Ā”LA VIDA LOCA! - Coldplay interview [Q Magazine (July 2008)]
According to Chris Martin, Coldplay havenāt done anything good yet. Hence Viva La Vidaā¦, the bandās very own revolution in sound, inspired by paintings of watermelons and āMrs Battersbyās sconesā.
WORDS: SYLVIA PATTERSON | PICTURES: STEPHAN CRASNEANSCKI
āWE WANT TO MAKE THE SONGS THAT DEFINE THE DECADE. THE GREAT SONGS OF THE TIME.ā
CHRIS MARTIN
Chris Martin has a dream, brothers and sisters.
āI always dream about other musicians,ā he smiles, with a blink of those sky-blue eyes the size of almond-shaped dinner plates. āAnd with U2 or Radiohead itās always [enthusiastically], Hey, how you doinā? And theyāre never that interested in hanging out with us. Itās a permanent feeling of being at school and the bigger boys donāt want to play with you. Check out this chord I can do! Just leave us alone. I dreamt about Radiohead last night and Westlife the night before. Which I think is the perfect blend of what weāre trying to do musically.ā
Chris Martin is, surely, the most self-deprecating frontman in the history of rockānāroll. If the first thing he did the moment he took his first Grammy Award (for Best Alternative Music Album) home was to draw a comedy moustache on it, you wouldnāt be surprised. Itās 12 March 2008 and perhaps dream-state neurosis is understandable as Coldplay begin the task of choosing which of 25 completed songs, and 16 more tracks, unmixed and in various states, will form their globally anticipated fourth album. Weāre in Hampstead, North London, in their very own studio, The Bakery, and the deeply indecisive Martin has arrived wearing a crafty indecision aid, a stern black tie and dark blue shirt. āI thought if I wore a black tie I would feel like I had some authority,ā he announces in his soft, gracious voice. āLike, if I say today, Well, that oneās definitely a B-side, people might listen.ā
Three years on, then, from X&Y ā the 10 million-selling album that cemented Coldplayās rise from winsome indie kids into this decadeās biggest band ā and we learn from the outset that dictatorial rock star megalomania has failed to claim the soul of Chris Martin, who remains as far away from despot as itās possible to go without actually becoming Saint Francis Of Assisi. A statuesque 31-year-old, he is supernaturally friendly, profoundly gentle and radiates with the excess energy we know as human charisma.
āWE FEEL LIKE A NEW BAND AGAIN, RATHER THAN SOME CORPORATE MACHINE.ā
JONNY BUCKLAND
The Bakery is a musicianās dream HQ, bought in early 2006 and the place where āeverythingā (music, art work, arguments, jokes) happens in Coldplay; a fully functional studio downstairs and a large open-plan lounge area upstairs bestrewn with sofas, flight cases, a circular wooden dining table and black and white prints of The Beatles and The Clash on the walls. The Other Three are also here, chuckling at Martinās quips and chipping in, most often the winningly wry drummer Will Champion. He contemplates their āeagerly anticipatedā album. āWhen you havenāt done anything for a while you get to thinking, Does anyone, really, actually give a flying fuck?ā he wonders, gamely. Thereās Guy Berryman, the outrageously handsome Scottish bassist, saying, āI ran 18 miles this morning,ā which isnāt a quip; heās in training for the London Marathon. Thereās Jonny Buckland, beatific guitarist, smilingly serene. X&Y saw the end of the band Champion officially calls āOldplayā, an album Martin now feels was ātoo longā, which Buckland feels was āfinished under pressure [from label EMI], but then they were under pressure, still areā. This time, adds Buckland, EMI have applied zero pressure, ātheyāve been fucking brilliant and weāve been feeling like a new band again, rather than some corporate machineā.
