Thursday 12th June, London
I feel very relieved that the album is finally released out into the big wide world today. it’s out of our hands now. It doesn’t belong to us anymore.
I hope that you like it. I hope that there’s song on there that will make a shit day slightly less shit, or a good day even better!
Thank you for your patience and support.
It’s ten years today since a cardboard box filled with 500 copies of the Safety EP arrived on my doorstep from the manufacturer. I sold the first copy to my room mate at university for £3. It took over a year to sell [or give away] the remaining 499. One of those copies found it’s way to Ms Debs Wild, then of Universal Records.
And that’s how all this got started.
Prospekt!
Portland, Maine March 19, 2008
Album should be finished by the end of the week. I’ll write up a tracklisting once we’ve finally decided what it’s going to be.
Prospekt.
PS - The actual title of the album is…
‘Viva La Vida
or
Death And All His Friends’
We’re finalising the tracklisting today.
Wednesday 30th January (2008) Devon, UK
Back home for a few days. A brief rest before the final push.
Another four or five weeks and we should be home and dry: another ten mixes + re-recording one of the songs from scratch.
In times gone by I would have set aside a month to re-record a track. However, the week before Christmas, we recorded two tracks in four days - Lovers In Japan and Strawberry Swing.
On the fifth day (Friday), Chris put down new lyrics (and new melodies) on two other tracks. It was far and away the most productive and exciting week we’ve ever had in the studio. I was buzzing all through Christmas. Since then, mixing has been slow and painstaking but that’s just the nature of the beast.
So… give us another month or so and we might just have an album worthy of your patience.
Prospekt. PS - album title ? prospekt!
Thanks to Coldplay.com for the great news!
Thursday 6th December 2007
Mixing in New York
The ups and downs come thick and fast at this point in the proceedings. One minute we’re all buzzing about the mix of Prospekt’s March; the next we’re crippled by doubt over the drum track for Lost. One minute we’re over the moon about a new artwork idea; the next, we’re all gloomy about our slow progress in designing the live show.
Later today, we’ve got a meeting about Coldplay.com and how to make it the best darn website out there!
(more…)
The self-imposed deadline looms and new songs have arrived, Famous Old Painters and Glas of Water.
It’s as if the pressure is a catalyst. The pressure to finish has triggered a new writing surge.
However, the deadline still stands…
With two new songs to explore and record, there’s a lot of extra work. But it can still be done.
The sense of focus in the studio is palpable. Much credit must go to producer Markus Drawvs for pushing to the point of exhaustion, but never beyond.
It feels like a very dense record. There are so many melodies and colours packed into a relatively short space [42 mins]. As you’d expect with Brian Eno, there’s experimentation and exploration. But there music still has integrity. It’s real and honoest. There’s no posturing or bombast.
The next few weeks will be intense. There’s no doubt about that. I’ve already developed a small patch of alopecia on my head. Guys’ got insomnia and Chris is up and down like a yo-yo. But when the deadline comes and the work is done, this will be the album I always dreamed we’d make.
Prospekt/Coldplay.com
This is the album I always dreamed Coldplay would make. It’s the sound of a band realising their own strength. The sound of four men with total confidence in themselves and one another. It’s the sound of a songwriter at the peak of his ability. Lyrically, and melodically. Chris seems to have broken through past constraints.
There’s a new confidence to venture beyond the limits of the known and confortable. An urge to explore and discover. His energy is electrifying - sometimes intimidating. A manic bundle of love, passion and rage. A voracious appetite for life, eagerly devouring every minute of every day. He knows that time is short.
Jonny too, has explored a whole new universe of sounds, magicking up a new world for each song. His guitars are all over this album.
Will has manipulated, mashed and spliced beats and time signatures to produce rhythms that lead rather than follow the song.
Guy - always the tastemaker and musical authority of the band - has guided and shaped the whole process, always pushing, but unafraid to rein things in when necessary.
The four of them together make up a formidable unit, and this is the album people will remember them by.
Prospekt/Coldplay.com
All back in the same room after a month off. I’ve missed the buzz. We’re still a few months from finishing, but already the arguments about tracklisting have begun. The plan has always been to make a short record. No more than 42 minutes, 9 songs [give or take] selected from the following:
Lost!
Cemetries of London
Violet Hill
Poppy Fields
42
Yes!
Leftrightleftrightleft
Rainy Day
To use a tired analogy, it’s like picking a football team. It’s not simply about individual talents, but overall cohesion and combined effectiveness.
(more…)
Friday 20th July 2007
We’ve been travelling light - an acoustic guitar, a couple of mics, a laptop and some headphones. We’re recording in Barcelona - moving from church to church, setting up where we can: in front of the altar, under the pulpit.
We’ve been playing at the feet of archangels. It’s an odd scene: a host of saints look down impassively upon four unkempt band members, circled around a single mic stand - singing loudly together as recorded guitars reverberate around the church. They’re laying down backing vocals.
(more…)
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