Coldplay frontman Chris Martin says the British rock band, as a unit, plans to release 12 "proper albums" out of which it has already put out 10, including the upcoming Moon Music. The five-member group, also comprising guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey, is currently on its "Music of the Spheres World Tour".
In an interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe, Martin said it's important to set a "limit" to what Coldplay needs to do as a group. "We are only going to do 12 proper albums, and that's real...Because less is more. And for some of our critics, even less would be even more. It's really important that we have that limit. There's only 12 and a half Beatles albums. There's about the same Bob Marley, so all of our heroes. And also having that limit means that the quality control is so high right now, and for a song to make it, it's almost impossible, which is great," the 47-year-old said.
His comments hark back to a 2021 interview Martin gave to BBC Radio 2 in which he said that Coldplay will stop recording new music in 2025, adding the band will only tour then and maybe "do some collaborative things". Coldplay, known for songs such as Yellow, The Scientist, Clocks, Fix You, Paradise, A Sky Full Of Stars and Magic, was formed in London back in 1997.
In the new interview, Martin said the members are trying to improve day by day instead of "coasting" at this stage of the band's career. "That will always continue in some way, but there's something about the Coldplay thing. I don't know where the songs come from. I don't know where the ideas come from, but that's just been coming to me for about four or five years now. Like, 'You have to finish like this,' and I trust that just like I trust the songs. So if we do something together after that creatively beyond touring, then it'll be something different, or it'll be a side thing, or it'll be a compilation of things we hadn't finished," he added.
Another reason why the singer wants to retire from making albums is because he wants to give "the others some of their life for themselves". "I don't want to be, when we're 60, be like, 'Will, we need you. Come on! We can do better than this!'". According to Martin, the quintet is having more fun now "than ever".
"Because of getting older, because of COVID, because of everything going on in the world, because of how lucky we know we are, because of the places we get to go, because of the optimism that it gives us to see all different kinds of people gathering together, because of songs that arrive from nowhere, because we go at a slower pace. All these things mean that we love it," he said.
Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour -- which began in 2022 in San Jose, Costa Rica -- will also come to India to perform three shows in Mumbai in January. The tour will conclude on September 8, 2025, with a show in London.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI
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