While Coldplay are gearing up to release their tenth album, Moon Music, this Friday (4 October), it looks like the LP will signal the beginning of the end.
According to frontman Chris Martin, the British band plans to release just two more albums. However, the group’s output won’t end there, with the singer hinting at the possibility of Coldplay releasing standalone singles and lining up side projects.
“We are only going to do 12 proper albums, and that’s real. Yeah, I promise,” Martin told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in a recent interview (approximately 30 minutes into the chat). “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.”
Explaining why the band set a limit, Martin pointed at some of their heroes and praised them for knowing when to stop releasing new works.
“There’s only seven Harry Potter [books]. There’s only 12-and-a-half Beatles albums, there’s about the same for Bob Marley, so all 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.”
Martin added that getting all members of Coldplay together—guitarist Jonny Buckland, bassist Guy Berryman, drummer and percussionist Will Champion, and manager Phil Harvey—is a “lot of wrangling of people” to make a “great” project. “I want to give the others some of their life for themselves,” he said.
The Clocks singer continued, “I don’t want to be, when we’re 60, like, ‘Will, we need you. Come on! We can do better than this!’”
Despite admitting that the band’s 12th album will be their last, that won’t be the end of Coldplay, with Martin assuring fans that their music will “always continue in some way.”
Discussing possible side projects, Martin added, “If we do something together after that creatively beyond touring, then it’ll be something different, or it’ll be a side thing, or it’ll be a compilation of things we hadn’t finished.”
You can watch the interview below.
Last week, tour promoters Live Nation revealed that limited additional tickets had been released for Coldplay’s upcoming Australian tour.
Coldplay’s Australian tour is slated to kick off later this month and will follow their most recent visit to the country in 2023, where they played two exclusive shows in Perth.
Alongside the news of the additional ticket release, Live Nation announced that Coldplay’s tour will feature new support acts: singer-songwriter Ayra Starr and hip-hop artist Shone, who will join the previously announced Emmanuel Kelly.
