【试翻】Muse: 'We like pushing it as far as we can'
在官网论坛看到前几天卫报的采访,读了读觉得还挺有意思的,各种八卦,除了写Chris戒酒那段略显狗血,总体还是挺有想法的。最近关于他们的这么多访谈,最有趣的大概就是Q的那篇和卫报的这篇了。
试着翻译了一下,不确定的地方有不少……领会精神吧= =。欢迎捉虫。
官网论坛原地址:http://board.muse.mu/showthread.php?t=87864
Muse: 'We like pushing it as far as we can'
Ever since the early days of Muse, frontman Matt Bellamy and drummer Dom Howard have shared a running joke about success. Before each major concert, each step up the ladder, Bellamy turns to Howard and says: "Is this it? Have we made it yet?" Every time, the drummer shakes his head and replies: "Not yet. Nearly."
自Muse的早年岁月开始,主唱Matt Bellamy和鼓手Dom Howard就有个关于成功的百玩不厌的笑话。每次大场演出开始前,一步步走上台阶的时候,Bellamy转向Howard问:“就这样吗?我们做到了吗?”每一次,鼓手都摇摇头回答:“还没有。只差一点点了。”
Muse's unabashed hunger for megastardom is unique among British bands of the post-indie era, who tend to reject it (Radiohead), blow it (Oasis) or be pathologically humble about it (Coldplay). Muse, however, never flinch at excess. Only health and safety thwarted their plans to dangle acrobats from a helicopter over Wembley Stadium in 2007. Their forthcoming tour in support of sixth album The 2nd Law will find them playing beneath an inverted pyramid of LED screens: an upside-down version of the "all-seeing eye" beloved of conspiracy theorists. "It's turning the power structure of the world on its head," Howard says matter-of-factly.
Muse对巨星名誉的毫不掩饰的渴求在后独立世纪的英国乐队中是独一无二的。有的乐队抗拒名誉(Radiohead),有的干脆毁掉它(Oasis),还有的谦虚得近乎病态(Coldplay),Muse却从不退缩。只有健康和安全问题才会阻止他们在2007年温布利现场找杂技演员挂在直升机上荡来荡去。在即将来临的第六张专辑The 2nd Law的巡演中,他们会在一个倒金字塔状LED屏的下面演出——把广受阴谋论者喜爱的“全知之眼”倒过来。“这意味着完全倒置整个世界的权力结构。”Howard就事论事地说。
Muse have sold more than 15m albums. Their last one, 2009's The Resistance, was No 1 in 19 countries. Like Depeche Mode in the 1980s, they are taken more seriously outside their homeland, in countries where people are less likely to arch an eyebrow at songs with rococo arrangements and titles such as Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination). Since releasing their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999, the trio from Teignmouth, Devon have made their quixotically ambitious music a global concern by touring longer, farther and harder than anybody else. They used to say yes to everything, working themselves to exhaustion and becoming, says Howard, "cynical and weird". Success has bought them a saner work-life balance.
Muse已经卖出了一千五百多万张专辑。他们的上一张,2009年的The Resistance,在19个国家的排行榜上登顶。就像八十年代的Depeche Mode一样,他们在家乡以外的地方更受待见,在这些国家,人们不太会对洛可可风格的编排和Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination)这样的歌名皱起眉毛。自从在1999年发行处女专辑Showbiz开始,来自德文郡Teignmouth的三人组的巡演路线就比别人更长,更远也更加艰难,为的是让他们有着堂吉诃德式雄心的音乐传遍世界。他们曾经不管什么事都答应下来,搞得自己筋疲力尽,然后变得,如Howard所言,“冷嘲而诡异”。成功给了他们正常的工作与生活的平衡。
I meet Bellamy, Howard and bass-player Chris Wolstenholme separately during breaks in tour rehearsals at north London's Air Studios. When they made The Resistance each of them was living in a different country but this time they're all based in or near London, although Bellamy and Howard also have homes in Los Angeles. The singer is engaged to the actress Kate Hudson, which makes him future son-in-law to Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and the couple have a one-year-old son, Bingham Hawn Bellamy, whose foetal heartbeat is sampled on the new album's dubstep-disco-U2 monster Follow Me.
在北伦敦Air Studios的巡演彩排空隙间,我与Bellamy,Howard和贝斯手Chris Wolstenholme分别见面。制作The Resistance时,他们住在不同的国家,但这次,他们都在伦敦或者接近伦敦——即使Bellamy和Howard在洛杉矶也有住所。主唱已经与女演员Kate Hudson订婚,将要成为Goldie Hawn和Kurt Russell的女婿。他们还有个一岁的儿子,Bingham Hawn Bellamy,他胎儿时期的心跳被采样到了新专辑中受Dubstep Disco和U2影响的Follow Me中。
So by any measure 34-year-old Bellamy is a star, but he doesn't have the aura of one. His sharp features and stick-figure frame jangle with a wary, wiry intensity and he talks quickly, with many nervous giggles. If you didn't know what he did, you might assume he was a talented software programmer with a small fortune in Silicon Valley stock options.
不论以哪种标准而言,34岁的Bellamy都是个明星,但他自己却没有这种自觉。他鲜明的五官和瘦削的身材带着一种机敏而尖锐的张力;他说话很快,许多时候还伴着神经质的笑声。如果你不知道他做了什么,你可能会以为他是个在硅谷有笔小钱的天才软件编程师。
"On stage it's easy," he says. "There's something about the audience and the energy that takes you to this place. I have trouble being like that when I'm not on stage. I tend to be a bit quiet – a touch avoidant, y'know? I think you do get what you visualise. I never dreamed about being in a limo or being backstage with loads of girls. I only visualised playing very well and enjoying it." He says that seeing the attention Hudson gets "definitely puts your world into perspective". Howard reckons that family life has made the singer "slightly more relaxed, but to me he's still as manic and weird and meticulous as he's always been".
“上台很容易,”他说,“观众和那种激情会让你融入气氛。但在台下我不会那样。我倾向于安静一点——甚至有点自闭,你懂吗?我想我的确得到了我所想象的。我从没想过坐在豪华轿车里或者在后台被一群姑娘环绕着之类的。我只想好好演出,享受这一切。”他说像Hudson那样受到关注就“完全暴露了私人世界”。Howard觉得家庭生活使主唱“稍微自在了一点,但对我来说,他还是那么狂躁诡异又神经质地小心翼翼,一直如此。”
Because Muse's success rests on tours and albums rather than hits and headlines, they are not quite household names, so some viewers were doubtless puzzled during the Olympics closing ceremony by the trio's performance of Survival, a berserk, operatic anthem that seemed more appropriate to a supervillain than an athlete: "I won't forgive/ The vengeance is mine/ And I won't give in/ Because I choose to thrive." Bellamy admits that the song was already written when the organisers approached him. "It was definitely a bit more demented than I think they realised," he says with pleasure.