Downstairs in the studio (the traditional two-room affair ā twinkling, technological Control Room and chaotic, instrument- strewn Live Room), a number of song titles are chalked onto a wall: Viva La Vida; Death Will Never Conquer; Death And All His Friends; Postcards From Far Away; Thought You Might Be A Ghost. A wooden desk bears the scratched-in message: āBrian is great.ā After 2000ās Parachutes, 2002ās A Rush Of Blood To The Head and 2005ās X&Y Coldplay were ready, says Martin poetically, āto try new coloursā. Enlisting Brian Eno for production, an acquaintance of Martinās since 2001, they spent 2007 running through a dazzling spectrum of Enoās fabled techniques: āmusical gymā, playing together without recording a note; Oblique Strategies, using Enoās āoracleā deck of cards that hold perspective-bending instructions (examples: āAllow an easement of strictureā, āEmphasise the flawsā, āDo we need holes?ā); the swapping around of each otherās instruments, abandoning their career-long tradition of starting a song with an initial idea from Martin, which the singer saw as āliberationā, as well as Friday night sessions of what Will Champion calls, āUncle Brianās Storytime. Tell us something great about Talking Heads or Bowie!ā Q steals away to listen to nine possible album tracks beginning with 42, a mesmerising three-part contemplation of death, while Qās favourite, Chinese Sleep Chant, features a tsunami of guitars and a shimmering vocal force-field you cannot decipher one word of. By the mixing desk, Martin perches on a swivelling black leather chair and fondles his tie as his chipper mood begins to unfeasibly and rapidly disintegrate. We talk about the albumās seeming emphasis on death.
āWell, a lot of people around me have died recently,ā he says, plainly. āJust, yāknow, family and friends. I donāt want to get specific. Isnāt it disrespectful to say who died? But I always see it as an optimistic thing like, OK, well, what can we do before that punch line, yāknow? A lot of people have been born as well [all of Coldplay are now fathers]. Thereās so much to do. We havenāt got time to waste. Carpe diem.ā
We talk, inevitably, about public expectation, about assumptions this album might be Coldplayās experimental Kid A, at which he cringes, saying, āYou canāt beat Kid A!ā, and besides their intention is the opposite: āI want to make the best Number 1s in the world ā and weāve never had any.ā We contemplate Coldplayās position as the Biggest Band In The World and he cringes even more.
āIāve just been excited about writing,ā he finally manages. āAfter the last record I felt like, God, I canāt believe weāve got away with becoming this huge band. And we still havenāt done anything I think is that good yet. So it was almost like, Weāve got the job, now weāve got to kind of prove why weāve got it. [Ruefully] The Worldās Biggest Bland. Yāknowā¦ I havenāt thought about this stuff since two years ago.ā
Martin is struggling, hands darting into tufts of blond hair. Q, it seems, has inadvertently brought into Coldplayās environment the opinions and expectations of an outside world theyāve forgotten exists.
āBecause of this place,ā he says of The Bakery, āwe donāt feel like weāre at all successful. Or hated. We donāt feel anything but, OK, how are we going to make this song sound better? I live one minute away. And I come here. Soā¦ the only thing that makes me remember that weāre in a big band is when I remember that Iām married to someone famous. Everything else in the day is exactly the same as it was 11 years ago. When we would just meet and play.ā
You feel your fame is mostly to do with your marriage?
āWell, itās a different kind of fame, that we do everything to avoid.ā
So you feel, in your head, youāre still the boy from the indie band in the Yellow video?
āMaybe. Youāre bringing some home truths. Youāre greatly helping.ā
We also talk about coping with criticism, about how he felt when the New York Times ran an actual thesis in 2005 on why Coldplay were āthe most insufferable band of the decadeā (self-pitying lyrics, sonic delusions of grandeur, opined the writer; āVery informativeā, says Martin. āI thought, Iāll get better, thenā), and whether itās the religious sound of the music that people find easy to criticise, their sense of import, a seemingly spiritual search for The Light.
āI have no idea,ā he replies, in a tiny voice. āIām sure itās every aspect. What can we do? Thatās just what comes out. I donāt think weāll ever make evil music as well as Rammstein. And I donāt want to write obscure little songs. I meanā¦ I canāt. Well, fuck āem. What can I do? What dāyou want me to do?ā
And so Q finds itself in the bewildering position of trying to reassure Chris Martin, four times Grammy-award winner, seller of 30 million albums worldwide, internationally beloved musical icon, husband of an Oscar-winning Hollywood beauty, that there are many more millions of people who love Coldplay than are writing scathing theses in the New York Times.
