Matthew james bellamy
June 9, 1978
Cambridge, England, UK
Twins
1.70 m
blue
ranged from fiery red to white; at the moment - a burning brunette
1) Matthew was ranked 29th in the list of the 100 best guitarists in the world according to the magazine "Total Guitar";
2) the riff from Plug In Baby reached 94th position in the Top 100 Riffs;
3) the same riff was voted among the best riffs ever played by the almanac "Rock and Pop" by "Q-magazine";
4) the riff from Stockholm Syndrome was voted the greatest riff of all time according to Australia's "Top 100 Riffs of All Time", overtaking Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other legendary songs;
5) in 2005 the magazine "Kerrang!" named Matt 28th on the list of "50 Sexiest People in the World of Rock Music";
6) Cosmopolitan named Matt Sexiest Rocker of 2003 and 2004.
7) According to NME magazine, Bellamy ranks 14th as the greatest rock and roll hero of all time, above Lennon, Dylan and many other musical idols.
Passion, hysteria, pain, screaming ... It seems that the work of Matthew Bellamy (leader, vocalist, guitarist and songwriter) is burning him from the inside. His songs are filled with sizzling passion and romantic madness. They can cause all sorts of feelings, but not indifference. “Time is running out, time is rushing by, you cannot kill him, you cannot make him not scream” ...
It is not surprising that the leader himself is an eccentric nature with a mobile psyche. He admitted that at one time he even suffered from hallucinations: the musician fancied that the blades were piercing his head. Also, Bellamy used to destroy the equipment during his performances because he didn’t like the way she brought her music to the audience. And once, at a concert in America, he managed to break his lip on a guitar. Matt gushed out blood and was immediately taken to the hospital where they had several stitches.
But after all, only one who is not afraid to destroy stereotypes and spits on the opinion of the average person can be a real creative person. Only such a person will be able to create something new, talented and beautiful.
Matt's piercing vocals are integral to the sound. This falsetto is one of the main distinguishing features of the group. In an interview, Bellamy's partner, drummer Dominic Howard, mentioned that Matt has unusually small vocal cords, which determines his ability to sing in a high range.
His singing style has been compared to Freddie Mercury from Radiohead, Thom Yorke from Radiohead, Axl Rose from Guns N 'Roses, Jimmy Gnecco from Ours, Emilé Wordsworth, Bono, and mainly Jeff Buckley, who, according to Bellamy himself, had the greatest influence on his work.
Bellamy's piano style is inspired by the works of romantic pianists such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, resulting in the fusion of classical romanticism and rock music that characterizes many of Muse's songs. In particular, the compositions "Space Dementia", "Megalomania", "Ruled by Secrecy" contain elements of the first section of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, and "Butterflies and Hurricanes" - the cadence of the third section.
Bellamy often uses long romantic piano solos in his live performances. It is worth remembering his Prelude in C sharp minor, which opens Screenager on the live part of the Hullabaloo compilation.
The album Black Holes And Revelations refers us to the Russian romantic composer P. I. Tchaikovsky. In the song Hoodoo, towards the end, you can hear the opening chords of his Piano Concerto No. 1, played in minor key, before the other parts enter.
Bellamy explains some of the peculiarities of his guitar playing as influenced by Jimi Hendrix and Tom Morello from. Obvious borrowing from the latter is present on the second album Origin of Symmetry in most of Muse's riff-based songs, and is reflected in Bellamy's extensive use of pitch-shifting effects in his solo, such as in the case of Invincible with album Black Holes And Revelations. Bellamy also shares Morello's love of unusual and exclusive guitar tweaks.
MUSE will perform in Kiev on July 8 as part of U-Park Festival and this will be the third performance of the British in Ukraine. To prepare for the concert, we will focus on the British trio's most extraordinary character - Matthew James Bellamy and sort through its playlist.
