Coldplay have said that they knew their classic track ‘The Scientist’ would be a song that they’d “play forever” after hearing it for the first time.
During a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music Hits, the band looked back on their acclaimed second album ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ (2002), which recently turned 20 years old.
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The record debuted at Number One on the UK albums chart upon its release, and also features the singles ‘Clocks’, ‘In My Place’ and ‘God Put A Smile upon Your Face’.
Speaking about ‘The Scientist’ – the second single to be lifted from ‘A Rush Of Blood…’ – Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman recalled frontman Chris Martin playing the ballad for the first time.
“Chris says, ‘I’ve got this song to play to you’,” Berryman remembered. “Just on the little upright piano, he just played and sang the whole song from beginning to end, and it was kind of finished.
“We were like, ‘Oh wow, OK. That’s really great’. I think we all felt a bit nervous because we were like, ‘Wow, this is so great. How can we add instrumentation to this?’ So, it’s just basically not to ruin it and ruin that feeling that we’d all just had from listening to that amazing song.”
He went on to say that the rest of the band then “jumped on” and worked on their respective parts, before “pretty much” recording the whole track that same night.
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“I always feel like those kinds of songs, when you don’t have to over engineer it or overthink it or try three or four different versions before you feel it’s right – you can fall in love with it or get it immediately and record it within a few hours,” Berryman continued.
Drummer Will Champion, meanwhile, said that he can still remember “everything about that moment [as] clear as day”.
“When I heard [‘The Scientist’] for the first time, [it was] just like, ‘OK, that’s going to be one we’re going to play forever, for sure’,” he explained.
The single remains a staple of Coldplay’s live shows, and is being performed on the group’s huge ‘Music Of The Spheres’ world tour.
Elsewhere in the Apple Music Hits conversation, Champion spoke of the “natural progression” the band made on ‘A Rush Of Blood…’ following on from their debut studio album ‘Parachutes’ (2000).
“We didn’t set out […], have a big band meeting and say, ‘Right, we got to throw that away and let’s start fresh’,” he said. “But it was definitely a case of, ‘Let’s do something that really captures us because we’re playing really well at the moment’.
“We’re playing live. We’re playing a lot. We are really well rehearsed and we’re gelling. So let’s try and get something out of that. Let’s try and get that on record.”
Last week, it was revealed that Coldplay had sold approximately 1.4million tickets for their recently-announced 2023 UK and European tour.
In a glowing five-star review of Coldplay’s Wembley concert on August 16, NME hailed the band for creating “a joyful spectacle; a masterclass in how a massive pop show can be done”.
“This show is a welcome dose of serotonin; a feel-good celebration. The best Tuesday of our lives? That’s high praise indeed – but given the reception from the audience, you’d argue that for thousands of punters, it’s certainly up there.”