āWell, all that stuff is very positiveā¦ [buries head in hands] Iām only human!ā
Q tells him about friends in Scotland who love what Coldplay do, especially live.
āItās always fun playing Scotland,ā he replies, perking up. āAnywhere that likes singing is fun to play.ā
Scotland loves the communal experience.
āWell, thatās where I feel most alive,ā he says, suddenly springing back to life. āIn answer to your question, the thing that probably most annoys people about us is the only thing that makes me feel alive. Singing together and feeling like youāre there and present. And so I canāt really apologise for it. I went to see John Williams, the guy who wrote all the Star Wars music. And they played Star Wars, and this was in a room of thousands of people in tuxedos. And as soon as that music came on, the place just went mental. More than Iāve ever seen in a rock concert. Everyone was completely transported. Some people like the challenge of an audience not being completely with them and other people just want to kick the goal all the time. Weāre definitely the latter. We want to make the songs that define the decade, the great songs of this time, the music that makes people come together and feel good. Thatās what weāre trying to do. We want to try and make the standards. And with that comes a certain amount of flak. But weāve just got to take it. And talking to you has made me realise that. And itās good! Time to put the old armour on.ā
Down a quaint, olde London cobblestone mews, Brian Eno opens the door to his studio while waving across the cobbles to a figure at the opposite window. āIām just waving to my friend,ā he smiles. āJason Donovan.ā Q peers over at the sight, indeed, of Jason Donovan on the telephone by a window. āDonāt stare!ā scolds Eno and bundles Q inside.
In a large, high-ceilinged work space, two nuclear-white Apple Mac computer consoles throb along a table with screens the size of plasma TVs. Wearing a shiny blue and white polka-dot shirt, pop cultureās best-known boffin is, unexpectedly, an exceptionally cheerful man. Over the years of their burgeoning friendship, heād let Chris Martin know he was no longer particularly interested in full-time producing for anyone.
āSo Iād implied I wasnāt interested,ā he says, āand then I had a very funny lunch with Chris and Gwyneth at their house. Chris said [begins bumbling], Look, um, I dunno, maybe, yāknow, I think we really need some help on this next record, someone we can bounce ideas off, and heās going on and on, Perhaps you could suggest someone? And finally Gwyneth interrupts and says, Look, why donāt you just tell him you want him to produce the record!? It was very sweet. Sheās very nice. And so is he. Theyāre all nice people actually, charming and intelligent and if Iām going to work with people it matters that I like their company. And I like some of their songs, a lot.ā
The sound of X&Y, thought Eno, suffered from excessive digital tampering, āthough I liked a lot of the material on there.ā
āTheyād slightly mis-stepped,ā he says, āwhich often happens with the digital, cutānāpaste, ProTools-type technology. It increases perfection at the expense of life in my opinion. It evens everything out. Dead music.ā His lone intention with Coldplay was to create āmusical life, the only thing I care about in music, now, is lifeā. To this end, as a non-musician himself, mostly he āencouragedā, suggesting freeform āexperimentation, stupid ideas, prattish things, some of which worked, some didnātā, Eastern instrumentation (Martin can now play the zither-like hammered dulcimer), and outright discouraged any moribund āperfectionist ethosā. Ask Eno if this album will take Coldplay into the pantheon of The Greats and he modestly demurs, much like Coldplay themselves.
āHistory is so quixotic,ā he muses, āso I donāt really think in that way. I personally think that some Coldplay songs will endure for a very long time. But itās life that lasts. When you sense somebody living at the edge of their possibilities. And thatās something I think you get with this band sometimes. I think you get it a lot on this record.ā
āI LIVE IN FEAR OF SOMEONE LEAVING. IF YOU DONāT HAVE YOUR SQUADRON YOUāRE FUCKED.ā
CHRIS MARTIN
The Bakery, 15 April, 2pm. āIāve got something to tell you,ā announces Chris Martin, ābut come out here because itās a bit soppy.ā
We loiter on the stairway leading into the lounge.
āYouāve directly influenced the album.ā
āWith the running order and bits of sequencing. After Iād spoken to you, it was obvious we hadnāt yet got the order right. It was very death-heavy at the beginning and thatās not the message we want to get across. Itās like editing a film. So it was very useful. So thank you.ā
Youāre very welcome. Just put me down for a royalty.