Over the history of its existence MUSE have released seven albums and countless B-sides. Each release is sometimes radically different from the previous one, their music contains: loud and bright guitar riffs, piano passages, dub-steppe beats, orchestral works ... and some of their songs can be safely and without a twinge of conscience called the best pop hits. They managed to mix all kinds of styles in their music, even if some of the fans are not happy with it. You never know exactly how their next album will sound. Surely these metamorphoses can be explained by the variety of musical tastes of the band members.
Let's warm up your interest in Matt with a few facts from his biography 🙂
Bellamy's head is in such orderly chaos: he took part in seances as a child; he believes in aliens and a worldwide conspiracy; does not believe politicians and (we are almost 100% sure) that somewhere under one of his houses he nevertheless built a bunker to hide there from the third world war. He reads specific literature, on one of the tours he wanted to fly onto the stage (literally) with a jetpack behind his shoulders, and in his younger years, in the company of Chris and Dominic, he took hallucinogenic mushrooms in mind-boggling quantities:
Last book I read: Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control... I've learned to brainwash people, which is pretty good.
Once in Las Vegas, being high, we threw a party in a huge inflatable castle in the middle of the desert and persuaded the girls to dress up as aliens. As if I got to the shooting "Twin Peaks".
Before taking on their current name, Matt, Dom, and Chris's group was named after a Japanese lightweight porn film - Rocket baby dolls... By the way, initially Chris played drums in another band, when he was invited to the then Rocket baby dolls, he mastered the bass guitar. In the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records, Bellamy holds the record for the most broken guitars - 140, during the tour in support of the album "Absolution".
Each of MUSE holds an honorary doctorate in arts for outstanding work in the music field. And in 2007 they became the first group to perform at the newly built Wembley Stadium in London.
Matt has been repeatedly nominated for Best Guitarist, ranking 19th and 29th on the "50 Best Guitarists of All Time" and "100 Best Guitarists of All Time" lists, respectively.
Songs "Plug In Baby" and Stockholm Syndrome in many publications have been called the greatest riffs ever played. The story of how it was written "Plug In Baby" pretty funny:
While recording it, we were simply beside ourselves with the huge amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms. It all ended with the fact that we were naked in the jacuzzi, and I was deaf in one ear due to the fact that I fell asleep in the sauna.
Many of you will definitely find something interesting in Matt's playlist, since the musical boundaries of his knowledge extend even to the classics. You can trace Bellamy's love for musical works of different eras and composers from all over the world by listening to the piano passages in the songs MUSE... So in "Hoodoo" you can hear the opening chords of the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 Tchaikovsky.
In creativity MUSE string and piano arrangements are often present. It seems that the group is trying to sit on two chairs at once: classical music and rock.
The music of Rachmaninoff, Liszt and Chopin is mysterious. Their works are more abstract and better able to stimulate the imagination.
It is these composers who need to be thanked for "Megalomania" and Exogenesis: Symphony in the repertoire of the British. Bellamy's piano style is inspired by the works of romantic pianists such as Sergei Rachmaninoff, the result of which is the fusion of classical romanticism and rock music, so characteristic of many songs MUSE.
If we talk about his guitar playing style, then Matt had a very strong influence on Jimmy Hendrix and Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine... Bellamy also shares Morello's love of unusual and exclusive guitar tweaks.
In 1996, all three participants MUSE went to Reading. RATM were the headliners of the festival. It was kind of a turning point for the guys. Dominic then said:
When we become the headliners of this scene, it will mean that we have succeeded, we have achieved what we expected!
Every year Matt and Dom asked each other the same question: Did they succeed? And the answer was always: "We have to speak at Reading."
To the song MUSE "Time Is Running Out" creativity had a huge impact Michael Jackson... When already 80% "Absolution" was recorded, the guys wanted to create something new, groovy, a song that would make the rhythm snap out with your fingers
We wanted to write a song that was like "Billie Jean" in its sound.
In the world of rock Queen Is the best example of the clash between guitar and piano in songwriting. I think that it is in their music that you can accidentally find unusual arrangements and chord structures. In my heart I want to write heavy music, but at the same time, I am more attracted to the piano.
