Chris Martin

Early life and education

Christopher Anthony John Martin was born in Whitestone, Devon, England, and is the oldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher. His family's business was Martins of Exeter until sold by his father in 1999. William Willett, the man who campaigned for and made daylight saving time a recognised practice, was Martin's great-great-grandfather.

Martin was educated at the pre-preparatory Hylton School and the preparatory Exeter Cathedral School where he found his passion for music. After Exeter Cathedral School, Martin boarded at Sherborne School in Dorset, where he met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey.

Martin continued his studies at University College London (UCL), staying at Ramsay Hall, where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with first-class honours in Greek and Latin. At UCL, Martin met his future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion.

Coldplay

While studying at University College London, Martin met Jonny Buckland with whom he decided to form a band – Martin on lead vocals and Buckland as lead guitarist. They were joined by Guy Berryman as their bass player and Will Champion, as their drummer. In 1996, they formed the rock band Coldplay, originally known as Pectoralz, later changed to Starfish temporarily until finally they were offered the name Coldplay by another band who did not want the name any more.

Since the release of their debut album Parachutes in 2000, the band has had internationally recognised fame and success. Their song Yellow from Parachutes instantly entered the charts at Number 4, the hit carried Coldplay to their aforementioned fame. To date, they have released seven studio albums in total including A Rush of Blood to the Head, X&Y, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, Mylo Xyloto, Ghost Stories, and A Head Full of Dreams. They also released several EP's at the beginning of their creation including Safety and The Blue Room.

Solo work

As a solo artist, Martin has written songs for a variety of acts including Embrace ("Gravity") and Jamelia ("See It in a Boy's Eyes", co-written with Coldplay producer Rik Simpson). Martin has also collaborated with Ron Sexsmith, Faultline when he sang on two haunting Faultline tracks: 'Where is My Boy?' and 'Your Love Means Everything Part2.', The Streets, and Ian McCulloch. He also sang a part of the vocals for the Band Aid 20 single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at the end of 2004. In 2005, Martin collaborated with Nelly Furtado on the track "All Good Things (Come to an End)", for her 2006 album, Loose. The two were once rumoured to be a couple, after they both performed at Glastonbury in 2002. Nelly Furtado joked about the situation, saying that "Yeah, he's my boyfriend – he just doesn't know it yet".

Martin's fascination with hip hop was shown in mid-2006 when he collaborated with rapper Jay-Z for the rapper's comeback album Kingdom Come after the two met earlier in the year. Martin put some chords together for a song known as "Beach Chair" and sent them to Jay-Z who enlisted the help of hip hop producer Dr. Dre to mix it. Coldplay producer Rik Simpson conceived and performed the drum beats. The song was performed on 27 September 2006 by the two during Jay-Z's European tour at Royal Albert Hall. In 2007, Martin appeared on a track titled "Part of the Plan" for Swizz Beatz' debut solo album One Man Band Man. Martin has also worked on a solo collaboration with Kanye West, with whom he shared an impromptu jam session during a 2006 concert at Abbey Road Studios. He performed the chorus of "Homecoming", from Kanye West's album Graduation.

In 2015, Martin collaborated with producer and DJ Avicii to work on two new tracks for his album, Stories. Their first collaboration is officially named "Heaven". Martin wrote the lyrics, Avicii did the production, and Simon Aldred of Cherry Ghost was the vocalist.

In September 2016, The Chainsmokers shared two short clips of an upcoming song featuring vocals from Chris Martin.

Influences and favourite musicians

The main influence on Martin and Coldplay is the Scottish rock band Travis, with Martin crediting the band for the creation of his own group.

The Irish rock band U2 is another important influence on Martin both musically and politically. Martin wrote for Rolling Stone Magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" on the band, saying: "I don't buy weekend tickets to Ireland and hang out in front of their gates, but U2 are the only band whose entire catalogue I know by heart. The first song on The Unforgettable Fire, "A Sort of Homecoming", I know backward and forward – it's so rousing, brilliant, and beautiful. It's one of the first songs I played to my unborn baby." Martin also comments on Bono's effect on his own charity and political involvement he is even known to joke with friends referring to himself as "Crono".

Martin and Coldplay were also greatly influenced by the English rock band Radiohead. Speaking to Rolling Stone Magazine, Martin said of Radiohead: "Sometimes I feel like they cleared a path with a machete, and we came afterward and put up a strip mall... I would still give my left ball to write anything as good as OK Computer."

Martin is very vocal about his love for Norwegian new wave/Synthpop band a-ha. In 2005 he stated the following in an interview: "I found myself in Amsterdam the other day and I put a-ha's first record on. I just remembered how much I loved it. It's incredible songwriting. Everyone asks what inspired us, what we've been trying to steal from and what we listened to as we were growing up – the first band I ever loved was a-ha." Martin has also performed live together with Magne Furuholmen of a-ha, introducing him as "the best keyboard player in the world". In November 2011, he stated that "back when we didn't have any hits of our own we used to play a-ha songs."

Martin is also known to be a fan of the English rock bands Oasis and Muse, Irish pop group Westlife, English-Irish girl group Girls Aloud, English pop group Take That, and Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. In 2014, Martin inducted Peter Gabriel into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career, and performed live with the former Genesis lead singer. Martin is also close friends with the musical couple Jay-Z and Beyonce, and in a recent radio interview mentioned that one of Coldplay's favourite musicians is Tove Lo, who appears on their latest album.

Coldplay performed R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming" with Michael Stipe during their Austin City Limits performance in 2005, as a part of the Twisted Logic Tour. Martin went on to call "Nightswimming" "the greatest song ever written". He has called Richard Ashcroft, formerly of The Verve, "the best singer in the world". He also admires the lyrics of Morrissey.