āHur hur!ā chortles Martin, while Q is acutely serious.
Today, Chris Martin appears to be an art-school student, his all-black T-shirt-and-trousers ensemble dotted with purple paint, hair sprouting ever-further upwards. Sitting at the circular dining table, heās painting the bodies of two acoustic guitars that have been covered with masking tape. Strewn around the guitars are pots of paint and two open art books on early-20th-century Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Madonnaās favourite). Today heās a verbal sorcerer, intent on blurring the lines between reality, fantasy and art-pop flights of tomfoolery. Not widely regarded as a rockānāroll Lothario, heās bawdier than you might imagine. āIāve got a Girls Aloud fixation today,ā he announces. āI want to do a cover of Call The Shots. Itās the combination of being extremely physically attractive with songs that are great, itās more than any man can take. I think it might be the ultimate form of life.ā Heāll invent outrageous lies, āand then I did a line of coke with some hookers and had sex with Neil Tennantā, and while contemplating the concept of a world without music yelps, āWell, thereās still sex, so youāve still got one of the best things left, donāt take that away, please!ā He attempts to explain the concept of his artistic endeavours.
āItās not really a concept,ā he decides, wielding a purple-dipped brush. āItās just the idea of everything being home-made. Thatās the whole purpose of The Bakery, that everything we do comes from us. We realised we were at the centre of this big corporate business so we were, Weāre going to set up, basically, a church-fĆŖte stall. And make our own cakes. And thatās what weāre trying to do. Musically. Make Mrs Battersbyās scones.ā
Heād rather tell you that, in fact, than fully explain the startling name of the album, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends, other than Viva La Vida (āLong Live Lifeā) is the name of a Frida Kahlo painting of watermelons that the band discovered in Mexico in early 2007. Martin is a fan of Kahloās āincredible optimism; she had a very tough life, was in a back brace through her life and was very influential, brave politically and also very sexy. And the other halfā¦ [of the title] I donāt want to explain it! Itās just a title. It could be called The Frozen Chosen. Or, Heroes Of The Ice-Cream Brigade. What colour shall I put on next?ā
Viva, as it will become known, almost featured Kylie Minogue, who recorded vocals for one song. āKylie is awesome,ā he beams. āSheās like Girls Aloud rolled into one. And then I took the song apart. Like a Corby trouser press. Itās now one of those half-finished models in a garage.ā When Kylie was in the vocal booth, the four Coldplay members were, he adds, ālike thatā [feigns an enormous swoon]. It takes Will Champion, eventually, to explain the concept behind the art-rock vision, a sort of Monty Python Goes Up The Revolution Down Mexico Way, Possibly Wielding A Catapult.
āThe visuals behind the album,ā says Champion, āis the idea of a slightly shabby revolution, not very organised but with intensity and passion and colour. The idea of this ragtag bunch of people storming into a palace and trying to overthrow whatever is there. Which is possibly an analogy for the way we approached the record, really rebuilding everything. Home-made.ā
Nothing at all to do with Mrs Battersbyās scones, then.
āI canāt help you with the scones.ā
Back at the wooden table, Martin abandons the purple guitar and contemplates his now supernatural fame. He loathes the tabloids, refers to their employees as āfascistsā and has long maintained a zero tolerance approach to talking about Gwyneth Paltrow, his wife of four-and-a-half years, who he never mentions by name (their children, Apple and Moses are now 4 and 2). This month, Paltrow announced in public that her husband has āa fitā if she talks about him. The pair live in both London and New York and are connected to the stratospherically famous; Paltrow is a long-time friend of Madonna and Guy Ritchie while Martin forged new friendships in 2006 with both Kanye West and Jay-Z, both of whom he recorded songs with, providing backing vocals on Westās Homecoming and Jay-Zās Beach Chair. He calls these collaborations āfun infidelitiesā. In September 2006, he sang backing vocals for Jay-Z at the first-ever hip-hop show at Londonās Royal Albert Hall. āPretty great,ā he says of the night, āI was on with Nas and Jay-Z. Wasnāt bad. For a little posh boy from Devon.ā He admires the invincible hip-hop spirit.
