MATT BELLAMY

In the U.S., the conspiracy theory subculture has been hijacked by the Right to try to take down people like Obama and put forward rightwing libertarianism.

When I dabble in watching the news and reading about current events, I tend to get a future negative view, and that's something I've dealt with through music. It's quite possible I'm slightly paranoid. But I'd say making music is an expression of feelings of helplessness and lack of control that I think a lot of people can relate to.

I have been lucky to experience a lot of the spoils that can happen in a rock band. But being with the three guys in this band from such a young age, we aren't going to let any of the spoils change us.

The universe, in a big bang mode, is still expanding, which means it's cooling down, and evolution seems to be going against this; we're almost battling it. That led me on to a more creative, philosophical way of thinking, which is what led into influencing some of the songs, which is, maybe this is what our struggle is.

Being from a small town, no one else was going to breathe life into my ideas other than me, so I had to go out there and do it.

There's always been a slight twinge of some classical elements in our music.

This inner strength we have, this desire to evolve and expand and explore, I do love that about humanity. At the same time, it's scary what it does on a global scale. I'm very much caught between the two.

I have recurring nightmares about being in a Nazi concentration camp with all my family and constantly being sent to solitary confinement.

I used to go and see bands like the Orb and Orbital every time they came down, and I've seen Aphex Twin a couple of times. I was really into all that stuff, but it didn't speak to me.

For the first time in evolution as a species, we're hitting an energy ceiling.

When I think about my teenage years, when my parents broke up, and feeling alone and being out of control and having to survive... And then other times when you've had to find your own way... that's always been a dominant theme in what I've done.

Bands in the Nineties seem to forget the entertainment aspect of rock music.

'Uprising' was requested by so many politicians in America for use in their rallies, and we turned them down on a regular basis.

Introverts probably have a higher degree of sensitivity to outside stimulus and tend to back off. In your quiet shyness as a child, you end up with an accumulation of thoughts and ideas, building up big, imaginative worlds. You have to get it all out somehow, so it goes into your work.

As a rock band, you're slightly one foot in the past, playing instruments like guitar, bass and drums.

I think we have a lot in common with classical composers of the 19th century, although I'm not claiming to have their intelligence. They wanted to create a musical explosion, to blow the crowd away.

I can understand why people are bad.

I don't think our records contain obvious humour. We're not cracking gags.

Money and success haven't really changed my beliefs or opinions over the years. When I was growing up, my mum and dad split when I was 13 or 14, during the early-Nineties recession. At that time, my dad went bankrupt, and it played a huge part in it all at home.

I love Tom Waits because he's an artist who makes me not afraid to get old, and that's rare. I think it's a rare kind of thing to have that level of wisdom. And his lyrics are just astounding; everything in life is inside his lyrics.

I was going out dancing in clubs around New York, and that helped create 'Supermassive Black Hole.' Franz Ferdinand would have done it very well with that dance-type beat going on mixed with alternative guitar, and I've always wanted to find that.

I'm a songwriter; it's in my nature to express things openly.

A guitar being played by an actual person is never going to be as precise and perfect as a programmed synthesizer. But we maintain there is value in the potential for human error.

Rachmaninov has some kind of weird dark edge to his music which I don't think I've heard with any other kind of music before.

Empathy seems to be seen as a weakness. We condition people to withdraw it to succeed. But really, it needs to be re-seen as a strength again if there is to be any kind of hope in the world.