listen live

• playlist
• schedule
• podcasts

Launch mi-Xfm - personalised radio

search

• on air
• artists
• music news
• gigs & tickets
• xfm+
• uploaded

• headline news
• festivals
• tours & gigs
• competitions
• releases
• xfm news
• uk news
• weather

Exclusive: The Truth Behind That Coldplay Album Title

added 09 June 2008 at 11.34

In a move that faintly echoes Radiohead's strategy to allow fans to decide what to pay for their album, Coldplay have given their fans the choice of two titles to choose from.

Explained Chris Martin: "We refer to it just as 'Viva La Vida' but the other bit is if you find it too depressing you can call it 'Death and All His Friends' and if you find it not depressing you can call it 'Viva La Vida'.

"It's very much a 'you-decide-what-the-title-is'. We very much wanted to make it like those model airplanes that you buy and you can choose what colour you paint it."  

The Coldplay frontman also revealed that working with legendary producer Brian Eno had resulted in the band ditching more obvious material for songs that artistically stretched the band.

"We were very privileged to have Brian Eno and another guy called Markus Dravs and another guy called Rick Simpson and we had a lot of help," said Martin. 

"They got involved very early at the demoing stage and they would often tell us, 'You need some better songs'. Our aim was to do stuff that we hadn't done before so that means that things that would have previously gone to the top of the pile have to wait a bit because they sound too much like Coldplay songs." 

You can listen to the whole interview on John Kennedy's Xposure show tonight (June 9) at 10pm only on Xfm.

'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends' is released on June 12.

Find Coldplay on iTunes

Tagged as Coldplay, Albums, Exclusive

• send to a friend

add your comment

enter

your name*

your email

your comment

I have read and agreed to the terms and conditions and Xfm's privacy policy

* Please note that the name/alias you enter here will be displayed next to your message.

submit comment

comments

1. How could "Live Through The Life" be too depressing a title? Maybe I'm missing something about the theme of the album....
   
   Also, can anyone give some clue to the lyrics for the title track? I love the song but I'm trying to get an idea who/what the songwriter was alluding to through the lyrics.

   Posted by Chris on 11/06/2008 23:45:53 | report abuse

2. Amo a banda coldplay! e estou anciosa para ouvir o novo cd da banda 'viva la vida'.

   Posted by andrea noemi a. amaro (brasil) on 11/06/2008 14:36:57 | report abuse

3. Does it really matter what it is called? It's all about the music. I really like Coldplay - however, when I fancy something rockier I now listen to Just Fuzz - the most exciting new band to hit the music scene in years. They even recently upstaged Hawkwind at the Wye Festival - rock lives on!!!!!!

   Posted by nightingale1958 on 09/06/2008 21:22:34 | report abuse