release of the Muse EP

After a few years building a fanbase, Muse played their first gigs in London and Manchester supporting Skunk Anansie on tour. They had a significant meeting with Dennis Smith, the owner of Sawmills Studio , situated in a converted water mill in Cornwall . He had seen the three boys grow up as he knew their parents, and had a production company with their future manager Safta Jaffery , with whom he had recently started the record label Taste Media . The meeting led to their first serious recordings and the release of the Muse EP on 11 May 1998 on Sawmills’ in-house Dangerous label, produced by Paul Reeve. Their second EP, the Muscle Museum EP , also produced by Reeve, was released on 11 January 1999. It reached number 3 in the indie singles chart and attracted the attention of the radio broadcaster Steve Lamacq and the magazine NME .