Pianists From England

"If you can give someone the pleasure of not liking you, maybe that’s as valid as the pleasure of liking you, some people want to assert themselves by showing the things they don’t like. It’s a form of positioning yourself. We all do that. I get it. But I’m more focused on the people who do like what we do, and there’s a few of them. I like hanging out with those people. If you ever liked Coldplay, then we’re going to really deliver on our promise over the next year or so. It’s not guarded music. It’s about very open things and that might not resonate with some people. But I don’t want to obscure our music behind coolness or cynicism just to avoid criticisms. Because for some people it really connects, and I need it, too."

"If you don't let love really in then you can't really give it back. source"

"[As a teenager] I felt like there must be more to life than rugby and cheap cider on the weekends."

"It does something to your brain which is odd... you have to work really hard not to be a real d**k (in personal life). source"

"Ever since our band came out, we have been a very polarising group because we do a certain thing very well."

"I guess it's maybe because the industry has been struggling and you don't sell 50 million in your first production, all the numbers are different from when we all started. I see that there's quite good camaraderie (between musicians). Obviously, there are those who want to stay out of it. I don't know about music, but in backstage or at airports, everyone seems to get along very well. source"

"There is no music that has full meaning for everyone. It's what we have learned from the world: that no one thinks the same thing."

"As a rule, I take a piece of paper and a pencil and for 12 minutes nothing is written in your head without editing, without censorship, just to get it out of your mind. After that it gets read and the paper is destroyed immediately. It's very good to write a song with what has been left in your memory, without reading it again. It's as if you chose the best, the memory is that selective... Do you know what is also good for creativity? Write fast. Once a week, don't eat for 24 or 30 hours. Your brain becomes very lucid about ideas."

"If I listen to a song that I like, my first instinct is to find out who made it. "Oh, these were the Sherman brothers who wrote 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' and a lot of Disney songs." That kind of thing. There is a part of me that wants nobody to know anything about me, but it is not realistic, what is even more strange to me is some things that are said about me. Because it comes from a fake quote or rumors. But I am guilty of it. If I listen (for example) to a new Rihanna song that I like, I want to know who made it."

"We've made a choice or I've made a choice recently to really say how I feel about the world and love and togetherness, and what I think would be great, you know? And I think when you sing about a very positive thing like that it's not fashionable until you die if I can be totally honest. It's not taken seriously until you're gone, but that's okay. (...) In the moment when you're alive saying it some people would say "Oh, fuck off." source"

"After we did the Super Bowl, we took so much s*it, and then we went on the biggest tour we’ve ever been on, it made me realize: okay some people really like what we do and some people really don’t – and we love them equally. I’m just happy and grateful to be a human, I don’t mind if you don’t love what we do but we do love what we do. source"

"How it did - in terms of commercial performance, is not how it feels to us. At the time it felt like this is not quite finished and not quite right. source"

"There's stuff going on in the world right now, which you can't imagine why is this happening; it's crazy. I don't know what the answer is, but if you didn't have faith in the universe that somehow something great would arrive at the end, then we'd all give up, and that would be a waste of everyone's time."

"Just because a romantic relationship ends doesn't mean that the other facets of your relationship have to end... or, indeed, doesn't mean they can't get better."

"Celebrity culture has gone crazy, and I think the reason is that real news is just not bearable, and it also seems impossible to change anything."

"I’ve been banging the drum on that sort of thing, environment sustainability, for a long time – and getting some flack for it along the road – so yes I’m pleased other artists are starting to get on board with it too, but listen, really taking flack is what we do – it’s ok, I’m cool with that. source"

"Kylie Minogue: Chris just turns me to jelly. He's a really sexy singer. source"

"Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has found his niche in making the sound of solitude a triumphant experience, like Good Will Hunting: The Musical."

"In contrast to the soothing, warm-blanket vibe of Coldplay's music, Martin is almost unnervingly intense: He has an endearing, Hugh Grant-like stammer, but when he feels strongly about what he's saying, which is often, his eyes give off little sparks, like he's a mad scientist detailing plans for world domination."

