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Interview
by Inte Diskov
6-9-2002
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| Coldplay as frank as a monk... |
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Chris ‘The Honest’ Martin
Coldplay’s world in singer’s words
Coldplay are undoubtedly the most important band in the land right now, following in the footsteps of Oasis and Radiohead. They are The One, undisputedly, and their new album ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ has topped the charts in its maiden week and is expected to remain atop for a further month.
Interviewing the band, and singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist, Chris Martin, in particular is a serious experience with not many laughs; one gets frank answers that often reveal more that he’s intended to. Martin thus often finishes sentence with “…I shouldn’t have told you that,” and we’ve looked at some quotes that precede that expression. Or, in other words, what he later might regret having said…
“This is probably not the place to say it, but I can never really listen anything we do once it’s finished. There is always something that isn’t finished… But, it’s done now. When we listened to it in a mastering studio in New York, it sounded like another album by another band… And yet, it was months and years of work for us… and all the arguments, and all the frustration and all the changing on it and all the songs that didn’t make it. It’s bonkers and then – it’s just another album!”
“But, I don’t think we can do any better… I wake up in the morning and can’t believe I’m in mah… our band!”
“Errant children”
Martin expends his theory on songs by saying that they are like “errant children” that have escaped but they are still the best to their parent and he can’t but love them and still be on non-speaking terms with them. But, the band’s growing popularity hasn’t prevented him from being criticised by his uncle who told him that his lyrics were “awful, like ‘Yellow’, it means nothing.”
“I really don’t know where songs come from… At every level of making this record, and the last one, it were different stages of fear, what people would… Something arrives and I’d straight-away want to show it to Johnny (Buckland, 24, guitarist) worrying whether he’d like it and if he does then we’d worry whether Guy (Berryman, 24, bassist) would like it and then all three would worry whether Will (Champion, 24, drummer) would want to play on it. Each song goes through this massive selection, it’s like ‘Pop Idol’ for each song!”
“One of the main (inspirational) things on this album was Kylie’s video for ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head’ video, it was released about the time we started recording our album, and the moves were so great, I reckoned it would be great to have few songs that have a swing to it. And, if you look closely at our video ‘In My Place’, you’d see a move that we’ve nicked off Kylie… I wish I hadn’t told you that but it’s true.”
Different emo-guitaring
One sure sign that fame has moved in an artist’s residence is tabloids’ stories about whom he’s dating, like the recent nugget that he had taken Gwyneth ‘sissy Brit-men’ Paltrow out. If Martin has given into any pressure of fame it is by splitting up with his gorgeous long-term girlfriend. Perhaps it had also to do with his love for music…
“‘Daylight’ is like a George Harrison track with a lot of strings… It started as a jam in a studio, with all the noises going on… It is a blatant knock-off of (Echo & The Bunnymen’s) ‘The Cutter’ and I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”
“When Pete Waterman sent us ‘Green Eyes’ I thought it was a brilliant track and we just needed to put a few sleigh-bells on and have a Christmas Number One. But Jonny said ‘No, let’s do it acoustically, like on old Johnny Cash song and pretend we wrote it about a girl we met in America… When I say ‘we’, I mean me, he wrote a song about a girl I met in America.”
“‘Warning Sign’ is an old song and it’s the only song I didn’t want to put on the record and everyone else did. So, I got outvoted… The reason I don’t like the song is because it makes you feel sorry for the singer and whereas, in fact I know that it was written at the time when I was a total knob. That’s the great joy of music that one can present oneself as a romantic hero whereas in the real life, it was written in the period I was an immense dickhead!”
“The title of the album suggests impulsiveness, it is about now, if you like somebody, tell them now, seize the moment, you might die very soon.”
Thus, this is Coldplay’s carpe diem.
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Tour dates:
04 October - SECC, Glasgow
05 October - Telewest Arena, Newcastle
07 October - NIA, Birmingham
08 October - Arena, Nottingham
11 October - Arena Manchester
14 October - Centre, Brighton
15 October - International Arena, Bournemouth
17 October - Pavillions, Plymouth
18 October - Afan Lido, Port Talbot
20, 21 October - Wembley Arena
23 October - Odyssey Arena, Belfast
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Additional reporting by SaschaS
Inte Diskov
6-9-2002
Coldplay album ‘A Rush of Blood To The Head’ is available now on Parlophone
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