Coldplay on La Repubblica XL (italian music magazine) + interview + Mylo Xyloto review + some new sp

coldpatrix · September 29, 2011

Greeting from Chris and Jonny to XL

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/29256909" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/29256909">I Coldplay salutano XL</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/larepubblicaxl">videodrome-XL</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

http://vimeo.com/29256909

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

The album review - wow, 8.0/10, very impressive. It says 'Mylo Xyloto is a bomb - it's only question of when it will explode into you!'

And now, some special pics taken from The Beehive from the official website of the magazine...

___________________________________________________

INTERVIEW:

Coldplay are pissing in front of John Lennon. Seating of WC, they are looking at The Beatles in Hamburg. But it's not lack of respect - it's because in Bakery's bathroom [...] they hanged two pics on the wall: the first shows Lennon in the '70s with an Elvis Presley pin; the second one The Beatles in Germany in 1960, before Ringo Starr came in the band, when they were not-so-well-known.

'Can I go to the toilet?', asks Guy Berryman, Coldplay bassist, the coolest of the band, a beautiful browned hair guy. He's a thing about marathon and he's used to run and run with Chris. Strange: Guy looks dangerously like Joseph Fiennes who fell in love with Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare In Love. And Gwyneth is the Hollywood star, married with Chris. It could be so nice to ask Guy if he had had a casting for that movie and about resemblance...

I'm not here talking about movies, but on the new album, Mylo Xyloto (the first ask 'What the fucking hell it means?' will win a peluche-Mylo Xyloto), out on October, 25th (in Italy that's the release date), anticipated by the two singles ETIAW and Paradise. [...]

I see Berryman vanishing in another room so I go upstairs in the Bakery. On the walls graffitis are all over. They reminds me the new album atmosphere and ETIAW video. Will comes to me - he's the factotum in the band, called 'the decisionist' of the gang. Anyway, my interview is planned with Chris and Jonny. So, look at there: they are sitting on a table, seeing a picture of a young Elvis Presley wearing a a cowboy hat, between his mum Gladys and his father Vernon. 'That's right, we are Elvis fans, of course'! Sounds weird: Coldplay are intrugued with rock history, they feel respect for the past but at the same time with Eno they are loking for a future outside rock music for their songs. That's the reason of Princess Of China - a duet with r'n'b' queen, Rihanna.

Let's start with the title (yes, we want to talk about it too!) Chris, what's Mylo Xyloto? Which language is come from? It seems ancient greek but...

It's very very modern english! It has to be pronounced [Mylo Ksailotou]. Two words invented by us, as the band name. Coldplay doesn't mean anything. Or, wait a minute... It's not true we're not meaning anything: it's 'cause Coldplay didn't exist as a word in the dictionary but from 1998 on it identifies us. And, as Mylo Xyloto, is a word you can't find googling in the web. So, you cannot trust in Internet to know what it means. We wanted a fresh, original, unknown word, linked only to us and no more. [A word] like Yaho, Google and iTunes: mysterious and different from all the stuff you could find surfing on the web...

Chris, in ETIAW you sing: 'I turn the music up/I shut the world outside'. It's a teenager stuff, isn't?

Not only that. It's usual for us to escape from reality through music. We do it. Before MX studio sessions, for two entire years every morning I ran and ran and, in the meanwhile, I have listened a different album every day. I was back to be a music fan: I forgot how was wonderful listening to our colleagues music.

Talking about Charlie Brown, if you can listen to it you realize you like Arcade Fire a lot.

Yes, we are not scared to confess. This love for them has to be pulled out somewhere and in some ways. It's really important for us to keep our fascination for the other bands alive, without feeling envy. Competition is ok, but you have to recognize the other bands value. After our Grammy, Radiohead sent us a letter with all their congrats

MX is yout fifth album but, sorry for that, i'm still not aware about a thing: Buckland is or is not a great guitarist? Chris, what do you think 'bout it?

He's not very highly thought of, because he doesn't show off technique. But I think 'guitar gods' (whom usually play so long solo riffs) are ridiculous. Jonny is great because writes fantastic melodies. I love him. Yes, Matt Bellamy is a bright musicist and Jonny Greenwood is very good, but in my opinion Jony is still the number 1.

And you, Buckland, what's your response?

My favourite riff is in Neil Youg's Cinnamon Girl, 1969: a single note, that's all

Is it true that MX was influenced by George Orwell's 1984 and Cormac McCarthy's The Road?

Yes, the concept of this album is the story of two people oppressed by the world they're living in. They meet each other, they fall in love and try to run away together. Paradise talks about a girl who's feeling lost, Charlie Brown is the male character running away with her. It starts like a bad moment but it has a peaceful and sweet end.

Like ETIAW, a song dominated by a euphoric rhythm, with some end of 80's house elements. Did you get mixep up with? Did you go in Spain during summer to dance, like thousand of english people?

Who? Us? Nope, we attended our middle schools in that period! We went in Spain on holidays, but along with our parents. They forced to go to bed at 10pm. Never seen a disco...

So, where did you heard Ritmo de la noche that's the background of ETIAW?

In a movie called Biutiful, directed by Inarritu, starring Javier Bardem. There was a scene in a club and someone played Ritmo de la noche, even if the original rendition was by Peter Allen, a 70's singer.

