Coldplay Lives: Chris Martin dismisses solo album idea

Breathe a sigh of relief, the Coldplay frontman has given us his word that he is not about to go it alone and inflict songs about falafel on an unsuspecting public, a report in today's Guardian newspaper confirms today. Speaking in the recent interview, the Coldplay frontman dismissed the idea, admitting he "can't think of anything worse".

Martin said the chances of him going alone were remote: "Hell would have to not only freeze over, but be skated over and completely closed up. The pope would have to declare that it didn't even exist," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. There is in fact only one conceivable possibility for a non-Coldplay album by Martin arriving in shops: "It would probably mean that I've been dumped by my wife and I desperately need the money," he said.

Even if a solo album isn't on the horizon, the next Coldplay record is already on Martin's mind. "I think the next one will be quite stripped down and based upon this story idea, which I can't talk about because it might be bad," he said. Whereas Viva La Vida was partly inspired by a negative review of X&Y in the New York Times, the singer revealed, the band's latest music is motivated by recent accusations of plagiarism.

"We're being accused of not writing our own music. So it's like, 'Well, I'll just write better music,'" Martin said. "On my grandfather's life, I promise that I didn't mean to [rip anyone off]."

Then again, Martin's appetite for originality doesn't mean that the band will be making any major changes. They will not, for instance, be adding jokes to their songs. "We're not as lyrically mature as all that yet," he said. "We're still dealing with teenage angst. We're working our way up to witticisms."

Martin revealed that he derives inspiration from sudden "sparks", "some word [that] sends your mind going". "Like 'falafel,'" he explained. "That hasn't happened yet. But then I would probably go to the guitar, and since it's 'falafel', I would probably start with an F chord, and then I probably would try to link it to the breakdown of a relationship."

It's probably a good thing about that solo record.

Chris Martin at DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit, MI (2 June 2009):