Pianists From England

"Every phrase can be a good lyric if it has the good rhythm."

"In the British vacuum of passive-aggressive public transport and mumbled apologies, Chris Martin’s stomach-ribbing charisma on stage can be as nauseating as doing star jumps right after lunch, and it’s not hard to see how the everlasting hate for Coldplay was born. But when we hate on them, are we just acknowledging that we want to experience more from life? Or are we negating the fact we feel these everyday – average, yet no less meaningful – emotions deep down, too? I think it’s a bit of both."

"Q: Hey, isn't that how McCartney describes the Beatles?"

"Life is beautiful in all its colors, even the darker ones, they’re here for a reason."

"Q: Do you think that the key in the new rock is going back to the electronic sound?"

"He (Jonny) just has a way of writing melodies that is perfect… I just love his playing so much. And in that song, we are always saying go and do a solo one day and he’s like, "I don’t do solo’s" and we sort of got him to do… And that’s his standing-on-a-mountain moment. That’s why being in a band is the best job in the world because your best friends bring in bits of music that you wouldn’t thought of and you piece it all together and you get Optimus Prime! source"

"One day in Haiti I was talking to a farmer. I said, 'I don't have any solution to these problems.' He said, 'Of course you don't! You're a singer.' He was right. Music is what I live for - and as Coldplay, our main job is to make the best music we can. But I hope that in our small way we can do something to raise awareness."

"We are very much a band and we always have been, and we are more than ever. In our personal lives and our professional lives, there’s this thing that links us where we would do anything for the others and its a very powerful feeling, to go have gone through everything we’ve been through with the same group of people. We knew each other when we had nothing. source"

"Even though some of the things I do can come across nerdy or unprofessional, it's at least true to me. Now more than ever, pretending not to be myself would end even worse. source"

"I’m not a big fan of people putting birds in cages because to me, that thing can fly, how can you do that? It's crazy. source"

"Say what you like about him [Jonny Buckland], he does incredible guitar animal impressions (Side note – Cow like noise during A rush of blood to the head). source"

"‘Well, okey, something got broken but hey, what you're gonna do? You're not gonna give up, you're never gonna give up.’ That’s the best thing my dad ever taught me. source"

"I think as people listen to the album more it'll become its own thing more, but it'll also become apparent how much we've plagiarised. To me, really, at the end of our album we should've had a bibliography."

"Q: Do you think of your band as a gang or a family?"

"Whether you're 15 or you are 55 or 80, it’s like, well I'm whole, I don’t have a missing piece, you’ve just got to find that wholeness within. Does that make any sense? source"

"There's too much information (on social media). Everything you do is available all the time, so the only thing you can rely on is not being false. source"

"It’s more egalitarian on the Internet, anyone can put anything up. But in terms of the money it takes to allow a band to get good, there’s less of it to invest. Music is split up now into little pockets. source"

"My entire life is spent trying to push him forward at photoshoots. He's our packaging, he's a handsome bastard. source"

"It takes a long time to get to know Guy and Will. That's why often people think [Coldplay is] just me. If you sit with us for half an hour, I'm the only one you'll get an impression of because I'm a loudmouth idiot. They're my best friends really. source"

"Q: And you decided to be a rock star, when?"

"The whole rock star myth, which is 40 years old and basically nonsense, has nothing to do with being a rock star. Everybody gets trashed and breaks things. By that standard, plumbers and heating engineers are just as rock 'n' roll as rock stars."

"Being nice is a lot easier when you're loaded. Of course I can be a bastard, but it doesn't make me feel as good as not being one. What I'm saying is, sometimes people think you're nicer than you are just because you've got loads of money and you can pay for things."

"Those have been the two biggest challenges of my life: trying to follow Radiohead, and trying to follow Brad Pitt."

"Coldplay is for people with great taste, intelligence, incredible good lookingness, talent, ability, success, grabbing of life. Coldplay's for people who know what life's about. They're always entertaining. Delightful to talk to. Sweet, charming, incredibly good in bed. Virile. They have incredible success with girls, or boys, or both. They're generally just the world's best citizens. Maybe I'm biased, but I'm definitely right."

"I think that the fact that a relationship becomes public is a bit of a bummer. Because it can distract from the real reason why you're together, which is that you just like each other. source"

"It's weird that whatever else is on your mind, whether it's the downfall of global economics or terrible environmental troubles, the thing that always gets you most is when you fancy someone. source"

"They grow cheap tomatoes in Ghana, but I saw market stalls stacked high with cheap tinned tomatoes shipped in from Italy. If Ghana tries to export to Italy they are whacked with tariffs. It doesn't make any sense. We are making money out of these people and they can't afford to send their kids to school. We've got to keep banging on about fair trade. If people knew what misery these trade laws created they would be shocked."

"Economically, unfair trade will benefit nobody in the long run, as poorer countries will be bled totally dry and will become unable to produce anything. source"

"Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it's out there in the world it's no longer ours. source"

"Q: What’s the strangest place you’ve ever woken up?"

