Interview with Japanese magazine "Rockin' On"

[mjartrod]

I love how people express admiration for Chris NOW and yet, when he was going through one of the most difficult periods of his life in 2009 - fighting to overcome his addiction for good while touring - people were too busy trashing the band and their performances on stage, without even remotely considering that maybe there were reasons behind some of the weaker performances.

[Jobby]

Originally Posted by mjartrod

I love how people express admiration for Chris NOW and yet, when he was going through one of the most difficult periods of his life in 2009 - fighting to overcome his addiction for good while touring - people were too busy trashing the band and their performances on stage, without even remotely considering that maybe there were reasons behind some of the weaker performances.

Chris's addiction caused Matt to be lazy with his vocals and write shit setlists?

[Kueller917]

Originally Posted by mjartrod

I love how people express admiration for Chris NOW and yet, when he was going through one of the most difficult periods of his life in 2009 - fighting to overcome his addiction for good while touring - people were too busy trashing the band and their performances on stage, without even remotely considering that maybe there were reasons behind some of the weaker performances.

I'm not even going to get started on unnecessary hate for the band because there is a lot about it I dislike.
That said, a lot of the issues with the tour I doubt had much to do with Chris' problems. Both him and Dom were a lot more on top of it performance wise than Matt and setlist choices could take even a few seconds to just toss MK Ultra and Bliss in there a few times.

[mjartrod]

Personal problems and especially of this nature, take a toll on you, your job, the people you work with. It's not rocket science.

Complain all you want about setlists if it makes you happy but to completely disregard Chris' problems (and Matt's, cos it was clear after awhile that he was also struggling with personal stuff) and to assume those played no role whatsoever in the band is not just naive, it's plain silly.

[Furygirl]

Originally Posted by mjartrod

I love how people express admiration for Chris NOW and yet, when he was going through one of the most difficult periods of his life in 2009 - fighting to overcome his addiction for good while touring - people were too busy trashing the band and their performances on stage, without even remotely considering that maybe there were reasons behind some of the weaker performances.

I agree that his problems and Matt's relationship troubles probably spilled over into performances, but iirc, we didn't even even know about Chris' problems until sometime in late 2010. But I could be wrong, the time flies by. So people didn't know to be sympathetic I reckon.

[StrawberryGloss]

Originally Posted by HannahG123

Organic guitar playing? What does that mean

He has an organic guitar. You know, recycled materials and all! Muse is going GREEN!

[CarrieB]

Originally Posted by Furygirl

I agree that his problems and Matt's relationship troubles probably spilled over into performances, but iirc, we didn't even even know about Chris' problems until sometime in late 2010. But I could be wrong, the time flies by. So people didn't know to be sympathetic I reckon.

Yeah it still makes me cross when I think of it because, actually, it's not hard to think that perhaps there could be a reason other than Muse being complacent, lazy or bloody minded, even if we don't know what that reason is. I don't see how anyone can accuse Matt of being lazy. I remember one particular performance early on the tour that got a slating which was probably bang on top of the start of his relationship troubles, yet he was still running all over the stage, giving it as much as he probably had to give at the time. Muse always give a stellar performance come rain or shine, it's just that some people have extremely high expectations.

Chris's problems were also likely to have been ongoing as they were an issue during the recording of The Resistance. Even if in the recovery stage, it's not easy to stop drinking when you're an alcoholic.

Obviously they are going to have their off days. They're human beings not robots. Hopefully all will be good this tour, but if they have a slight off day, when they appear to have less energy than usual - the music will still be grand as always no doubt - I hope people will think twice before dishing out the attacks and accusations, because we never know what is going on behind the scenes.

[Kueller917]

I remember some of their Christmas TV performances seemed a bit off, and that if I remember was around the time of relationship issues.

[bumpypotato]

Hopefully now that they're all happy little bunny's we'll get some stellar performances

[Oh Hannah]

Originally Posted by bumpypotato

Hopefully now that they're all happy little bunny's we'll get some stellar performances

We're they happy back in '04?

[SerpentSatellite]

I only have seen them live once, and I didn't see any problems with the performance at all. But there it is, unless you've really been studying this, most people don't see them live all that often, and a lot of the hate seems really misplaced in that respect, imo...

The average fan that sees them live WANTS to see those greatest hits at the show, and if the band followed what a lot of people here ask for, and removed songs like KoC, Starlight, and TiRO, a LOT of those fans would be very unhappy. I would have been, when I saw them.
They also don't really have a lot to compare performances to, if it's their first.

Sure, I was also really pissed that my "rare" song was FG, and they had the audacity to teaser Bliss before it, but still, I understood (except for the teaser!) this show was appealing to the majority of the crowd and not my personal gig.

And I still really enjoy the show.

I also doubt there's ever been a band in history that hasn't had bad gigs, or bad runs of gigs... effected by relationships, drinking, or nothing at all.

