Coldplay’s Guy Berryman and Will Champion joined Zane Lowe on Apple Music Hits to discuss their acclaimed second album ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’ on the 20th anniversary of its release — now available in Spatial Audio on Apple Music. In the rare retrospective interview, the band shares stories behind hit songs and reflect on hearing Chris Martin demo “The Scientist” for the first time, initially having low expectations for the global hit “Clocks”, the group’s mindset going into the making of the album following the success of ‘Parachutes’, and more.
You can listen to the full interview anytime on Apple Music at apple.co/_EssentialsRadio.
Coldplay Tell Apple Music About Initially Having Low Expectations For Their Global Hit “Clocks”…
Guy Berryman: “… “Clocks” was a song that we had to really battle with Mr. Champion here to get it on the record.”
Will Champion: “In my obstinacy, I still stand by that, but it’s a bloody good piece of music. I think it’s brilliant. It’s one of my favorite pieces of music… I recall saying, as Guy said, I said, “yeah, this is not a song.” And then someone else, our manager at the time, was saying, “if that’s a hit, I’ll eat my hat,” that kind of thing. And so it was both Will and I forced to eat many hats over that one, but it’s really an interesting kind of song and it’s almost like dance music in a way in that it takes a strong melodic rift that isn’t sung. It’s just an ear worm thing, which was treated very subtly and we didn’t over egg it, but it’s still a mystery for me, that song. I love it.”
Coldplay Tells Apple Music They Knew “The Scientist” Would Be a Song They’d Play Forever Upon First Hearing Chris Martin Demo It…
Guy Berryman: Chris says, “I’ve got this song to play to you.”Just on the little upright piano, he just played and sang the whole song from beginning to end, and it was kind of finished. We were like, “Oh wow. Okay. That’s really great.” I think we all felt a bit nervous because we were like, “Wow, this is so great. How can we add instrumentation to this?” So, is to just basically not kind of ruin it and ruin that feeling that we’d all just had from listening to that amazing song. Actually, I think we kind of just jumped on it straight away and pretty much recorded, came up with the parts and pretty much recorded it that same evening.I always feel like those kind of songs, when you don’t have to overengineer it or overthink it or try three or four different versions before you feel it’s right. I always get suspicious of those songs. It’s the ones that come along, and you can fall in love with it or get it immediately and record it within a few hours.
Will Champion: And as Guy said, it was definitely a moment. I can see that piano. I can see exactly what Chris is wearing. I can see everything about that moment, clear as day in my head, when I heard it for the first time. Just like, “Okay, that’s going to be one we’re going to play forever, for sure.”