"Anyone who criticizes me for talking about fair trade is really a few pebbles short of a beach, because everybody should care about it, just like everyone should care about the environment: because we all live here. MTV, 2005. source"

"To be a frontman you have to be half very driven and half a total knob. I like to think I'm both."

"The thing I really believe deep down is that everybody has a gift for something. Our job as adults is to make sure all children have the opportunity to find their gift."

"We did a song for Johnny Cash, we recorded it with Rick Rubin and everything and all that was missing was his vocals. He was going to fly out to LA the week after he died. It’s really sad. 2003 source source"

"I come from a farming community in the west of England, where the very idea of going to America was a golden dream. There’s still a part of me every morning can’t believe that we are allowed to be there. There is always a sense of possibility. Of course it has its challenges and its ups and downs, but there is always an optimism that I find exciting. Maybe it’s because the sun shines in LA every day and you are surrounded by lots of other creative people, but I feel a great sense of, ‘OK, what can we make?’ And it’s nice to be by the seaside. I feel very grateful. source"

"I think when you're as talented as me or you, you don't need to have an ego. On a serious note, the people I most admire in the world in my field have never shown that much ego to me. source"

"Q: Are you worried that if you start living it up you'll stop writing good songs?"

"What keeps me going is that I could die tomorrow so I’m always trying to live every day. source"

"It’s hard to perfect a happy song. Pharrell managed it. Stevie Wonder managed it. Bill Withers managed it. I haven’t managed it yet."

"The closest I got was in 1997. I was on a train; I’d just been to Devon to get braces fitted. I felt so self-conscious, I was like: ‘Shit, what am I going to do? I’m 19 and I’ve got braces.’ Then the train stopped at Castle Cary, and everybody from Glastonbury got on. And I just melted in the corner. [laughs] Did they all seem cool? They seemed so cool! I was just like: ‘Shit, how do you get that cool?’ So that was my closest experience to Glastonbury; being on a train and feeling like the nerdiest of nerds, because my mum had told me to get my wonky teeth fixed."

"Radiohead gave me hope. They were the band who gave me permission. I'm a public schoolboy from Devon and I'm not supposed to be in a band. Well, they proved I could. I thought, I'm a bit like them. Jonny was OK because he's northern and so is Guy."

"I know I'm going to get shit for saying this, but yeah, I don't want to be too happy. To write I have to feel slightly sorry for myself. You have to be in a slightly self-obsessed state of mind to sit at a piano for six hours and not worry about meeting someone for a date. My best songs come when I have that feeling that I've left the party early. And the other reason our songs are all about struggling and worrying and being beleaguered is my dad. He's a terrible worrier. He's always after the next thing. And I am too. Luckily the other members are more relaxed. Three other members like me and we'd go nuts."

"My mum always said to me she doesn't believe in sleeping with people before marriage. She's not being prissy. She's very rock 'n' roll--it means doing what you feel and damn everyone else--and she reckons waiting and committing leads to great sex. I didn't agree entirely, but I haven't slept with many people. I didn't lose my virginity until two years ago. If I was good with women I'd go and enjoy it. But also I'm obsessed with the band, so I refuse to commit to a relationship... I'm an ambitious little tosser."

"“I always ring my dad when I want to quit, and he goes, [in a plummy voice] ‘Well I wouldn’t give up yet, boy.’ So I think, ‘All right then. I won’t.’ He’d be a brilliant boxing trainer. He sprays me down, rinses out my mouth and tells me to get back in the ring and sock that (Alan) McGee fella for six.” source"

"Up until 23, the concept of death hadn't occurred to me, then someone asked me if I'd heard about Jonty, this friend from school. I said, "No, what?" "He's dead." I used to play football with him. That's amazing, isn't it? Life is right now. It's not a morbid realisation, it's exciting, I find that feeling of time constraint very liberating. Nobody has an answer. We all die in the end. So come on, let's do something now. source"

"I think girls are amazing but I also feel really guilty about doing stuff with someone that you don't really like. I don't believe there is such a thing as casual sex. Someone always gets hurt and I hate that feeling. One thing about girls is that I get scared. I get scared of my feelings being in the hands of another person, I know that feeling of waiting for a girl to call. That's scary."

"It was so terrifying, the plane was all over the place. Once a year, for a week, all this dust blows over from the Sahara Desert, you could not see a thing, I couldn't see the ground and as it turns out, nor could the pilot. I found out we were about 200 metres up. The plane dropped off violently to the right then way over to the left, it was lurching all over. But somehow the pilot pulled it off and landed. I don't know how he did it, I was convinced he wasn't going to. Did the pilot know Chris Martin was on board? I don't think he gave a flying f**k. My mind was racing and I thought, 'My daughter will have to get a stepdad.' I also thought, "I've written a will. The band have finished the album but they know how I want to finish certain songs.""

"Q: What if you're having a rough day and something has upset you, how do you go out? How do you overcome that?"

"To know where you come from makes where you are even more special."

"Life is miraculous. Even when it's disastrous, it's still incredible."