由于Muse的成功更多地建立在专辑和巡演的品质,而不是大热单曲和报纸头条上,他们的大名还不是那么家喻户晓。在奥运会闭幕式上三人组演出Survival时,有些观众无疑是摸不着头脑了。这狂热暴怒的,歌剧式的赞美诗看起来更适合超级反派,而不是运动健儿:“我不会饶恕 / 我将复仇 / 我不会屈服 / 只因我选择积蓄力量”。Bellamy承认这首歌在主办方联系他们之前就已经写出来了。“我觉得,这首歌绝对比他们意识到的还要精神错乱一点点。”他愉快地说。
Survival makes a lot more sense in the context of The 2nd Law, an album which encompasses the global economic crisis, peak oil theory, food security, evolution, the taxation proposals of 19th-century economist Henry George and the concept of the "stress nexus". "It's talking about the second law of thermodynamics and how, as a limited ecosystem, we are on the verge of needing an energy revolution in order to sustain the way that we're living," says Bellamy. "This inner strength we have, this desire to evolve and expand and explore, I do love that about humanity. At the same time it's scary what it does on a global scale. I'm very much caught between the two." Bellamy is self-aware enough to have considered the quandary of criticising overconsumption while traversing the globe in a gas-guzzling stadium rock band. "Exactly! We're all a function of the world. I think for every finger you point out there should be three pointing back at you."
在The 2nd Law的背景下,Survival看起来就合理多了。这是张涵盖着全球经济危机,石油峰值理论,粮食安全,进化论,19世纪经济学家Henry George的税务建议和“应激连结”概念的专辑。“关于热力学第二定律和我们作为一个有限的生态系统,正在为了持续我们的生存方式而濒于能源革命的现状。”Bellamy说,“我们总有着一种内在动力,一种去衍变,去扩张,去探索的欲望,我确实爱人类这一点。然而这一切在全球范围内的影响却十分可怕。我在这两者之间徘徊。”Bellamy自知作为进行高能耗全球巡演的,善于在体育场馆表演的摇滚乐队,这将使他们陷入被批评过度耗能的进退两难中。“的确!我们都是世界的缩影。当你去指责别人的时候,有更多的人会反过来指责你。”
You don't get this kind of stuff from the Kings of Leon, but then Muse have been putting grand ideas into their records for years now. Black Holes and Revelations, the 2006 album which broke them in the US, was in part a bilious condemnation of the architects of the Iraq war while The Resistance was an us-vs-them concept album heavily inspired by Nineteen-Eighty-Four. (They dismiss as "complete nonsense" a recent $3.5m claim that it was plagiarised from US songwriter Charles Bollfrass.) I suspect Bellamy's politics are often overlooked because (a) he has never aligned himself with a specific cause and (b) he frames them in such a blockbuster manner that people assume he's joking – which, he insists, he is not. "I don't think our records contain obvious humour," he says, a touch defensively. "We're not cracking gags."
你不会在Kings of Leon那儿听到这些东西,但多年来,Muse一直将宏大的概念融入他们的作品中。Black Holes and Revelations,这张在2006年使他们在美国名声大噪的专辑,就包含着对伊拉克战争煽动者的严厉指责;The Resistance深受《1984》的启发,有着强烈对抗的主题(他们在最近以“一派胡言”驳回了一宗由美国音乐人Charles Bollfrass提起的350万美元的剽窃诉讼)。我觉得Bellamy的政治观点总是被人忽视了,因为第一,他从未明确地表露过自己的政治倾向;第二,他的想法总是太天马行空激进轰动,人们总以为他在开玩笑——对此,他坚决说他并没有。“我一点也不觉得我们的作品搞笑,”他警觉地说,“我们又不是喜剧演员。”
A few years ago, Bellamy's reading list was more outré. He often recommended that interviewers imbibe the wisdom of David Icke, although even he admitted the theory about the royal family being alien lizard people was a little too ripe. "I was getting very drawn into obscure conspiracy theories," he concedes. "As time's moved on I've become far more rational and empirical and I've managed to focus on slightly more realistic, tangible things."
几年前,Bellamy的书单还要更加荒诞而不合常理。他经常向记者们推荐David Icke的思想,尽管哪怕是他也得承认关于皇室成员都是外星蜥蜴的理论实在有点扯淡。“我曾经非常沉迷于那些真真假假的阴谋论,”他承认,“这么久过去,我也变得更加理性和经验主义,开始关注更加实实在在的事情。”
It's a wise move. Muse were taken aback when The Resistance was embraced by swivel-eyed Fox News demagogue Glenn Beck ("the lyrics are just dead-on [about] what's coming our way") and the single Uprising began soundtracking YouTube clips produced by the kind of people who believe climate change is a socialist conspiracy and Obama is an Indonesian Muslim. (Conservative attention seems to run in the family: Bellamy's father George used to play rhythm guitar in the Tornados, whose 1962 chart-topper Telstar was one of Margaret Thatcher's Desert Island Discs choices.)
这是个明智的举动。当Muse听说The Resistance被观点偏激的Fox新闻台煽动家Glenn Beck推崇备至时(“歌词正好与我们的想法完全一致”),他们的确大吃了一惊。同时,单曲Uprising也成为了Youtube上那种气候变化是社会主义者阴谋论和奥巴马是印尼裔穆斯林之类视频的背景音乐(似乎Bellamy家一直很吸引保守主义的注意力:Bellamy的父亲George曾是Tornados乐队的节奏吉他手,乐队1962年攀上榜单首位的Telstar是撒切尔夫人选择的孤岛音乐之一)。
"In the US the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward right-wing libertarianism," Bellamy agrees. He defines himself as "a left-leaning libertarian – more in the realm of Noam Chomsky. It doesn't all have to be about guns and land protection, y'know? So yeah, I do find it weird. Uprising was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies and we turned them down on a regular basis."
“在美国,阴谋论这样的亚文化总是被那些想搞垮奥巴马推行自由主义的的右翼分子所利用绑架,”Bellamy赞同这点。他将自己定义为“一个左倾的自由主义者——更加倾向于Noam Chomsky。这些事不一定非要牵扯上枪支和土地保护,你明白吗?是啊,我的确觉得很奇怪。Uprising被那么多美国政客请求用于他们的集会之类的,我们还得定期去拒绝。”
Bellamy's motives as a lyricist aren't polemical but personal, even therapeutic. "When I dabble in watching the news and reading about current events I tend to get a future negative view and that's something I've dealt with through music. It's quite possible I'm slightly paranoid." A giggle. "But I'd say making music is an expression of feelings of helplessness and lack of control that I think a lot of people can relate to."