It's a perfect dance song. Why did you let Swedish House Mafia to remix it?

Initially, we asked this to the Sicilian Mafia but they were not so interested into. Can we joke with the Sicilian Mafia, right? We love Sicily. Do you think someone won't take it easy?

No, I don't think so, but it's much better going on with this interview. Let's talk about MX artwork. I see you have dozen of books about graffitis from every part of the world and the artwork itself was drawn by you and your friend Paris, a writer from Bristol. Why?

It's freedom of a total expression. We paint - or, at least, we making a scene with spray cans. We thought about a very cool graphic project, but in a second moment MX's music forced us towards experimentations. We are on the scene since more than 10 years, so sometimes we feel ourselves force to go as far as we do. Everyone has an opinion about us and on the web there's too much negativity. So we stopped us and said: let's invent a new our own private world, with our colours and our street art. As in a gang: to distinguish ourselves and to be not so scared of.

Are you scared about something? Why: you sold millions of copies and Viva La Vida... was the best selling album of 2008! Chris, are you afraid about what?

Nothing indeed! But when a band becomes big and important - and we were for a while (What? Is he humble now?), you appeals to too much people and not everybody spend such good words about you. It's for this reason we have never googled our name.

With some strange lyrics as 'I'd Rather be a comma than a full stop', you were asking for it!

... my relatives firstly! My uncle wrote me a letter and said that part of ETIAW is terrifying! But in my opinion is a good thing: at least i'm not dead. There's a comma, and something will happen tomorrow.

Let's criticise yourself by our own now. Why in your latest gigs you tributed Amy Winehouse singing Rehab, with that macabre verse like 'They tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no, no'?

Because we have had some gigs during the same week Amy was found dead. And it is a great song indeed! Even Apple and Moses are used to sing it. And they also know every Katy Perry lyrics telling 'bout Roipnol and other pills. They also repeat a verse from Lil Wayne's Lollipop: 'She said lick like a lollipop'. It's just pop music, nothing to be worried about.

______________________________________________________________

REVIEW ABOUT MYLO XYLOTO:

A boy meets a girl, they fall in love and fight to be together. The oldest story in the world is also the concept on the basis of Mylo Xyloto (read the interview to understand the meaning), the fifth album by Coldplay, the follow up to Viva la Vida.., the 2008 best selling album in the world. But luckily concept doesn't mean prog, even though MX is an important progression from their past records. Far from enoxified U2, they got close to the triumphant Arcade Fire rock, showing they listened to bands like Vampire Weekend [in Major Minus] and the immortal Talking Heads. Their inspiration comes also from unexpected places, such as the '90 dance music. Trying to find a sample able to convey euphoria in Every Teardrop.., they tought about the hit song by the house band Sacados [El Ritmo de la Noche - who's over 35 knows them well], which was stolen from the '70 singer Peter Allen. And even though the lyrics go in the opposite direction [the lack of an aim in life, drug addiction, a degrading job that wears out your soul] music is euphoric, pure adolescence ecstasy looking at the stars, fists in the pockets and deep sighs. And it's incredible how in Martin & Co's hands a song about alienation such as Every Teardrop.. becomes a life saving hymn. MX lives on the contrast between sadness/euphoria througout, so Hurts Like Heaven is able to put Arcade Fire, non-dark-coloured Cure and mystic U2 (Unforgettable Fire) in the same melodic line. Charlie Brown is the hit Arcade Fire will never have (bet it's gonna be the single after Paradise). And Us Against the World is the bittersweet romantic ballad that the album couldn't miss. MX is a bomb: just give it time and it will tick in your heart.

Rating: 8/10 - Suggested record to be compared with Mylo Xyloto: Arcade Fire - Funeral

Just to compare, here all the ratings for other albums:

Apparat: The Devil's Walk 6.8

My Brightest Diamond: All things Will Unwind 7.4

Justice: Audio, Video Disco 7.3

Noel Gallagher: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds 7.0

Zola Jesus: Conatus 8.0

Steven Wilson: Grace for Drowning 7.5

Peter Gabriel: New Blood 6.5

Evanescence: Evanescence 5.0

David Guetta: Nothing But The Beat 4.8

...A Toys Orchestra: Midnight ®evolution 7.0

Bedouin Soundclash: lIght The Horizon 7.8

Machine Head: Into The Locust 7.9

Tom Waits: Bad As Me 7.5

and others...

Later I'll post a news with a brief summary on Coldplayzone...

Texasluvsjonny · September 29, 2011

Ha did they think Coldplay painted the Bistro that bright color as part of their MX campaign? :lol:

the_escapist · September 29, 2011

Ha did they think Coldplay painted the Bistro that bright color as part of their MX campaign? :lol:

Yep, I guess so... Amazing pictures and I think the pics are actually from the Bakery not the Beehive. John Lennon in the loo.

BTW, Patrizio, could you translate the interview into English? Thanks!!!

coldpatrix · September 29, 2011

There might required some time... i'll do that as fast as i can, i promise!

coldpatrix · September 29, 2011

Here the news on Coldplayzone:

http://www.coldplayzone.it/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1758:i-coldplay-su-la-repubblica-xl&Itemid=139

the_escapist · September 29, 2011

Thanks Patrizio!!! Indeed you're really nice!

coldpatrix · September 29, 2011

Ok, traslating the interview...