āA lot of these people arenāt British so they donāt have this inherent insecurity,ā he smiles. āAnd apologeticā¦ness. Hanging around with people who don;t worry about anything, thatās what I love. Itās such good energy to feed off, that confidence. Itās very free-ing. I just think Iām very drawn to talent.ā
Thereās a spectacular amount of crotch grabbing in the Homecoming video.
āNot from me I hope! Iād love to be a crotch-grabber but I can never find it.ā
Have you had a try, just to see what it looks like?
āIāve tried all kinds of things in the bedroom.ā
Jay-Z was being shot at when he was nine, what were you doing?
āGoing shooting,ā he quips, royally. āI grew up with shepherds and dairy farmers, yāknow?ā
Do you share any characteristics with Jay-Z?
āI feel funny talking about him. It sounds so ridiculous.ā
Mention his attending of Jay-Z and BeyoncĆ©ās recent wedding (the couple supposedly married in secret in New York) and, much like Jay-Z himself, he feigns no knowledge of it.
āWhat wedding?ā he deadpans. āI donāt know anything about that, I have absolutely no idea what youāre talking about.ā
Youāre friends with the biggest hip-hop star on the planet, itās exciting stuff.
āWell, someone has to carry on the tradition of Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, The Girl Is Mine. Yāknow, thereās a side of me that comes from where I come from that is, Oh, you canāt do this, be friends with that person, wear this, yāknow? And if you listen to all those rules you canāt do anything. You can just read Country Life.ā
Earlier this year, a heavily-hooded Chris Martin appeared on YouTube after a mobile phone video was taken of a scuffle in New York, Martin wrestling a camera from a photographer after he and Paltrow left hospital a few moments apart (she reportedly had a stomach complaint, igniting unsubstantiated speculation over a miscarriage) saying, over and over, āyouāve got to have some respectā. It looks pretty grim out there sometimes.
āThe last thing I want to do is talk about them,ā he says of the paparazzi, aggrieved. āBut listen, weāre not living in Nazi Germany, yāknow, so Iām not going to complain about anything. But I will say that you should ask politely before trying to take a picture of someoneāsā¦ haircut.ā
This week, the newly-back-to-work Paltrow (weāre 10 days before her āsuper-stilettoā shoes, worn to the premiere of Iron Man, make front-page tabloid headlines) announced they deliberately never go out in public together to thwart the idea of the ācelebrity coupleā.
Isnāt that, logistically, very difficult?
āIām afraid I have no comment on anything to do with that.ā
Surely youād want, sometimes, to walk down the street with your wife? And your children? And be slightly normal?
āWell, I have my cereal. And my lawn mower. Thatās very normal. Even though not many people have cereal on their lawn mower. Who wants to complain? Iām a rock star. Iāve got nothing to complain about. I can copeā¦ with anything except hair loss.ā
Before he leaves this evening, heāll produce a slim, credit-card-sized, silver case from his trouser pocket (itās his version of a wallet, āmy wife gave me thisā), flick through his cards and stop at a photograph of two blond-haired children tottering down a pathway, holding each otherās hand, with sun-light bouncing directly off their golden heads. A Walt Disney animator, directed by Steven Spielberg, could conjure no bigger āwowā factor. āThereās my kids,ā he says.
Itās good to see these children do exist.
āActually, itās just some random kids,ā he smiles and clicks the case shut.
