About - The Band

Having been in separate bands at the school they attended in the early 1990s, the three members founded their new band originally under such lugubrious names as Gothic Plague and Fixed Penalty (Muse have given out confusing and contradictory information regarding the band's previous monikers in various interviews and, consequently, the chronology of these is unclear). In 1996, under the name Rocket Baby Dolls, they took part in a local Battle Of The Bands, playing with such emotion and violence (going as far as to break everything on stage — a trait which has remained to the present day, though perhaps something of a rock 'n' roll clich) that they stood out from the competition and won. It was this identification with the emotion in their musical style and a feeling of being different to the rest of the local music scene in Teignmouth that saw the band choose not to go to university and seriously pursue being a band.

The band were influenced predominately at this stage by early 1990s rock music from America, particularly grunge, which was something of a reaction against the Britpop movement which was hugely popular at the time.

Following a number of gigs in London and Manchester trying to find a suitable market for their music (a market that was certainly not to be found in theirhome town),the band, now named Muse, had a significant meeting with Dennis Smith, owner of Sawmills – a recording studio in a converted water mill in Cornwall, S.W. England. This meeting led to their first proper recording in the shape of a self-titled E.P. on Sawmills' in-house Dangerous label. Their second E.P., entitled Muscle Museum, was a breakthrough for the band, attracting the attention of influential British music journalist Steve Lamacq and the weekly British music publication NME. Subsequent to its release, Denis Smith co-founded the music publishing company Taste Media especially for Muse, with whom the band has stayed until the present day. This was extremely fortunate for the band as it allowed them to preserve the individuality of their sound in the early stages of their career.