I knew it was too late for me to really catch up to that level of technique to play those kinds of pieces [classical pieces by composers like Mozart, by the time Matt was 19/20]. But I just wanted to try and incorporate that kind of mystery [that artists like Phillip Glass, Rachmaninoff and Franz Liszt had] into the band. And something that has had such an emotional resonance through history that it’s managed to live nearly two hundred years. I think a little bit of that started to creep through the second album, Origin of Symmetry, and then the new album [Absolution] as well.
It's so fascinating to me to hear Matt thinks there's an age beyond which you cannot get into more technical classical music. This is also funny because he's regarded as one of the finest pianists in rock music. Guess the takeaway is, sometimes your self-assessment of your abilities aren't the most accurate, huh? Keep going!
Taken from "Innocence And Absolution", Keyboard Magazine, June 2005
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bexx1things - Ray Charles
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@ yuliia-tretynychenko
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It wasn’t until we came to record our first album, Showbiz, that I got back into piano. We were working on a song called “Sunburn,” which is kind of a strummy guitar song. It sounded a bit weak, and since it was one of my favorite songs, I wanted to make it sound good. So that was when John Leckie, our producer, had this idea to work out the guitar part on the piano.
That was the first time I played piano in years it seems, and I had to spend two or three days just practicing “Sunburn,” which is a pretty simple part. When we recorded it, it sounded a bit like a Philip Glass film soundtrack. I think at that point I decided I’d get back into piano again.
From that point on, I went in the opposite direction and started intensively working on piano and the guitar became more just for the live thing. I’d say 70 to 80 percent of the songs I’ve written since then have been written on piano. Even though live, I play some of them on guitar. Even a song like “Stockholm Syndrome” was written on piano.
I find it easy to find interesting chords on the piano. Especially because on a lot of stuff we do, the guitar and bass are harmonising; I’m not just playing power chords and Chris [Wolstenholme, bassist] isn’t just playing root notes.
Matt Bellamy, on recording Sunburn, and Muse falling outside the standard rock songwriting mould | "Innocence And Absolution", Keyboard Magazine, June 2005
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