Muse has clearly established itself as one of Europe's biggest and most important acts. They are quickly doing the same here in the States where they recorded the bulk of their latest record Black Holes And Revelations. The band hunkered between New York City's Electric Lady and Avatar studios. Singer Matt Bellemay says the American sessions really shaped the record for the better:

"Hendrix's ghost was hanging around," says Matt, "and Bowie came in for a day and said hello. That was good; to get the nod of approval from the old boy. If we'd stayed in France for the whole album it probably would've ended up real prog. Songs like 'Knights Of Cydonia' would've been twenty minutes long. Going to New York for some reason tightened everything up and it got more groove orientated. Songs like 'Starlight' and 'Supermassive Black Hole' and 'Hoodoo,' they all had grooves that radically changed when we went to New York, I don't know if that was the vibe of the city or what."

You can hear some of the results from those sessions with the new video for "Knights of Cydonia" here: Quicktime 220 / Quicktime 700; Windows Media 220 / Windows Media 700