“I've always liked [the electronic] sound, I used to listen to Skrillex and Nero a lot. I listened to Nero's albums in particular every day when I worked out at the gym. Dubstep is the perfect music to listen to at times like that. It's the high-energy music I need when I want to get pumped up.
Around September or October 2011, when we started recording [The 2nd Law], I invited everyone to go and see Skrillex and Nero live a couple of times, and since then, Matt and Chris have both awoken to the joy of dubstep, or rather, we've started to reevaluate the heavy, loud, violent aggression that is unique to that kind of sound.”
—Dom Howard, on getting the band into dubstep on The 2nd Law
“[W]e were all into [dubstep] when we were making the album. The three of us used to go to shows together and we'd all find interesting music and play it for each other. The song structures of dubstep artists are completely different from those of guitar bands, and the beats and sound approaches that are completely out of the conventional song categories are really extreme and interesting. We were inspired to try and experiment with these new sensations by playing our own instruments in this song.”
—Chris on Muse going dubstep on The 2nd Law
Dom and Chris talking about the hardcore dubstep sounds present on The 2nd Law. When I first heard the album, I was struck by how hardcore some of those electronic sounds on songs like Isolated System were, how Muse seemed to have completely understood how you could make a really heavy hard rock song by using guitars the way EDM used synths, all the while sounding unlike most other music of its time (and perhaps even still).
Here Dom talks about recognising how well electronic sounds worked as workout music (similar to fast heavy hard rock or metal), and revealed that in fact, he was the one that got Matt and Chris into the idea of incorporating those heavier, electronic sounds into The 2nd Law.
It's made me realise how much Dom was the one spearheaded the musical direction of the album, and had given it the most thought, as he talked about keeping rock music fresh with a fine balance of electronic and acoustic drumkit parts in this interview with Drum! Magazine in 2013.
Quotes taken from @cherrylng's incredible scans of Rockin' On Magazine's interviews with Dom and Chris.
