Chris Martin dropped by the Rolling Stone studio yesterday to chat about Coldplay's fifth album Mylo Xyloto, a record which reunites the band with Viva la Vida collaborators Markus Dravs and Brian Eno. This time around, though, Eno was less involved in production and more engaged in the actual performances. Below are some of the excerpts from the interview - in which Chris was unusually unassuming and candid. You can also watch and download at the Coldplay forum now [thanks Blue Nails & zzz]
On working with Brian Eno for the new album: "Brian Eno has become, not a session musician, but a player," says Chris. "He loves to just stand in the circle and play with the band. So he's kind of more of a band member than producer this time, which is very fun, because he comes up with very strange ideas and crazy noises, which quickly become irreplaceable. The key bits of advice that Brian has given us are really to do with self-confidence and not being afraid to really reflect what we love and what we listen to and not be concerned about where we might fit in the overall scheme of bands - and try and be a bit more fearless. As Englishmen - as as musicians 50 years into rock music - we can get a bit intimidated by all of our peers and people who have gone before us. But he {Brian] makes us forget about all that when we're in the studio which feels very liberating.
On the release of Mylo Xyloto, Chris talked about how it sounds and how it might 'fit': "I feel that now's the time more than ever to make albums, if that's our specialty is. We do that better than we do singles probably, and we still love listening to 45 minutes of one person at a time. Although we are well aware that it might be shooting ourself in the foot, we've tried to make a coherent piece that all links together from start to finish. A bit like making a great horse-and-cart just as automobiles were coming in... but that's ok! The sound of our record is un-clear to me at the moment. It's too early. Once you've handed it over you can't listen to it again because you just hear problems. So I remember a week or so ago when we finished it sounding quite 'colourful' - I don't know if they're good colours or bad colours but they're definately different colours in places."
Chris also spoke excitedly about the band's collaboration with Rihanna on the new song "Princess of China," noting that her contribution is the best singing on the record. He said: "We had this song called Princess Of China about two years ago, which we secretly wanted to offer to Rihanna to sing, but I really liked singing the first verse. Then the sweep of the album came together and this song really fit as a damaged love song and so after about six months of not feeling brave enough we got in contact with her and asked if she would sing on it. Fortunately for us she said yes. And it's by far and away the best bit of singing on the album!"
On the future, Chris said: "We have no plans at the moment, past Thursday. It's a day at a time; we can't take anything for granted any more, it doesn't matter if you used to be big or famous, you have to prove yourself all over again. We don't have any immediate touring plans, we just got to see if anyone is interested in listening to our new album. We are all between 32 and 34. I don't really care anymore about being relevant, I just am happy to be with that group of people, being very fired up and very focussed, and the people that want to enjoy our music - we love them and we welcome them. In terms of where we fit in - I don't care."
More photos of Coldplay at Austin City Limits festival (16th September 2011):
Pictures: ACL Festival @ Flickr
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.