“Thoughts are contagious – they spread like a virus,” says singer Matt Bellamy of the new track’s meaning
February 17, 2018
We’ve been waiting for it all week! Muse have released their new single ‘Thought Contagion’, almost a year later than their previous piece, ‘Dig Down’! It was launched together with a music video, which you can watch below.
To make this video, the band had sent out a casting call for actors, saying: “We’re looking for a couple of super edgy guys to play punk/street guys” and an ‘elderly gal’, preferably between 58 and 75, who would fit the description of a “lovely gal with a terrific character.”
When asked about ‘Thought Contagion’ at VO5 NME Awards, singer Matt Bellamy commented that the song has “an arena sound”, so we can only guess what a huge show Muse will put on when playing the track live as they hit the road:
“We’re getting into blending genres and eras together, both in the styles and in the music”, said Bellamy. “It’s an arena sound and synths. There’s a couple of synths in it. It’s a pretty epic and anthemic track.”
As to the message behind the name of the new track, yesterday Muse frontman revealed at Matt Wilkinson’s show: “The clue is in the title, ‘Thought Contagion’. I first heard about it from a Richard Dawkins book years ago actually, it’s this idea that thoughts are contagious – they spread like a virus, or like genes.”
[quote align=”center” color=”#COLOR_CODE”]
“If you spend a few hours watching American news, well, that’s were the first part of the song came from really. It’s kinda like some strange bubble where they’re all living up Trump’s bum, basically… It gets inside your mind…
You start walking round worrying about things that you wouldn’t normally think about and so the song came from that. How other people’s ideas can kinda take over your own if you’re not careful,” Bellamy warns.
[/quote]
Watch: MUSE share behind-the-scenes video for ‘Dig Down’
At the aforementioned VO5 NME Awards held by Britain’s leading music magazine, Muse received the award for Best Festival Headliner, and the frontman dedicated it to AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, with whom they had an honour of playing ‘Back in Black’ at Reading Festival 2017.
“This award should go to Brian Johnson, the best rock singer of all time,” – Bellamy said, collecting the award. While drummer Dominic Howard’s speech was erm… not trivial. Check it out below:
In case you’ve missed the epic Muse performance with AC/DC’s frontman on vocals, watch it right now below:
And last but not least, Muse have confirmed that they’re “working towards an album”. In the new interview on Beats 1, Howard said:
[quote align=”center” color=”#COLOR_CODE”]“We are working towards an album, we’re still thinking about other songs and working on other tracks.” So at first, we shall expect a series of new singles to be out, which will later be followed by a full-length: “I imagine at some point hopefully this year, or next year, whenever, they will come out and be released.”[/quote]
Share your thoughts in the comments, and join AlteRock Facebook and Twitter to stay tuned for rock and metal news.
More: MUSE Cover The Cramps in Their Halloween Video ‘New Kind Of Kick’ – watch
