Muse vocalist Matt Bellamy has revealed that one of the new songs on the band's upcoming Will Of The People album is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Speaking to NME, the Los Angeles-based musician reveals that he witnessed BLM protests in the city while attending the birth of his second child Lovella, and says that the discussions around the subject fed into new Muse track Liberation.
The song includes the lyrics “You’ll make us turn to violence… We have plans to take you down / We intend to erase your place in history”.
Stating that the lyrics were inspired by his feelings upon seeing the BLM protests, Bellamy says, "I’m not gonna try to claim to have any understanding of what that culture’s been through or anything, but “intend to erase your place in history” was that feeling of anger… that emotion that you feel in the moment of revolution, where you just want to tear it down and destroy this, even to the extent of changing history itself – people pulling statues down."
In the NME interview, Bellamy also expressed his frustration that big issues were being overlooked while social media users appeared to concentrate on irrelevant details.
“All this arguing on Twitter about who said what and how they said it – I’m certain that 50 years from now people will look back at this point in history and go, ‘What the hell were they talking about? How come they couldn’t see the bus that was about to hit them?’”
Bellamy recalled his personal journey into alternative news outlets, and how he’d reconsidered since the internet era began in the 80s.
“People felt like the mainstream media was just a big business that was in cahoots with the establishment,” he said. “So when the internet started to emerge, the thirst for people saying what maybe the truth is was really strong.
“By the time we got to the early 2010s, I came full circle. The lack of accountability became obvious to me. It made me realise, ‘OK, this is just some people who can say whatever the fuck they want. This is bullshit.’
“It’s not freedom of speech; it’s freedom to manipulate. It’s freedom to lie anonymously. The ridiculous irony is, all these people think they’re so anti-this, anti-that, but all you’re doing is making [Mark] Zuckerberg rich.”
Will Of The People is released on August 26 via Warner Records.