I don't understand the hate here heaped on Matt, and just tend to ignore it and their posts. I'm never going to change anyone's mind, and everyone gets to think what they want, I suppose.
It's always cool to hate on the frontman of a famous band, and I guess the more famouse the band, the more the hate (and the "love" for the more neglected band members.)
It confuses the piss out of me, though, because Muse has so much been founded on Matt's writing and composing, it seems bizarre to say you like Muse, but hate everything about him...
I suppose there's enough people here who hate the band that both could be true.

[macgivera]

Originally Posted by SerpentSatellite

I only have seen them live once, and I didn't see any problems with the performance at all. But there it is, unless you've really been studying this, most people don't see them live all that often, and a lot of the hate seems really misplaced in that respect, imo...

The average fan that sees them live WANTS to see those greatest hits at the show, and if the band followed what a lot of people here ask for, and removed songs like KoC, Starlight, and TiRO, a LOT of those fans would be very unhappy. I would have been, when I saw them.
They also don't really have a lot to compare performances to, if it's their first.

Sure, I was also really pissed that my "rare" song was FG, and they had the audacity to teaser Bliss before it, but still, I understood (except for the teaser!) this show was appealing to the majority of the crowd and not my personal gig.

And I still really enjoy the show.

I also doubt there's ever been a band in history that hasn't had bad gigs, or bad runs of gigs... effected by relationships, drinking, or nothing at all.

I don't understand the hate here heaped on Matt, and just tend to ignore it and their posts. I'm never going to change anyone's mind, and everyone gets to think what they want, I suppose.
It's always cool to hate on the frontman of a famous band, and I guess the more famouse the band, the more the hate (and the "love" for the more neglected band members.)
It confuses the piss out of me, though, because Muse has so much been founded on Matt's writing and composing, it seems bizarre to say you like Muse, but hate everything about him...
I suppose there's enough people here who hate the band that both could be true.

This is so not on topic that I started thinking it's bot who's posting some random thing.

[SerpentSatellite]

Uh... it's a conglomorate response to all the posts before it... You can really only say so much about a partially translated article before you run dry.

I swear it was a natural progression of the thread posts.
Insulting people isn't really on topic, either. You can always just report me... Try and get all the smilies from the T2L thread, while you're at it, I guess.

[mjartrod]

Originally Posted by Furygirl

I agree that his problems and Matt's relationship troubles probably spilled over into performances, but iirc, we didn't even even know about Chris' problems until sometime in late 2010. But I could be wrong, the time flies by. So people didn't know to be sympathetic I reckon.

I think you have the times right, we learnt about Chris in summer or fall 2010, fans didn't know about his problems until then. As for Matt, it wasn't just the relationship stuff, there was a family member that was very ill and he was travelling back and forth, between touring and Devon. Not speculating here, this was stated in an article (NME? Q?) and I'm pretty sure we were still in 2009.

What I meant though is that it is disheartening, especially now looking back, to see how unforgiving fans were. If you have a bad experience at a gig, fair enough, what can you do if you didn't enjoy it? The gig I attended in Rotterdam in 2009 was definitely the worst I've seen of Muse live. But there is a difference between disappointment/frustration and cruelty and that line was crossed so many times around that time. I don't think 'not knowing' is an excuse because not only the guys have no obligation to explain if they're having personal problems but fans could at least wonder if there was something behind some of the weak performances. But like I said, people were unforgiving. I wish it didn't take Chris announcing he was an alcoholic for people to suddenly be aware that yes, the band members are human too.

Whatever lol I just feel bad for Chris (and Matt) knowing that at a time when they were struggling there were so many fans also dissing them. And I know that they may not need the fans to cheer them up LOL, but I think that's exactly one of the things Chris hinted at in the interview in regards to 'Save me' - that it was family and the bandmates that were there for him and he was grateful for that to the point he wrote a song about it.

[Furygirl]

Originally Posted by mjartrod

I think you have the times right, we learnt about Chris in summer or fall 2010, fans didn't know about his problems until then. As for Matt, it wasn't just the relationship stuff, there was a family member that was very ill and he was travelling back and forth, between touring and Devon. Not speculating here, this was stated in an article (NME? Q?) and I'm pretty sure we were still in 2009.

What I meant though is that it is disheartening, especially now looking back, to see how unforgiving fans were. If you have a bad experience at a gig, fair enough, what can you do if you didn't enjoy it? The gig I attended in Rotterdam in 2009 was definitely the worst I've seen of Muse live. But there is a difference between disappointment/frustration and cruelty and that line was crossed so many times around that time. I don't think 'not knowing' is an excuse because not only the guys have no obligation to explain if they're having personal problems but fans could at least wonder if there was something behind some of the weak performances. But like I said, people were unforgiving. I wish it didn't take Chris announcing he was an alcoholic for people to suddenly be aware that yes, the band members are human too.

Whatever lol I just feel bad for Chris (and Matt) knowing that at a time when they were struggling there were so many fans also dissing them. And I know that they may not need the fans to cheer them up LOL, but I think that's exactly one of the things Chris hinted at in the interview in regards to 'Save me' - that it was family and the bandmates that were there for him and he was grateful for that to the point he wrote a song about it.

Yeah, I don't like all the hate, either. Even if I have my disappointments with Muse, I still generally err on the side of fangirl.