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Coldplay's Secret Member - Davide Rossi


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TRANSLATION OF ARTICLE ON DAVIDE ROSSI FROM BERLINGSKE TIDENDE, FRIDAY 24 AUGUST 2012

 

COLDPLAY’S SECRET MEMBER

 

Groundbreaking. Coldplay is known to be a close-knit quartet wanting to control everything themselves. But a young, Italian violinist has – if any – had influence on Coldplay’s successful sound in recent years. Coldplay’s “secret” member is called Davide Rossi and lives in Copenhagen.

 

By Lars Rix // [email protected]

 

When Coldplay enters the stage for their totally sold-out concert at Parken in Copenhagen on Tuesday, it will probably be without the musical safety net in the form of a backing band otherwise used by most stadium bands. Coldplay have a rule that they never have other musicians onstage. Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and frontman Chris Martin are very careful not to let anyone into the close-knit unit that they have formed (had) since 1998 when the final kit was formed for what has developed to one of the greatest rockbands in recent times. Only the band’s manager for many years Phil Harvey enjoys the status as the quartet’s confidential “fifth member”.

 

Therefore it was so much more spectacular when – at a Coldplay concert to support the victims of the Haiti earthquake in January 2010 – a shadow appeared on the backdrop when the group played the number “A Message 2010”. The shadow belonged to the young Italian violinist Davide Rossi – and the reason why the band in that way sort of broke their rule of “no one else onstage” is obvious.

 

The young violinist can to a large part be credited for the very successful “sound” of Coldplay on their two latest albums “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” and “Mylo Xyloto”.

 

In October 2006 the band started the work on the follow-up to their 3 first albums that they had seen as a trilogy, and frontman Chris Martin wanted Coldplay to move in another direction. After a Latin America tour they hooked up with the world-known producer Brian Eno whose colleague and friend for many years, the guitarist Robert Fripp, had had Davide Rossi as his student for several years.

 

Rossi who was born in Torino in Italy began playing music at the age of four, and at the age of 11, he entered the Conservatory Giuseppe Verdi under the guidance of Maestro Ivan Krivensky. It was obvious that Rossi had an extraordinary, musical talent that reached far beyond the traditional classical way.

At the age of 19, he became a student of legendary guitarist Robert Fripp and followed intensively his Guitar Craft courses for a period of nearly four years before moving to London. He achieved a BA in composition at the Bath Spa University College and a MSC in Digital Music Technology at Keele University.

He met the British musician, songwriter and producer William Gregory who also has a classical training and a predilection for electronic music. Gregory was together with the singer Alison Goldfrapp forming the band, Goldfrapp and invited Rossi to join the band when they played live. In the following years Rossi was touring most of the world with Goldfrapp, and he had got a foot in the rhytmic music industry. In 2005 Goldfrapp was the opener (warm-up group) for Coldplay on their “X&Y tour”, and it was here that the young violinist and Coldplay got acquainted with each other for the first time.

 

“After the tour we started to meet in London, where I, Jonny and Guy often went to pubs to talk about music and drink some beer together. During summer 2006, Jonny began to mention they had this idea to try something with a violinist and they thought about me.

 

This idea turned into reality in November of the same year, when I met them in their studio in London. I still remember they were working on a song called 'LeftRightLeftRightLeft' and they asked me to try some violin lines over it.

As soon as I started playing my Violectra I noticed Chris jumping and from that moment I became part of the team”. Davide Rossi recalls in an interview with the British Q Magazine.

 

And when Rossi went in the studio together with Brian Eno and Coldplay, his carrier took off, and the cooperation lasted until February 2008. Together with Coldplay, within this period Rossi creates a quite new sound universe for the band where Rossi makes use of violin, viola and electric violin to create a quite new foundation for the band’s music.

 

“Davide Rossi is like a one-man orchestra”, says Coldplay’s Will Champion about the cooperation, whereas Rossi himself – in an interview with Coldplaycorner.com – describes the cooperation as “unique”:

 

“I love when there is a drive, character and will to create the absolutely best possible music. Something that can last long. And I have been so lucky to be allowed to work with Coldplay and many other musicians who live up to this. They are not only some fantastic musicians, but also some nice guys”, he says.

 

When “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” is released a few months later, Davide Rossi’s work is featured in 6 of the album’s numbers – i.a. the dreaming soundscapes heard on the first single “Violet Hill” that was an improvisation that Rossi together with keyboard player Jon Hopkins did together during an early session with the band at their studio in London. And on the band’s second single from the album, the title track “Viva la Vida”, Rossi’s violin carries almost the entire number as a perfect support of Chris Martin’s vocal.

 

The album “Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends” is the best selling album globally in 2008, and both “Violet Hill” and “Viva la Vida” enter the top of the charts all over the world. And when 2008 is over, Coldplay has won a number of prizes. Therefore, the cooperation between Rossi and the band is almost obvious on the follow-up, “Mylo Xyloto”, and when this their latest album is released in October 2011, Rossi’s violin can be heard on 9 of the album’s songs.

 

And even though Davide Rossi is not onstage at Parken on Tuesday, then it will be possible to hear his violin in the arrangements because it is a so fundamental part of Coldplay’s sound today that a Coldplay concert without the sound of his violin is not possible. And if possible, Rossi will also be among the audience, because even though Coldplay’s “secret” member in recent years is cooperating with a number of other musicians and is travelling the world almost non-stop, then Copenhagen is his hometown – together with London. He has lived in Copenhagen with his family the last couple of years. Tucked away from all the bustle:

 

“I never searched for the spotlight so far, even though I never even tried to refuse it, to tell the truth. The main thing for me, however, is to work on quality. This is perhaps the inheritance I got from one of my Masters, Robert Fripp. Thanks to this attitude I always try to start as if each day is the first day! And I think this attitude is almost necessary if you want to really enjoy what you're doing. Am I enjoying myself? The answer is yes!” – so he said to Q Magazine.

 

Sources: Q Magazine, coldplaycorner.com, daviderossi.co.uk, Wikipedia.com

Coldplay at concert at Parken in Copenhagen on Tuesday night.

 

 

PROFILE: DAVIDE ROSSI

 

Davide Rossi has not only worked with Coldplay and Goldfrapp, but also with a number of other musicians. You can hear his violin on releases with Lee Hazlewood, Siouxie Sioux, the Verve, Röyksopp, Jon Hopkins, Alicia Keys and Moby.

 

At the same time – thanks to his Danish connection to Copenhagen, he has also worked with a number of Danish musicians such as Kasper Bjoerke, Blaes Bukki and Anders Trentemoeller.

 

Translation by Nancy Boysen

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