Recording
Ambient musician and English record producer Brian Eno produced the album. Coldplay moved to "The Bakery", after finishing up their Latin American Tour, building a studio there. The songs written during their time at the studio are lyrically "much more abstract, much more visual than before", and musically "less straight-forward, more oblique". Additionally, Martin wanted to make a vocal transition from his trademark falsetto to a lower register. This is explored in "Yes", where the main characteristic of the Velvet Underground-inspired song is the lowest vocals Chris Martin ever recorded that was suggested by the producer Brian Eno to make every single song sound different in the album. The band's drummer Will Champion said in an interview for MTV: "One of the main things we tried to focus on with this record is changing vocal identities, because Chris has a very recognizable voice." Coldplay sparked an interest at Hispanic influences after having recorded in churches and in Spanish-speaking countries such as in Mexico in America and Spain in Europe, such as Barcelona. However, it was stressed that the influence was not in any specific sound but a general feel to the songs taken as a whole. On their website, the band also described taking acoustic guitars and basic recording equipment to churches and experimenting with particular sounds.
Throughout the recording of the album, Coldplay communicated to fans through their website. "Famous Old Painters" and "Glass of Water" were written in late 2007 and they were considering both tracks for the album, but were not well received by the producers though the latter was added to the finalized Prospekt's March extended play tracklisting instead. The album was delayed further, but a December 2007 post gave hints that the recording stage was nearly finished. The article was signed "Prospekt", strengthening rumours that this would be the album's title. While the band completed two more songs ("Lovers in Japan" and "Strawberry Swing"), they denied that the album was called "Prospekt". Martin revealed he had been reading many Charles Dickens novels during the recording process which may have contributed to the strong visual imagery on such tracks as "Violet Hill" and "Cemeteries of London". In an interview for the Latin American TV channel Boomerang in 2010 Chris said that a big inspiration for the record was the book Les Misérables, which can be noted by the French revolution themes on Viva La Vida for example.
When asked about why "Lovers in Japan" had an additional track, bassist Guy Berryman explained that the band couldn't make up their minds, because they had discussed that they did not want an extra song on the album, and instead they wanted to keep the album concise with a total of ten tracks (and an intended length of under 42 minutes). Champion followed with, "We just preferred to have less titles and more stuff. The album as a whole has got the most on it, but it’s the shortest. We wanted to make it almost impossible for you to not listen to it all in one go." In addition, vocalist Chris Martin revealed that the band had always wanted a song title which was two in one. He added that the reason for having two titles in the track listing of Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends was due to American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake doing it for his last album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006).
The violinist Davide Rossi contributed with Coldplay to record strings on his acoustic and electric violin (the latter being capable to reach notes as low as the upright bass, thus recreating a full orchestra) throughout the album. His strings are featured in 6 songs: Viva la Vida (the song in which his strings are the most used), Violet Hill, Life In Technicolor, 42, Yes and Strawberry Swing. Some of the songs they recorded with Rossi didn't make the cut for the album but were released in the Propekt March EP. Those songs were: Life in Technicolor ii, Rainy Day and Prospekt March.
On 18 July 2009, two early demos from the Viva la Vida recording sessions leaked onto the Internet: the previously unheard "Bloodless Revolution" and a very early version of Viva la Vida single "Lovers in Japan". A day later another demo, called "St. Stephen" appeared online. On 20 July 2009, six more demos were leaked: "The Fall of Man", "The Man Who Swears", "The Man Who Swears II" (actually just the second half of "The Man Who Swears"), "First Steps", "Loveless" and "Goodbye and Goodnight".
Read more about this topic: Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
Famous quotes containing the word recording:
“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)