The Bakery, 16 April, 2.30pm. Today, Martin has turned into a rockānāroll field marshal, bustling to and from the lounge and the studio, changing in and out of clothes that recall the military feel of The Clash in their Sandinista! finery. Coldplay are filming live rehearsals of the new album āfor the internetā and the rest of the band have redecorated the Live Room with wallpaper and murals. The beige back wall has transformed into a landscape of snowy Alpine peaks by deep blue water, other walls show autumnal woodlands and around the window that separates the rooms Planet Earth rises up in kaleidoscopic splendour amid a starry, hand-painted universe. On the walls the word āVIVAā and the phrase āTHE KING IS DEADā are painted in red and black alongside a framed print of Woody Allen. āSo we get our music from there,ā beams Martin, pointing to the universe, āand our lyrics [points to Woody Allen] from there.ā Above the mixing desk sit photographs of Jay-Z and Mozart. Chiming through a bouncy Afrobeat cavalcade Q has never heard before called Strawberry Swing, Martin shouts an encouraging ābrilliant playing!ā and, keen to get on, ānext!ā Today, the album is finally finished. It now has a radically changed running order, three different songs (Strawberry Swing, Reign Of Love and the phenomenal Life In Technicolor, the opening instrumental) and shimmers with life. Chinese Sleep Chant, meanwhile, has become a hidden track buried in the albumās centre. āWeāre just trying to squeeze as much as possible into something thatās small,ā twinkles Will Champion. Coldplayās Tardis? āBasically!ā
The great dichotomy of Chris Martin ā angel of belief on one shoulder, devil of damnation on the other ā is, say all of The Others, what lies at the core of Coldplay.
āChrisās energy is what drives the whole thing,ā concludes Champion. āHeās an amazing mix of total panic and worry and self-doubt, and confidence and absolute hysteria and fun. And you canāt really predict who youāre going to get. In him is a microcosm of the band; incredible self-confidence behind closed doors but also weāre quite surprised when people agree with us. We donāt expect to be adored.ā Ask Martin where his āgiftā for self-deprecation comes from and his theories are multi-fold: his dad (their personalities are similar), sex-free teenage years (āI think when youāre remarkably unsuccessful with women for 21 years it affects youā), but mostly itās his country.
āI just think itās a British thing,ā he decides. āI feel the same way about my band that Bono feels about his but I just canāt say it. Well, I obviously just did. Itās feeling like you can always do better. Like I never quite catch up with where I think we should be. Itās a permanent chase. Great-lag? Exactly! We have Great-lag. Weāre always three degrees of Great behind where we should be. Thatās my life. So if I sit down at a dinner and Elton Johnās next to me, Iām not going to feel that good cos I havenāt written Rocket Man yet.ā
Brian Eno, naturally, has the grandest theory of them all as to why Chris Martin ā the man he calls āone of the funniest people, he has a very quick, associative mindā ā would appear to find it almost impossible to take himself seriously.
āBecause I think one lives in fear of it,ā he avers. āBecause you see what it does to other people. It narrows you down. I was just reading this lecture by the scientist Richard Hamming [late mathematician who worked on WW2 nuclear weapon programme, the Manhattan Project]. And he said a consistent feature of science is that when people win big awards, like the Nobel, they stop doing really first-class work. And one of the reasons is, because they now take themselves very seriously, they donāt address themselves to small problems any longer. They address themselves to big, established problems. But, a lot of the most interesting things happen from addressing tiny things. A lot of the greatest songs come not from people thinking [gravely], Now Iām going to write a song about a nuclear holocaust, they come from someone tinkling away going [merrily], Ding ding diiiiiā¦.. oh, that sounds good. And if you take yourself very seriously, you donāt revisit these places. You feel youāre above them. And I think a lot of people intuitively grasp, even if they donāt articulate it, that if you lose touch with those things, youāve lost touch.ā
With Chris Martin, I donāt think Iāve come across genuine humility to this extent in any musician before.
āNo, I donāt think I have either.ā
Friday, 18 April, the day EMI release Viva La Vidaā¦ into the computers of a handful of media reviewers worldwide and Chris Martin shuffles up to the glass entrance of the circular IMAX cinema complex in Central London and looks even more bewildered than he did on Day 1. Today, heās in disguise, black hoodie up over his hair, eyes as big as ETās. āThereās been a band fight,ā he whispers, forlornly. About anything important? āNo, itās stupid!ā he wails. āWeāre all just coming out of that little cocoon. Weāve let the album go now.ā
Weāve come to see the Martin Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones tour documentary Shine A Light, at his suggestion. Sitting towards the back, the IMAX logo flashes onto the 65-foot tall screen, possibly as a personal message to the fractious members of Coldplay: āTHINK BIG.ā Martin keeps his hood up throughout and as The Rolling Stones finish each song is the only person to clap along with the crowd in the actual film.
Afterwards, in the IMAX cafĆ©, heās considerably cheered.
