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Often praised as one of the greatest live acts in the world today, Muse's latest touring run was its most successful yet. Beginning in October 2009 and wrapping this summer with a headline slot at the U.K. dual-site Reading and Leeds festival, the U.K. alt-rock act's Resistance tour - in support of its fifth studio set, 2009's "The Resistance" - was a 14-month global trek that included headline gigs at festivals Coachella, Glastonbury and Lollapalooza, and a stint supporting U2 in South America. (The group's totals for the tour through the end of 2009 as reported to Billboard Boxscore saw a gross of $33,141,559 with 561,304 tickets sold on 45 shows, 21 of which were sellouts).
In this exclusive interview with Billboard.Biz, Anthony Addis, the band's manager and director of U.K.-based Brontone Management, which also represents The Pogues and Pulled Apart By Horses, discusses what they plan to do next.
Billboard.Biz: How is work progressing on Muse's next studio album?
Anthony Addis: They've now gone into the recording studio. The plan is to do it all in London... Hopefully, [the album] might come out October next year. They've written a lot of material already but you don't know how it's going to gel between them all. They write constantly. They write on the road, so before or after a gig they'll write nearly every night. It's a serious process, but you don't know how it's going to turn out [until] you start practicing it together, because everybody's done it individually.
BBB: Have you heard any of the new material?
AA: No -- I will not listen to it. I'm not interested until they believe it's in the right form. If you trust an artist, you've got to trust the music that they make. You've got to trust that they will get it right. What's the use of listening to something that is half-baked? ... Our job is to plan the next two and half/three years from when you think they will finish it.
BBB: The Resistance Tour was Muse's biggest and most successful yet. Is there room to further grow the band's live operations?
AA: In America, the answer is yes -- although I think the sheds are a problem. We did a joint headline show with Rage Against The Machine in L.A. at the 90,000-capacity Memorial Coliseum and there were about 55,000 people there. ... People haven't got the money anymore. I think it's worldwide. I think it's just hitting into the U.K. now as you can see with retail.
BBB: So what will be the live strategy going forward?
AA: I don't know. You've got to look at things as you get into that position. America you can actually go into places within a two/three-month period to book upfront, whereas in Europe, you're looking six months upfront. It's a different strategy. You've got to look at what the world is out there and what your fans can afford.
BBB: A key factor in Muse's growth as a live act has been keeping ticket prices affordable. Will that continue?
AA: Yes. Our strategy is never to rip off the fans. The fan comes to have an experience. .... He or she has worked for that money. Either that or they robbed a bank. So you've got to give them an experience at the right price. We've increased worldwide [ticket sales] by 40% each time. And that's how we increase the fan base, because they've enjoyed it as a spectacle. Every night after the show we have an analysis of what went down right and what didn't, and all of that is logged in into a database. We know what happened in every show and every city going back all the years. If a number didn't go down well, then it will not appear in the set next time.
BBB: Muse are one of the few modern rock acts to make the transition to arena-sized venues. Why do you think so few bands are making the grade?
AA: I think the music industry has a lot of mediocre artists and groups at the moment. The record companies are feeding off mediocre, instant success and "The X-Factor" was the trouble that started it... People don't follow the same band anymore. [Artists] are like disposable cartons. That's what we've got now in the music industry, and he [Simon Cowell] started it. And you're going to have more fallout if Warner or Universal buy EMI because they're going to drop all the lower level [artists]. There's still a lot of good stuff, don't get me wrong. But it's harder to build a career with a band because the record companies want it, but they also don't want it. They want a killer band within an album cycle.
Source : http://www.billboard.biz/
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Every night after the show we have an analysis of what went down right and what didn't, and all of that is logged in into a database. We know what happened in every show and every city going back all the years. If a number didn't go down well, then it will not appear in the set next time.
Can't see that being entirely true 
And if it is, then that shit should be released to Musewiki for the gig pages!
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Tøe
7908 posts
 - Brisbane, Australia
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Poor Bison :
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Every night after the show we have an analysis of what went down right and what didn't, and all of that is logged in into a database. We know what happened in every show and every city going back all the years. If a number didn't go down well, then it will not appear in the set next time.
Can't see that being entirely true
And if it is, then that shit should be released to Musewiki for the gig pages!
Funny. I'm exactly the opposite. I can see that being very true. It's not secret that at the shows I've seen, the "rarities" haven't gone down nearly as well as the hits. Obviously.... I loved the rarities. But the majority didn't seem to care much.
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I said it before, I'll say it again. This guy knows what he's talking about. I like him.
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StartOver95 :
I said it before, I'll say it again. This guy knows what he's talking about. I like him.
I've probably not said it before but I'll say it now. This guy knows what he's talking about. I like him.
