Muse Say ‘Drones’ Returns to Rock Because Their Songs Were Getting Too Tricky to Play Live

Sometimes, you just have to follow your muse. But if you're Muse, sometimes you just have to do whatever is easier to play live.

At least, that's according to Muse bassist Chris Wolstenholme who, in an interview with Spotify UK, talked about Muse's shift back to traditional rock instrumentation on their latest album Drones. He said it was precipitated by the fact that the band's stage show had become a supermassive pain in the butt.

"We got to the point where things were becoming more and more difficult to play live," Wolstenholme said. "It was a real headache with certain songs on the last album to try and work out all the arrangements to get them to work live."

Instead of continuing down the path of electronic-heavy records like 2012's The 2nd Law and 2009's The Resistance, the band decided to return to their roots.  "For this album we decided it was important to maybe go back to where we started in a way and just concentrate on one guitar player, one bass player and one drummer and see how far we could take that."

The rest of Wolstenholme's interview focused on what sounds like a Class A addiction to soccer (or "football," depending on where you are).

Muse – "Dead Inside" (Official Music Video)