User:Rodmjorge/Muse

I've known Muse since the dawn of time, so long ago I can say I've known them even before they existed. Pretty much can say they're my favorite band. But... they're pretty weird.

They do have an impressive catalog with 9 studio albums released and showing no sign of stopping, plus a lot of singles released as well, some of them packed with B-sides, meaning more songs, for a total of roughly 136 songs! Yep, that's a lot.

Some of them are amazing, some of them are quite good, some of them are... questionable, but all of them share something in common: it's definitely Muse. No matter what song you hear, you'll instantly know which band made it, which is what I find impressive.

So, I'll share with you their walkthrough to success, while also showing their weird side (the best side).

The early days
It all started in 1994, with Matthew Bellamy as guitarist, Dominic Howard as drummer. Christopher Wolstenholme was also a drummer at the time, but the other two asked him to learn bass instead, and he agreed. And so, the band was formed with the epic name "Rocket Baby Dolls". Thank God they changed it. Not like it stayed for too long anyways, they only played a single gig with that name, which was a Battle of the Bands contest type thing, and they won! Even the band was surprised:

"So, when we actually won, it was a real shock. A massive shock. After that, we started taking ourselves seriously."

And they did stick with their word, because right after that win, they changed their name to something more memorable, like... "Muse". Apparently, they used this word because it was short and looked good on a poster (I agree!)

After some difficult times of playing gigs to 'no one', Muse decided to record some demos in a studio that was part of the college the members of the band studied in, which became the so-called Newton Abbot demo, based on the location, Newton Abbot. Because of this, in early 1997, Dennis Smith (owner of Sawmills Studios) discovered them playing in a small village, and was impressed by the band's skills. So much so that he offered a free recording time at his studio for the band to record stuff around 1997. And so, their self-titled EP was born.

Muse
This EP was successfully released on May 11th, 1998 under the label Dangerous. 999 numbered copies were sold, plus 100 more, but specifically for radio usage. This allowed them to attract many fans across England, and Smith was hooked. He, in means of showing his excitement, subsequently co-founded the record label and music production company Taste Media just for the band. This allowed for even more media coverage, which managed to catch the eye of Steve Lamacq, a British music journalist who worked for NME at the time. Now we're talking!

Unfortunately, even will all of this, record companies were still rejecting Muse, complaining that they sounded really similar to huge bands like Queen, Radiohead and Supergrass. However, they still played at a lot of gigs, some even in the United States. After coming back from America, they went on to record their second EP, titled Muscle Museum.

Muscle Museum
Another EP released with 999 limited numbered copies, it included tracks that would become their most popular, such as Uno and Unintended. This increased their popularity quite a bit, and sparked a lot more attention towards the band.

The true beginning of the band was just about to start, they just needed a little boost, and they got that right away, as John Leckie, acclaimed producer who worked with really popular bands like Radiohead, The Verve, "Weird Al" Yankovic, etc., was right on time to produce their debut album. And with this, on October 4th, 1999, Showbiz was released.