Chris Martin discussed Coldplay's upcoming 2011 album with the BBC over the weekend, saying that the lyrics are "from the point of view of two people who are a bit lost. Two like-minded outsiders who meet in a very difficult environment and therefore have a journey together." Martin added that, "It's a concept album but it's supposed to be very personal within a big framework. Does that make sense?" The new record is being co-produced by Brian Eno and Marcus Dravs, who were also onboard for 2008's Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.

I like that Eno is involved again. I find myself going back to the last record more than any other.

Coldplay's always the same for me--I love each album for about three months, then I lose total interest. I'd learned my lesson by "Viva La Vida" and didn't buy it. To me they're like James Taylor or The Eagles: pleasant enough to hear, unnecessary to own.

You should delve into The Eagles more, my friend.

Any recommendations?

I mean I'm not an Eagles diehard, but I definitely think they are really good. Hotel California is an incredible album.

Hotel is incredible, and steals most of the focus. But, do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, and check out the Desperado album. It's my personal favorite.

I have, it's also really good.

"Viva" is possibly their best, you should pick it up. Lost is a great song. Lost + added a great vibe with Jigga in it.

nothin to do with the new album.

T'is the season
Coldplay performing their new single Christmas Lights at the Liverpool Royal Court on Sunday night, joined by Take That's Gary Barlow

The Eagles are horrible. So is Coldplay.

I agree with the Dude

Coldplay Members Talk New Album Themes

January 10, 2011


Coldplay

Last Friday, Coldplay's Chris Martin and Will Champion sat down with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe to discuss the band's upcoming fifth record, due out later this year. Martin described the record as being about "love, addiction, OCD, escape and working for someone you don't like. "He added that it was a "thinly veiled account of what happens within the group." Martin also downplayed previous reports that the new album is a "concept record."

Martin added that the new songs are "supposed to be about life, the good stuff and the bad stuff. Everything."

Drummer Champion told Lowe, "There's a phrase which my wife told me from a book, I can't remember which book, but a man is asked, 'Are you married?' And he says, 'Yes, of course I'm married. I have a wife, kids, the whole catastrophe. Catastrophe just means something big and seismic but not necessarily bad. It's all about embracing the whole thing. Appreciating the good and bad and realizing it's all part of life."

The as-yet-untitled Coldplay record is being produced by Brian Eno and Markus Dravs, who were behind the boards for 2008's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends.

Roadie #42 - Blog #128
23 March 2011 11:59 am
Songs are blossoming and roadies are blowing things up


Perhaps it’s the weather.

The change of season has removed the permanent blanket of grey cloud from over London and we’re getting day after day of clear blue sky and blazing sun. Similarly with the record, the fog of infinite possibilities has lifted and, for me at least, the songs are appearing in a whole new light.

I guess it demonstrates the idea that nothing focusses a creative mindset more than a hard deadline. Although the festivals are still comfortably on the horizon, they’re marching ever closer with each day. This not only provides a solid target for having things tidy, but also brings plenty of spring-like new growth of its own.

Plans for how to present Coldplay live in 2011 are well underway, which means production meetings, old faces, new ideas and a whole host of very talented people from across the globe passing through the Coldplay world once again. Each brings a bucketful of ideas and concepts, some of which will become defining features of the tour, some of which won’t make it off the drawing board. All of it looks exciting at this stage, though.



The first sightings come on a trip to an aircraft hangar in the middle of the countryside where Production Manager Wob Roberts has assembled all manner of new gear and technology to assess suitability and potential for both the festival shows and beyond. I tag along to film proceedings to send off to band members who are on half-term with their families.

The hangar itself, I’m told, is situated on what used to be a hugely secure and secret military base. Here, boffins once prodded, wired and evaluated the next level of war machinery. By rather lovely and heartening way of progress, we found the place full of crazy-arsed roadies blowing shit up, running around with the hugest toys imaginable and generally making a wonderful mess in the name of creating a bloody good time for crowds of music lovers. Perhaps there is still hope for the world?

Back in the studio, the songs are now very much pushing their heads above the soil and straining towards the light. I suspect that the band has had a reasonable idea all along of how things will feel when they’re finished, in the same way that a sculptor sees the finished piece, but just needs to dig it out of the block. There’s been much chiselling and smoothing and now things are really developing a recognisable form and an emotional resonance.

There’s no better aural equivalent of the bursting growth of spring than the laying on of backing vocals. Brian is back in the fold this week and the fellas are gathered around the mic for much of the time. It’s a tremendous thing to get close up to. When the guys are belting it out with the track on headphones, all that can be heard in the room is the blast of harmonies. It’s huge, powerful and yet completely unaided by technology, just a pure, organic human bloom.



