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Coldplay...
They have set the music world alight with their collective melancholy. They were nominated the prestigious Mercury Music Award in the UK, but are not the stereotypical, anarchic band that the rock and roll world breeds. Guitarist Jon Buckland talked to Neil Chase about the album, and why they still want to do better.
Your Parachutes album has had some incredible reviews and you've created a big buzz; has that attention surprised you?
Yes! We hoped it would do well, and we hoped people would like it, but we didn't know just how many. We just set out to make an emotional, passionate record, with good songs obviously. We were pleased with it, but it's always hard when you've finished something like that, to know if it's any good or not.
What do you judge that by?
You've just got to judge it at the time. When you finally finish recording a song, and you question when it's any good or whether you get excited about it.
The album went to the top of the charts in the UK on it's week of release; was that a surprise?
Very much so. Yellow [the second single] had done quite well, so we were probably expecting to go top 10 - and would have been disappointed if it hadn't - but number one was just crazy.
Is that critical and commercial success important for you?
Definitely. We want to write great songs, but the only reason that songs are great is because people like them. Maybe that's not true, but it is important that people like us - to us.
Was it a hard album to make?
It was. It only took about nine weeks, but it was a very intense time. We planned to do it in two weeks as we wanted a very spontaneous sound, but we are too perfectionist! I hope it still has that slight rawness though. It sounds real, and properly played, even if it's not perfect.
With so much guitar-based music both now and in the past, do you find it difficult to come up with new stuff that is original?
It's just new songs that we've done. We listen to a lot of music, but you can never be perfectly original. All the songs have come from somewhere, they can never really be out there on their own. But they are original songs, and that's what's important.
You've also made an impression on the press as you are not the more typical lager-lout hooligan style band as is generally the image. You've not come from broken homes or had miserable childhoods. Do you think you are cracking the mould of traditional British music?
No I doubt it. I don't think that many bands do live up to that working class myth. But we are from where we're from, and we just write songs about what we know.
There have been criticisms, especially from Alan McGee of the late Creation label. [He called the band 'wimps' and 'bed-wetters'] Do they hurt?
They were annoying, as he didn't criticise the music at all, it was just us. He's never met us and doesn't know anything about us, so it was just quite annoying.
You all met at college in London - how?
We were friends first; all of us were good friends living in the same halls of residence in university. Chris and I played music and were looking to form bands, and we just started playing together and started writing songs straight away. We just clicked. Then Guy joined us then Will. Each time someone joined us, it got a lot better.
You've been compared to a lot of different bands, but is there a band that you really respect?
Yeah loads; Flaming Lips, Radiohead - hundreds of bands!
People compare you a lot to Radiohead; does it annoy you that you are always being compared to them?
Not really; but I don't think we sound that much like them to be honest. To a certain extent we do; we use guitars and sing emotional songs, and that's what they do sometimes.
What about when you were growing up?
What got me wanting to be in bands was listening to the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, Ride, Boo Radleys and people like that.
It's all happened very quickly. Are you caught up in it all, or do you just want to stop the world and get off?
The one thing we do miss is having time to write and just play. It's funny that the better you do, the less time you have to play music - which is the very thing you did in the first place! Quite a strange paradox.
You've done some festival dates over the summer, and will be doing a full tour in the Autumn. For such a relatively young band, do you find the live dates scary?
They can be. We've done about 100 gigs now, which is not that many. Playing in front of thousands of people is quite daunting, but I think we did OK.
Do you get nervous?
Yes, very.
Are you coming to Asia?
Not this year, but possibly next year.
Finally, having made such an awesome debut with Parachutes, have you given yourself an impossible task for a follow up?
I hope not! That's why we want to start writing again, and getting back to making music. I think we can do a better next album.
So you're not just going to retire and head back to Wales?
The thought has occasionally crossed our mind, but we just want to better Parachutes.
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Parachutes by Coldplay is available now through EMI music.
© Neil Chase
October 2000
www.neilchase.com
mailto:mail@neilchase.com
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