āIām inspired,ā he smiles. āI wanna go on tour immediately! Iām sick of being cooped up. What I love about The Rolling Stones is their confidence and their wry smile. And clothing. And they just seem so close. If you stick together, nothingās a problem. Thatās why I live in fear of being told to go solo, of one of the rest of the band leaving. Unless you have your squadron, youāre fucked. Iām going to go in on Monday and weāll make up.ā
We catch a black cab to North London and contemplate why Coldplay are quite so keen on the celestial soundscapes Q calls The Sound Of God.
āI wouldnāt go that far!ā he baulks. āBut thereās quite a big church influence. Because we all grew up singing in assemblies every morning. Of course. When you think about it, the most music we heard up to the age of 17 was singing hymns every day in school. Didnāt most people? In assembly?ā
āOh. Well a lot of places do! Here are the dayās notices. Hereās who's been expelled. And this is the hymn for the day. My favourite hymn is My Song Is Love Unknown. How does it go? I donāt want to do it. Iāve gone all shy! [The title appears in the lyrics to A Message on X&Y.] And I think it just comes out naturally cos itās been fed in so naturally.ā
OF MATTERS LIFE AND DEATH
The complete guide to Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends. By Coldplay.
LIFE IN TECHNICOLOR
Glorious instrumental. Originally a full song with lyrics, but when described by a stranger as an āobvious singleā, the words were removed.
CHRIS MARTIN: āItās nice to not have a singer on the first song come in and ruin it. This is our milkman song, the most whistleable thing. We took all the lyrics off because this song was our only safety net.ā
CEMETERIES OF LONDON
Folk-tinged ghost story written overnight after Brian Enoās assistant, Markus Dravs, deemed a song of Martinās āgoodā but not yet āgreatā.
CM: āI was mortified. But if you tell me to write a better song, Iāll do it. He said it was good but said it in a German way, If you come in wis ze song, itās finished, complete, great, I will say itās great. Zis is not finished, not complete and therefore I cannot say itās great. So I was, OK, fuck you, man! And the next day I came in and played Cemeteries Of London.ā
LOST!
Church organs swell over an earthy vocal where Martin is, āWaiting till the shine wears offā.
JONNY BUCKLAND: āWe recorded some of it in a church up the road thatās now a studio. In a huge room with a piano and organ going at the same time.ā
42
The three-part epic. Profoundly moving piano riff nods to Lennonās Imagine before strings swell and Martin hollers, āI thought you might be a ghost!ā
CM: āHitch Hikerās Guideā¦ related (The number 42 is revealed as the meaning of life in Douglas Adamsās sci-fi novel)? It is and it isnāt. 42 is my favourite number. 42 is just perfect. Weāve got two John Lennon songs, this and Violet Hill.ā
LOVERS IN JAPAN/ REIGN OF LOVE
Joyous indie-pop sparkler bleeds into bell-ringing hymnal.
GUY BERRYMAN: āCouldnāt we make our minds up? No, itās because we didnāt want to have an extra number on the CD. To keep it concise at 10 tracks.ā
WILL CHAMPION: āWe just preferred to have less titles and more stuff. The album as a whole has got the most on it, but itās the shortest. We wanted to make it almost impossible for you to not listen to it all in one go.ā
VIVA LA VIDA
Strident, string-led cinematic opus featuring lyrics about cavalries, missionaries and kings.
GB: āItās a story about a king whoās lost his kingdom, and all the albumās artwork is based on the idea of revolutionaries and guerrillas. Thereās this slightly anti-authoritarian viewpoint thatās crept into some of the lyrics and itās some of the pay-off between being surrounded by governments on one side, but also weāre human beings with emotions and weāre all going to die and the stupidity of what we have to put up with every day. Hence the album title.ā
YES
Mournful strings coil around the lowest singing register of Chris Martinās recorded life so far, played and arranged by musician Davide Rossi (discovered when Coldplay toured with Goldfrapp).
WC: āDav is like a one-man orchestra, he plays an electric violin that has everything, from the top note of a violin to the bottom note of a cello, all that range on one thing.ā
CM: āWeāve become very good at collaboration. And passing if off as our own work.ā
CHINESE SLEEP CHANT
(HIDDEN TRACK)
Juggernaut guitars and what sound like a choir of Angel Gabriels, along with utterly incomprehensible lyrics.
