As an exhilarating fusion of alternative rock and dance-pop, Coldplay’s 2014 single A Sky Full Of Stars saw the British group venture into the rave yard by embracing electronic dance music (EDM). Emerging during difficult recording sessions for the band’s sixth album, Ghost Stories, the song saw Coldplay frontman Chris Martin channel his personal struggles into an anthem of hope and perseverance. In collaboration with renowned EDM producer Avicii, Martin wove his philosophical musings into a crossover hit that transcended genre, resonating with listeners through its uplifting message and club-ready energy.
Here is the story of how Coldplay captured the communal spirit of the EDM scene while staying true to their anthemic roots, enabling songwriter Chris Martin to overcome personal heartbreak in the process.
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The backstory: “We need this door opening to the sunrise”
As the last song to be written for Coldplay’s sixth studio album, Ghost Stories, A Sky Full Of Stars arrived at the tail-end of recording sessions and during a moment of epiphany for Chris Martin. Many of the songs he’d written for the album had found him in an emotionally fragile state, with heartbreakingly vulnerable ballads such as Ink and True Love seeing him attempt to make sense of his recent divorce from wife Gwyneth Paltrow.
Aching with rawness and intimacy, much of this new material was shaping up to make Ghost Stories a deeply personal breakup album, but Martin knew he needed a song that would give the listener a sense of release and catharsis. “We’ve got all these other songs going through this journey,” Martin said in an interview with Beats, “and we need this door opening to the sunrise.” A Sky Full Of Stars seemingly fell out of the ether, radiating a sense of hopefulness and optimism and offering the listener a harmonious convergence of post-traumatic wisdom.
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By turning his scars into constellations, Martin set about writing a song that expressed his faith in unconditional love, and how a belief in something bigger can transcend the hurt and help us emerge stronger on the other side. “Life is beautiful in all its colours, even the darker ones,” he told Zane Lowe. “They’re here for a reason.”
The recording: “This took ages to finish, because we were trying to blend two worlds”
Sitting down at his piano late at night at The Village Studios, in West Los Angeles, Martin came up with the melody for the song surprisingly quickly. “A Sky Full Of Stars came out around 11.30 at night… it came out in about seven minutes,” he later said. “This song just fell out, just came right through.” Since the rest of his band were in London at the time, Martin was completely on his own in the studio, but he didn’t want to wait around, and decided to work on the demo by himself.
Unlike the other ballads he’d already penned for Ghost Stories, A Sky Full Of Stars had a more upbeat flavour, with inspiration coming from an unlikely place. “I’ll tell you the truth,” Martin later said. “I was listening to a lot of Katy Perry.” He wasn’t simply a fan of the US pop singer; he was intrigued by a specific songwriting technique she and producer Dr Luke had employed. “A lot of her songs have the same chord sequence the whole time. Your body feels comfortable with them, and then the melody’s changing on top, so there’s a groove you really get into and then also you’re kept interested.”
