Last month there was a crush on Grafton Street in Dublin as word spread that Coldplay were coming to film the video for their new single ‘We Pray’.

“I was a little nervous about you at first,” Mason said.

“Yes, but you just have to trust in the goodness of people – and in the competence of the police!” laughed Chris Martin.

Martin was joined by employees Burna Boy, Tini, Elyanna and Little Simz. “The five of us had actually never played the song in the same place before,” Martin said. “So the first time we did it was on the street in the middle of all these people.”

Coldplay were in Dublin at Croke Park for four sold-out nights as part of their Music of the Spheres world tour. With more than 10 million tickets sold and grossing over $1 billion, Billboard named it the “greatest rock tour of all time.”

Mason asked drummer Will Champion, “You guys are literally in the middle of a record-breaking tour. Is that what it feels like to you?”

“Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees,” replied Champion. “We are aware that we are having a great time. We’re really having fun.”

“It was definitely extremely loud last night,” said bassist Guy Berryman.

Champion, Berryman, Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland didn’t always feel the love, especially in the early years. But critics who once asked, “Why does everyone hate Coldplay?” now call them “the defining band of the 21st century.”

“It seems like you’ve been fully embraced even by the music critics,” Mason said.

“Well, you are very cute. I mean, that’s just not true!” Martin laughed.

“I don’t think you’ll ever be fully embraced,” Buckland said.

“Also, we’re really not a rock band,” Martin said. “So if we let ourselves be measured by these parameters, we will always come up short. One thing we’ve become more comfortable with, I would say, is just being ourselves.”

Their hit catalog spans a quarter of a century. Martin said: “The truth is that some songs arrive essentially fully formed – not Jonny’s parts or Will’s or Guy’s parts, but my part. And those are the rarest, but they are always the best, the ones I’ve had.” least to do with it.

“But sometimes they’re the hardest to produce because you don’t want to ruin them!” laughed Buckland.

Martin says he feels that immediately: “Absolutely, yes. The songs of ours that touched the most people touched me first. I thought, ‘Oh, this is really good!’ “Yellow”, “Viva La Vida”, “Fix You”, “Sky Full of Stars”. They just land.”

“Viva La Vida” by Coldplay:

“In a strange way, you listen to it, you’re the first person to hear it; “That’s what it feels like,” Martin said. “We toured Taiwan about ten months ago with the song ‘We Pray’. I think it was after a show and I woke up in the middle of the night, this song called ‘We Pray’ was just in my head. ‘ And it said, ‘You have to get up now and do this.'”

Coldplay performed “We Pray” with their collaborators on stage for the first time in Dublin. “Hearing a song in the middle of the night in Taiwan and then being on stage in Dublin ten months later? I mean, that’s an amazing journey in itself,” Martin said.

Martin began writing songs at a young age: “The first one came when I was about 11,” he said.

Martin is always writing, even on the road. Every morning he sits down to write down whatever is on his mind. “I do this to stay sane!” he laughed. “For twelve minutes in the morning I write down everything that’s on my mind, and it’s often very terrible and very depressed or very anxious, or all that stuff that you don’t really want anyone else to hear that you but have to let go.” . So I do that for 12 minutes and then I burn it.”

“You’re literally setting it on fire?” Mason asked.

“Yeah, or tear it up and wash it away. And it just eliminates so much nonsense,” Martin said. “It definitely helps in a band too. Because we used to have a lot more tension and a lot more volatility. But that gives us a lot of peace of mind.”

Buckland was asked about the incredible sense of community at her concerts. “I think this is where we’re happiest,” he said. “I think we got to that point after being in a band for 25 years and then it all kind of came together at the end.”

“Is this just a process of time?” Mason asked.

“Well, I think a process that takes time and hard work,” Martin said. “We’ve been working pretty hard on how we communicate with each other and give each other space. We tour a lot slower now. We only do about 65 shows a year, which isn’t that many.”

Coldplay’s new record “Moon Music” is the band’s tenth studio album.

Martin has said the band would release their final album in 2025. “It was right and it was wrong, like most things I say,” Martin explained. “We’re only going to do 12 proper Coldplay albums, but we’re a little behind. Not too far back!”

Buckland declared: “We demand an extension!”

So why 12 albums? “That’s exactly how it should be,” replied Martin. “I don’t think anyone needs more than that from us. The Beatles did 12.”

Mason asked, “Do you have any other things you want to do?” Is that part of it?”

“Not at all. We would like to continue playing live,” said Martin.

“So, this continues?”

“Oh yeah, yeah – it just keeps getting better,” Martin said.

“I don’t want to stop Coldplay,” Buckland said.

You tilt No more Coldplay. Chris Martin says he has to keep sprinting through the stadiums.

Why does he have to? “I think it’s like asking an apple tree why it produces apples?” Martin replied. “That’s because I was made to do this. And besides, I really enjoy doing it.”

Coldplay performs “feelslikeimfallinginlove” at Glastonbury 2024:

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The story was produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Mike Levine.

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