Bellamy写下这些歌词的目的并不是为了挑起论战,而是为了表达私人化的感情,甚至有点治愈系。“当我看新闻读时事的时候,我总倾向于对未来有消极的预感,这就是我得通过音乐去对付的,我确实稍微有点妄想症偏执狂的意思。”他吃吃地笑了,“但我会说做音乐是一种对无助和失控感觉的表白,我想很多人都对此有所体会。”
His songwriting stems from the belief that music can transform and transcend the everyday. "I remember the first classical music I heard, Berlioz and Chopin– it did something to me that I still can't put into words. It's a sense of timelessness. It's something to do with the whole condition of life and death and time. It somehow makes all those things connect." He's full of wonder when he talks about music, but laughs neurotically whenever I mention fame or ambition. "Dom's the one to speak to about ambition," he says. "I think basically the band's career is me trying to please Dom."
他的作品源于音乐可以改变和超脱出日常生活的信念。“我记得我第一次听到的古典乐,柏辽兹和肖邦——它对我的影响我仍然无法用语言描述。这种不朽的感觉,关系着整个生命,死亡与时间的概念,连接一切。”谈起音乐时,他有着无尽的奇思妙想;但当我谈及名誉或野心,他神经兮兮地笑了。“找Dom去谈那些雄心壮志吧,”他说,“我觉着这个乐队的历程基本就是我在哄Dom开心。”
Dom Howard is Muse's unflappable rock pro: the free-and-single, up-all-night one who uses the phrase "rocking out" without reservation. "Even when we were sitting around in Matt's nan's basement writing songs we'd be dreaming of headlining the main stage at Reading," he says. "We've always had our sights set on being the biggest band in the world." He laughs, because it's an unfashionable thing to say these days, but not that hard, because he means it. "Still going for it. Why not? If you're going to do it, do it properly."
Dom Howard是Muse不可动摇的摇滚派:自由自在,单身,刷夜狂人,对“rocking out”毫无保留。“哪怕是我们坐在Matt奶奶的地下室里写歌的时候,我们也在梦想着登上Reading音乐节的主舞台,”他说,“我们总将眼光定在成为世界上最大的乐队上。”他笑了,时至今日再说这些话已经不时髦了,但也没那么难,因为他的确是认真的。“我们还在以此为目标。为什么不呢?既然都打算做了,那就认真做。”
Before they wanted to be the biggest band in the world, Muse simply wanted to be bigger than Doctor Frank, a funk covers band from Teignmouth. "They were the local heroes: the big boys with their posh instruments," says Wolstenholme, remembering Muse's first "battle of the bands" show in 1994. "There wasn't much of an original music scene in Devon and when we started we realised why – because nobody wanted to watch original music. We played gigs to nobody."
在他们想要成为全世界最大的乐队之前,Muse可是只想着比Doctor Frank,一个Teignmouth 的Funk风翻唱乐队大就够了。“他们是当地的偶像啊:那些有着炫酷乐器的小伙,”Wolstenholme说,回想着Muse在1994第一次参加“battle of the bands”节目。“当时,德文郡没太有原创音乐,因为没有人愿意去看原创。我们的演出根本没人看。”
Here are the roots of Muse's unusual tenacity. For a long time they had no supportive scene, no wise mentor, no industry connections. Bellamy, a gifted musician but naturally shy, only reluctantly became singer and chief songwriter because "nobody wanted to join our band". They played gigs for five years before releasing Showbiz and even then Bellamy struggled as frontman. "It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be," he says. "The songs were a bit moody. When you're having to play them every night it can be a bit draining."
这就是Muse不同寻常的韧性的来源了。很长一段时间内,他们没有支持者,没有智慧的良师益友,没有与音乐工业的关联。Bellamy,天赋异禀的音乐家,却也天性害羞,不情不愿地当了主唱和创作者,因为“没人愿加入我们的乐队”。在Showbiz发行之前,他们已经表演了五年,Bellamy努力着成为主唱。“这不像它本该的那样有趣,”他说,“那些歌都有点情绪化,而你要整夜整夜地去演他们,太耗费感情,这几乎有点把我抽干了。”
He had an epiphany during Muse's first concert in Japan. Maddened by the audience's lethargy, he thought "fuck it" and executed a corny knee slide while shouting "Come on!" "They suddenly went mental," he remembers, smiling. "I thought: if I act stupid and have fun the crowd likes it. That's when we stopped taking it seriously."
他在Muse第一次在日本演出时才有点开窍了。Bellamy快要被死气沉沉的观众逼疯了,他想着“去他的”,大喊着“Come on!”用膝盖滑过了舞台。“他们瞬间就疯掉了,”他微笑着回想,“我就想:如果我干点傻事,高兴一点,观众就会喜欢我们吧。那时开始,我们就不再把这些事当真了。”
Muse have had many "fuck it" moments, becoming more fearlessly flamboyant each time. When I ask bassist Chris Wolstenholme if he's ever thought, in the studio, that a Muse song was too ridiculous he replies, half-jokingly: "Probably every song we've ever done [is]. You can go on writing traditional pop-rock songs and get stale or try something new. There are risks either way." Howard cheerfully says, "I love the excessiveness of the whole thing. I love Survival for that. You could say the choir's too much but you know what? It makes it. I like pushing it as far as we can."
Muse有很多让人大喊“卧槽”的时刻,每次他们都会变得更加无畏华丽大胆。当我问及贝斯手Chris Wolstenholme他是否想过,在录音室里,有没有一首歌实在是太荒诞了,他半开玩笑地回答:“大概我们的每首歌都是这样的。你可以继续写那些烂大街的流行摇滚小调,或者尝试点新东西。两种选择都有风险。”Howard高高兴兴地说,“我喜欢那些过度的东西。我喜欢Survival。你当然可以说那些合唱很多余,但你知道吗,正是它们成就了这首歌。我想要在尚力所能及的范围内,走得越远越好。”
It's always an achievement for a band to retain its original line-up on the long and tricky path from youth clubs to stadiums. It's especially remarkable when one band member trod most of that path as an alcoholic. If you had to guess which one you'd choose the neurotic singer or hard-partying drummer over Wolstenholme, an affable family man who has the names of his wife and four of his six children tattooed in various languages on his arms and, until recently, still lived in Teignmouth. He is so untouched by fame that the other dads at school only found out he was in Muse while talking in the pub after playing football and went home to google him to check he wasn't making it up.
对于一个乐队来说,走过漫长而蜿蜒的自青少年俱乐部到体育场的道路还保持着最初的阵容,这的确是一项成就。而当其中一人是以酒瘾的状态走过大多数路程时,这就更值得关注了。如果让你猜猜是哪一个,你大概会选择神经过敏的主唱或者派对动物鼓手,而不是Wolstenholme,和蔼可亲的居家男人,把他的妻子和六个孩子中的四个的名字用N种语言纹在了胳膊上而且,直到最近,依然住在Teignmouth。他对名誉完全无动于衷,以致学校里其他的父亲们只有踢完球在酒吧聊天时才知道他是Muse的一员,还得回家上网google一下来验证这不是他编出来的。
But there's a genetic precedent: his father, a pub landlord, drank himself to death when he was 40. Wolstenholme combines rock-solid blokiness with the compulsive candour of someone who has undergone rehab. Only his nervous hand-rubbing betrays the weirdness of discussing the worst experience of his life with a stranger.
