A conversation with Chris Martin from 2001

Revisiting a time when Coldplay were still playing clubs, buddying up with At the Drive-In, and wishing they were Mercury Rev

Jul 18, 2025

Welcome to stübermania, where I dig into my box of dust-covered interview cassettes from the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s to present bygone conversations with your favourite alterna/indie semi-stars (and the occasional classic-rock icon). This is a newsletter in three parts: The Openers (links to recent writings, playlist updates, and/or other musical musings), The Headliner (your featured interview of the week), and Encores (random yet related links).

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THE OPENERS

Stuck inside this pre-sale/ sent in queue forever/ never seeing no seats/ bots again…

This week, the Toronto Star asked me to contribute to their Songs of the Summer feature, and I went with a song that I recommended in last week’s newsletter: Hamilton noise boys Public Health’s 10-minute crusher “Kilimanjaro,” which really captures the paranoid/heatwave/wildfire-choke-smoke vibe hanging in the air right now. Here they are performing minutes 7:00-8:35 of the song at their jam-packed, humidex-breaking album-release show last Saturday at Into the Abyss, proving the old adage that if you’re going to name a song after a volcano, you best make it sound like one.
Not gonna lie: I’m kinda down with Swag’s Mk.Bieber makeover—at the very least, “YUKON” is the closest the Biebs has ever gotten to sounding like Pure Guava-era Ween sounding like Prince. For Wednesday’s episode of Commotion, I produced this group chat about the arrival of Swag Summer, featuring commentary from Emilie Hanskamp (Toronto Star, The Social), Natalie Harmsen (CBC Music), and Reanna Cruz (Switched on Pop):
Notes on this week’s additions to the stübermania 2025 jukebox:

Click here for the Apple Music version

Upchuck, “Plastic”: Like their 2023 ripper, Bite the Hand That Feeds, this Atlanta crew’s upcoming Domino Records debut, I’m Nice Now (due Oct. 3), was produced by Ty Segall, and its lead single sounds like something that might’ve been left off the Judgment Night soundtrack for being too hardcore. It’s not rap-rock in the traditional rhymes-and-riffs sense, but rather the sort of in-your-face punk rock that naturally lends itself to mugging for low-angled cameras with fish-eye lenses.
The New Eves, “Highway Man”: The new album from this Brighton chamber-punk quartet, The New Eve Is Rising (out Aug. 1), is one of the more striking debuts I’ve heard in a long while, landing somewhere between riot grrrl and Renaissance faire.
Golden Apples, “Noonday Demon”: Even if you’ve never heard Russell Edling’s Philly-based indie-pop outfit before, you can get a good sense of what they sound like just from their name, which suggests an aspiring Elephant 6 act from 1996, and the first single from the upcoming Shooting Star (out Sept. 19) places him in the small but not incorrect minority who believe The Beatles peaked with “It’s All Too Much.”
Clifford, “C Song”: Not sure if heartland-shoegaze has become a proper movement yet, but when it does, this Boston crew will be waiting in the cornfields to set off their fuzz-pedal fireworks.
Wet Leg, “pokemon”: On which the Isle of Wight sensations ask, “Baby do you want to come home with me/ I’ve got Lost in Translation on DVD.”

THE HEADLINER:
A conversation with Chris Martin

The date: January 29, 2001

Publication: Eye Weekly

Location: I was in my apartment in Toronto; Chris was calling in from Melbourne, where Coldplay were set to perform at the local edition of Australia’s roving Big Day Out Festival

Album being promoted: Parachutes

The context: Last week, Coldplay played to 200,000 people over four nights at Toronto’s Rogers Stadium (and some of those people may actually still be at the venue). This interview happened in a more innocent, pre-kiss-cam era when their local draw was closer to 2,000—which was still mighty impressive for a band that had yet to set foot on Canadian soil. Coldplay’s debut Toronto show at the Warehouse (later known as Kool Haus, currently known as condos) occurred eight months after their debut album, Parachutes, was released in their native England, and by that point, the waves of hype triggered in the UK had begun crashing onto our shores, after the heavily rotated video for “Yellow” turned frontman Chris Martin into the world’s most popular beachcomber.

But when I spoke to Martin, he didn’t exactly project the world-conquering gusto you’d expect from a budding Britpop-inspired act whose debut record went to No. 1 in the UK. And that’s because, as North America was experiencing its first rush of Coldplaymania, the band were already in the thick of the inevitable backlash phase back home, where the press portrayed them as prim university boys wholly lacking the cigarettes ‘n’ alcohol hedonism that helped sell British weeklies at the time. (Former Creation Records rabble-rouser Alan McGee’s infamous comment that Coldplay make “music for bed-wetters” had swiftly joined Noel Gallagher’s “Blur should get AIDS and die” zinger in the Britpop pissing-match hall of fame.)

