INTERVIEW: Coldplay’s Chris Martin Says The Band Is Hungry To Tour

Coldplay released its seventh studio album, A Head Full Of Dreams, last Friday. The follow-up to 2014’s Ghost Stories sounds far more energetic from the outset thanks to the lead single, “Adventure of a Lifetime.” That’s not a coincidence; lead singer Chris Martin told me the album is reflective of the band’s current temperament.

“It’s really the sound of us being comfortable with being in Coldplay, if that makes any sense,” Martin explained. “We’re very grateful to be here and we’re not really worried now about… I get it that our music isn’t for everybody and I think once we let that go, it’s very liberating and so we feel free to be the band we really dreamed of being.”

Any artist needs to feel comfortable in his or her own skin, so perhaps it makes more sense that Coldplay didn’t tour behind the last album, opting instead to begin work immediately on new material.
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“There’s a real hunger in the band, and a real fire to get going,” Martin revealed. “For some reason, the album we just made is feeling really fun to play in rehearsal and it makes sense with some of the older songs too.

“I’d say the set list will be sort of, colorful, and so will the look of the whole thing.”

As of press time, U.S. dates for the band’s forthcoming tour have not been released. Coldplay shows in Europe are on sale and some South American concerts have also been announced.

“I was watching a band called The Flaming Lips in 1999, and Wayne (Coyne) was speaking to the audience like we were his friend,” Martin recalled when I asked him about the rapport he develops with the crowds that Coldplay performs for. “And I’d never seen anybody do that before. I’d always sort of felt like you had to be detached somehow or pretend you were on a slightly higher level – which works for some people, great. But for me, it doesn’t work.”

Coyne later instilled in Martin the confidence to simply speak on stage as he normally would to anyone else. Self-admittedly it sounds “clumsy and awkward” at times, but always authentic.

As for the album that the quartet will support on the road, it features a number of collaborations. Coldplay enlisted the help of Beyonce, Tove Lo, Noel Gallegher and Merry Clayton for different tracks. Avicii, the superstar DJ who produced “A Sky Full Of Stars,” for the band returns and assists with “Hymn For The Weekend,” the song that Knowles sings on.

But perhaps most meaningful for Martin is the feature at the end of “Adventure,” – a number of people were in the studio yelling “Woo-hoo!” at song’s conclusion, including his children Apple and Moses.

“I know that we had to get permission from their parents,” he joked about the kids’ involvement. “Luckily, we are their parents!”

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