Matt is a big fan Jeff Buckley, according to Bellamy, he has had the greatest influence on the work of the group.
At the time when we started from MUSE, singing in falsetto was not cool because Nirvana and other grunge bands were popular back then. We attended a Jeff Buckley concert and he was not afraid to sing in a high-pitched male voice. I think that this is what helped me open up and are not afraid to use a more expressive and emotional vocal style.
For songs like City Of Delusion, Hoodoo, Knights Of Cydonia noticeable influence Enno Morricone: Western motives and romantic instrumental ... The British themselves often perform his song "Man With Harmonica" during his concerts (played by Chris right before the performance "Knights Of Cydonia").
As unexpected as it may sound, Bellamy is not indifferent to his compatriots. Franz Ferdinand:
They manage to combine dance music and rock music in a very cool way, without samples and sequencers. We are interested in trying it in our music as well. "
(Sequencers are hardware or software devices for real-time recording and playback of music, as a collection of notes and characteristics of their performance, presented in various forms, for example, CV-Gate or Midi messages - ed.).
In their younger years, the participants MUSE were huge fans of the album "Around The Fur" Deftones... In a way, they are united by the fact that in the music of both there is a mixture of drama and aggression. In 1999, both groups worked with the same label - Maverick... Bellamy often plays a riff from a song "Headup" during live performances MUSE.
Another inspiration for the team is the Belgian band Millionaire... It's a mix of stoner and space rock. Their debut album "Outside The Simian Flock" directly affected "Supermassive Black Hole".
Bellamy's tall falsetto also inherits Prince, MUSE often play "Sign O" The Times ".
For me a drummer Lightning bolt Is one of the best drummers in the world, he is like a leader. Bass and drums are the whole band. Very experimental.
Muse often covers "Dracula Mountain".
Bellamy once admitted that creativity system of a Down greatly influenced the recording of the song Stockholm Syndrome... Interesting fact: Serge Tankian, frontman SOAD, at one time offered the guys from MUSE work for his label, but they refused.
An important place in the list of Matt's favorites is occupied by the Americans. Weezer. Rivers Cuomo, although he looks like a know-it-all, knows his business and plays the guitar like no other. Among the entire discography of the group, it is especially worth noting "The Blue Album" released in 1994. In general, this release was often featured on all kinds of lists. "Best of", so: log "Guitar World" placed the album in third place of the ten best guitar albums of 1994.
Recording every next album MUSE listened to and were inspired by radically different works and musical styles. V "Absolution" echoes were seen Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Primus and Deftones. "The Resistance" consists of many references to classical music, especially the last three songs of the album.
Although Matt himself did not admit it, Dominic let it slip:
When we were 16 years old Radiohead were the group that had a very big influence on us.
Writing down "The 2nd Law" Everyone listened to Muse: from symphonies Bach, songs David Bowie and ending Skrillex.
Here are a couple of other bands and musicians that are on Mr. Bellamy's playlist: Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Rush, Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, The Smashing Pumpkins and many others.
And finally, a few quotes from Matt:
I would love to fly to Mars. I would like to record an album in a weightless state.
One day Paris Hilton came to our show in LA. But she left in time "Knights Of Cydonia", and this is the first song in the setlist. If we managed to offend Paris Hilton, then we are doing everything right!
The concept of democracy is a fucking joke. Rock has to shake everyone up and say, “Fuck everything! This is nonsense, dude! Let's burn the Parliament! "
Scandals and intrigues, the invasion of aliens and the end of the world - the popular British band Muse has been singing about this and not only for 20 years now. On June 19 the band gave a concert in Moscow, on June 21 they will perform in St. Petersburg. On the eve of Muse's Russian concerts, HELLO! found out what you don’t learn from the songs of the group and what its lead singer Matthew Bellamy is afraid of.
