2. Biography
• Matthew Bellamy is the lead
vocalist, guitarist, and pianist of
English rock band “Muse”.
• He writes most of all the songs
and string arrangements.
3. •Matthew James Bellamy was born
on June 9, 1978 in Cambridge and
later moved to Devon, England
where he grew up.
• His father was a musician. He was in
a band called “The Tornadoes”.
4. • He learned how to play the piano at age 6
but it wasn’t until the age of 10 or 11 that
Bellamy had a desire to learn the piano.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c02gBveKq70
• He fell out of playing the piano for a while as
he turned his interest to guitar.
5. The Early Days
• The beginning of the band was formed by Matt Bellamy,
Dominic Howard, and Chris Wolstenholme, they were called
“Rocket Baby Dolls”.
6. • Bellamy described them looking like
“The Cure” but sounding like “Rush”.
• He learned to write music and
wrote hundreds of songs.
7. • Philip Glass, Rachmaninoff, Lizst, and
Chopin were his
introduction to discovering the mystery
side of music.
• The band changed their
name to “Muse.”
8. • In October 1995 a guy by the
name of Dennis Smith
(owner of Sawmills Recording
Studio) discovered them.
• Their first recording and a self-
titled EP was released on
the Dangerous label in 1998.
• Another EP followed but in spite
of their success no English label
record wanted to sign Muse on
due to Bellamy’s “vibrato-laden”
high pitched vocal.
9. • The American label Mave rick Re co rds
decided to take a chance on the
band, giving them a number of gigs in
the US and in the end signed them on.
• John Leckie, the producer of
Radioheads’ hit album “The Bends”
produced Muse’s first album “ Showbiz”.
• Their first single from the first album
“Plug in Baby” hit number 11.
• Their second single “New Born” was in
the top 20.
10. Musical Influence
• Bellamy is inspired by
pianists from the
Romanticism period.
• Jimi Hendrix
• Tom Morello of Rage
Against the Machine
• Queen
• Freddy Mercury
11. • Won “Best Live Band”
at the Kerrang Awards.
• They have also been
featured on all three of
the Twilight soundtracks.
• Their third album “Absolution”
topped the charts in the U.K.
and France.
• They recently received “Best
Rock Album” for “The
Resistance,” their latest album.
Editor's Notes
Matthew James Bellamy is the frontman of English rock band Muse. He is an extremely accomplished musician who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and pianist of the band. He writes most of all their songs and string arrangements.
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Matthew was born on June 9, 1978 in Cambridge and later on moved to Devon, England where he grew up. He started playing the piano at age 6; although, he never had lessons he would just play around with it. His father was a musician; he used to play a lot of blues records. He was in a band called The Tornadoes, they were the very first band from the UK to receive a number 1 record in the US.
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It wasn’t until the age of about 10 or 11 that Bellamy really had a desire to learn piano, he used to practice with his left hand doing one thing and chords with his right hand. He was so good his older brother forced him into a talent contest and to his surprise he won. He fell out of playing the piano for a while as he turned his interest to guitar. At that time his parents divorced and he moved with his Grandmother. He joined a band and started looking for gigs, he said “It was like a need for me” it was a need for him to get out and play music. Feeling trapped living in a very small town called Teignmouth, many of his friends were getting into music or drugs but he was drawn towards music.
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When they first started out, Bellamy has described them as being typical school kids forming bands and playing gigs to beat the boredom of life in a small town. Rocket Baby Dolls was the name that Bellamy and his fellow musicians Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme decided to name their band. They had all been a part of separate bands that eventually fell apart so they decided to form a band together.
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Bellamy described them as looking like “The Cure” but sounding like “Rush” they were more of an instrumental band. It wasn’t until they entered a “Battle of the Bands” competition, Bellamy said “We had just discovered something: music is a matter of emotion.” That was after they performed with much emotion and violence, and broke everything on stage because in their minds they knew they really didn’t have a chance of winning unless they could “fit-in” by using their feelings of being different. “The will, the attitude meant a lot to us, so we won. And I think that psychologically it changed many things in our heads. Because we came to lose, we expected to lose. And we were angry somehow. And we had just realized at this time that we could replace lots of things. We realized that emotion, the vibrations that you create are as important as your technical skills,” he says. They began to focus on songwriting, they wrote hundreds of songs, but it was at the age of 18 or 19 that he learned to write with more confidence and express more of his emotions into his song writing.
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Philip Glass, Rachmaninoff, Lizst, and Chopin were his introduction to discovering the mystery side of music. They were no longer Rocket Baby Dolls, they were Muse.
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The small hometown where they grew up was definitely not a suitable market for their music; they were determined to find that appropriate market. They didn’t have much money starting out as a band, Bellamy and his fellow musicians worked various jobs, they knew that in order to get the exposure they had to get out of the small town of Teignmouth and perform in bigger cities. In October 1995 a guy by the name of Dennis Smith (owner of Sawmills Recording Studio) discovered them which led to their first recording and a self-titled EP was released on the Dangerous label in 1998. Another EP followed but in spite of their success no English label record wanted to sign Muse on due to Bellamy’s “vibrato-laden” high pitched vocal.
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It was the American label Maverick Records that decided to take a chance on the band, giving them a number of gigs in the US and in the end signed them on. Taste Media arranged deals for Muse with various record labels in Europe, Australia, and John Leckie, the producer of Radioheads’ hit album The Bends produced Muse’s first album Showbiz. That was the first time Bellamy got back into piano in years. Their first single from the first album “Plug in Baby” hit number 11 and their second single “New Born” was in the top 20.
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They decided to take on a new direction for the second album Origin of Symmetry, they learned a lot about themselves from the first album and performing on stage that they were now able to explore their style in ways they felt they were not able to in the first album. They were worried about sounding like other bands, as they had already been criticized for sounding too much like Radiohead. They wanted a heavier darker rock sound. They even decided to experiment with the use of a church organ, Dominic’s expansion of the standard drum set, and more of Bellamy’s distinctive piano style. Bellamy cites that he is inspired by pianists from the Romanticism period. Some of his guitar playing influences comes from Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Queen and Freddy Mercury have been an influence in Bellamy’s song writing as well. The second album Origin of Symmetry was released in 2001. Although, due to much accomplishment on this album the producer expected them to break into the American music industry, but that album did not reach American record stores.
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After many successful singles from the albums and the release of Hullabaloo a double album featuring a live performance in Paris and a collection of B-sides. They also won “Best Live Band” at the Kerrang Awards, which 1.3 million copies were sold. Muse took a break to record their third album Absolution. This album was produced by Rich Costey who had previously produced Rage Against the Machine. They wanted this album to be “uplifting” so they tried experimenting with a full orchestra with 98 backing vocals and 32-piece orchestra. “We did two songs like that and kinda lost our minds. We ended deciding to get back to basics,” says Bellamy. While they continued to integrate their classical influences with their hard rock sound, they re-recorded a few of their songs with some of the orchestra. Now that they had received greater mainstream success in Britain and with a new American record deal, they embarked on their first one year international stadium tour; they visited Australia, Canada, USA, and France. They have also been featured on all three of the Twilight soundtracks. Absolution topped charts in the U.K. and France. Muse has received numerous awards; they recently received three Grammy Award nominations of which they won “Best Rock Album” for The Resistance, their latest album.
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