Muse own up to Mutt Lange fears

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has called producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange a “guru” – but admits he had reservations about working together on the band’s seventh album Drones.

Lange – known for his collaborations with Def Leppard, Nickelback and many others – was behind the desk for the follow-up to 2012’s The 2nd Law, due on June 8.

Bellamy tells Rolling Stone: “Before I met him I wasn’t sure. I didn’t want us to be turned into a kind of top 40 act. I figured Mutt would be more focused on, ‘What’s the single? What’s going to be the big hit?’”

But he continues: “He wasn’t like that at all – he was totally into the concept. He’s the kind of person to get into the mind of the artist and whatever the artist wants.”

The frontman describes Lange as “very eccentric” and adds: “He has the air of a person who hasn’t lived in the constraints of normal society or life for a very long time. You feel like you’re in the presence of some sort of guru, or spiritual outsider.”

Bellamy recently explained the album was inspired by the potential horrors of drone warfare. Muse released a video for their track Dead Inside in March. They headline this year’s Download festival at Donington in June.

Drones tracklist

  1. Dead Inside 2. [Drill Sergeant] 3. Psycho 4. Mercy 5. Reapers 6. The Handler 7. [JFK] 8. Defector 9. Revolt 10. Aftermath 11. The Globalist 12. Drones
Scott Munro
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Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.