Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has confirmed the band will make only 12 studio albums together.
The pop-rock group – comprised of vocalist Martin, guitarist Jonny Buckland, drummer Will Champion and bassist Guy Berryman – are to release their 10th studio album, Moon Music, later this week.
In an interview filmed in Dublin on the Zane Lowe Show for Apple Music 1, Martin said: “We are only going to do 12 proper albums and that’s real – promise.”
In response, Lowe said: “I don’t want you to promise that. I want 50 albums.”
Martin said: “Yeah, no, but it’s good. No, you don’t, because less is more. And for some of our critics, even less would be even more.”
The interview features extensive footage of Martin sitting on rocks at Sandycove, just south of the city, as well as Croke Park, where the band played four Dublin dates at the end of the summer.
The singer previously said during a special BBC Radio 2 Christmas show in 2021 with presenter Jo Whiley that the band would release their last record in 2025 with plans to “only tour” after that.
Martin told Lowe: “I’ll tell you why it’s really important that we have that limit. First of all, there’s only eight Harry Potters …
“There’s only 12-and-a-half Beatles albums. There’s about the same Bob Marley (albums) – so, all of our heroes.
“And also, having that limit means that the quality control is so high right now, and for a song to make it, it’s almost impossible, which is great.
“And so where we could be kind of coasting, we’re trying to improve.”
Martin added: “The joy of making something, that’s funny, I was thinking about that this morning.
“That will always continue in some way, but there’s something about the Coldplay thing.
“I don’t know where the songs come from, I don’t know where the ideas come from, but that’s just been coming to me for about four or five years now – that you have to finish like this.
[ Coldplay live in Dublin: a triumphant, ecstatic night in picturesOpens in new window ]
“And I trust that, just like I trust the songs.
“So if we do something together after that, creatively, beyond touring, then it will be something different, or it’ll be a side thing, or it’ll be a compilation of things we hadn’t finished.”
He continued: “And also, to make an album great as a band, it’s such a lot of wrangling of people, and I want to give the others some of their life for themselves.”
Since the release of their debut number one record Parachutes in 2000, the band has had a streak of chart-topping studio albums.
These include A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002), X&Y (2005) Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), Mylo Xyloto (2011) and Ghost Stories (2014). There has also been A Head Full of Dreams (2015), Everyday Life (2019) and Music of the Spheres (2021).
The group were recently named the most-played British group of the 21st century by music licensing company PPL.
This year they headlined the Glastonbury Festival on the Saturday night, where they were joined by artists including Little Simz and Nigerian music star Femi Kuti, as well as Back to the Future actor Michael J Fox.
The band are to play dates in Australia from October as part of their ongoing Music Of The Spheres world tour.
They will also make history next year by becoming the first music act to play 10 nights at Wembley Stadium in a single tour, breaking a record jointly held by Taylor Swift and Take That.
Their 10th studio album, Moon Music, is out on Friday. – PA
