Matt Bellamy
Matthew James Bellamy (born June 9, 1978 in Cambridge, England) is the lead singer, guitarist and pianist of rock group Muse.
Background
Bellamy's father, George, was the rhythm guitarist in the 1960s English rock group The Tornados, who were the first English band to have a U.S. number one, with "Telstar".
Bellamy's mother, Marilyn, was born in Belfast, and migrated to England in the 1970s. On her first day in England she met George Bellamy, who was at that time working as a taxi driver in London. They moved to Cambridge, where Bellamy's older brother Paul was born, and a couple of years later Matthew himself.
In the mid-1980s they moved to Teignmouth, Devon where he was educated at Teignmouth Community College. When he was thirteen years old, Bellamy's parents divorced, and he lived with his grandmother for a period of time. Bellamy attended Exeter College before Muse was signed.
Influences
His use of high-pitched vocal lines is a staple part of Muse's sound. This falsetto is one of the signature characteristics of Muse; in one interview, band mate Dominic Howard mentioned that Bellamy has unusually small vocal cords, explaining his high range [2]. His vocal style has been compared to those of Freddie Mercury of Queen, Tom Chaplin of Keane, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, Jimmy Gnecco of Ours, Emilé Wordsworth, Bono and primarily Jeff Buckley, whom Bellamy cites as a major influence [citation needed].
Bellamy's piano style has been inspired by the works of Romantic pianists such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, and has resulted in a fusion of Romantic style with rock in many of Muse's songs. In particular, many of his compositions contain elements of the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, such as "Space Dementia", "Megalomania" and "Ruled by Secrecy", and of the third movement in the cadenza in "Butterflies and Hurricanes". In live performances Bellamy often breaks into lengthy Romantic piano solos, such as the performance of Prelude in C-sharp minor in the opening of "Screenager" on the Hullabaloo live album. On Black Holes And Revelations, a reference can be heard to the Russian Romantic composer Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, during the song "Hoodoo", where, towards the end, a quote of the beginning chords of the concerto, played in the minor key, can be heard before the rest of the band come in. Bellamy cites some of his guitar playing influences as Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, the latter being particularly evident in the more riff-based songs on Muse's second album, Origin of Symmetry, and in Bellamy's extensive use of pitch-shifting effects in his solos, such as the solo on "Invincible" from Black Holes and Revelations. Bellamy also shares a love of unusual and extreme guitar customization with Morello.
Musical equipment
Matt uses Hugh Manson custom guitars made in Exeter, Devon. Bellamy currently has ten Mansons, as well as a number of others by other manufacturers[3]. The first and most famous is his silver Manson. Bellamy came up with the basic concept for this guitar and Hugh Manson helped him realise it. It has a built-in Z.Vex Fuzz Factory which gives Bellamy his distinctive sound and the ability to use controlled feedback. In addition, it has a MXR Phase 90 phaser, a Roland midi pickup and uses Seymour Duncan and Kent Armstrong pickups. All of his other Mansons follow this same basic design (apart for Bellamy's 7 string which was not actually built for him) with some just having different pickups and finishes, as with his mirrored Manson, and some taking the idea even further. Matt's black Manson has a MIDI strip that controls a Digitech Whammy IV, when it is connected, a Z.Vex Wah Probe and a number of other built in effects. For the new album, Black Holes and Revelations, he bought a new guitar, the "Black Kaoss Manson". The guitar features two hot P-90s on the bridge, a Fernandez Sustainer System on the neck and a Kaoss Pad. He also bought the M1D1, which is similar to the Black Kaoss Manson but has a Nail Bomb humbucker on the bridge and a Fernandez Sustainer System (FSK-101 model, which is the humbucker version of the latter one) on the neck. Bellamy uses Diezel amp heads which are hand made in Germany, along with Marshall Mode Four cabinets, Soldano Cabinets and Line 6 digital effects. Most of Bellamy's rack effects are made with Line 6 modules.
Achievements
Bellamy was recently #29 in Total Guitar magazine's top 100 guitar players in the world - above The Edge (U2), Pete Townshend and Chuck Berry and his riff from Plug in Baby came 13th in Total Guitar's poll of the Top 100 Riffs.
The same riff was mentioned among the best-ever riffs in Q magazine's Rock and Pop Miscellany. As well as this, the riff for "Stockholm Syndrome" was voted the greatest riff ever by Australian radio station Triple J's Top 100 Riffs of all time, above Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other iconic and better known riffs. "Plug In Baby" also made the top 20.
In April 2005, Kerrang! magazine ranked him #28 in their "50 Sexiest People In Rock" poll, as well as their in-house number one guitarist. Cosmopolitan also chose him as the sexiest rocker of 2003 and 2004. NME Magazine voted him the 14th Greatest Rock'n'roll Hero of all time, beating Lennon, Dylan and many musical greats.
Interests
Bellamy's fascination with conspiracy theories has been evident since the release of Absolution, in which one song, "Ruled By Secrecy," is named after Jim Marrs' "Rule By Secrecy." The B-Side "Futurism" too deals with a possible dystopian future. Riddles relating to the Illuminati have appeared during the treasure hunt they set for fans on the 2005 mtvU Campus Invasion Tour and in a cryptic announcement about Muse's forthcoming album. Bellamy's interest in metaphysics is also evident (one may argue that the pair go hand in hand). Muse are among musicians such as Tool (compare "Futurism", a b-side from Origin of Symmetry with Tool's "Faaip De Oiad" from Lateralus) as being advocates of 'philosophical' leanings in music.
The lyrical content on the new Muse album Black Holes and Revelations displays Bellamy taking a much more optimistic approach to earlier and perhaps more dystopian themes, while still retaining the same concepts. A song on the latest album, Exo-Politics, refers to the Zeta, and suggests "it's just our leaders in disguise" a conspiracy theory where the government fakes an alien invasion, a theme that Steven Geer has been promoting as a real possibility (coming from sources such as whistleblowers like the late German NASA rocket scientist Wernher von Braun) to politicians, the media and audiences worldwide through his Disclosure Project.
On August 26th 2006, while playing live at the Reading festival, Bellamy wore a shirt with the text Terror Storm on it, and explained:
Go to Google Video, type in Terror Storm and you'll find a nice little surprise. It will shed some light on world affairs, put it that way. I rather point you in the direction than preach about it myself. [1]
Alex Jones, the creator of TerrorStorm commended Bellamy [2]
Bellamy also expressed:
Are we really supposed to believe that a man in a cave in Afghanistan managed to orchestrate the most unbelievable attack on the United States of all time?
"I think 9/11 was definitely an inside job done by a group of high-powered people looking for an excuse to invade the Middle East for oil and other natural resources.
"I think America needed another Pearl Harbor-type event in order to invade Iraq. It gave the US and UK governments the perfect excuse to go to war.[3]
In an interview with Alex Jones on KLBJ-AM Radio in September 2006, Bellamy revealed his interest in terrorism, its cause and the conspiracy theories surrounding it stemmed from the death of his uncle who had been killed by the IRA.
References
External links
- Matthew Bellamy on MuseWiki
- [http://www.musicomh.com/interviews/muse_0706.htm Matthew Bellamy interview on musicOMH.com