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Is he really talking about keeping ticket prices low? I paid £37 to see Muse on the Resistance tour. As cool as the stage setup was, I'd rather pay £20 and just have them on stage with a few lights, than £37 for the honour of seeing them atop three glowing towers.
I realise that the stage show is part of seeing Muse live. But I saw them at the same venue during the Black Holes & Revelations tour, and they managed a better show with half the crap on stage. And that ticket only cost me £27.
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^My Resistance Tour tickets cost closer to £50!
But I think he means keeping ticket prices low in relation to some other massively popular acts, Coldplay tickets are about £70 or something now and I imagine Muse could charge that and still get loads of people going to their gigs.
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Yeah I was going to say. Aren't the tickets like £40+ these days?
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Pib :
Yeah I was going to say. Aren't the tickets like £40+ these days?
Yeah its getting pretty expensive to see a predictable setlist and a few lasers these days :P
I'd still go and see them if the next album is good because I always really enjoy the experience but the prices sometimes seem slightly ridiculous.
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Yeah, relatively speaking their tickets aren't that expensive. I mean, my mum and her screaming workmates paid £80 a piece to see Take That.
But overall? £40+ is still too much. We all know Matt is now filthy stinkin' rich. If they're serious about keeping prices reasonable maybe they should take a hit and knock prices down to, say, £30?
Wishful thinking, probably.
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ayla
4275 posts
 - Utrecht
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I don't really care about the ticket prices, but Matt's not the only one who needs to make money off these tours. It can't be cheap to built gigantic stages and ship them around the world, and also pay all the people who need to built them up and break them down every night etc.
But yeah, I don't know why they have the idea that fans are coming for the spectacle. I'm pretty sure they could still fill arenas without moving stages and flying ufo's. As long as the music is good, anyway..
It's going to be pretty difficult to go even more over the top with the next tour anyway? It might not even be possible. Maybe stripping things down is the only way to go.
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It's been said before - I imagine that their aim is to keep the ticket prices as low as they realistically can without making a ridiculous loss on the tour itself. You won't find many bands (released and fairly big) going out on a tour that will eventually make them a loss - after all, these days bands are becoming businesses just as much as they are about the music. Sad but true. I think Rammstein's last tour was planned at a slight loss, and even then the tickets were around the same as Muse's. The tickets are probably the lowest price that will cover the cost of the tour/travel/stage/crew etc, with a little profit thrown in.
As for the "we note down what didn't go down well" part, I can see both sides - to us, it seems that they don't listen, and play similar setlists, but how many times have you actually been at a gig, in the crowd, and the MAJORITY'S reaction to Feeling Good wasn't positive? The hits go down far better with the majority, so they stick to them unfortunately. They still put on an amazing show.
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Fingers crossed that they use a producer.
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Poor Bison :
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Every night after the show we have an analysis of what went down right and what didn't, and all of that is logged in into a database. We know what happened in every show and every city going back all the years. If a number didn't go down well, then it will not appear in the set next time.
Can't see that being entirely true
And if it is, then that shit should be released to Musewiki for the gig pages!
oh yeah it IS logged in a database, its called their mental memory banks. If they also read the forums they'd know we would like to hear some of the older stuff as well as their new masterpieces..
So, the boys are now in the recording studio.. happy times ahead.
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ayla
4275 posts
- Utrecht
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Trakis :
Fingers crossed that they use a producer.
They will, they already said so a long time ago.
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ayla :
I don't know why they have the idea that fans are coming for the spectacle. I'm pretty sure they could still fill arenas without moving stages and flying ufo's. As long as the music is good, anyway..
+1
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ayla
4275 posts
- Utrecht
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Maybe I'm also somewhat relieved that it's going to take at least a year because I really fear for this album. I had no expectations for TR because I didn't really care, but now I kind of expect that it's not going to be bad, but that I just won't like it that much.
And I also wouldn't mind if a large part of the fan base loses interest in the next 12 months.
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I have absolutely no expectations for this album so at least I won't be disappointed, I might even actually get a nice new song or two, that would be cool.
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I want to see it more stripped down. No UFO's, no gigantic towers, none of that. As cool as all of that stuff is, I think Muse could benefit from a more minimalistic stage setup. Just us, them, and the music.
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Caville
13363 posts
 - Callville Bay
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I don't want any of this synth shit. If they can produce tracks like TSP, Butterflies, Hystera etc, they don't need synth. But synth is good in moderation (Apoc for example) but near enough the whole of The Resistance had synth.
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Synth can be a good thing, they just need to use it in moderation. BHaR was pretty synth-heavy though as well, but I don't think it was as prominent or common as it was on The Resistance.
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