"Wayne Coyne: Well, I really think that there’s an authenticity and a truth in Chris in the way that he sings to the audience. And even though you’d have to think there has to be some difference between playing to a couple of hundred people when they started and playing to literally tens of thousands of people now, I still see that in him. That’s why I like them so much, because he is the real deal. He’s not faking it when he gets up there and that enthusiasm still effects him. So in that way, I think they’re virtually unchanged. They haven’t become these unapproachable mega rock stars. source"

"Chris Martin can still seem embarrassed by his status as one of the planet's most recognizable rock stars. His band's music is completely and utterly grand in ambition and sentiment yet, offstage, Martin is mostly immune to the groan-worthy platitudes and shameless chest-puffing typical of his stadium-filling brethren."

"They balance each other out. Chris and I are like Jay and Beyonce; two paranoid ironists and two calm grounded people. source"

"Coldplay's Chris Martin once revealed to RollingStone that his mother comes from Zimbabwe and that he spent a lot of time here. He also claimed that (the song) “Strawberry Swing” was inspired by his experience on Zimbabwe. source"

"People often think that fires only happen to vulnerable people but young professionals have a quarter of all house fires in London. Chris will know that fires can develop almost at the Speed of Sound so it's important that when they're cooking, people don't have A Rush of Blood to the Head and leave their cooking unattended causing a lot of Trouble. source"

"Bono: We were playing with (Every Breaking Wave) for the last album and Chris talked us out of it. He said, ‘That one deserves to be finished.’ The half-baked version would have denied us this, so we owe him for that… He's a genius and a very self-effacing guy. He's one of our bodyguards. source"

"Queen Latifah: So we start trying to get the room to bid on this thing. And we get it up to like €133,960.27 ($150,000) for this piano. So we pay this, and then I find out that the guy who I'm bidding with was Chris Martin from Coldplay. (...) He pays €89245.89 ($100,000) on the piano, I pay €44,653.42 ($50). He gives me the piano. He is the salt of the earth as far I'm concerned. source"

"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."

"Chris Martin of Coldplay was spot-on when he burst on to Graham Norton’s set and described the karmic moment represented by Donald Trump’s success in being elected President of the United States. Mr. Martin said, in terms, that Trump expressed the feelings of millions of people, and that doing so is a refreshing and crucial part of democracy. source"

"Jay Z: We are good friends, but what I got to say has nothing to do with our friendship. I have been in the industry long enough to know when I’m in the presence of a genius… and Chris Martin is just that. In years to come, Britain will look back at him as a modern day Shakespeare, he is an incredible recording artist, an incredible songwriter, but where he really comes alive is performing live. If you get the chance to see Coldplay live, do it, you ain’t gonna regret it. source"

"Lily Allen: I’m not super-close to Chris Martin, but I’ll always be grateful that what he did was say to me, “No Lily, I don’t see you like that. I don’t want to f*ck you. I care about you. I want to be friends with you. I want to help you.” He and Gwyneth had just broken up, but they were together in LA doing their conscious uncoupling thing. They asked me over for Sunday lunch. I wasn’t very chatty with Chris, but he and Gwyneth did put me in touch with their marriage counsellor. I didn’t go, but it was the wake-up call I needed. I realised I was ill. source source"

"Stormzy: And the person was getting closer, and it was Chris Martin. I’m looking around… but he’s walking towards me. We had a wicked, wicked conversation, a very inspirational conversation. That was a moment where it was like, woah, you’re Chris Martin! He watched the whole (show), and he had very kind words for me. source"

"Elton John: He is the kindest and most gracious friend, along with being a fantastic musical force of nature. source"

"What changed for me was – I don’t want to go through life being scared of it, being scared of love, being scared of rejection, being scared of failure."

