24 Hours (2001 Kerrang article)
An article about Matthew Bellamy on page 62 in a 2001 edition of Kerrang.
24 HOURS
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...
Matt Bellamy
Muse
The 23-year-old Muse frontman loves gadgets. When not on tour, he also likes nothing more than to jump on a plane at a moment's notice. On the rare occasions he stays at home, he likes to surf the internet for Europe songs, play with remote-controlled balloons and watch tortoises make sweet love...
"AFTER BEING on tour, it takes usually no more than a few hours before I want to go somewhere. I live in London at the moment, but I always go away, even if it's for a couple of days.
"My best trip was visiting friends in Spain. We went to Salvador Dali's house, which was fantastic. It's a large building which he converted into his head. Everything was positioned so when you looked at it from a distance, it looked like part of a face. It had the sofa that looked like a pair of lips. I sat on that. Behind that were two paintings of his eyes.
"The weirdest trip we had was when Dom (Howard, Muse drummer), my flatmate Tom and me went to Amsterdam. We were having a really shit day off in England, so we jumped on a plane and went there. I'm addicted to EastJet. I've been everywhere on their airline. It's so cheap, so you can afford to go on a whim. Anyway, in Amsterdam we went to a place called Vondel Park. We stayed in there for a few days. A lot of people just sleep under the stars. People take mushrooms at night, so it gets a bit sketchy and weird. I was recognised by a couple of English teenagers. We were lost in the park for two days. There were restaurants, though, so we didn't waste away.
"I'll book EasyJet flights on the internet. I love the 'net, but I've made a habit of just reading my e-mails because you can spend too much time on the web. I used to go in chatrooms and look at weird stuff. I'm bored of that now. Saying that, I was looking at cover weapons. You can buy a mobile phone which can fire up to four bullets. Handy to have if you're a psycho.
"The internet provides a lot of amusement when I do decide to stay at home. There's one program which is basically the new Napster. I have a really fast connection, so I can download MP3s and filme. I got the film 'A.I' from it. I've got the computer rigged up to the stereo and we'll have a few friends around for dinner. We sit one in front of the computer and get them to pick any song, and this program will find it and play it almost immediately. You'll find lots of new music that way. Europe's 'The Final Countdown' is the naffest song I have on my computer. I didn't choose it, I hasten to add.
"Apart from all this impulsive travelling, my typical day at home is as normal as anyone elses. I'll get up, obviously. I've got a girlfriend at the moment, so I'll kiss her and whatever may happen. Make a cup of tea or whatever. I'll play the piano for half an hour before I eat anything. You can find some really unusual chords on the piano and when you play them on the guitar, it sounds really different.
"My girlfriend goes off to her thing, I'll turn the computer on and check my e-mails. I've got two or three e-mail addresses and one is very suggestive that it's me, so I get the odd fan e-mail. They always seem to ask for tickets to gigs, funnily enough. I live with Dom and Tom and we talk about what we got up to the previous night, and swap stories. We hardly get a day off so I'd take the opportunity to go to Hyde Park and roll around in the grass if the weather's good. I like lying in the sun.
"If the weather's not so good, me and my flatmates laugh at David Attenborough documentaries like 'The Trials Of Life'. It's always about mating and you can dawp at two tortoises having sex. The sounds they make are outrageous. What do you mean, do I watch these documentaries alone? Never. Definitely not. They're tortoises."
Muse's "Hyper Music"/"Feeling Good" single is out now.
Sound Tracks
Five records that plug Matt Bellamy right in, Baby...
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
'The Battle Of Los Angeles' (Epic, 1999)
dEUS
"The Ideal Crash' (Island, 1999)
TOM WAITS
'Mule Variations' (Epitaph, 1999)
JIMI HENDRIX
'Live At The Fillmore East' (MCA, 1999)
MILLIONAIRE
'Outside The Simian Flock' (MAS, 2001)
Words: Simon [?] photo: Tony Weelliscreft