Steven Wilson’s Surprising Thoughts on Chris Martin and Coldplay

I think the media has become more and more intolerant over the years when it comes to different styles of music. For me, this made the published music more and more boring. To put it bluntly, the sophisticated and creative music that I like to listen to is not boring enough for the radio.

I like SW immensely however how did he feel about Eno working with Coldplay

I could listen to SW expressing his opinions on music and life in general literally for hours!

Martin is more talented than him

In terms of modern acts, I would say Bring me the Horizon.

Always thought Lana Del Rey changed the pop landscape including in aesthetic as he was talking about. But the whole thing is that it kind of just happened without anybody really realizing it - it wasn't celebrating itself like similar events in the past.

Inspired by Echo and the Bunnymen Coldplay started off cool but ended up making music for sheep 🐑

Interesting watch. I would say that Royal Blood - undoubtedly rock - have emerged as a significant force since about 2014 in the UK. I'm guessing they are also popular in continental Europe but am not sure about North America.

Agree with everything Steven says regarding Chris Martin and "The centre of the Universe". Don't agree with him as regards Coldplay being a cool band, or that they ever wrote any great songs. Just can't listen to them, as the music makes me cringe. Don't know if Steven was aware of David Bowie being approached by Chris Martin a lot of years back, asking Bowie if maybe they could do something musically together? Bowie,s reply was very telling.... "Well, you,re last album wasn't very good." This was a Chris Martin interview l seen years ago, and this story was related by Chris Martin himself. Martin,s reply was also telling.... "With Bowie having told me that, l realised, well, that's the level you have to get to, in order to do an album or single with David Bowie." For me, having watched this, it wasn't just a case of Chris Martin having to up his game in order to reach Bowie,s level. It was more a case of... Sorry Chris, you never will. And this is what Chris Martin didn't understand. David Bowie didn't want to touch or be associated with Coldplay, in the same way as he had with Queen.

Merci pour la traduction... j adore ce mec... pur génie clairvoyant.🙏🙏🙏

Fantastic comment about music falling down the list of importance for young people today. I’d always tried to explain that to people but couldn’t articulate it

Sounds like a pompous twat

Hm how about Ghost? They are rock-based and quite successful internationally

I did read somewhere that Coldplay approached Bowie for something & he refused.

I do think in part music has also disappointed for a lot of people
Inwardly
Great in many ways but just not having that depth enough of the time for enough people I’d say

The bland talking about the bland.

Coldplay: 🤡👉🎪
Porcupine Tree: 💪😎 (Gigachad)

Ahh man this is a genius i love his music.. so lucky i got to see him live..

Steven wilson always speaks such facts

All you have to do is stand on any random street corner during a busy time of day to hear just how far we've fallen in terms of musical taste. It's a travesty.

Coldplay was the biggest/greatest band in the world from 2002-2003. Sometime during the X&Y era (05-06) they sold out to the Satanic/Illuminati music industry.

Don't believe me? Go watch the music video for Magic, its got all the "Illuminati" symbolism, just look at the hat on the bottom of the music video. It was also directed by a big time Satanist.

-This is coming from a fucking die hard Coldplay fan. Wanna play in there world? Gotta play by their games.

Love this discussion.
Interesting, thought provoking.

Yeah .. the best has been and gone...!!!! OR HAS IT...???

I hope these guys eat Coloratura for breakfast. His comments clearly show he never met the band, including Chris.

The national

I would like to see what Steven would say about Coldplay's Coloratura being categorised as a space/ progressive rock song (at least according to Wikipedia)

Honestly I’ve always thought of porcupine tree as prog Coldplay

I love Steven Wilson's music, in two days actually I will hear Porcupine Tree live in Chile, but I don't understand why people (Wilson including) says that your music is good if you are low profile, unknown person. You have to be a nun of music to be a good musician and made a definite type of music, if you are out of all that, you are cynic and you music is losing credit. No! Everyone is free to make the music that wants to do, and if your music is massive listened you become famous. This is like say that a football player have to play whit smart passes and intelligent play to be a good player, and if he becomes a dribbling player whit triks and golden globes, he is not too good like before.