"I don’t think being 13 to 15 is an easy time for any boy. It’s like a big puberty race, and if you’re coming in last, it’s not such a great race to be in. I was a hyper-religious, quite naive and very judgmental kid. I was unpopular for three years, and then it all kind of switched when I was 16. But I had already been marked with the “I’m going to fucking get out of here and show you bastards what’s what” tag. So I’m very grateful for that period of challenge between 13 and 16, facing the blinkeredness of that kind of schoolboy mentality of, like, “You’re gay, you’re bad at sports, you’re this, you’re that.” Because it did make me think: “I don’t want to end up in some bank, where I’m going to have to take this kind of shit off these same people for the rest of my life. I need to get out of this fucking treadmill 'public school, into university, into a bank, into a summer house in France'.”"

"One of our big conversations that we always have in this band is, we don't see rock & roll as being about coke-taking, leather-trouser-wearing rebellion, because that to us is not rebellion anymore. The spirit of rock & roll is freedom. It's about following what you believe in and not caring what anyone else says. And if that means writing something on your hand, then you've got to write something on your hand. It doesn't matter if you don't look as cool as the Ramones - you're never going to, anyway. So I know that we'll be ridiculed for this and look stupid for that. But as long as we believe in what we're doing, we can't apologize for it."

"You get summoned to their castle, then you wait for about a week in a small room where you're just fed very minimally and if you survive that stage about fifteen another people, whoever survives that gets through the next stage where you get to play tennis with Jay and if you beat him twice you get sent through to meet the rest of Destiny's Child. They check you for lice and bugs and if they deem you cleaned up then you can meet Beyoncé behind the screen."

"Madonna: Yeah he's great! I think he's incredibly talented. source"

"Jacob Collier: Chris is one of the most brilliantly-minded musicians I think I’ve ever encountered, and so, so joyous. To be completely honest with you, I think there are very few musicians nowadays who are making music from the perspective of just being open and joyful. source"

"I’m never going to be as adept lyrically as Jay Z or Morrissey."

"She can turn anything into gold with that voice, here's the thing: if you speak to a good singing teacher about great opera singers, they will talk about consistency of tone. Or there's a book by Alfred Tomatis about why some people like certain people's voices and other people hate them, like Bob Dylan or me or whoever, some people say, 'Oh, I hate that voice', so there's a thing about people's frequency responses, what they are pleased by. Rihanna has this thick tone, so it's very hard to annoy anybody."

"He (David Bowie) said, 'I'm really sorry, but it's not your best (song).' He was very kind about it. I was like, 'You know what? You're probably right'. It might have been written by sleeping pills so I wasn't too personally offended. source"

"A band's only unique thing is its chemistry, especially if none of you are prodigious players or particularly handsome, the one thing you have is your uniqueness, so we hold on to that. source"

"I love him, I really do. How much? Well, you know Leningrad in Russia. They should name it Lennongrad in honour of him."

"There’s an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where they get the text of an obituary wrong, and instead of saying “beloved aunt,” it says “beloved cunt.” And I always think that would kind of sum up the two sides of my life, the two sides of the coin. I’d like that."

"Music comes from a place we don't know, it sort of comes through the fingers and toes."

"I've never hit anyone. I've tripped someone up, I got in trouble about that. He was chasing after somebody and I didn't like it, so we were running along together and he fell over. I wasn't put in a police cell, but I got fingerprinted. Police stations are terrifying. I'm petrified about losing any of the things I care about: family, band, hair, freedom. All I'll say is that they're fucking bastards - not the police, the paparazzi. source"

"The reason why I wouldn’t commit suicide… well, the main reason now is ’cos I have a baby and I would never commit suicide because of her. But to me, committing suicide from a nihilistic point of view is pointless, because we’re all gonna die anyway, so why not just hang around and see what happens? D’you know what I mean? If something is inevitable, why board the plane early? source"

"I do an hour's yoga and go running every day. Then I see a picture of myself and I still look like a skinny, potbellied idiot - and I thought I had turned into this superhunk! source"

"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."

"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"