但遗传先例在前:他的父亲,一个酒吧老板,在40岁时酗酒而死。Wolstenholme十分镇定,且有着经历过康复的强迫的坦诚。只有不安的搓手出卖了他对一个陌生人倾诉人生中最坏遭遇的古怪感觉。
His drinking began in earnest when Muse's career first took off and he was away from his family for as long as two months at a time. As the band grew so did his intake, until he was knocking back a pint of spirits, two bottles of wine and countless beers a day. It seems inconceivable that, for several years, nobody but his wife realised there was a problem. "I kept my guard up," he says. "I was quite crafty about how I drank and where I did it. Matt and Dom probably didn't realise how bad it was because I wasn't a nasty drunk. I didn't cause anybody any problems. I just retreated."
他的酗酒开始于Muse的事业刚刚小有起色时,那时他已经远离他的家人两个多月了。乐队在一步步成长,他的酗酒也是,直到他一天能灌下一品脱的白酒,两瓶红酒和数不尽的啤酒。这看起来很不可思议,几年间,除了他的妻子以外没有人察觉到这个问题。“我十分警惕,”他说,“我对时间和量的掌握很有数。Matt和Dom大概没意识到这有多么严重,因为我从不撒酒疯。我不会惹麻烦。我只是默默地撤了。”
"For some reason he could still play the bass, even though he was shitfaced," says Howard. "It went wrong literally two or three times in 10 years, which is nothing." Eventually, however, it became unignorable. "He was drinking on stage," says Howard. "I started counting how many drinks he was having during the set and I could see him getting more and more glazed. By the point we came off stage he'd be fucked. It just got too weird."
“不知道为毛他还能弹贝斯,他都烂醉如泥了,”Howard说,“十年间他只犯过两三次错,几乎就是没有。”但是最后,这个问题已经无法忽视了。“他开始在台上喝了,”Howard说,“我就开始数他一场到底能喝多少,我都能看出来他越来越呆滞无神。我们一下台他整个就垮了,太诡异了。”
Did they give him ultimatums? "Yeah, a few times. Chris now says things like, I can't believe they put up with me for 10 years. Which is true. I can't believe we did. But we did. I've always believed in band integrity and sticking together. There's something about the fact we all grew up together. We've been together for 18 years now, which is over half our lives." Asked what difference Wolstenholme's sobriety has made to the band, he says simply: "It's given us a future."
他们下最后通牒了吗?“是啊,有几次。现在Chris会说一些像是,我不敢相信他们忍了我十年之类的这种话。的确啊,我都不敢相信。但我们确实做到了。我一直愿意相信我们之间的坦诚和互相扶持。我们是一起长大的。我们在一起十八年了,比我们年龄的一半还要多。”被问及Wolstenholme的清醒给乐队带来了什么时,他简单地回答:“这给了我们未来。”
During 2008 Wolstenholme developed panic attacks. "You drink more to cover the anxiety and then the drink triggers more anxiety and you find yourself in this cycle of hell, basically." On April Fool's Day 2009, after a particularly bad period, he "had a bit of a meltdown and that was it. I made a decision". The hardest part, he says, was confronting all the difficult emotions he had spent so long submerging. "Everything I should have dealt with in the previous 10 years suddenly hit me in the face. There are some things I regret. There are probably moments I should have enjoyed more than I did and that's a bit upsetting. With the mess I was in you don't feel any intense emotion any more. You're just subdued all the time. But the upside of that is I'm enjoying it now. I threw myself into music in a way I hadn't done for 10 years. It sounds corny but it was the only thing that made me feel peaceful."
2008年时Wolstenholme甚至得了无端恐惧症。“你越喝越多以掩饰不安,但喝酒又会让你更加不安,基本上,你就陷在这个恶性循环之中了。”在2009年的愚人节,在一段格外难受的日子过去后,他“有点垮了,我终于做了个决定”。这是最难的,他说,面对着那些他长期沉迷的的痛苦的情绪,“那些我在十年前就该解决的事向我扑面而来。有些事情让我后悔,有些我本该享受的时刻却在沮丧中度过。在这些乱七八糟的事情中你感受不到激情,只是在日渐消沉。但现在我享受一切,我投入到我十年都没有做出的音乐里去。听起来很俗套,但这是唯一让我感到安宁的事情。”
Previously unable to finish a song, Wolstenholme wrote two about his condition, Save Me and Liquid State, for The 2nd Law. Bellamy compositions such as Madness and Big Freeze are also unusually personal. Together, they suggest a quieter, more intimate Muse. Bigger-is-better escalation has got them this far but you wonder how much further they can push it without toppling into absurdity. I put it to Bellamy by quoting a track from The 2nd Law: "An economy based on endless growth is unsustainable."
之前没有写歌的Wolstenholme就他自己的情况给The 2nd Law写了两首歌,Save Me和Liquid State。Bellamy的作品Madness和Big Freeze也是不同寻常地私人化。这几首歌展现了更加安静而私密的Muse。宏大场面的逐步扩大已经让他们走了这么远,但你还在好奇在到达疯狂的巅峰之前,他们还能走到哪里。我问Bellamy这个问题,他引用了The 2nd Law的一句歌词回答我:“基于无止尽增长的经济是不可成立的。”
"It's a funny one," he says thoughtfully. "As you asked that question, I realised for the first time there's a link between that and the political moments I'm talking about. If there's not an energy revolution we'll have to devolve and live a simpler lifestyle. In Muse, in our music and political things, we're striving for that not to be the case but knowing that we have to change. So yeah, I do want to expand on the subtler, quieter side of the band. Maybe go to a farm in Devon, live off the land, get out the acoustics and go full devolution." He laughs self-consciously. "But I have said that before."
“这很有趣,”他深思熟虑着回答,“你问出这个问题的时候,我才第一次意识到这和我刚才说的那些政治的东西是有关系的。如果不进行能源革命,我们就只好转而以一种更简单的方式来生存了。对Muse,对我们的音乐和那些政治的事,我们都争取着不要变成那样,但我们也明白,一切终究是要改变的。是啊,我想要发掘出乐队更加淡定而安静的一面。也许我们会去德文郡的哪家农场里,靠着土地生活,搞点原声作品出来,简单一点。”他自觉好笑,“我之前也说过这种话。”
It's an intriguing idea, this downsized Abel & Cole version of rock's most expansionist band, but Bellamy has no time to dwell on it now. He's been summoned back to rehearsals and leaves the room to address the pressing business of touring the world with an upside-down LED pyramid.
