Muse open up about the creation of new single ‘Survival’

Singer reveals the band's new Olympics single was originally intended to be a collaboration

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has spoken about the making of the band’s new single ‘Survival’ and revealed it was originally intended to be a collaboration.

The band debuted ‘Survival’ on Wednesday (June 27) and you can hear it now by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.

The track has been chosen as the official song of the London 2012 Olympics and will be played when athletes enter the stadium, in the lead up to the medal ceremony and also as the theme for all international TV coverage.

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Speaking about ‘Survival’, which is the first track to be taken from the band’s new album ‘The 2nd Law’, he told BBC Radio 1that he had been approached about a year ago to do the track and it was originally going to be a duet with a top pianist. He said:

I got approached about a year ago to write this song for the Olympics and we were going to work on it with someone, I can’t say who, a good pianist though. So I wrote this song with that in mind, that’s why it’s got a lot of guitar and piano at the same time, which normally I don’t do. That went away for some reason though.

He then added that even after the possibility of the collaboration disappeared, he continued to work on the track and eventually played it to the organisers of the Olympics.

He added: “It sounded like it was going to be a good song anyway, at that time it didn’t have lyrics, it was just a big musical idea, involving a choir and stuff. So as time went on and we got asked to play the opening ceremony, we thought ‘We’ve got to play this’. We got the Olympic people in to listen and they loved it.”

When asked what the track was about, Bellamy said: “It’s trying to get into that mindset of being completely determined to win, doing it against all the odds, the conviction and the truth of just wanting to win. I wanted to tune into the competitiveness of it all.”

Muse will release ‘The 2nd Law’ in September. The album is the follow-up to 2009’s ‘The Resistance’ and has been recorded in London.

The Devon trio will play five shows across the UK in October. The gigs begin at Glasgow’s SECC on October 24, before the band move onto London’s O2 Arena for two shows on October 26 and 27. They then play Birmingham LG Arena on October 30 before finishing up at Manchester Arena on November 1.

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Muse, ‘Survival’ – review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt__jKWoYH8

Muse’s ‘The 2nd Law’ trailer decoded

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