Muse have premiered a new video for their new single “Thought Contagion.” You can check that out below:
Matt Bellamy told Rolling Stone the following about the track’s backstory:
“It’s a pretty recent track, probably towards the end of last year is when I wrote it. I came up with the bass line and then I used a theremin, originally, to [create] this lead melody that went over the top. It wasn’t until we started recording the song in November that it occurred to me that the theremin melody would be a cool, anthemic sort of vocal part, so [bassist] Chris [Wolstenholme] and I did about ten passes on that to create this sort of crowd effect on the vocal. The verse of the song, originally, was probably a lot more heavy-sounding than it is now, in terms of [having a] much more arena sound, drum kit kind of thing. But we wanted to experiment with programming the verse and go for more of a slightly trap or 808 drum feel for the verses, which took the song in a bit of a different journey.”
He also added the following when asked what the lyrics were inspired by:
“Probably watching American news stations. We’re living in an age where these sort of ideologies, people’s belief systems, whether they are true or false, are getting a lot of air time, especially ones on the false side. I think that we’re living in an unusual period where a lot of airtime is being given to crazy ideas. The flip side is that we’re living in a time where pointing out someone’s inaccuracies, using science for example, is becoming increasingly difficult. Sometimes it’s even perceived as an insensitive thing to do.
The verses are me streaming off anxieties and feelings, which in the course of the song, I’m wondering whether they’re actually mine or not. I don’t know to what extent I’m influenced by others. Sometimes your anxieties about the world or your anxieties about the world of the future can be lessened by turning the news off and turning your phone off for a few days. You then realize that everything is fine.
The key line in the song is: “You’ve been bitten by a true believer/ You’re been bitten by someone who is hungrier than you/ You’ve been bitten by someone’s false beliefs.” That summarizes what I’m trying to get at here, which is sometimes in life you will come across situations where someone who is a bit idealogical or believes things that are not true in any way will sometimes have more power than you, over you or get more airtime. I think that’s really what the song is about. It’s about how other people’s false belief systems can infect your own and sometimes even affect your feelings.”
Bellamy also confirmed that “Thought Contagion” and “Dig Down” will both appaer on their new album, and that two more singles will probably be released before the full-length surfaces. He added the following about the single song approach:
“It was like when the band first started where you’re thinking about just one great song rather than thinking about a whole album. For us, it’s really refreshing to just work on one song at a time and take each song to completion. We’re doing the writing, recording and mixing process and even the video in this occasion before moving onto the next song. It’s nice for us to not be multitasking twelve songs at once and always thinking about the whole.
I think for the last two or three albums, we’ve always been thinking about the whole. “What’s the concept? What are the themes? What’s the sound? What are the textures we’re going to focus on for this album?” It was nice to remind ourselves to just think about a song. What makes a song great? Every song you’re going to hear over the next year will be totally unique with their sound, approach, textures and so on.”
Metal Anarchy 