Coldplay's Chris Martin Talks Recruiting Beyonce, Recording Blue Ivy Carter for 'Head Full of Dreams'
Old pals, Chris Martin and Beyoncé, collaborate on “Hymn on the Weekend” for Coldplay’s forthcoming album. (Getty)
Coldplay collaborations can be a shocker (see: “Lost” featuring Jay Z and the Chris Martin and Kanye West duet “Champion”). But the four-piece British rock group are flipping the script for their forthcoming farewell album, A Head Full of Dreams.
Frontman Chris Martin recently opened up to The Wall Street Journal about the group’s track featuring Beyoncé called “Hymn on the Weekend,” a song that was born out of his desire to create a club track.
“The original kernel was that I was listening to Flo Rida or something, and I thought, it’s such a shame that Coldplay could never have one of those late-night club songs, like ‘Turn Down for What.’ What would we call it if we had one?,” said Martin.
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“I thought I’d like to have a song called ‘Drinks on Me’ where you sit on the side of a club and buy everyone drinks because you’re so f—ing cool,“ he continued. "I was chuckling about that, when this melody came – 'drinks on me, drinks on me’ – then the rest of the song came out. I presented it to the rest of the band and they said, 'We love this song, but there’s no way you can sing ‘drinks on me.’’ So that changed into 'drink from me’ and the idea of having an angelic person in your life. Then that turned into asking Beyoncé to sing on it.”
Bey isn’t the only Carter to place on the album, though. According to Martin, Hov and Bey’s 3-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy, also got some studio time for a “choir” of vocals from close family and friends that were included on their opus.
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“Everyone who got asked to sing on our album has an important part in our lives,” he said. "The 'choir’ started with my two kids coming in after school and recording. We recorded Blue Ivy Carter in New York when her mom Beyoncé was in the studio. It comes from learning about Greek tragedy, where the chorus chimes in at times. To me, when we use that sound, it’s to affirm what I’m saying. 'We agree with you, Chris. Keep singing.'”
Coldplay's A Head Full of Dreams is due Dec. 4 via Parlophone/ Atlantic Records.