迷人的想法,这个最具扩张性的摇滚乐队也有着Abel & Cole式的田园念头。但Bellamy现在没工夫细想这个了,他被叫回去彩排了。他得离开房间,去忙活带着一个倒挂的LED金字塔巡演世界这样的要紧事去了。
试着翻译了一下,不确定的地方有不少……领会精神吧= =。欢迎捉虫。
官网论坛原地址:http://board.muse.mu/showthread.php?t=87864
Muse: 'We like pushing it as far as we can'
Ever since the early days of Muse, frontman Matt Bellamy and drummer Dom Howard have shared a running joke about success. Before each major concert, each step up the ladder, Bellamy turns to Howard and says: "Is this it? Have we made it yet?" Every time, the drummer shakes his head and replies: "Not yet. Nearly."
自Muse的早年岁月开始,主唱Matt Bellamy和鼓手Dom Howard就有个关于成功的百玩不厌的笑话。每次大场演出开始前,一步步走上台阶的时候,Bellamy转向Howard问:“就这样吗?我们做到了吗?”每一次,鼓手都摇摇头回答:“还没有。只差一点点了。”
Muse's unabashed hunger for megastardom is unique among British bands of the post-indie era, who tend to reject it (Radiohead), blow it (Oasis) or be pathologically humble about it (Coldplay). Muse, however, never flinch at excess. Only health and safety thwarted their plans to dangle acrobats from a helicopter over Wembley Stadium in 2007. Their forthcoming tour in support of sixth album The 2nd Law will find them playing beneath an inverted pyramid of LED screens: an upside-down version of the "all-seeing eye" beloved of conspiracy theorists. "It's turning the power structure of the world on its head," Howard says matter-of-factly.
Muse对巨星名誉的毫不掩饰的渴求在后独立世纪的英国乐队中是独一无二的。有的乐队抗拒名誉(Radiohead),有的干脆毁掉它(Oasis),还有的谦虚得近乎病态(Coldplay),Muse却从不退缩。只有健康和安全问题才会阻止他们在2007年温布利现场找杂技演员挂在直升机上荡来荡去。在即将来临的第六张专辑The 2nd Law的巡演中,他们会在一个倒金字塔状LED屏的下面演出——把广受阴谋论者喜爱的“全知之眼”倒过来。“这意味着完全倒置整个世界的权力结构。”Howard就事论事地说。
Muse have sold more than 15m albums. Their last one, 2009's The Resistance, was No 1 in 19 countries. Like Depeche Mode in the 1980s, they are taken more seriously outside their homeland, in countries where people are less likely to arch an eyebrow at songs with rococo arrangements and titles such as Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination). Since releasing their debut album, Showbiz, in 1999, the trio from Teignmouth, Devon have made their quixotically ambitious music a global concern by touring longer, farther and harder than anybody else. They used to say yes to everything, working themselves to exhaustion and becoming, says Howard, "cynical and weird". Success has bought them a saner work-life balance.
Muse已经卖出了一千五百多万张专辑。他们的上一张,2009年的The Resistance,在19个国家的排行榜上登顶。就像八十年代的Depeche Mode一样,他们在家乡以外的地方更受待见,在这些国家,人们不太会对洛可可风格的编排和Exogenesis: Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination)这样的歌名皱起眉毛。自从在1999年发行处女专辑Showbiz开始,来自德文郡Teignmouth的三人组的巡演路线就比别人更长,更远也更加艰难,为的是让他们有着堂吉诃德式雄心的音乐传遍世界。他们曾经不管什么事都答应下来,搞得自己筋疲力尽,然后变得,如Howard所言,“冷嘲而诡异”。成功给了他们正常的工作与生活的平衡。
I meet Bellamy, Howard and bass-player Chris Wolstenholme separately during breaks in tour rehearsals at north London's Air Studios. When they made The Resistance each of them was living in a different country but this time they're all based in or near London, although Bellamy and Howard also have homes in Los Angeles. The singer is engaged to the actress Kate Hudson, which makes him future son-in-law to Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, and the couple have a one-year-old son, Bingham Hawn Bellamy, whose foetal heartbeat is sampled on the new album's dubstep-disco-U2 monster Follow Me.
在北伦敦Air Studios的巡演彩排空隙间,我与Bellamy,Howard和贝斯手Chris Wolstenholme分别见面。制作The Resistance时,他们住在不同的国家,但这次,他们都在伦敦或者接近伦敦——即使Bellamy和Howard在洛杉矶也有住所。主唱已经与女演员Kate Hudson订婚,将要成为Goldie Hawn和Kurt Russell的女婿。他们还有个一岁的儿子,Bingham Hawn Bellamy,他胎儿时期的心跳被采样到了新专辑中受Dubstep Disco和U2影响的Follow Me中。
So by any measure 34-year-old Bellamy is a star, but he doesn't have the aura of one. His sharp features and stick-figure frame jangle with a wary, wiry intensity and he talks quickly, with many nervous giggles. If you didn't know what he did, you might assume he was a talented software programmer with a small fortune in Silicon Valley stock options.
不论以哪种标准而言,34岁的Bellamy都是个明星,但他自己却没有这种自觉。他鲜明的五官和瘦削的身材带着一种机敏而尖锐的张力;他说话很快,许多时候还伴着神经质的笑声。如果你不知道他做了什么,你可能会以为他是个在硅谷有笔小钱的天才软件编程师。
"On stage it's easy," he says. "There's something about the audience and the energy that takes you to this place. I have trouble being like that when I'm not on stage. I tend to be a bit quiet – a touch avoidant, y'know? I think you do get what you visualise. I never dreamed about being in a limo or being backstage with loads of girls. I only visualised playing very well and enjoying it." He says that seeing the attention Hudson gets "definitely puts your world into perspective". Howard reckons that family life has made the singer "slightly more relaxed, but to me he's still as manic and weird and meticulous as he's always been".
“上台很容易,”他说,“观众和那种激情会让你融入气氛。但在台下我不会那样。我倾向于安静一点——甚至有点自闭,你懂吗?我想我的确得到了我所想象的。我从没想过坐在豪华轿车里或者在后台被一群姑娘环绕着之类的。我只想好好演出,享受这一切。”他说像Hudson那样受到关注就“完全暴露了私人世界”。Howard觉得家庭生活使主唱“稍微自在了一点,但对我来说,他还是那么狂躁诡异又神经质地小心翼翼,一直如此。”
Because Muse's success rests on tours and albums rather than hits and headlines, they are not quite household names, so some viewers were doubtless puzzled during the Olympics closing ceremony by the trio's performance of Survival, a berserk, operatic anthem that seemed more appropriate to a supervillain than an athlete: "I won't forgive/ The vengeance is mine/ And I won't give in/ Because I choose to thrive." Bellamy admits that the song was already written when the organisers approached him. "It was definitely a bit more demented than I think they realised," he says with pleasure.