CM: āThe lyrics arenāt Latin, no! I will say this, if you take away all the guitars, what youāre left with is quite ordinary. But Jonny will always make things less ordinary. Without him weād be fucked. Itās true!ā
VIOLET HILL
The first single and the song least like everything else: thumping Beatles-meets-ā70s glam-rock featuring Jonny Buckland on āguitar synthā.
WC: āWe really tried to make it sound like this great big machine that was slightly knackered. Something thatās slow and grinding. Iām sure people wonāt get that! A psychedelic title? Violet Hill is a road in St Johnās Wood (North-west London).ā
STRAWBERRY SWING
Twinkling Afrobeat, Eastern guitars and a phenomenally chunky bassline that appears to turn into a didgeridoo. Astonishingly, this works.
WC: āA lovely, joyous song. Guy and I have managed to get more groove into this record than weāve ever managed before. A bit more swagger.ā
DEATH AND ALL HIS FRIENDS
Melancholy piano segues into spangling guitars and a male choir exalting, āI donāt wanna follow death and all of his friends!ā Vocals recorded in an art gallery in Barcelona that was once the medical room of an ancient nunnery.
WC: āThis is us singing all together and then another us singing together. The Coldplay Choir. And it had an echo that lasted for a long, long time. When we did a lot of group singing we just roped in whoever was around. Studio engineers, whoever.ā
THE ESCAPIST
(HIDDEN TRACK)
Church organ floats into a transcendental ambient instrumental written by Brian Enoās friend John Hopkins, who ādonatedā it to the album. Over the top, a plaintive Chris Martin sings of escape.
WC: āI think with everything this time, the recording, the artwork, the live shows and videos, people will see thereās more to us than they imagine.ā
Rock star? Stuck in a rut? Give the follicle-free producer a call.
āHEROESā
David Bowie [1977]
BEFORE ENO: Rockās foremost chameleon, Bowie had already put his inimitable spin on glam rock and funk, yet by the mid-ā70s drug addiction and an inability to distill all his best ideas onto one album were taking their toll.
AFTER ENO: Revitalised by the Cold War frisson of West Berlin and Eno's unorthodox recording techniques ā including the use of cryptic āinstructionsā contained in the Oblique Strategies cards he devised with artist Peter Schmidt ā Bowie emerged as the decadeās last great rock visionary.
HOW HE DID IT: Eno laid out Oblique Strategies cards around Hansa studios that he and Bowie selected at random ā āEmphasise differencesā formed the basis for Sense Of Doubt.
FEAR OF MUSIC
Talking Heads [1979]
BEFORE ENO: Tuneful, if lightweight, new wave New Yorkers led by angular nerd David Byrne. Debut album Talking Heads 77 suggested merely that they had the potential to be Americaās answer to XTC.
AFTER ENO: More Songs About Buildings And Food had its moments, but here Eno manoeuvred them to the vanguard of post-punk experimentation, taking on wiry guitar pop, electronic funk and even World Music.
HOW HE DID IT: By treating each song as a separate experiment: while recording Drugs Eno had Byrne jog on the spot to create a suitably breathless-sounding vocal.
THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
U2 [1984]
BEFORE ENO: Four highly strung young Dubliners on a mission to save rock'n'roll. Three impassioned Steve Lillywhite-produced albums had swayed middle America, but they were seeking new frontiers.
AFTER ENO: The biggest art-rock group on the planet. The studio ātreatmentsā devised by Eno and co-producer Daniel Lanois turned down the bombast, adding a widescreen sonic shimmer to songs big enough to take on the world.
HOW HE DID IT: Never one to neglect the details, Eno spent days recording and re-recording Edgeās guitar, even mic-ing up an amp in the grounds outside Slane Castle.
Translator's Note: Finally got around to dealing with this behemoth of an interview. Even though I'm improving over time with the methods that I'm using to scan the magazines, I'm still frustrated that I haven't gotten the scans to not be too tilted. That said, this article had so many pics that I love it. And the interview is far more substantial compared to the NME one.
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