battered Aria bass (with the word “broken” tellingly scratched on it), he outlines Chris’ setup.
“He always uses active basses. There’s a sunburst Pedulla and a green Bass Collection model – he had two Bass Collections until Glasgow, when he smashed one. Pedulla have offered Chris a second bass, so we’re just getting things sorted with them.”
There’s also a funky-looking double bass, handmade by Mo Clifton, plus a vintage Moog bass synth. All this is running through Marshall amps.
“He’s using a Marshall 4x10 and Marshall 2x15s,” explains Scott. “Then he’s got a Marshall combo 1x15 and two Marshall heads, plus he’s using a Boss line selector to switch between a synth-type sound and another distorted sound. We’re using the Moog Taurus on ‘Unintended’, and there’s the double bass, too, on ‘Falling Down’.”
As for Dominic, his drums are pretty simple. “At the moment he’s using Peavy, but that’s under discussion,” Scott reveals. “It’s a sort of vague sponsorship deal. The cymbals and the sticks are Zildjian-sponsored, though – he’s got his own branded sticks, which will be out soon. He also does a bit of percussion.”
The gear-trashing ritual is rife here, too. “We go through a hell of a lot of drum skins, but I think that’s more because the kit gets trashed every night,” Scott chuckles. “The whole band walk over it and it gets pulled apart at the end. It’s all part of the show, though. It’s quite a theatrical trashing.”
Dan Yems is the man grappling with Matts’ guitar excesses.
“He’s carrying about 10 guitars at the moment,” Dan winces, holding up the battered current favourite. A Gibson Les Paul Elite double-cut Standard, it looks 20 years old, but was actually only given to the band three weeks ago!
“Chucking them, dropping them, throwing them at lighting rigs – it’s all been done by this lot,” Dan sighs. “The new favourite is putting it under the amplifiers and stamping on it.”
Another bizarre guitar catches our eye – Matt’s mirrored Gibson SG.
“It’s a custom-finish,” nods Dan. “He can blast lights off it and play around with it – it’s good fun. We’ve got a Gibson deal… and we seem to go through them pretty quickly!”
All the guitars are fitted with a MIDI system, which, says Dan, “we run MIDI computer-controlled shit off.” The MIDI signals feed into a Roland VG8, where what Dan calls, “the screeches and weird stuff” happen. All the routing and wiring for Matt’s fiendish pedal board was custom-built by Orchid Electronics, and the effects themselves are housed in blank boxes, “so that people can’t see what they are.” Trade secrets and all that, although Dan eventually expands a little: “The VG8 is running with everything else – it’s all panned and messed around with on the mixing board. The rest of the pedals are delays, triggers for vocal distortions and channel-switching on amplifiers.”
As far as amps go, it’s the more the merrier with Muse. Utilising Marshall and Soldarno cabinets, Marshall heads and an Orange combo (“That’s really sitting in nicely with the rest of them”) gives Matt maximum sonic flexibility. “We’re running three amps all the time,” confirms Dan. “Two for clean sounds and one for distortion, although one of the clean amps has a distortion option so he can make it double loud. It all goes to front of house, where they mix it together and make it a big mess!”
Smoothing this “mess” out for the band is monitor engineer Sean Barrett, part of the crew since last January. “Back then, I was doing most of the backline,” he recalls, “all the electronics, repairs, drums and lighting. When the venues got bigger, I started doing monitors. Matt has an in-ear monitoring system, so I do a full mix for him specially. Then I do a backup mix for him, a mix for Chris and a mix for Dom.”
With all the different sounds bouncing around onstage, attention to detail is crucial. “Matthew really likes to hear his guitars and vocals,” Sean says. “We’ve been working on the mix for about six months and he’s fairly happy now. When he’s doing semi-acoustic stuff, I might have to push his vocal up – I do a little mix to suit each song, basically.
Given the amount of gear buzzing away onstage, the desk channels must be getting pretty full.
“The bare minimum we can get away with now is 16 channels,” agrees Sean, “because Matt’s using the in-ear system. At the moment we’ve got 30 – it’s a big band for a three-piece.”
A more apt summation of the Muse live experience you’d be hard pushed to find, as the band continue to throttle new life into their guitar/bass/drums format. Devon’s numero “Uno”, indeed.
Translator's Note: This article wasn't exactly about Muse, but rather their tech crew and their equipment used on stage. Oh, and brief mentions of their shenanigans on tour. So close enough, and not a bad read either.
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