Martin was quoted as calling Coldplay's song "Shiver" a rip-off Jeff Buckley influenced by Buckley's song "Grace".

Other endeavours

Chris Martin and Coldplay guitarist Jonny Buckland made cameo appearances in the film Shaun of the Dead as supporters of the fictional charity ZombAid, with Martin having a second cameo in the film as a Zombie. In 2006 Martin had a cameo role in the second series, episode four, of the Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created comedy Extras. He also appears singing in the closing credits of the 2009 Sacha Baron Cohen film Brüno; along with Bono, Sting, Slash, Snoop Dogg, and Elton John.

In March 2015 Martin attended the televised launch of music streaming service Tidal via a video link, and revealed himself, along with other notable artists, as a shareholder in the company. In June 2015, Martin performed "Til Kingdom Come" at the funeral mass of Beau Biden, son of United States Vice-President Joe Biden, after learning that Biden was a fan of his.

Politics

Martin has been particularly outspoken on issues of fair trade and has campaigned for Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. He travelled to Ghana and Haiti to meet farmers and view the effects of unfair trade practices. When performing he usually has variations of "Make Trade Fair", "MTF" or an equal sign written on the back of his left hand and the letters "MTF" can be seen emblazoned on his piano. He was a vocal critic of US President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. During the Teenage Cancer Trust show at London's Royal Albert Hall on 24 March 2003, he encouraged the sell-out crowd to "sing against war". He was a strong supporter of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, most notably during his acceptance speech for the 2004 Grammy Awards Record of the Year, accepting for "Clocks". He supported Obama for President in 2008, giving a shout-out at the end of a performance of "Yellow" on 25 October 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live.

On 1 April 2006 The Guardian reported that Martin was backing the British Conservative Party leader David Cameron, and had written a new theme song for the party titled "Talk to David". This was later revealed to be an April Fool's joke. While touring Australia in March 2009, Martin and the rest of Coldplay were the opening act at the Sound Relief benefit concert at the Sydney Cricket Ground in Sydney, for the victims of bushfires and floods in Victoria and Queensland. Martin appeared in a video for the "Robin Hood Tax" campaign, which proposes a tax on stock trades in the United States. This tax is aimed at levelling the field between the so-called "1% and 99%". In June 2016 Martin supported Vote Remain in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. Following the Brexit result which saw 52% of the UK voting to leave the EU (despite the majority of younger people voting remain), Martin stated: "This decision does not represent us or indeed most of our generation and the generation following us."

Philanthropy

On 12 December 2012, Martin performed as a part of the "12 12 12 Concert" which was held as a fundraiser for Hurricane Sandy relief. He performed "Viva La Vida", the R.E.M. song "Losing My Religion" with the former R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe, and "Us Against the World". Other performers in the show included Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters, Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Alicia Keys, The Who, Kanye West, Billy Joel, and Paul McCartney. On 15 November 2014, Martin joined the charity group Band Aid 30, performing alongside British and Irish pop acts on the latest version of the track "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise money for the 2014 Ebola crisis in Western Africa—this was the second time Martin has contributed to a Band Aid recording having performed in the 2004 version.

Martin became the creative director of the newly established Global Citizen Festival in 2015, a role he will fulfill for a period of 15 years. The festival was created in 2015 to mark the establishment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a "to-do list" of 17 tasks to end extreme global poverty by the year 2030; with Martin consulting Band Aid founder Bob Geldof on the role. The 2015 festival, was held on Central Park's Great Lawn in New York on 26 September, and featured performances by Martin's band Coldplay, Beyoncé, Pearl Jam and Ed Sheeran, and was broadcast on NBC in the US on 27 September, and the BBC in the UK on 28 September. It was reported that Martin became the Innocence Project's Artists' Committee as an Innocence Ambassador on 5 February 2016.

Personal life

Martin forces himself to drink vodka with cranberry juice when he behaves "like an idiot". PETA named him the World's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2005, as he had been a vegetarian for a while; however, he started eating meat again after his split with Gwyneth Paltrow. Martin is a supporter of Arsenal F.C..

Relationships

Martin and American actress Gwyneth Paltrow married on 5 December 2003, in a quiet ceremony in the absence of their friends and family. Their daughter Apple Georgia Alison Martin, was born 14 May 2004 in London and named after Chris' inspiration and cousin, Georgia Devereux. Martin and the band released a song "I am your baby's daddy" under the name "The Nappies" in anticipation of the birth of Apple. The band's song "Speed of Sound" was also inspired by Martin's experience and awe at becoming a father. Their second child, Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born 8 April 2006 in New York City. Moses' name was inspired by a song, "Moses", that Martin wrote for Paltrow. Simon Pegg and Martin's bandmate Jonny Buckland are Apple's godfathers, and in exchange Martin is the godfather to Pegg's daughter. Martin and Paltrow announced their separation in March 2014, after ten years of marriage. Paltrow filed for divorce in April 2015. A judge finalised their divorce on 15 July 2016.

Religion

In a 2005 Rolling Stone magazine interview, Martin said of his religious views: "I definitely believe in God. How can you look at anything and not be overwhelmed by the miraculousness of it?" In the same interview he spoke of going through a period of spiritual confusion, stating "I went through a weird patch, starting when I was about sixteen to twenty-two, of getting God, religion, superstition, judgement all confused". In a 2008 interview he said, "I'm always trying to work out what 'He' or 'She' is. I don't know if it's Allah or Jesus or Mohammed or Zeus. But I'd go for Zeus." Following the interview, he released a text message declaring himself an "all-theist", a word of his invention meaning that he believes in "everything".

With Coldplay