I just did Body Balance with several Chinese pianists after watching that. Can you imagine the power of 1.3 billion Coldplay fans trolling about in a shopping mall with SiFu mong_mong. Me neither.

Ja. What do you call a german from pakistahn - a South African racist. om

Personally...I always thought CCR sing Great Balls Of Fire over and over again. But, that's Chopin, Wagner and a prison in a town centre for om - Frogs in classical piano mode. :D

I'll give that guy a 6.5 in IELTS.

I quite liked their last album - Chinese girl on a treadmill. It was right good, and it got airplay in continuum like a Russian TEFL teacher with a froggy gurn. It sort of reminded me of the days when we could live in squats, then do a push up and live in Korea with our personal trainer - Travis with Math.

SiFu Coldplay via the BBC...lets vote for them. I reckon they could change the world into 95% taxpaying sloanes.

I have never been a Coldplay fan, and have enjoyed far more releases from Porcupine Tree, in comparison. However, replace the name “Chris Martin” here with “Steve Wilson” and what he says would apply the same and still make sense (minus marrying a movie star, etc. which was a pretty dumb point, anyway). Wilson may be less known, but his music has shown no less abundence of ego at times and certainly contrivance, to the point where it made this Porcupine Tree fan into a loyal fan of albums he re-masters or produces but someone who either avoids or yawns majorly at his often cringe-worthy solo releases. This could just as easily be Steven in a therapy session, talking about his own insecurities. Pot, kettle, and so forth.

One of the wonders of the world is going down and that no one cares enough

Coldplay and Ed Sheeran sold out sometime ago.

Steve Wilson talks about contrived this is fucking laughable!

Steve Wilson is kinda like England’s Steve Albini. Super smart and articulate. But always kind of makes an off-handed comment about an artists credibility. Then immediately after says “don’t get me wrong I respect them”.

Chris Martin is so dull.

Chris Martin, whether he's an attention whore or not, is a brilliant musician. Watch him play his little upright piano for proof.

Steven Wilson has made more sense in this interview than all the progressional opinions I've heard in the last 5 years. We need more Steve Wilson's...

Love SW and pretty much everything he's done but he's a bit pretentious.

amazing thoughts! he truly respects a band that in an obvious way haas nothing to do with porcupine tree, and still give a thoutful critisism

Very thoughtful and intelligent comments here by Steven. The elephant in the room, though, is the entrance on the stage of illegal downloads and then streaming services such as Spotify. Album sales have plummeted since he started out in the early 90s. As always, a development like that cuts off the bottom half of the economic pyramid, which means record producers are less inclined to take a chance on a new and untried artistic development by upcoming musicians. The ROI just may not be there and so the investment becomes too risky.

This is the most important reason why it's harder to become the next Bowie or Prince, and why the audience is sadly left with music "made by millionaires who are nearly twice your age" and engineered for "building cheaper thrills," as Steven himself has so aptly put it.

I don't know this guy, and I don't know Coldplay, other than I find the singer annoying so you can interpret my comment in that light. I found his somewhat respectful criticism of Coldplay's singer to be interesting and accurate. It was subtle but he definitely gave him a little jab there, but great interview.

The Weeknd is the main drive and influence in pop music today. In the 80s, Prince and Micheal Jackson were the drivers of pop but Phil Collins was right up there as well. He transformed from Prog to pop in a few short years.

The notion that Chris Martin is solely responsible for the direction and sound of Coldplay is misguided. Yes Chris provides most of the songwriting power but the rest of the band contribute too hence equal songwriting credits and to an extent, equal pay. Will, the drummer, is actually the ‘anchor’ or ‘boss’ within the band who probably has the biggest say in the decision making rather than Chris. Coming from a diehard Coldplay fan, it’s hard to disagree with a lot of what Steven says (and he is certainly not as cynical or snide as the title suggests) but Coldplay are a 4 man band, not a one man show