"We try to avoid the press as much as we can," admits Matthew Bellamy, songwriter, guitarist and vocalist for the band Muse.

Though slightly worrying to be told now, I somehow doubt from the quality of music offered on their 2nd release the 'Muscle of Musuem' EP, released on Madonna's own 'Maverick' label that will remain so for long. Matt continues, reflecting on a recent interview with the NME.

"We’re doing the odd thing. We’re not overdoing it. We're not pretending to be rock and roll stars or pretending to be special. So far we've done interviews with some fanzines and the NME. We spent half the day for that trying to do photos. This girl thought that we were a Goth band and took us to a graveyard. We said 'no' and we spent half a day freezing our nuts off trying to get photos taken and the interview was about half an hour long in a café while we had lunch."

If it is not the press attention which makes them tick then what makes them want to carry on making music and stand around a lot? Cash? All three laugh.

"It will be playing live probably and naked women," says Matt smiling. Joking aside he continues. "It's a laugh and it is exactly what it looks like. As for the standing around? I'd rather be standing around here than standing around in a shop, behind a counter because I’ve done that. I’ve had a load of shit jobs it's only been since the start of this year that we’ve been full time really."

The band has actually been together for over four or five years but do they get bored of playing the same songs?

"We don't play the same songs," begins Matt. "We've written over eighty songs and we're constantly changing and doing new stuff. So we're not stuck with the same songs. So different songs now that we're playing are different, not in style but totally different from what we were playing a year ago. We're completely changing so we haven't stagnated yet." >>