Coldplay is a musical giant. But selling millions of albums and winning a pile of Grammys hasn't turned members of the band into egomaniac rock stars. While on tour, they spend their time doing things like any average Joe, writes the Omaha World-Herald.
“Often we have our families with us and that keeps us very busy. We play soccer. We read. We do all the things that everyone else does,” said Coldplay drummer Will Champion. The group's “Viva La Vida” tour stops in Omaha on Saturday.
“Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends” was released in 2008, selling millions of albums and garnering the group three Grammys, including awards for song of the year and best rock album. Their cloud nine has been darkened, though, by several musicians (Joe Satriani and Cat Stevens among them) who claim Coldplay stole their songs. On the phone from Coldplay's studio in London, Champion answered questions about his band's music (creating it, performing it and giving it away) before the band embarked on its tour...
Q. Cat Stevens said you ripped off his song “Foreigner Suite” to make your song “Viva La Vida.”
A. I have nothing to say other than we wrote the song. It's strange that people don't accuse of us stealing songs that aren't successful. It's baffling to me. People always try and pull the wool over people's eyes. We know exactly — to the minute — where and when that song was written and so on and so forth. We're not worried about it.
Q. Do you guys think it's getting ridiculous?
A. Well, a little bit, you know. It goes with the territory, unfortunately.
Q. Have you been working on any new material?
A. We have actually been in the studio working with Brian (Eno) again and doing some interesting writing. We're definitely back in writing mode, although we're just about to leave to come back on tour again. Right now, it's just a bit of fun in the studio. We'll see what materializes.
Q. What's it like working with Brian Eno?
A. He is fascinating. He's a mixture of like a professor, a musician, an artist, a mathematician. He's a very interesting man and very inspiring to be in the studio with. He's always full of new and innovative techniques to get us to approach music in a new and interesting way.
Q. You're billed as the multi-instrumentalist in the band. What instruments do you play?
A. Anything that's lying around in the studio, really. I tend to shift around a bit and play piano here and there or play a guitar or play some kind of percussion or drums or drum machine. Just anything, really. We all play different things, Certainly in the last recording session — for “Viva La Vida” — we were all switching around quite a lot, which was a lot of fun. We all just play whatever's there.
Q. What can people expect to see on the live show?
A. It's a mix of the four records. The focus of our live show is to make big venues feel like small venues. Everything that we do is an attempt to try and create intimacy that is not normally there in the big arenas. Trying to get people to feel involved as possible. We try to reach as many people as possible. I don't want to give too much away, but we have varying techniques of getting around and seeing people.
Q. You're giving away a live CD (“Left Right Left Right Left”) at your concerts this summer. Why give it away instead of sell it?
A. Times are tough, and we feel like it's a way of repaying the people that have basically allowed us to be where we are.
Article: http://omaha.com
Coldplay at the AT& T Center, San Antonio, TX (10th June 2009):
Pictures by sa_spurs_tx
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