In our conversation, I didn’t really ask about the songwriting or making of Parachutes, because by that point, it felt like the band had said everything that needed to be said about the record in the British press. So I was trying to get more of a read on how sudden success was affecting the band. Martin expressed extreme gratitude over Coldplay’s good fortune throughout our conversation, but there was also a slightly defensive air about his comments, as if he had read too much of his own press and was trying hard not to let others’ opinions of his music affect his own.

Side note: I believe this interview holds the record for the biggest time-zone difference I’ve ever had to negotiate, with Martin calling me from Melbourne—i.e., 14 hours into the future.

It’s still Monday night here. How's Tuesday morning looking?

Pretty nice. You’re in for a good day!

Have you played the Big Day Out festival yet?

Yeah we’ve done four of them now.

I read that you were worried you’d be playing these festivals alongside a bunch of metal bands…

Oh no, we’re having the time of our lives, to be honest. We’re playing with At the Drive-In and they're the greatest band ever, and PJ Harvey and she's the greatest solo singer ever, so we’re happy as pigs in shit, to be honest.

Are people crowd-surfing to you guys?

To us? Are you joking?

Here in North America, they crowd-surf to everything, so let that be a warning. Now that you’re bringing the tour to North America, is it a drag having to re-promote your album, or do you relish the opportunity to start from ground zero again?

It's funny: America, to British bands, is this place that you might end up going to, and we can't believe that we’ve got this much opportunity, do you know what I mean? We can't believe people are interested. So we’re really looking forward to it. All our crew are obsessed with America and traveling around it, so they’re happy to keep going and we're happy to keep going.

Have you ever been to America?

Yeah, a few times now—once in New York, twice in L.A.. I want to travel around. I’m looking forward to going round on the bus and seeing things and stopping at truck stops and diners.

Was there ever a fear that all the hype being heaped upon Parachutes would stunt your natural evolution as a band?

No, because in Britain they’re making real sure that we don't think it’s that good. They’re throwing weapons at it.

Would you rather be touring or making another record at this point?

We're in the process of making another record, we’re kind of doing it as we go along—or thinking about it at least. After we finish in America, that's going to be time when we sit down and work on the new stuff.

Did you ever think of pulling a Rolling Stones and record in mobile studios throughout America while you’re touring?.

Is that what they did?

Yeah, in 1969—you can see them in the movie Gimme Shelter mixing “Wild Horses” while on the road.

I think that'd be a disaster for us.

Well, there’s that cliche that you have your whole life to write your first album and then six months to write your second…

Yeah, but what an exciting six months!

So you’re going to be writing a bunch of songs about going to cocktail parties…

Yeah, and meeting celebrities.

I was just reading an old story on you guys and I think [drummer] Will [Champion] had this line about when you were playing with The Flaming Lips, and he said he was kind of envious of the trajectory they had, where they had 15 years to build their audience gradually and develop their sound without any sort of expectations. Do you agree with that philosophy?

I couldn’t be happier, really. Frontmen tend to have lots of insecurity, so they want people to like the album. So every person that likes our album, I want to shake them by the hand, you know what I mean? It's still kind of a surprise to me.

What records do you bring on the road to keep you grounded?

That’s a good question, I’ve got them right here: Pixies, Doolittle. At the Drive-In, Relationship of Command. PJ Harvey, To Bring You My Love. Kraftwerk, and Nirvana, and Brian Eno, and Elvis, and Sugababes.

Which Eno records are you digging?

Ambient 1: Music for Airports.

Have you ever explored his earlier pop records?

No.

You should work your way back and check those out. So pretty much everything I read on Coldplay attaches the word “nice” to you. Do you ever think about using that as an opportunity to subvert that image and do some really evil shit when people aren't expecting it—either musically or otherwise?

We’ll see… Just wait until we bring those chickens onstage!

I mean, there is a real sort of darkness to the record…

People have sort of missed that in some places; in other places, that's all they see. The good thing about us is that we never really believe anything anyone says, you know what I mean? If someone says, “this is terrible,” then we think, “fuck off.” And if someone thinks it’s brilliant, we think, “no no no no, it’s not.” So we're constantly struggling with ourselves.

Is that insecurity something you've developed over the past year?

