"We repaint..."

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the Grammy's...
Not sure how many tuned in to the 60 Minutes episode prior to the Grammy's, but they featured UK band Coldplay during the last 15 minutes of the show.

"In the midst of a deep recession, in a music industry fighting for survival, the group's fourth straight multi-platinum album "Viva La Vida" has sold an astounding seven million copies and snagged seven Grammy Award nominations, including best album, best song and best record. Its current world tour is virtually sold out, as 60 Minutes found out when we followed them from Orlando and Chicago to London and Belfast."

During the interview, front man Chris Martin was showing 60 Minutes around their private studio area where they write, practice, record and spend a great deal of time. The live room, filled with instruments and gear, is also noticeably tattooed with handwritten notes. Each note is an idea from band members about each particular song on the album they are currently working on. The piano has markings, the walls have markings... everything has a mark.

According to the interview, Chris Martin is a compulsive worrier and list-maker. He sends himself electronic messages, and scrawls notes on scraps of paper, on his hands, and anything else that's available, lest he forget some brilliant idea.

"... this is just the beginning, so, in six months, this will all be covered, I think," Martin explained.

"Then you have to repaint the piano?" 60 Minutes asked.

"Yeah. So when we finish something, we repaint, you know?" Martin said.

To me, this was pretty genious... its as easy as that. Writing notes on the walls, on the piano... making that space their own... surrounding themselves with ideas and inspiration, and once its recorded, they simply 'repaint'.

As artists, its easy to hang on to that inspiration... if it ain't broke, why paint over it? Right?
But in order to keep that freshness, and continue making creative strides, they just paint over the old and prepare to create new notes on the walls.

The other neat thing about the interview, was that Chris Martin let 60 Minutes in on their "rules" that are hanging on the wall of their studio. There are more than 10, but the camera only zoomed in on 10 of them. I just kept thinking of how great of an idea this was for any band... I know that when I was a Graphic Designer at Tate Publishing, designing book covers and doing book layouts, there were specific house rules that we had to abide by in order to create a high quality product!

The same applies to being a musician... setting guidelines to follow.
Of course for Coldplay, their rules set guidelines for not only music, but recording as well as image and business.

Start establishing some guidelines to follow as a musician and as a professional!
I'll reprint their rules below for reference!

1. Albums must be no longer than 42 minutes, or 9 tracks

2. Production must be amazing, rich, but with space, not over layered, less tracks, more quality. Groove and swing Drums/rhythm are the most crucial thing to concentrate on; difference between bittersweet and science of silence.

3. Computers are instruments, not recording aids.

4. Imagery must be classical, coulourful, and different. Come back in glorious technicolor.

5. Make sure videos and pictures are great before setting release date. And highly original.

6. Always keep mystery. Not many interviews.

7. Groove and swing. rhythms and sounds must always be original as possible. Once Jon has melody, twist it and weird it.

8. Promo/review copies to be on Vinyl. Stops copying problem, sounds and looks better.

9. Jaqueline sabriado, ns p c c, face forward

10. Think about what to do with charity account. Set up something small but really enabling and constructive. Ref; j oliver fifteen.