5 essentials van Dominic Howard van Muse

Wat hebben Rage Against The Machine, The Police, Queen, N.W.A en Nirvana gemeen? Ze hebben allemaal invloed gehad op Dom en op Muse. Hoe? Dat vertelt hij je zelf.

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"The Police wist met z'n drieën ook zo'n massive sound te creëren"

Een van de bands die een grote invloed op Dom heeft gehad, is The Police. Zij hebben laten zien, en vooral laten horen, dat je met drie bandleden net zo goed een groots geluid kunt neerzetten.

Dominic: "They were a 3-piece band as well. They were kind of influential in that way. They were all amazing musicians, they were a very iconic power trio. And played in a certain way that made these three people sound big and create this big sound. Particularly the harmony and everything so yeah and they are awesome."

Dom favoriete tracks van The Police is de hit 'Message In A Bottle'.

"Ik heb de diversiteit aan stijlen van Queen altijd geweldig gevonden"

Queen is niet - zoals veel mensen denken - het grote voorbeeld van alle drie de bandleden van Muse. Eigenlijk is Dom de enige die echt een groot fan was.

Dom: "I’m the only real Queen-fan in the band. It’s not really Matt and Chris so much.

I always liked the diversity of Queens music. Because they had one song that was like some weird little banjo seaside rendezvous type track. You know. That’s kind of like a little bit silly. And massive epic stuff like ‘We Are The Champions’ and whatever. So just their diversity as a group I always thought was amazing."

Wel ziet Dom belangrijke overeenkomsten tussen Queen-frontman Freddie Mercury en Matt, de frontman van Muse.

Dom: "I think there are similarities. I mean a band like that, they had a writer who was very influenced by classical music, and wrote in a rockband set-up, and that’s kind of similar for us because Matts earlier influences are lots of classical music."

Met die vergelijkbare aanpak en invloeden, is het niet gek dat ook de muziek van beide bands overeenkomsten heeft.

Dom: "So when you’re really into that style of music, you think in the way that that’s created, you use that as an influence and turn it into what is like a four minute pop rock song. You have this epic sound to it. So I think Queen had a similar approach to music that we kind of naturally adopt ourself because our own influences."

"Ik zag Rage Against The Machine live en dacht 'holy shit'!"

Als Muse net een paar jaartjes bezig is, ziet Dom een optreden dat hem van zijn sokken blaast en waarbij hij denkt 'Dit wil ik ook!' Dat gebeurt tijdens een groot Brits festival. De band in kwestie is Rage Against The Machine.

Dom: "Yeah, sure, I mean Rage Against The Machine possibly at Reading festival in 1996. I was like ‘holy shit’ in the crowd jumping up and down. And at that moment I was like this is just incredible because they were headlining it and I remember thinking, 'it sounded so good', I was thinking ‘hopefully one day we can be on the stage and headlining it'. Which we did end up doing. Which is really cool. Yeah, that concert, I think Matt was probably there as well. Maybe even Chris."

"De eerste single die ik ooit kocht was 'Express Yourself' van N.W.A"

Als jonge puber, nog voor hij met Matt en Howard de alternatieve rockband Muse opricht, is hiphop het helemaal voor Dom.

Dom: "The first 7” record that I have ever bought was N.W.A 'Express Yourself'. Which is kind of like, you know, the timing of it seems like I said that for the sake of it because they have their movie out but that’s actually the truth. When I was like 10 or 11 I was really into hiphop so like N.W.A and LL Cool J and Public Enemy and stuff like that. So I don’t know, yeah, 'Express Yourself' was the first record I actually bought."

"Nevermind van Nirvana heeft veel invloed gehad op Muse"

Dom, Howard en Matt zijn nog tieners als ze Muse begin jaren negentig oprichten. De rockmuziek uit die tijd, en vooral de Amerikaanse rock, maakt veel indruk op ze en heeft een grote invloed op de band.

Dom: "Other things that have been really influential to the band were I suppose the early nineties when we were teenagers. That’s kind of an influential time in anyones life. and at that point collectively, that’s when we started the band, we were influenced by a lot of rockmusic. Like American rockmusic.

Again, it was not just necessarily musically. it was the power and the feeling and the energy and emotion in it that was something that we just loved. The heaviness. Nevermind by Nirvana. That’s also quite an important album."

Bekijk de beelden van het interview met Dominic van Muse