A Head Full Of Dreams

A discrete entrance between a real estate agency and a dog droomer, in North London. Upstairs, a big bright room with pictures of the Beatles and the Who, books about magic and Sherlock Holmes, lyrics of their songs Charlie Brown and Princess of China written in felt pen on a table, a graffiti of Paris... In short, a place that resembles its owners, colourful without being tacky.

Welcome to Coldplay's. At The Bakery, a former bakery that the band turned into a studio in 2008, at the time of their album Viva la Vida. We're lead to the ground floor, towards the recording studio, where on this day of October 20, Chris Martin, the singer, and the guitarist Jon Buckland, are working with their sound engineer. "We're preparing for our tour, they explain. The album is over"

After the beautiful but dark 'Ghost Stories', inspired by the singer's breakup with his wife, actress Gwyneth Paltrow, comes the festive A Head Full of Dreams, 7th album which will be released on December 4. Ahead of its launch, the first single, the funky Adventure of a Lifetime, was released yesterday and will be pplay tonight at the NMA (TF1, 20h55).
It will be a pop album, as light as a soap bubble, judging by the 5 songs (out of 11), that we listened to. If they do carry Coldplay's mark – aerial guitars and voice -, these new tracks are tailored to the dance floor. Chris Martin offers us a cup of ginger tea that would wake up a dead man, and tells the origins of this album, recorded between London, Los Angeles and Malibu, between the studio of Beatles' producer George Martin, and Charlie Chaplin's.

We listened to 5 songs of your future album. The tone is festive...
Chris: "It is the term that suits best. We started thinking about this project 4 years ago. We first wanted to release an album with grey, blue colours, calm and intimate. It's Ghost Stories. Then to release an album full of colours, this one entitled A Head Full of Dreams. I already had the titles of several songs in mind."

So you had to go through a dark album to set yourself free?
Chris: "Yes, to be free. In the studio, you sometimes have to forget that we're going to be listened to, in order to really let go."

You worked with Stargate, a duet of producers who made hits for Katy Perry and Rihanna...
Chris: "They can do things we don't know how to do. We wanted to be done with the idea that a rock band has to make rock music. In 2015, we have such fast access to so much music, from Björk to Edith Piaf, from Rammstein to Beethoven. It's the message of this album: in the XXIst century, there is no frontier."

We can recognize Beyoncé's voice on Hymn For the Weekend...
Chris: "And on Up and Up, the last song. She is the biggest artist in the world. For the first time, we had songs for her, songs that talk about angels, about small events which give reasons to hope, about salvation, and her way of singing makes me think about all of this. She plays the role of the angel in this album."

The former was intimate, on the contrary...
Chris: "It was a therapy for me. It told the journey of trying to turn pain into gold. I hope it worked...It was a different album for us, only a few concerts, no tour."

Why didn't you give any interview?
Chris: "Because everything was in the lyrics, I had nothing to add."

Is fame a weight on you?
Chris: "For me, it's become normal. I don't read tabloids, so it doesn't touch me. Sometimes, I see paparazzi but I respect their life choice. Given the chance that I have, it's the least of my problems. We try to keep our feet on the ground. The environment, the state of our planet, our commitment towards the United Nations, that's way more important than those issues."

Will you play stadiums again?
Chris: "We really hope so. We want to play at the Stade de France again, we love it. I passed by it this weekend, and I was thinking: 'What a beautiful construction!' And then Paris was the first city that we played in, outside of England, even before the release of our first album. And the only one with London where we performed in all sizes of venues, the Cigale, the Casino de Paris, the Olympia, Bercy, the Parc des Princes, the Stade de France. We have a big history with you. France is our history."

Next year, you'll celebrate your 20th anniversary...
Chris: "Crazy! We spent all this journey together. That's the idea of this album and this tour, to celebrate this journey all together. There are tough things happening in the world, all the concerts should celerabte the chance that we have."

You did hint that this album could be the last one, though...
Chris: "Who knows? It will be the last chapter of a certain story, I think, and we will start another one..."

Without Coldplay?
Chris: "What I know is that I don't want to be in any other band."

Eric Bureau, Le Parisien