Chris Martin: Pandemic has been eye-opening for music stars

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has said the last year was “an eyeopener” for music stars.

The 44-year-old was speaking after the release of the band’s new song, Higher Power, which they premiered overnight with the help of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Speaking to Zoe Ball on her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, Coldplay’s co-founder said he is “trying to stay level about everything”.

“I’m trying in my life right now to not attach too much to being a pop star, and try not to get my self worth from external validation,” he said.

“So, if you like it, that’s great; if you don’t like it, that’s great.”

He added: “A lot of people who do my job, last year was quite an eyeopener, like who am I without Wembley Stadium saying ‘You’re awesome’?

“I really mean what I say, I’m trying to just do the music that wants to be done and give it and leave it at that.”

A special performance of Higher Power featuring dancing alien holograms was sent up to Mr Pesquet, who gave the track its first play after midnight on board the ISS.

In the recorded performance, the four-piece are seen playing in their trademark colourful outfits in front of shipping containers, while a troupe of hologram dancers perform in front of them.

The Max Martin-produced song was teased last week via a cryptic video and website referring to Alien Radio.

Swedish record producer Martin is behind some of the biggest hits in pop music, including Britney Spears’ …Baby One More Time, as well as countless others from musicians like Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Katy Perry.

Chris Martin said working with the famed producer had been “an epiphany”.

He told Ball: “He’s an amazing writer. He’s an incredible producer and with us he’s really come in as like an old-school producer so I had to audition songs for him and go back to basics.

“I respect him so much so it’s made us raise our game quite a lot and it’s been interesting to let someone right into the fabric of the songs to suggest things that no-one else has ever been allowed to suggest, and, at the end of it, we know that he’s far more successful than we are so it’s quite humbling.

“He sort of joined the band in a way as our producer and it’s been just an epiphany.”

The band are part of the star-studded line-up scheduled to play during Glastonbury’s Live At Worthy Farm global livestream on May 22.

Speaking about their forthcoming performance, Martin said: “Glastonbury is our home really, as a band, and it’s funny, the last few times we’ve closed the festival… I like to go down in the winter and climb up the pyramid and sit there and think about what we’re going to do and just look at the cows and the grass and think ‘OK, I’ll imagine you are people’.”

“But this year we have to just treat them as cows and grass and play to them and I’m into that, every member of the audience is special whether they’re human or bovine. So we’re going to give a great show.”

Coldplay will perform Higher Power on American Idol on Sunday and at the Brit Awards on May 11, where they will open the ceremony from a pontoon on the River Thames.

They currently hold the title of being the most nominated group at the Brits, with 28 nominations in total and nine award wins.