"When we were starting out we absolutely wanted to be headlining festivals and playing to lots of people at big gigs. That was a huge goal and it still is – it hasn't disappeared at all," Howard says. "We've hit some amazing goals, but there are still so many to hit."

Now aged 39, the drummer was all of 14 when he and Bellamy, who played together in a cover band in the Devon fishing town of Teignmouth, decided to recruit Wolstenholme from another rickety teenage outfit and attempt to make original music. It took them several years, firstly as Gothic Plague and then as Muse from 1994, to get the songwriting underway, but seven studio albums and numerous career landmarks, such as selling 90,000 tickets to a 2006 Wembley Stadium gig in less than 30 minutes, have followed.

"We've been lucky that we've been able to stay together for so long. There's a whole huge list of reasons that we've managed to achieve that and not give up. It's all about drive and passion and that's what you have when you start out, but keeping that for a long time is the thing to do," Howard says. "We still chat every day about what he band is doing and the music we're making. We're recording now and the process is really exciting for us. That spark is what keeps us going."

Muse arrive in Australia for a brief tour four years after their last visit; it roughly takes them that long to write and record an album and tour it widely twice in the northern hemisphere. Their gigs have become increasingly designed, a digital flurry of light and sound that suggests both a head-banging Valhalla and the cyberwarfare experience brought to life.

"There have been been so many times when we've said, 'Let's just get rid of the screens and just play some music', which we might yet do at some point, but we can't help ourselves from getting a load of visual things happening," Howard says.