Chris Martin has revealed Charli xcx is among the artists inspiring him as he considers Coldplay’s next move musically.
The Yellow hitmaker says the Apple singer – who has dominated pop music with her latest LP Brat – has shown him the power music has in “making you feel alive and connected”.
Writing in the official programme for the band’s Music Of The Spheres world tour, as seen by The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column, he penned: “I’m still such a music fan and I’m always looking at other artists.
“Like, Pulp playing Common People at Glastonbury this year was the best thing I have ever seen.
“There are always other acts like them resetting the bar for me in terms of what music can do in making you feel alive and connected.”
Declaring himself a fan of Charli, Chris continued: “So, for example, if I see Charli xcx doing Von dutch and I think, ‘This is the best thing I’ve ever seen’, I’m also like ‘OK, right, what are we going to do next?’”
Coldplay released their 10th studio album, Moon Music, in October.
Despite Chris claiming the group will stop making records after their 12th LP, his bandmate Guy Berryman insisted the band are “years away” from retirement.
The bassist said he took his bandmate’s prediction “with a pinch of salt” as he believes he will “never stop writing”.
Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in December, he said: “Chris is never going to stop writing, so I kind of take it with a little bit of a pinch of salt.
“We’re still years away from any kind of retirement. But I think you have to have a plan. If you’re running a marathon, you know you have to run 26 miles. But if somebody said to you, ‘OK, start running and just don’t stop,’ it’s quite hard to motivate yourself.”
Chris explained that he wants Coldplay to keep their legacy intact by only making 12 “proper albums”.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, he said: “We are only going to do 12 proper albums and that’s real. Yeah. I promise.
“Because less is more. And for some of our critics, even less would be even more! It’s really important that we have that limit.
“There’s only seven Harry ¬Potters. There’s only 12 and a half Beatles albums. There’s about the same for Bob Marley, so all of our heroes.
“Also having that limit means the quality control is so high right now, and for a song to make it, it’s almost impossible, which is great. And so where we could be coasting, we’re trying to improve.”
He went on: “There’s something about the Coldplay thing. That’s just what . . . I don’t know where the songs come from. I don’t know where the ideas come from, but that’s just been coming to me for about four or five years now.
“Like, ‘You have to finish like this,’ and I trust that just like I trust the songs. So if we do something together after that creatively beyond touring, then it’ll be something different, or a side thing, or a compilation of things we hadn’t finished.”
Chris suggested he and his bandmates – also including Jonny Buckland and Will Champion – won’t want to spend the rest of their lives making Coldplay records.
He added: “Also, to make an album great as a band, it’s such a lot of wrangling with people and I want to give the ¬others some of their life for themselves.
“I don’t want to, when we’re 60, be like, ‘Will, we need you. Come on! We can do better than this!’”