Muse band When Matthew Bellamy starts singing with his unique falsetto, I really get scared! They're just sick, these Muse, but for some reason people like them,
Former Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher laments. British muse, fiends of hell, musical terrorists who conquered the world ... Over the 20 years of its existence on the rock scene, they have invented different things about Muse, but one thing remained unchanged - they were talked about. They also presented awards, including the Grammy and Brit Awards, and bought massive amounts of studio albums. On June 5, British rockers released their seventh disc Drones, already on June 19 they performed in Moscow as part of the Park Live festival, and on the 21st they can be heard on the big arena of the Petrovsky stadium in St. Petersburg at the 10th anniversary Greenfest festival. It's high time on the eve of the concert to debunk the myths about the group, in the history of which there is a little bit of everything: magic, rock and roll and love.
Practical magic
“Talking with the dead changed my life,” says Matthew Bellamy. As a child, he really communicated with the spirits of the dead using the Ouija board. This accessory, popular at that time in some American families, for invoking otherworldly forces was very much loved by his mother Marilyn. One late evening, nine-year-old Matthew found her with her father and his older brother at a regular seance and was admitted to a home spiritualist circle.
The spirits told us secrets that no one else could know. One of the "interlocutors" even predicted the Gulf War a year before the event itself, Bellamy later recalled. - I then loved to come to school and scare my classmates with stories about our gatherings. It made me special.
Matthew Bellamy 
Muse fans
His peers had something to be afraid of: an eccentric introverted boy disappeared in the library, reading books on the occult, and said strange things. At the age of 12, Matthew became even more isolated: at home he broke a huge mirror, the pride of the Bellamy family.
My mother then shouted at me that I cursed the whole family for seven years in advance. Definitely one of my worst memories
He will say later. Soon the parents divorced, as if in confirmation of the curse. A year later, music producer Dennis Smith noticed Matt at a children's talent competition in the British town of Teignmouth: in addition to magic, the boy practiced playing the piano. “Even then, Matt looked older than his years, he played with some special thoughtfulness,” Smith later recalls in an interview with Kerrang! Magazine.
At the age of 12, Matt met fellow students in neighboring schools, Dominic Howard and Chris Wolstenholme. It was fashionable then to cobble together rock bands, and they created their own - Rocket Baby Dolls. At first, the guys did not put any special meaning in their musical hobby: Dominic and Chris played for the company, Matt - because he could not do anything else, and did not want to do anything else. In one opinion, all three were united:
We lived in a boring little town with few choices: get drunk, fight, take drugs, or do something else. We chose something else - music.
Muse group
Rockers prefer ...
The Teignmouth trio began writing their musical biography even before moving to London and the new name of the band. In their hometown, during their performances, they smashed equipment on stage, sometimes they threw their guitars at each other. “Music is the essence of emotion,” Bellamy said thoughtfully, as he continued to explore the emotional depths offstage. He no longer contacted the spirits, but was carried away by his own subconscious with the help of hallucinogenic mushrooms:
My first roommate was a drug dealer, but I never dabbled in heroin, only mushrooms and only in the right proportion.
In the correct proportion Bellamy had time to experience a little bit of everything: in addition to the generalized "musician", it was quite possible to write "decorator", "saboteur-demolitionist", "toilet cleaner" in his resume. "There were a lot of weird things going on back then that I would rather forget about now," he would say later when Muse was hit by popularity. The group also coped with the consequences of fame in its own way, or rather, in no way:
When our first Showbiz album came out, everyone expected us to have a wild lifestyle and orgies with fans, but we were not interested.
Outside the stage, a mystical rock and roll was taking place with the British trinity. After one of his performances in Vienna, Bellamy disappeared without a trace for two days, and then returned "as if possessed", as his colleagues described it. And in 2000, after the group received the first big award at the NME Awards ceremony, the plane with the musicians caught fire right in the air: "We were sitting in the cabin with this award like idiots, and there was a flame in the window."
