#in its '00s indie nostalgia' haze. Where are one of the most talked about and exciting new bands of the time.

[sunburnacoustic]

Stairway to Devon

An article on the documentary on BBC Radio 1 narrated by Steve Lamacq (Radio 1's Evening Sessions), broadcast on 31 May 2004.

Muse's Matt Bellamy believes we've been cloned from aliens, and that we receive subliminal instructions from the government via mobile phones. 'Stairway to Devon' takes you into the peculiar world of Muse and the influences behind their latest album, 'Absolution'. 

Dan Martin - NME "I think the reason that we started talking about 'Absolution' in such hyperbolic terms is because everything about the record is completely to the extreme. Certainly the first track, 'Apocolypse Please', it actually says 'this is the end of the world'.

Matt Bellamy - Muse "'Origin Of Symmetry' came from a book called 'Hyperspace'. When I read that book I found that the truths about science are sometimes more fantastical and exciting than some of the lies of previous religions."

Verity Sharp - BBC Radio 3 "There's a lot of feeling in there. There's a real commitment and he's being quite honest about what he wants to do because he is going to get a lot of criticism for doing this sort of thing but he's got the guts to do it and I respect that. I think he's being harsh on himself to say that he's a chimpanzee in relation to Rachmaninov - he shouldn't put himself down."

Matt Bellamy - Muse "I'd rather set my sights as a musician way higher than what I think I can ever achieve. I know that those piano players are so far beyond my own mathematical and emotional understanding of music, that I like having a goal. I know that I'll never get there but it means that I'll keep trying."

Dennis Smith - Muse Manager "When I went first to see them at a little show in a Cornish venue I recognised that there was something very special. Matthew has an incredible range of thoughts, he's got such a restless, imaginative and creative mind. An older head on much younger shoulders is how I've always seen him."

Dan Martin - NME "They don't care and, to be fair, they never have cared. He goes around talking about space and the end of the world. If you're going to talk about these things then you have to be prepared that people are going to think it's ridiculous... and people do."

External links on here link to a recent Muse live review, muse.mu and Jim Marrs' website.