[Poll] Who or what will have the biggest influence on Coldplay's fifth album?

In our new poll, we're asking you to decide who or what will have the biggest influence on Coldplay's fifth album. You can vote for your choice at the poll on the left of the page. Based on previous interviews with the band and news articles on LP5, the shortlist is below. You can also comment on the poll at the Coldplay forum, and we will synch the frontpage/forum poll results later in the month. The best comments will be published with results soon...

Roadie #42 on the solar system: Frontman Chris Martin stunned his crew this week by asking them to build him a model solar system in the band's new studio. "Here in the studio, it's difficult, if not impossible to anticipate what's coming next and what you'll be asked for... it shouldn't really come as any surprise then, that within an hour of my first day back after South America, Chris comes up to me with the following: "I've got a little project for you". "I'm not sure whether to be excited or terrified", I reply. "I'd like you to build a solar system..."

[A source said: "Chris likes to create a certain mood when he's in full creative flow. He had a real interest in 18th Century revolutionary politics when he was piecing together Viva La Vida. Now he's really got into the universe. The crew scratched their heads a little when he first came up with the request but they're cracking away now."]

Chris Martin on EMI: "What success lets you do is have complete freedom when we go back into the studio. We feel more excited about making music than ever because we know that if we do something good some people will enjoy it. It's a great thing to have a record contract, it's what every band dreams about. But ours does last until we die, basically. I wouldn't change it because we're having a great time. I would maybe change some of the figures! Artistically, they give us total freedom. We signed for a lot [of records], it won't be the last one. We're 'owned', we can't do anything without asking someone's permission."

[Talking about their EMI record contract, Chris Martin stressed the importance of having the support of the label.]

Guy Berryman on Brian Eno: "Yes, he (Brian) is not so involved in production, but he's joining us to test new songs, one or two times a week. It's great to have him around - he always brings new ideas and makes us think differently, escpecially with the rhythms that we use. The structures of the songs are very different and he is always willing to try something new. He gets bored very fast, so to keep his interest we have to keep moving with new ideas."

Roadie #42 on the Beehive: "Everywhere you go there's light streaming in. Even on a relatively gloomy British afternoon, it's noticeably bright inside. I can only imagine that this will be reflected in the new material. Talking of new material, the studio whiteboards are positively exploding with plans, schemes and fragments of fresh ideas. In some places, when Chris has run out of white-board to write on, he's carried right on to the adjacent plaster. It's like the tour was an 18 month session of shaking up the fizzy drink bottle of the band's imagination - and now they're back in the studio, the lid has been unscrewed."

[The Sun has focussed on Coldplay's new home, saying online about Viva: "The last one was written and put down at their London studio The Bakery. Now they have moved up the road to a posh new purpose built facility."]

Guy Berryman on recording restrictions: In an interview with Brazilian outlet Terra, on 28th February 2010, Guy said, "We're working on a new album that is more acoustic, organic, without wanting to sound small. We have some limitations in the manner of recording, the equipment we use - for now, we're only using acoustic instruments and very little amplification, which sounds good, but we don't know where it's going. But we have many songs written and we're very pleased with what we've done so far."

Chris Martin on the Joe Satriani affair: "That thing is painful for us, because it's just something that is not true and it's happened to us five times now on the same song - where someone says that 'you took their song' - five different people with the same song. And it also happens to be our most successful song... no-one ever says we stole our unsuccessful songs! But the good side of that was that after that whole embarassment we thought we'd better write some even better songs. So in two years time if anyone looks at that information and say, 'this band have got 57 great songs, and these people who say they wrote Coldplay songs haven't. So it becomes very inspiring."

On keeping it intimate with fans: Sources close to the band say that Chris Martin's made a conscious decision to develop a more acoustic, "stripped down" sound on their next album, and move away from the grandiose and big budget sound that characterized 'Viva la Vida.' Speaking to the Herald Sun, an anonymous source said that Martin's "determined not to be seen as a huge commercial rock juggernaut, filling stadiums and cashing in." In opting for a more acoustic, modest sound, then, the band hopes to keep themselves "as close to their fans as possible."

On the Latin American influence: Coldplay revealed Don Quixote, a song that was debuted live at River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires on 26th February 2010. Coldplay fans have embraced the song, hoping it would make it on to LP5, and according to Wikipedia, Don Quixote, fully titled The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha (Spanish: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha), is a novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes created a fictional origin for the story by creating a fictional Moorish chronicler for Don Quixote named Cide Hamete Benengeli. Don Quixote was introduced by Chris Martin as a song written especially for the Latin America tour 2010. On the C-stage in Buenos Aires, Chris Martin said, "We had such a great time in Argentina, Mexico and Brazil (2007), it would be good for us (Coldplay) if we had a special song that celebrated how much we think of the Latin American audiences. We decided to write a song about the magic escape that the band receives when they come to Latin America".