Other spurts of growth are taking place on the top floor, as Dav Rossi gives a few songs his string arranging magic touch. My office is next door, I hear Chris standing in the doorway of Dav’s room listening. “That’s amazing, just great.” He stays a while and listens, then heads off down the stairs proclaiming to no-one in particular: “Maybe this album won’t be so bad after all”.

Regular viewers will doubtless be aware that in terms of hyperbole and enthusiasm, that’s pretty excited talk around here…

I’d say then, that winter is well and truly behind us and the summer is shaping up rather well.

R42

I'm very interested in their new album. Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends is far and away their best album. I like the first one, the second was good but more of the same and the third one was pretty awful so I was really surprised at how good the fourth one was.

Roadie #42 - Blog #129
5 April 2011 9:20 pm
#42 and the wonky studio


Greetings folks, from my little room at the top of the Beehive. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I could swear that things have got more wonky up here since we moved in. And I mean that in a purely physical sense, not a psychological one. We’ve got bits of wood under the fridge to try to level it up and there’s a pretty hefty crack appearing down the side of the staircase. Whether it’s just the building breathing, or whether I’ll find myself on top of a passing double decker one day soon, only time will tell.



Aside from the cracks down the stairs, there are further building modifications going on. Somewhat amusingly, before we moved in here, the place had been squatted and the walls were covered with graffiti. Part of the refit was cleaning up, re-plastering and re-painting so we were surrounded by pristine white walls.

Since then, bringing everything full circle, Chris seems to have become very friendly with spray-paint and Will, with most of his parts recorded, has also begun to express himself rather colourfully all over the walls.

I didn’t find out for a long time that the Viva logo was something Will did whilst at a loose end during the last album sessions. The four bars, one red and three black with the V I V A letters across them had been up on the wall in the lounge area of the Bakery for a long time. Because I was so accustomed to seeing the logo all over the place - on the huge stage drape, on t-shirts, tour programmes - everywhere, I just assumed that the small one up on the wall in the Bakery was just another, maybe a decal or something. But when we were filming the band getting all the wonderful fan postcards a couple of years ago, the subject came up. Will proudly explained that it was the original and all his own work.

This week is eerily quiet here. From the look of things, this may be a “family week” at home for the band, which means everyone still here gets a chance to catch up with work and make a start on preparations for the festivals.

EJ, one of the band’s lovely assistants dropped by the other day with passports fresh back from the travel company. I’m now on my fifth passport since starting with Coldplay back in 2002 - that’s a lot of pages stamped and an unthinkable number of miles travelled. The impending festival run is hardly a lengthy world tour, but it’s a reminder that we’re going to be back out in the world soon and that the warm comfy cocoon of the studio isn’t forever.

In an attempt to take the edge off the mad-dash panic that band rehearsals tend to be, we’re getting a head start on gear repairs and maintenance. Bash has been in with a new kit for Will, which has been suitably attacked with the spray-cans. I’m busily sampling a lot of the old keyboards that we’ve taken on the road with us for years - trying to shed a few cargo pounds. Matt McGinn is tearing apart Jonny’s world to satisfy Dan Green’s desire for true stereo.



It’s not all silence in the studio though, as Chris and Brian appear to have snuck back in during the ‘quiet week’. Like mischievous little boys, they’re pulling the songs out and seeing if there’s some interesting ways in which they can twist and distort them. Markus has been at the reins very solidly through this session and has done a sterling job at keeping everything progressing towards the finish line. A little bit of coaxing happy accidents from mad experiments can’t hurt though. And it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening downstairs. I want to find an excuse to nip in and take a look, but I also don’t want to break the spell.

Either way, I can’t wait to hear the results.

R#42.

these guys still around then?

huh

Roadie #42 - Blog #130
27 April 2011 8:03 pm

#42 is busying himself for festival season


We had an email go around recently from our fearless new production manager (you’d bloody have to be…), Wob Roberts. It had the subject line “More changes - No change there”. Now, that could come across as snidey moaning, but given Wob’s unflappable nature, it’s clearly just the knowing wink of someone who’s seen it all before.

The process of getting a tour together, much like any creative endeavour, is something that starts with a blank sheet of paper (or in the festivals’ case, an empty field). The change from the empty field to the huge event doesn’t happen in one big lightswitch-like flick. It happens over the course of an incredible number of planning meetings, decisions, experiments, triumphs and trashings.

The entire journey is a procession of changes - some tiny, some huge, but all whizzing past you and altering the landscape at an alarming rate. When you first experience this, it can feel very uncomfortable. There is almost nothing solid to build from, because nothing stays the same for very long.

It never really gets any easier, you just get better at ignoring the voice in your head that is constantly screaming “run away”.