Muse breaks with tradition for new single
Often when a band releases a new song, there’s an entire album just around the corner.
Not so for Muse, the Grammywinning stadium rockers with more than 17 million Facebook followers.
The British trio recently came out with Dig Down, a slow-burning number with an electronic throb that marks their first new music since 2015’s ambitious Drones album.
But, as bassist Chris Wolstenholme explained during an interview in a backstage dressing room at Ottawa’s Bluesfest, the tune is not necessarily an indicator of a new collection of songs from him and his bandmates, singer-guitarist Matt Bellamy and drummer Dominic Howard.
The song may end up on an album, or maybe not. At the moment, what’s more significant is that it’s a sign of a band striving to adapt to the changing music industry.
“People don’t really buy albums anymore,” said Wolstenholme, pointing to the rise of Spotify.
“Album sales have gone down massively in the last 10 years, and a lot of bands are thinking differently about how to release music. We talked a lot about what we were going to do next and how we were going to do it.”
The three musicians found themselves rethinking the traditional album cycle after the demanding Drones tour ended last summer.
“For the past 15 or 20 years, we’ve been releasing an album every two or three years, and then going on tour for 18 months or two years after that. The Drones tour felt particularly long, and by the time we got to the end of it, we felt it would be a good idea to have a chunk of time off,” Wolstenholme said.
During the break, Bellamy came up with Dig Down, and they decided to go to a studio in Los Angeles with a producer they’d never worked with before: Mike Elizondo, who has collaborated with the likes of 50 Cent, Eminem and Drake.
“We thought it would be quite interesting to work with a different type of producer so we could essentially go into the studio with the basis of the song and let him do his thing. It was the first time we’ve ever really trusted a producer to do that,” said Wolstenholme.
The new song has also whet appetites for the band’s summer tour, which Wolstenholme describes as a “casual little run” after the Drones excursion. The ambitious concept album about drone warfare called for an ambitious, stateof-the-art world tour, complete with flying drone props that were prone to malfunction.
“It’s nice not having the pressure of a massive production,” said Wolstenholme. “As successful as that tour was, stuff went wrong all the time. This tour is a lot more stripped down, a lot of festivals and amphitheatres, and when you play outdoors, there’s a slightly more relaxed feel.”
For a band that’s always had a reputation for a killer live show, adjusting to an industry that is increasingly based on selling concert tickets, rather than recordings, should be a fairly smooth transition.
“All my memories of the band are mostly being on stage. I don’t seem to remember much about being in the studio. I’ve always felt that the live show is what the heart and soul of this band has always been about,” said Wolstenholme.