No, since the dawn of time.

So does the fact that you have the odd vocal detractor tell you that you're doing something right by getting such strong reactions from people?

Yeah… right… okay…

Well, I’ve always felt the worst reaction a band can get is indifference—it’s better to be loved or despised.

Maybe you're right. Maybe it's good that people in Britain think we’re the evilest thing ever.

At the same time, you’re so nice—you just can’t win.

Well, they kind of don’t like us for being nice. But the thing for us is, we’ve been on the road now with At the Drive-In, and in Britain they’d be considered the antithesis of what we do. But in fact, they’re closer in philosophy to what we do than any other area we’ve ever met, do you know what I mean? Because we both just want to do things with passion and soul, and we both go about it with as much drive as possible. I think they’re just amazing, that band. We get on really well with them because we stand for the same things, even though, on the outside, it would seem we wouldn't even give each other the time of day.

It’s interesting: you guys get stuck with the “nice” tag, and when you read something about At the Drive-In, it’s all about their hair…

Yeah, sure, that’s their tag, innit?

Speaking of hair: you seemed to have a nice afro happening on the back cover of Parachutes. What happened?

Yeah, I’ve got a short shaved head now.

Have you been able to maintain a sense of privacy? Are you still able to take the tube?

Yeah, we're pretty anonymous, to be honest—in some ways it’s good, in some ways it’s bad. More and more we get recognized a bit… people recognize us when we go on stage, which is good.

That's the perfect situation: making music for the masses, but still being able to walk down to the store and get a quart of milk without getting hassled.

It’s great.

You’ve been fairly outspoken about how British radio feeds kids shitty music when they could be listening to something great. Do you have the same designs for America?

I think there's so many great bands around, it's just a shame that some of them don’t get played. I feel kind of embarrassed that we've got radio play in America, when Mercury Rev or Grandaddy haven't got that much. Everybody has this ability to deny what's in their front room, you know? A lot of the British press hates us, while the American press hasn't been paying attention to Mercury Rev or Grandaddy. I really don’t understand why 'Yellow’ is doing so well—if I did, I’d do it again. But we don’t. We’re just sort of grateful for whatever we get.

Parachutes is a much more atmospheric record than the singles might suggest—do you have a desire to explore the soundscape aspect of your music further?

Definitely.

Do you find the songs are transforming the more you play them live?

Well, last night they were great and the day before they were shit. That's the gamble you take. I started taking my shoes off when I sing—I find I can sing a lot better, with a lot more intensity.

That’s something Richard Ashcroft used to do…

And Chris Robinson. I’m in a long line of great barefoot frontmen!

Do you put down your own rug?

Not yet. We've been lucky to play on carpeted stages.

What are your own personal feelings toward Parachutes at the moment? Because in the midst of all the hype, it’s easy to forget this is still just your first album…

Well, I tend to read more bad stuff about it than good, so I don't know what to think, I really don’t know. I know that some nights I love playing it and some nights I hate playing it.

Well, I guess we’re getting a more filtered take over here, because all I’ve seen is positive press.

That's great, and I think there's a reason for that, because it is a great record. I knew at the time we made it that it was a great record because I thought, “well, this is wicked: It has soul and passion, but it also has melody.” And then six months later, after you’ve played it X amount of times, and some people like it and some people don't, you get kind of confused yourself. It’s like having a child: how can you possibly have as much objectivity as you should? I would never ever listen to it. But I would never ever listen to anything we do after a certain time. Once it's done, then I don't want to hear it again because I'll just worry about it.

ENCORES

Shortly after this interview took place, it was widely reported that Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman and At the Drive-In’s Jim Ward were teaming up to record a Flying Burrito Brothers-inspired country-rock record under the name London Country Rebels, but it never actually materialized. However, the two have remained pals: just last month, Ward opened Coldplay’s show in El Paso.
Four years after Coldplay’s Toronto debut at the Warehouse, they returned to play the same venue (then in its Kool Haus years)—though by that point, a Coldplay performance in a 2,000-cap room constituted a major underplay, given that 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head had already catapulted them to the arena circuit. The May 2005 gig was a low-key preview of the soon-to-be released X&Y, which features my all-time favourite Coldplay song (i.e., the one that put Chris’ aforementioned Kraftwerk consumption to good use), but it was the only tune from the new album that they didn’t play that night.
When I first heard the IDLES song “Grace” (from 2024’s Tangk!), I thought Joe Talbot’s voice sounded uncannily like Chris Martin’s, and the similarity was not lost on the band either: