Category: 6 Music
Date: 16.12.2005
Printable version
Coldplay fans who believed rumours the band would be releasing a country album with hiphop undercurrents can lay down their stetsons and breathe a sigh of relief.
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In an exclusive interview with Steve Lamacq, for 91Èȱ¬ 6 Music, Coldplay's bassist Guy Berryman set the record straight.
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He said: "We're all big fans of Johnny Cash, Gram Parsons and Willie Nelson - but I don't think we could ever get away with doing a country album."
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Guy caught up with Steve Lamacq en route to a sound check at London's Earls Court and revealed that the band were eager to record the follow-up to X&Y: "We just love being creative.
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"When we're out on the road, it's amazing to play live but we're really missing what we do best, which is creating.
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"We've been together for almost ten years now and we've only made three albums. When you look at people like The Beatles who knocked out a couple [of albums] a year, it sort of makes us start to panic a little bit. So we're just desperate to get back into the studio.
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"I know a lot of bands say this all the time, but our next record is going to be really quite different from the last three because I think it would be boring for us and everybody else if we did another record in the same vein as the last three.
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"It's been said before that we really view these first three albums as part of a trilogy and it's now time to move on. We feel that we don't really have to prove ourselves any more to people and that gives you an amazing amount of creative freedom to do stuff."
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The musical direction this creativity will take remains to be seen, but Guy hinted at the "use of more electronic stuff" whilst reassuring fans that the band would retain their pop sensibility: "There will always be songs and melodies - it won't be an abstract Tangerine Dream noodling affair!"
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Guy also
revealed
that, despite a busy touring schedule, they did not want to spend 18 months on their fourth album and they were in the process of looking for a studio in London - their own Coldplay HQ: "We want to have own our own space now. I think that's where the future lies for us."
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Since June, Coldplay's Guy Berryman and Will Champion have been updating Steve Lamacq on the band's touring exploits in The Rhythm Section Diaries. The intrepid reporters have filed stories from around the world, including Tokyo, Montreal and Alberquerque, New Mexico.
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Now back on British soil, Guy dropped by the 6 Music studio to hand over the goodies they had collected for Steve Lamacq's show in their Tourist Tat Challenge and to share their exciting plans for a busy New Year.
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Notes to Editors
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The Steve Lamacq Show can be heard every weekday at 4.00pm on 6 Music, and this interview will be available online, at bbc.co.uk/6music, for seven days after broadcast.
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6 Music is available on DAB digital radio, digital satellite (channel 870), digital cable (channel 865 or 909), digital terrestrial (channel 707) and online.
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AG
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