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Music on the Road

Coldplay uses its 'Head'

By Joanne Suh
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Thanks to a Grammy-winning debut that sold 5 million copies worldwide, Coldplay has traveled the world, absorbed new sights and sounds -- and poured it all into their much anticipated follow-up, "A Rush of Blood to the Head."

One of today's most acclaimed U.K. groups, Coldplay won a Grammy earlier this year for best alternative music album for "Parachutes," which also earned the band a couple Brit Awards and a nomination for the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Music Prize.

The bandmates headed into the studio last October to start work on their new record, which took 10 months to make. "A Rush Of Blood To The Head" reflects a harder, edgier sound; one song, "Politik," was written just a couple days after the tragic events of September 11.

Coldplay is comprised of Chris Martin (lead singer/piano/guitar), Jon Buckland (guitar), Guy Berryman (bass) and Will Champion (drums).

The band is about to kick off a three-week U.S. tour. The members sat down with CNN in Los Angeles to talk about their new album.

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'In My Place' the new video from Coldplay. (August 29) Play video

CNN: When I talked with you (Jon) early last year, you said the ultimate goal was to someday make the perfect record. So how close did you come with "A Rush of Blood to the Head?"

BUCKLAND: I've got absolutely no regrets about this album. I think it is absolutely the best we could do. I think all of us put everything we had into it.

MARTIN: That doesn't necessarily mean it's good though, it's just the best we could do.

CNN: After receiving all the accolades for "Parachutes," how much pressure did you feel making the next album?

MARTIN: The pressure we felt came from ourselves. It's the same thing that's always driven us since the first day we sat down and played songs together. When we have a new song that we're really excited about, we put pressure on ourselves to record it properly and make it as good as we possibly can, and we don't think about how many people are going to buy it or how many people are going to like it. We just wanted to make the best possible thing ever, and we were wanting to do that five years ago when we first met.

And so, when you lock the door of the studio and you go to make a new record, all the sales and the awards É they don't mean anything because you're just back to where you were before it all happened.

CNN: Is the new album harder?

MARTIN: It's definitely a bit harder because that's what we're into these days. I was really scared to play electric guitar before, or to hit the piano really hard, and Jonny's turned everything up to 11. We wanted to because that's what was exciting us. And maybe the next record we make, we might really be into the oboe, and it'll be an album full of oboe tunes.

BUCKLAND: Certainly over the past couple years, we got into a lot of different types of music and bands that we'd never been into before. One of the greatest opportunities "Parachutes" gave us was to travel the world and buy records.

MARTIN: And meet people that we think are really cool and talk to them about music.

But also, outside of music, the opportunity to travel has really opened our eyes to lots of stuff we didn't know about before. Everything from Fair Trade stuff to who the New York Yankees are. It's just like a big sponge of experience. I didn't have a clue where Alabama was a year ago, I didn't know what the capital of New Zealand was. It's great and so you learn all these things and you get interested in politics and environment and all that stuff. So hopefully that all contributes.

BUCKLAND: I don't think any of us had really paid attention to -- before we started touring -- was country music. We kind of ignored it and then we came over here and Guy (Berryman) especially bought a lot of records and we were listening to Johnny Cash ...

MARTIN: And Hank Williams, Graham Parsons, but then getting into things like Dr. Dre and Eminem and then things like Nick Cave. Just anything. We just thought after awhile that just because we're middle-class white guys from England doesn't mean we have to only listen to middle-class white guy music. That was really liberating.

CNN: How did "In My Place" come to be created?

MARTIN: The song, "In My Place," was the first song to be written for the record and it came out like most of our good songs, purely by accident. My friend has this organ that came from China that people used to play on boats I think. You have to sit there and pump it with your feet, and I was just messing around on this instrument because I thought it was amazing. Suddenly this song just came out, all the words and everything.

CNN: And what is the song about?

MARTIN: It's about the madness of your place in the world, how you wake up one day and you realize, "Oh right, I live in England, and my parents do this, and why was I put here?" It's about your position in the world. Why am I not a Chinese farmer, see what I mean? Why is Jonny not a butcher from Wisconsin? It's about your position in the world and how you have no control over it