Matt Bellamy has confirmed that he has started working on a new Muse album.

The frontman said that the early stages of the follow-up to the trio’s 2018 album ‘Simulation Theory’ have been inspired by “the protests and all the chaos” that have “kicked off” around the world in 2020.

• Read More: Matt Bellamy tells us about going solo, Muse’s next move and “embracing the simple life” of lockdown

“I’ve started writing a new Muse album,” he told The Sun. “I started writing when all the protests and all the chaos were kicking off. It’s a weird thing to say but it suits the music I write. It keeps you a little bit on edge.”

Bellamy also opened up to NME about the band’s future plans earlier this year. “I like the idea of totally resetting and going back to where we come from. As in, physically moving back to our hometown [Teignmouth, Devon] and getting back to how we used to be at square one,” he said.

“We’re likely to get in the studio next year to make a new album of some kind and then tour after that, depending on the travel restrictions. For us, 2020 was always going to be a year to contemplate being off work and off the road. Muse have never done that in the 20 odd years we’ve been going.”

Bellamy also revealed that he bought a guitar owned by Jeff Buckley and that he plans to use it on Muse’s next album.

The band recently released their anticipated live film, Simulation Theory. Speaking to NME earlier this year about the film, Bellamy said: “It’s a cool film set in the ‘80s sci-fi world of the last album. We made it before [COVID-19] happened, but it does contain themes about a virus taking over people’s reality.”

NME‘s Mark Beaumont described the film as a “mind-bursting spectacular merging enhanced footage from their ‘Simulation Theory’ live show with a filmic narrative, it sets out to make the album, already their most consistent and coherent of recent years, into their most fully-rounded concept piece yet.”

Bellamy has been keeping himself busy during 2020 by releasing a series of solo tracks including ‘Tomorrow’s World’, inspired by life in lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic, and ‘Pray (High Valyrian)’ from the Game Of Thrones soundtrack last year.

He also recently shared a cover of Simon And Garfunkel‘s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.