由于Muse的成功更多地建立在专辑和巡演的品质,而不是大热单曲和报纸头条上,他们的大名还不是那么家喻户晓。在奥运会闭幕式上三人组演出Survival时,有些观众无疑是摸不着头脑了。这狂热暴怒的,歌剧式的赞美诗看起来更适合超级反派,而不是运动健儿:“我不会饶恕 / 我将复仇 / 我不会屈服 / 只因我选择积蓄力量”。Bellamy承认这首歌在主办方联系他们之前就已经写出来了。“我觉得,这首歌绝对比他们意识到的还要精神错乱一点点。”他愉快地说。
Survival makes a lot more sense in the context of The 2nd Law, an album which encompasses the global economic crisis, peak oil theory, food security, evolution, the taxation proposals of 19th-century economist Henry George and the concept of the "stress nexus". "It's talking about the second law of thermodynamics and how, as a limited ecosystem, we are on the verge of needing an energy revolution in order to sustain the way that we're living," says Bellamy. "This inner strength we have, this desire to evolve and expand and explore, I do love that about humanity. At the same time it's scary what it does on a global scale. I'm very much caught between the two." Bellamy is self-aware enough to have considered the quandary of criticising overconsumption while traversing the globe in a gas-guzzling stadium rock band. "Exactly! We're all a function of the world. I think for every finger you point out there should be three pointing back at you."
在The 2nd Law的背景下,Survival看起来就合理多了。这是张涵盖着全球经济危机,石油峰值理论,粮食安全,进化论,19世纪经济学家Henry George的税务建议和“应激连结”概念的专辑。“关于热力学第二定律和我们作为一个有限的生态系统,正在为了持续我们的生存方式而濒于能源革命的现状。”Bellamy说,“我们总有着一种内在动力,一种去衍变,去扩张,去探索的欲望,我确实爱人类这一点。然而这一切在全球范围内的影响却十分可怕。我在这两者之间徘徊。”Bellamy自知作为进行高能耗全球巡演的,善于在体育场馆表演的摇滚乐队,这将使他们陷入被批评过度耗能的进退两难中。“的确!我们都是世界的缩影。当你去指责别人的时候,有更多的人会反过来指责你。”
You don't get this kind of stuff from the Kings of Leon, but then Muse have been putting grand ideas into their records for years now. Black Holes and Revelations, the 2006 album which broke them in the US, was in part a bilious condemnation of the architects of the Iraq war while The Resistance was an us-vs-them concept album heavily inspired by Nineteen-Eighty-Four. (They dismiss as "complete nonsense" a recent $3.5m claim that it was plagiarised from US songwriter Charles Bollfrass.) I suspect Bellamy's politics are often overlooked because (a) he has never aligned himself with a specific cause and (b) he frames them in such a blockbuster manner that people assume he's joking – which, he insists, he is not. "I don't think our records contain obvious humour," he says, a touch defensively. "We're not cracking gags."
你不会在Kings of Leon那儿听到这些东西,但多年来,Muse一直将宏大的概念融入他们的作品中。Black Holes and Revelations,这张在2006年使他们在美国名声大噪的专辑,就包含着对伊拉克战争煽动者的严厉指责;The Resistance深受《1984》的启发,有着强烈对抗的主题(他们在最近以“一派胡言”驳回了一宗由美国音乐人Charles Bollfrass提起的350万美元的剽窃诉讼)。我觉得Bellamy的政治观点总是被人忽视了,因为第一,他从未明确地表露过自己的政治倾向;第二,他的想法总是太天马行空激进轰动,人们总以为他在开玩笑——对此,他坚决说他并没有。“我一点也不觉得我们的作品搞笑,”他警觉地说,“我们又不是喜剧演员。”
A few years ago, Bellamy's reading list was more outré. He often recommended that interviewers imbibe the wisdom of David Icke, although even he admitted the theory about the royal family being alien lizard people was a little too ripe. "I was getting very drawn into obscure conspiracy theories," he concedes. "As time's moved on I've become far more rational and empirical and I've managed to focus on slightly more realistic, tangible things."
几年前,Bellamy的书单还要更加荒诞而不合常理。他经常向记者们推荐David Icke的思想,尽管哪怕是他也得承认关于皇室成员都是外星蜥蜴的理论实在有点扯淡。“我曾经非常沉迷于那些真真假假的阴谋论,”他承认,“这么久过去,我也变得更加理性和经验主义,开始关注更加实实在在的事情。”
It's a wise move. Muse were taken aback when The Resistance was embraced by swivel-eyed Fox News demagogue Glenn Beck ("the lyrics are just dead-on [about] what's coming our way") and the single Uprising began soundtracking YouTube clips produced by the kind of people who believe climate change is a socialist conspiracy and Obama is an Indonesian Muslim. (Conservative attention seems to run in the family: Bellamy's father George used to play rhythm guitar in the Tornados, whose 1962 chart-topper Telstar was one of Margaret Thatcher's Desert Island Discs choices.)
这是个明智的举动。当Muse听说The Resistance被观点偏激的Fox新闻台煽动家Glenn Beck推崇备至时(“歌词正好与我们的想法完全一致”),他们的确大吃了一惊。同时,单曲Uprising也成为了Youtube上那种气候变化是社会主义者阴谋论和奥巴马是印尼裔穆斯林之类视频的背景音乐(似乎Bellamy家一直很吸引保守主义的注意力:Bellamy的父亲George曾是Tornados乐队的节奏吉他手,乐队1962年攀上榜单首位的Telstar是撒切尔夫人选择的孤岛音乐之一)。
"In the US the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward right-wing libertarianism," Bellamy agrees. He defines himself as "a left-leaning libertarian – more in the realm of Noam Chomsky. It doesn't all have to be about guns and land protection, y'know? So yeah, I do find it weird. Uprising was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies and we turned them down on a regular basis."
“在美国,阴谋论这样的亚文化总是被那些想搞垮奥巴马推行自由主义的的右翼分子所利用绑架,”Bellamy赞同这点。他将自己定义为“一个左倾的自由主义者——更加倾向于Noam Chomsky。这些事不一定非要牵扯上枪支和土地保护,你明白吗?是啊,我的确觉得很奇怪。Uprising被那么多美国政客请求用于他们的集会之类的,我们还得定期去拒绝。”
Bellamy's motives as a lyricist aren't polemical but personal, even therapeutic. "When I dabble in watching the news and reading about current events I tend to get a future negative view and that's something I've dealt with through music. It's quite possible I'm slightly paranoid." A giggle. "But I'd say making music is an expression of feelings of helplessness and lack of control that I think a lot of people can relate to."
