Britian's Muse visiting S.A. red hot

They are considered Britain's hottest act, though they can hardly be called mainstream or radio-friendly at this point. Indeed, the slow-bubbling hype surrounding Muse in England and throughout Europe was built by creating a fan base much like Dave Matthews did in this country.

"It's been through word of mouth, it really wasn't through radio play or anything like that," said Muse lead singer Matthew Bellamy about the buzz generated by the band's raw energy concerts. Muse headlines the "MTVU Campus Invasion" with fellow Brit rockers Razorlight at Sunset Station Lone Star Pavilion on Tuesday. Show time is 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. Much of Muse's time off-stage on the MTV tour has been spent on American college campuses. They also have taken in a couple of NBA games and even went fishing in Michigan.

"Campuses in America are so big that it's almost like a town itself," he said. "There are only a handful of universities (in Britain) that are comparable. Here you have entire towns that become a campus. I don't think there's anything on that scale in England."

The MTV brand has guaranteed that audiences are much bigger on this tour of the states for Bellamy, bassist Chris Wolstenholme and drummer Dominic Howard, a self-contained rock trio as tight and committed to each other as U2 and Coldplay. Their grandiose musical scope – often compared to Radiohead, Coldplay and Queen -- is confined (and enhanced) by the limited nature of the act. "We're trying to express things that are bigger than us," Bellamy said.

The elusive Bellamy answered a few questions by telephone from a Louisville, Ky. Tour stop last week. Here's what he had to say :

Are you finding a different sort of enthusiasm on this tour of the states?
M: This particular tour has been great. The crowds have been amazing. Really, our second album didn't come out here at all, so that's why we didn't tour here at all. So, it's really only this album that we've been doing heavy touring.

What about the current lack of radio airplay for British acts?
M:I was kind of nervous that in America that maybe people only come and see you if they hear you on the radio, but as soon as we came here on the beginning of the tour on this album, a lot of people came to see us, and we were expecting to be playing for, like, no one.

How important is Muse's much-acclaimed light show and synchronized video to the stage presentation?
M:The lighting rig basically responds to sound. When I play a note on the piano for example then that sound lights up..... The lights are exactly in time with the music.

With such a textured sound, how important is playing live?
M:Being a live band is the reason I got into music in the first place. This band had been together a good three to four years before we ever started recording. In the beginning it was about playing music and playing it well, but when the concerts started to become quite big in Europe, we started moving up to arena level, basically, and then going to stadium level and headlining these big festivals. We kind of thought well there's only three of us onstage and we're just playing our stuff and we're being paid this extra money, we might as well spend it on making the shows (a spectacle).

What is the burden of fame that has come with the hype generated by the British press?
Even though we're quite very well-known in Europe, we're not, like, kind of faces that get recognized in the street. And we're just known for our music because we built up the fan base not through media coverage. Obviously, that stuff helps. The press helps, but that has not been the thing that's made us big. It's been through playing live and definitely through word of mouth.

What is the perception of the band in the states?
M:It's really exciting because we're sort of getting perceived as new band and that's really nice, that feeling of being a new band again. I think some bands maybe find that difficult, but we find that really nice because that's when it's most exciting for fans. You really get that underground feeling. Even though we're now playing big, big, big gigs in Europe, we're still an alternative band. We're not a mainstream kind of act.

"Stockholm Syndrome" is an old hit in England, a new one here. Is that a little weird?
M:I think it's cool. The first album we made, I wasn't particularly happy with. With this album, I feel like we've got something. It does almost seem like a starting point for us. And we're still quite young. Where we're going now is more exciting. Everything on this album was delayed for about six months. 'Stockholm Syndrome' wasn't actually a single in the rest of the world. It's only going to be a single here, so that's quite interesting.

How confining is the three-piece format?
We all understand each other very as musicians. Literally, we learned how to play together. I wasn't a singer. I didn't start singing until after a year after the band had been together, and the bass player in the band had never played the bass. So we pretty much learned music together. So we have an understanding of what we are and what we're capable of, therefore, we know our limitations and we know how to push them and stuff. Me, personally, I've always been interested in a lot of music outside of rock. Sometimes I feel if like if it wasn't for the fact that I was in a three-piece, I'd probably be making music that was probably too over the top. It probably would go too far – turn into a different genre all together.

When will a new Muse album come out?
M:We're playing a few new songs at the moment. As soon as we finish this tour, we're going to start rehearsing and probably over the summer we'll start recording. Hopefully, we'll get something ready for release early next year. The next album we'll go for a world-wide release.

What's the biggest difference between U.S. and U.K. audiences?
M:In America, the first tour we did, the crowds were sort of an arty group. The crowds were brilliant and I really love that sort of thing, but it really wasn't a rock crowd. Now, that's been blown of the water. This tour is some of the most rocking crowds we've ever seen. It's the same as it was in England when we first started people kind of perceived us as a slightly experimental kind of arty group and when they come and see us the first time, they kind of stand there and go, 'This is actually a rock band.' Then people come the second time, they kind of know the score and go kind of mental. I think that's what's happening now. The crowds have been insane.