Chris Martin has revealed how he’s learned to embrace some of Coldplay’s haters.
The 47-year-old frontman spoke to Rolling Stone about the British band’s reputation. Despite being one of the biggest bands in the world, Coldplay has often been considered as deeply uncool over their penchant for sentimentality and peace and love approach.
Martin acknowledged that Coldplay has accrued some haters over the last two decades, but admitted that the criticism isn’t necessarily unwarranted.
“It would be terrible if we lived in a society where everyone had to [like the same thing]. We’re a very, very easy, safe target,” he told Rolling Stone.
“We’re not going to bite back. We are four white, middle-class men from England. We deserve to take some s*** for what our people have done. There’s a reason we get to play all around the world, and part of it is not necessarily very healthy.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Martin further detailed Coldplay’s message of radical acceptance.
“When I’m saying these things about world peace, I’m also talking about my own inside,” he said. “It’s a daily thing not to hate yourself. Forget about outside critics — it’s the inside ones, too.”
He continued: “That’s really our mission right now. We are consciously trying to fly the flag for love being an approach to all things. There aren’t that many [groups] that get to champion that philosophy to that many people. So we do it.”
The “Yellow” singer also explained that Coldplay’s directive of self-love for fans also serves as a reminder to himself.
“And I need to hear that too, so that I don’t give up and just become bitter and twisted and hidden away, and hate everybody. I don’t want to do that, but it’s so tempting,” he said.
In October, Coldplay released their latest album, titled Moon Music.
The Independent’s Louis Chilton gave a scathing one-star review to the British rock band’s tenth studio album, which he described as “suffocatingly banal.”
“Somehow indulgent and featherlight at once, Coldplay’s 10-track ode to the Unifying Power of Love feels like psychedelia as imagined by a man whose drug of choice is vanilla extract,” Chilton writes. “Songs are lyrically underwritten, pretentiously packaged, and too often bookended by stretches of lilting, soporific ambience.”