Muse group 
In contrast to such events, Matthew Bellamy's personal life was calm and quiet: he met with the Italian psychologist Gaia Polloni for nine years, and in 2009 they broke up. Only after that Bellamy, as if remembering his status, took the path of a real rock star: he started an affair with Hollywood actress Kate Hudson.
We met at the Coachella festival, he immediately asked for my phone number, was polite and just won me over,
Told by Kate in 2011 to InStyle magazine. By that time, she and Matt were already engaged, expecting a baby, and Kate was looking for a house in London to move from Los Angeles closer to her lover. Next to his famous girlfriend, Bellamy, usually closed, opened up: he told reporters how scared he was to meet Kate's mother Goldie Hawn, shared his first impressions of their son Bingham. However, in an atmosphere of mutual goodwill, at the end of 2014, the couple announced their separation. No scandals inherent in rock stars and mutual reproaches. Matt spoke about the break up six months later in the most accessible form for him - music.
Matthew Bellamy and Kate Hudson
Matthew Bellamy and his new girlfriend Elle Evans
The end of the world as a premonition
"There is no love at all on this record - just paranoia and fear," Bellamy announced earlier this year, Muse's new album, Drones (already available on iTunes). After breaking up with Kate, he returned to his favorite motives: the supernatural and frightening. Matthew was afraid of many things: tsunami, earthquakes, the end of the world and technological progress. Once the musician even canceled communication with the press in New York on the pretext that a giant meteorite should fall on the city, and he agreed to give an interview only on board a helicopter. Soon after, Bellamy admitted to reporters that he had long ago collected an emergency supply at his home, where the rocker stores cereals, nuts, ropes, an ax and other useful items "just in case."
A lot scares me, but most of all - loss of sensitivity, - he now declares. - If you lose the ability to feel, then you die inside yourself.
Dead Inside is the title track of the new Muse album. Bellamy says she best describes his feelings after breaking up with Kate Hudson: "You can't do anything, you feel overwhelmed." True, this state did not prevent him, shortly after the breakup, from starting an affair with actress Elle Evans, a blonde who looks very similar to Kate. He appeared with her arm at one of the parties of the last Cannes Film Festival. Elle, a 25-year-old model and actress, has already starred in a thriller about the throes of creativity, which has a very "original" name - Muse. What is this if not a sign of fate for a completely non-religious, but rather superstitious Bellamy ?!
The mood now is grim
Matthew bellamy
From his furious solos and heavy riffs to his exhilarating stage performances and super guitars, 10 reasons why the Muse frontman is the epitome of this decade of guitar music.
10. Thanks to him, the classics became cool again.
Get Zack Wilde together with a chamber orchestra, and he will most likely eat the conductor for breakfast and pick his teeth with his stick. Matt Bellamy is another matter: he takes inspiration from this musty world of starched wigs and harpsichords and integrates his coolest ideas into his pattern-breaking guitar solos and riffs. While you're chopping to the wild intro to Plug in Baby, you're actually listening to a modified Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Bang'n'roll, baby ...
9. His performances on stage are complete insanity.
Of course, all of Muse's decorating artists have to be given credit, but even all the satellite dishes and acrobats in the world can't compare to one little Devon guy losing himself in music. Bellamy will give you no yelling or friendly jokes; instead, he manipulates with extravagant virtuosity, rapes his Manson in every possible way, wriggles like an electric eel, using all his neurasthenic energies to create the greatest show on Earth (or any other planet).
8. He saved us from new metal.
Goofy rap to lame-sounding panting was the sound of the new millennium until Matt Bellamy came along with Showbiz, lighting the uneducated rock scene with searing jet solos and reminding a generation that life shouldn't end with a seventh chord. If it weren't for the killer guitar parts in early songs like Sunburn and Muscle Museum, this magazine would have had to write about mindless dumbheads muttering about how to "play to song." Nobody needs it.
