Matt Bellamy only "believes" his songs when he is performing them.

The Muse singer is known for his fascination with space and other-worldly themes but admits he struggles to relate to his own lyrics when listening to the band's music.

He said: "I love the music. A lot of people have picked up on some of it being tongue-in-cheek.

"But to me it's only tongue-in-cheek when I'm listening to it. When I'm playing it, I believe it man. I'm in there. I mean, 'Knights of Cydonia', I'm going with it into these strange emotions. So I can only assume people get that feeling too.

"But, I have to say, sometimes when I listen to our music or I hear it in the distance, I go, 'Is that actually the band I'm in?' "

Muse are currently preparing for their headline slot at the Reading and Leeds festivals in August, where they will play their 2001album 'Origin of Symmetry' in its entirety, but the group admit it isn't sounding as good as they hoped in rehearsals.

Bassist Chris Wolstenholme told Q magazine: "It's alright. We ran through 'Hyper Music' for the first time in seven years. It sounded like a school band cover of 'Hyper Music' to be honest."