A Billboard award here, a couple Grammys there.)
But the other stuff all comes with us.
We have a studio guy who comes and builds this wherever we tour.
Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland talks about the first time he met Chris Martin.Anna Lee*
But I think it would be very hard to do this and be a complete introvert.
I guess youve probably written a lot of music while touring.Yeah, more now.
Certainly its easier in the earliest stages when youre demoing.
Its quite tricky to record properly here because we dont even have a drum kit.
Its just somewhere to come and listen to stuff and to keep going.
Chris [Martin] definitely is keeping some of them quite close to his chest.
So hell be like, I have a song.Yeah, exactly.
Were like, you’re able to play it now.
Hes like, Its not ready.
What a tease.I know, I know.
Do you get Coldplay songs stuck in your head?Not old ones, no.
I dont think so.
Itd be annoying if that started happening now.
But new ones, I do, as were working on them.
Do you know what I mean?
Well, it depends.
Sometimes theyre just done.
Sometimes its easy, and theyre just done.
And then sometimes afterwards youre like, Was that the right way to do it?
But Im quite good at letting them go once theyre done.
I dont worry too much.
Do you agree?Yeah, I do think its different.
I think we feel quite confident about it in a way maybe we didnt feel quite as sure before.
I feel just more set in what we are trying to do.
And what do you think led to that?
How do you get to a point where you feel that confidence?It is hard to articulate.
I think that it became clear that the tour wasnt about us.
But how do you let go of all that stuff?Because its not about us.
Because its about the people coming.
Can we do it?
Can we achieve this?
Of course, part of that is, Can we achieve people having a nice time?
But really we turned it around to be that its only about can people have a nice time.
If we do what we can do, then hopefully they will.
Its a slightly different attitude.
By many measures, Coldplay is the biggest band in the world.
Is that whats given you confidence?Well, no, I dont think we see it like that.
But we took a long break from touring.
When we didEveryday Lifein 2019, we didnt do any touring.
Wed taken a year not doing very much as well before that.
And then after that, then there was Covid, and we didnt meet up very much.
So we had a good five, six years where we didnt tour at all.
I think we were just ready to come back and do it.
We wanted to break that cycle.
Why didnt you want to tourEveryday Life?We never intended to.
So you didnt need something to fill an arena.Yeah, it doesnt have to sound big.
It could be more intimate.Yeah.
So we did that just before the pandemic, and then that was our pandemic album really.
I want to go back to the beginning a little bit.
I know that you and Chris met during college orientation.
I know he heard you playing in your room.
How far into the year was it?A few months.
I think by December, wed maybe had a few practices, tried writing some songs together.
He was like a whirlwind at the time, just, Oh, you play the guitar?
And do you remember what you thought when he said that?I thought, Great.
That was literally why Id come to university, to try and be in a band.
So it was like, Oh, yeah.
This was a room with about four baths in it, and we played some stuff there.
Did you immediately think he was good?I think it was more me thinking he was good.
But he approached you.Well, true.
I think maybe I was the only guitarist around or something.
[laughs] Occasionally Im quite skeptical about the shape of some of these planets.
Im like, I dont think thats possible.
I think I would be awful as well.
Id be awful to be around, just really stressed and on edge.
But yeah, as soon as youre on stage, its fine.
My uncle played the guitar.
So they were around, and I thought, Oh, that looks quite cool.
Maybe I can get my brother to teach me some stuff.
The first thing I learned was the chords to Kinky Afro by the Happy Mondays.
Did you know you were good pretty early on?
Were you getting good feedback?
[laughs] No, not really.
I think I just thought I was good.
No one else did.
But then somehow it was.Yeah, yeah.
So you knew.Or I got extremely lucky.
Both things can be true.Yeah.
I think that if you dont want things to happen, then they probably wont.
But if you dont want it to happen, its definitely not going to.
Do your kids recognize that their dads a rock star?
Do they think youre cool?I dont think so.
Youd have to ask them.
I dont think so.
The album that youre working on now is going to be an animated musical?Yeah, its interesting.
Its going to be different.
Which makes sense.It makes sense, but sometimes it has the opposite effect.
You end up pulling things apart that were quite good because youre just a bit tired.
Now we do less, but do more; less time, more stuff, faster.
So its just good to get outside and see something nice.
The Grammy Awards are coming up.
I thought that was quite sweet.
I suppose I only read the big numbers like Sabrina Carpenter and Beyonce, so lots of great records.
I go pick them up so I can force them to talk to me in the car.
Theres been some wonderful moments, but I wouldnt say one was particularly higher than another.
We were quite miserable, confused.
After that we changed a lot of stuff, so it was good.
But we also didnt have Phil [Harvey] then, which didnt help.
He is the fifth member, our creative director.
He is involved in everything.
Hes a sounding board for every idea, every song, everything.
And hes just a nice person to have around, especially for Chris, I think.
I feel like when weve done big moment concerts, thats when I feel the most connected to it.
And this tour is probably a high point.
Playing Everyday Life in Jordan on top of the hillside.
Also, it was freezing cold, and the album made sense doing it like that somehow.
So what do you do now?
Whats your pre-show routine?Im going to meditate for about 20 minutes, eat some dinner.
Ive been hanging out with your crew, with you, with Guy, and everyone seems very calm.
But yeah, I think generally as a band weve gotten calmer.
Thats an ongoing process.
We got back and we got our own studio, the Bakery.
We got a home.
So you actually doubled down.Yeah, and it was great.
It was suddenly like, Oh, weve got a home.
Weve got a place where we can put all our stuff.
We can just come anytime and play.
And we rediscovered a love of music and experimentation.
Im always interested in these points in peoples lives where something shifts.
They were very supportive.
They didnt display any stress about it all to me anyway whether they felt it or not.
Well, maybe them and three others.
Was it weird that they were there?No, it was great.
It was nice because that was the first time theyd seen us, I think.
They were very supportive, as parents have to be sometimes.
Or is it more being in this moment?Its much more being in this moment, much more.
With Sparks in particular, it felt like quite a special recording session for some reason.
I remember thinking, God, thats so far off.
I cant even think about it.
I dont know how you might think three albums ahead.
It could be another 10 years.
So I didnt worry about it, and I havent worried about it.
I suppose everything has to end at some point.
And I dont really want to imagine.
Im happy to experience it at the time.
And I dont know how long these next two albums will take.
People suggest timelines that we almost never stick to.
Some events can overtake you.