7. He has a "super guitar".
In fact, Matt has several super guitars, all made by British master Hugo Manson, and all special in that they contain much more built-in hardware than the technology it took to send the first man to the moon. Matt's guitars, including his famous "retired" Delorean or Silver Manson, are crammed with a variety of pickups, amplifiers and X-Y controlled KAOSS tablets. Thanks to this, he can control all the effects with his fingertips. This is genius.
6. He created the most eccentric debut album in history.
Muse released their first album in 1999, the same year as Britney Spears' debut single Baby One More Time and tons of other stuff. The guitar music was insipid, so Bellamy sounded like a breath of fresh air as it ripped wildly at the guitar strings. Regardless of the claims that Muse are just Radiohead plagiarists, Matt performed heroically with songs like the Muscle Museum, and in the end, proved that something special had emerged in the world of music.
5. He destroys stereotypes.
At least on paper, the combination of progressive rock, classical, electronica and pop shouldn't work ... it should have been something like Genesis played in the horrible style of classic-obsessed 80s albums. Matt made it work properly. Not many musicians can switch from a beautiful Denny Elfman-style piano playing to downright devilishly heavy guitar riffs as easily as Bellamy does. Listen to New Born to be convinced of the existence of a human genius.
4. His solos are works of art.
Matt's solos are built as beautifully as his guitars. His tensely quivering passages, ragged strings and always inventive overlay effects are all a masterclass of expressive guitar technique. He has an amazing vibrato that makes all of his solos incredibly spontaneous, even if they are carefully thought out. Check out Knights of Cydonia: Live at Wembley Stadium 2007 to see it with your own eyes.
3. He has unrivaled creativity.
Matt Bellamy has a number of serious abilities. In addition to his unique style of playing the guitar, the boy chops the piano and has a vocal range of three octaves (as evidenced by the amazing performance of Plug in Baby and other colossal Muse songs). If this is not enough for you, then you might be interested to know that Matt is the lyricist and composer of all Muse songs, including such classics as Supermassive Black Hole, Stockholm Syndrome and Knights of Cydonia. Yes, we are jealous too.
2. He wrote the best riff of the decade.
Looking at the bare numbers offered by music shows and shops, the riff from Plug in Baby is our generation's Sweet Child O'Mine or Stairway to Heaven. Like its famous predecessors, Plug in Baby confuses guitarists and makes them powerless in the face of their exceptional skill. This is one of those few riffs that always sound new and unique, and absolutely everyone has a desire to learn how to play the guitar.
1. He is the Hendrix of our generation.
You always run the risk of getting screwed up when you compare someone to Jimi Hendrix, but we assure you, you can be completely calm when it comes to Matt Bellamy.
Matt uses effects and feedback like musical instruments, punctuating solos with an outlandish pop sound and harsh squeals. Just like Jimmy.
In Matt's hands, the guitar is more than just an instrument, it becomes an extension of his body and his voice. Just like Jimmy's.
He is also a rare combination of a guitar virtuoso and a talented composer, capable of writing great songs that will stand the test of time.
Again, just like Jimmy.
And here are two more news about parting.
I missed this news, but I hasten to inform you, and then suddenly someone does not know.
It all happened in early December.
Dev Patal and Freida Pinto parted. The couple dated for 6 years.
The first suspicions of a rift in their relationship arose after Patel was absent on his beloved's 30th birthday in October this year.
In addition, it became noticeable that over the past six months, in all interviews, the actress avoided questions about Virgo, although she did not skimp on warm words before.
Also, the end of the relationship and the breakup of the engagement were reported Kate Hudson and Matthew Bellamy.
The actress and lead singer of Muse Matthew began dating in 2010. During this time, they became the parents of Bingham's son "Bing" Hawn Bellamy, announced their engagement, but it never came to a wedding. According to rumors, Kate did not grieve for a long time and found a new love in the person of dancer and actor Derek Hough ("Nashville").
With a new lover, the actress has already appeared at several events. First, the paparazzi spotted the couple at the Nice Guy restaurant in Los Angeles. They also attended Goldie Hawn's party together.
