BACK TO THE FUTURE
2020 may be a “year off” for Muse, but life in quarantine could hardly be considered a vacation for Matt Bellamy, one of the 21st century’s bona fide guitar heroes. The frontman’s home studio has been busier than ever, hosting recording sessions for his debut solo outing – symphonic piano overture Tomorrow’s World – as well as tracking and production work for The Jaded Hearts Club, his Beatles-themed supergroup with Blur’s Graham Coxon and The Last Shadow Puppets’ Miles Kane.
Don’t worry, though: Bellamy will be back to arena-demolishing duties as soon as it’s safe to do so. “We’re going to get musical and get back in the studio probably next year for another album,” Bellamy reveals. “And we were hoping to do a tour, if the world comes back to any normality – probably in 2021 or 2022.” And when he does get back on stage, you can be sure of one thing: there will be a Manson custom guitar slung around his shoulder.
All guitarists love the gear they play, but it takes an extra-special connection with your choice of guitar to become heavily invested in the company that makes them. That’s exactly what Matt did when he had a ‘Remington moment’ in 2019, becoming the majority shareholder in Manson Guitar Works – the brand that evolved from famed UK luthier Hugh Manson’s custom-built models into an internationally recognised innovator of guitar design. Of course, it’s fair to say that Bellamy’s association with the company has had a big part to play in spreading the Manson name across the globe, and his latest Meta Series MBM-1 model with Mansons Guitar Works and Cort is scheduled to be released soon.
The Muse frontman has been fiercely loyal to the brand for the last 20 years, rarely spotted cradling any other guitar, and his non-traditional requests of effects, MIDI controllers, lasers and unorthodox paint-jobs for his instruments have helped propel the brand’s reputation as the company where ‘anything goes’ when it comes to guitar design. “It really all started from Hugh retiring. It sort of stemmed from that really, him retiring and passing it on to me to keep it going” Matt said of his decision to invest in his favourite guitar company. “It’s run by Adrian [Ashton, Manson’s MD] and there’s about four or five employees there. It was good timing too because at the time the band was finishing a tour last year and it seemed like