Bellamy写下这些歌词的目的并不是为了挑起论战,而是为了表达私人化的感情,甚至有点治愈系。“当我看新闻读时事的时候,我总倾向于对未来有消极的预感,这就是我得通过音乐去对付的,我确实稍微有点妄想症偏执狂的意思。”他吃吃地笑了,“但我会说做音乐是一种对无助和失控感觉的表白,我想很多人都对此有所体会。”
His songwriting stems from the belief that music can transform and transcend the everyday. "I remember the first classical music I heard, Berlioz and Chopin– it did something to me that I still can't put into words. It's a sense of timelessness. It's something to do with the whole condition of life and death and time. It somehow makes all those things connect." He's full of wonder when he talks about music, but laughs neurotically whenever I mention fame or ambition. "Dom's the one to speak to about ambition," he says. "I think basically the band's career is me trying to please Dom."
他的作品源于音乐可以改变和超脱出日常生活的信念。“我记得我第一次听到的古典乐,柏辽兹和肖邦——它对我的影响我仍然无法用语言描述。这种不朽的感觉,关系着整个生命,死亡与时间的概念,连接一切。”谈起音乐时,他有着无尽的奇思妙想;但当我谈及名誉或野心,他神经兮兮地笑了。“找Dom去谈那些雄心壮志吧,”他说,“我觉着这个乐队的历程基本就是我在哄Dom开心。”
Dom Howard is Muse's unflappable rock pro: the free-and-single, up-all-night one who uses the phrase "rocking out" without reservation. "Even when we were sitting around in Matt's nan's basement writing songs we'd be dreaming of headlining the main stage at Reading," he says. "We've always had our sights set on being the biggest band in the world." He laughs, because it's an unfashionable thing to say these days, but not that hard, because he means it. "Still going for it. Why not? If you're going to do it, do it properly."
Dom Howard是Muse不可动摇的摇滚派:自由自在,单身,刷夜狂人,对“rocking out”毫无保留。“哪怕是我们坐在Matt奶奶的地下室里写歌的时候,我们也在梦想着登上Reading音乐节的主舞台,”他说,“我们总将眼光定在成为世界上最大的乐队上。”他笑了,时至今日再说这些话已经不时髦了,但也没那么难,因为他的确是认真的。“我们还在以此为目标。为什么不呢?既然都打算做了,那就认真做。”
Before they wanted to be the biggest band in the world, Muse simply wanted to be bigger than Doctor Frank, a funk covers band from Teignmouth. "They were the local heroes: the big boys with their posh instruments," says Wolstenholme, remembering Muse's first "battle of the bands" show in 1994. "There wasn't much of an original music scene in Devon and when we started we realised why – because nobody wanted to watch original music. We played gigs to nobody."
在他们想要成为全世界最大的乐队之前,Muse可是只想着比Doctor Frank,一个Teignmouth 的Funk风翻唱乐队大就够了。“他们是当地的偶像啊:那些有着炫酷乐器的小伙,”Wolstenholme说,回想着Muse在1994第一次参加“battle of the bands”节目。“当时,德文郡没太有原创音乐,因为没有人愿意去看原创。我们的演出根本没人看。”
Here are the roots of Muse's unusual tenacity. For a long time they had no supportive scene, no wise mentor, no industry connections. Bellamy, a gifted musician but naturally shy, only reluctantly became singer and chief songwriter because "nobody wanted to join our band". They played gigs for five years before releasing Showbiz and even then Bellamy struggled as frontman. "It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be," he says. "The songs were a bit moody. When you're having to play them every night it can be a bit draining."
这就是Muse不同寻常的韧性的来源了。很长一段时间内,他们没有支持者,没有智慧的良师益友,没有与音乐工业的关联。Bellamy,天赋异禀的音乐家,却也天性害羞,不情不愿地当了主唱和创作者,因为“没人愿加入我们的乐队”。在Showbiz发行之前,他们已经表演了五年,Bellamy努力着成为主唱。“这不像它本该的那样有趣,”他说,“那些歌都有点情绪化,而你要整夜整夜地去演他们,太耗费感情,这几乎有点把我抽干了。”
He had an epiphany during Muse's first concert in Japan. Maddened by the audience's lethargy, he thought "fuck it" and executed a corny knee slide while shouting "Come on!" "They suddenly went mental," he remembers, smiling. "I thought: if I act stupid and have fun the crowd likes it. That's when we stopped taking it seriously."
他在Muse第一次在日本演出时才有点开窍了。Bellamy快要被死气沉沉的观众逼疯了,他想着“去他的”,大喊着“Come on!”用膝盖滑过了舞台。“他们瞬间就疯掉了,”他微笑着回想,“我就想:如果我干点傻事,高兴一点,观众就会喜欢我们吧。那时开始,我们就不再把这些事当真了。”
Muse have had many "fuck it" moments, becoming more fearlessly flamboyant each time. When I ask bassist Chris Wolstenholme if he's ever thought, in the studio, that a Muse song was too ridiculous he replies, half-jokingly: "Probably every song we've ever done [is]. You can go on writing traditional pop-rock songs and get stale or try something new. There are risks either way." Howard cheerfully says, "I love the excessiveness of the whole thing. I love Survival for that. You could say the choir's too much but you know what? It makes it. I like pushing it as far as we can."
Muse有很多让人大喊“卧槽”的时刻,每次他们都会变得更加无畏华丽大胆。当我问及贝斯手Chris Wolstenholme他是否想过,在录音室里,有没有一首歌实在是太荒诞了,他半开玩笑地回答:“大概我们的每首歌都是这样的。你可以继续写那些烂大街的流行摇滚小调,或者尝试点新东西。两种选择都有风险。”Howard高高兴兴地说,“我喜欢那些过度的东西。我喜欢Survival。你当然可以说那些合唱很多余,但你知道吗,正是它们成就了这首歌。我想要在尚力所能及的范围内,走得越远越好。”
It's always an achievement for a band to retain its original line-up on the long and tricky path from youth clubs to stadiums. It's especially remarkable when one band member trod most of that path as an alcoholic. If you had to guess which one you'd choose the neurotic singer or hard-partying drummer over Wolstenholme, an affable family man who has the names of his wife and four of his six children tattooed in various languages on his arms and, until recently, still lived in Teignmouth. He is so untouched by fame that the other dads at school only found out he was in Muse while talking in the pub after playing football and went home to google him to check he wasn't making it up.
对于一个乐队来说,走过漫长而蜿蜒的自青少年俱乐部到体育场的道路还保持着最初的阵容,这的确是一项成就。而当其中一人是以酒瘾的状态走过大多数路程时,这就更值得关注了。如果让你猜猜是哪一个,你大概会选择神经过敏的主唱或者派对动物鼓手,而不是Wolstenholme,和蔼可亲的居家男人,把他的妻子和六个孩子中的四个的名字用N种语言纹在了胳膊上而且,直到最近,依然住在Teignmouth。他对名誉完全无动于衷,以致学校里其他的父亲们只有踢完球在酒吧聊天时才知道他是Muse的一员,还得回家上网google一下来验证这不是他编出来的。
But there's a genetic precedent: his father, a pub landlord, drank himself to death when he was 40. Wolstenholme combines rock-solid blokiness with the compulsive candour of someone who has undergone rehab. Only his nervous hand-rubbing betrays the weirdness of discussing the worst experience of his life with a stranger.
但遗传先例在前:他的父亲,一个酒吧老板,在40岁时酗酒而死。Wolstenholme十分镇定,且有着经历过康复的强迫的坦诚。只有不安的搓手出卖了他对一个陌生人倾诉人生中最坏遭遇的古怪感觉。
His drinking began in earnest when Muse's career first took off and he was away from his family for as long as two months at a time. As the band grew so did his intake, until he was knocking back a pint of spirits, two bottles of wine and countless beers a day. It seems inconceivable that, for several years, nobody but his wife realised there was a problem. "I kept my guard up," he says. "I was quite crafty about how I drank and where I did it. Matt and Dom probably didn't realise how bad it was because I wasn't a nasty drunk. I didn't cause anybody any problems. I just retreated."
他的酗酒开始于Muse的事业刚刚小有起色时,那时他已经远离他的家人两个多月了。乐队在一步步成长,他的酗酒也是,直到他一天能灌下一品脱的白酒,两瓶红酒和数不尽的啤酒。这看起来很不可思议,几年间,除了他的妻子以外没有人察觉到这个问题。“我十分警惕,”他说,“我对时间和量的掌握很有数。Matt和Dom大概没意识到这有多么严重,因为我从不撒酒疯。我不会惹麻烦。我只是默默地撤了。”
"For some reason he could still play the bass, even though he was shitfaced," says Howard. "It went wrong literally two or three times in 10 years, which is nothing." Eventually, however, it became unignorable. "He was drinking on stage," says Howard. "I started counting how many drinks he was having during the set and I could see him getting more and more glazed. By the point we came off stage he'd be fucked. It just got too weird."
“不知道为毛他还能弹贝斯,他都烂醉如泥了,”Howard说,“十年间他只犯过两三次错,几乎就是没有。”但是最后,这个问题已经无法忽视了。“他开始在台上喝了,”Howard说,“我就开始数他一场到底能喝多少,我都能看出来他越来越呆滞无神。我们一下台他整个就垮了,太诡异了。”
Did they give him ultimatums? "Yeah, a few times. Chris now says things like, I can't believe they put up with me for 10 years. Which is true. I can't believe we did. But we did. I've always believed in band integrity and sticking together. There's something about the fact we all grew up together. We've been together for 18 years now, which is over half our lives." Asked what difference Wolstenholme's sobriety has made to the band, he says simply: "It's given us a future."
他们下最后通牒了吗?“是啊,有几次。现在Chris会说一些像是,我不敢相信他们忍了我十年之类的这种话。的确啊,我都不敢相信。但我们确实做到了。我一直愿意相信我们之间的坦诚和互相扶持。我们是一起长大的。我们在一起十八年了,比我们年龄的一半还要多。”被问及Wolstenholme的清醒给乐队带来了什么时,他简单地回答:“这给了我们未来。”
During 2008 Wolstenholme developed panic attacks. "You drink more to cover the anxiety and then the drink triggers more anxiety and you find yourself in this cycle of hell, basically." On April Fool's Day 2009, after a particularly bad period, he "had a bit of a meltdown and that was it. I made a decision". The hardest part, he says, was confronting all the difficult emotions he had spent so long submerging. "Everything I should have dealt with in the previous 10 years suddenly hit me in the face. There are some things I regret. There are probably moments I should have enjoyed more than I did and that's a bit upsetting. With the mess I was in you don't feel any intense emotion any more. You're just subdued all the time. But the upside of that is I'm enjoying it now. I threw myself into music in a way I hadn't done for 10 years. It sounds corny but it was the only thing that made me feel peaceful."
2008年时Wolstenholme甚至得了无端恐惧症。“你越喝越多以掩饰不安,但喝酒又会让你更加不安,基本上,你就陷在这个恶性循环之中了。”在2009年的愚人节,在一段格外难受的日子过去后,他“有点垮了,我终于做了个决定”。这是最难的,他说,面对着那些他长期沉迷的的痛苦的情绪,“那些我在十年前就该解决的事向我扑面而来。有些事情让我后悔,有些我本该享受的时刻却在沮丧中度过。在这些乱七八糟的事情中你感受不到激情,只是在日渐消沉。但现在我享受一切,我投入到我十年都没有做出的音乐里去。听起来很俗套,但这是唯一让我感到安宁的事情。”
Previously unable to finish a song, Wolstenholme wrote two about his condition, Save Me and Liquid State, for The 2nd Law. Bellamy compositions such as Madness and Big Freeze are also unusually personal. Together, they suggest a quieter, more intimate Muse. Bigger-is-better escalation has got them this far but you wonder how much further they can push it without toppling into absurdity. I put it to Bellamy by quoting a track from The 2nd Law: "An economy based on endless growth is unsustainable."
之前没有写歌的Wolstenholme就他自己的情况给The 2nd Law写了两首歌,Save Me和Liquid State。Bellamy的作品Madness和Big Freeze也是不同寻常地私人化。这几首歌展现了更加安静而私密的Muse。宏大场面的逐步扩大已经让他们走了这么远,但你还在好奇在到达疯狂的巅峰之前,他们还能走到哪里。我问Bellamy这个问题,他引用了The 2nd Law的一句歌词回答我:“基于无止尽增长的经济是不可成立的。”
"It's a funny one," he says thoughtfully. "As you asked that question, I realised for the first time there's a link between that and the political moments I'm talking about. If there's not an energy revolution we'll have to devolve and live a simpler lifestyle. In Muse, in our music and political things, we're striving for that not to be the case but knowing that we have to change. So yeah, I do want to expand on the subtler, quieter side of the band. Maybe go to a farm in Devon, live off the land, get out the acoustics and go full devolution." He laughs self-consciously. "But I have said that before."
“这很有趣,”他深思熟虑着回答,“你问出这个问题的时候,我才第一次意识到这和我刚才说的那些政治的东西是有关系的。如果不进行能源革命,我们就只好转而以一种更简单的方式来生存了。对Muse,对我们的音乐和那些政治的事,我们都争取着不要变成那样,但我们也明白,一切终究是要改变的。是啊,我想要发掘出乐队更加淡定而安静的一面。也许我们会去德文郡的哪家农场里,靠着土地生活,搞点原声作品出来,简单一点。”他自觉好笑,“我之前也说过这种话。”
It's an intriguing idea, this downsized Abel & Cole version of rock's most expansionist band, but Bellamy has no time to dwell on it now. He's been summoned back to rehearsals and leaves the room to address the pressing business of touring the world with an upside-down LED pyramid.
迷人的想法,这个最具扩张性的摇滚乐队也有着Abel & Cole式的田园念头。但Bellamy现在没工夫细想这个了,他被叫回去彩排了。他得离开房间,去忙活带着一个倒挂的LED金字塔巡演世界这样的要紧事去了。