“No Major Label”: Anna B Savage on the oddity of Coldplay’s wild success
London-born artist Anna B Savage is quickly on the rise, with an array of musical accolades already under her belt. After completing a Master’s degree at BIMM Dublin, she released two synth-rock records: A Common Turn and inFLUX with her education helping to inform her indie outlook, imbuing her music with an academic edge.
Her latest, released earlier this year, sees her take a turn towards a more stripped-back sound. You & I Are Earth presents a new side of Savage, as she invokes the folk side of her musical sensibilities, drawing from the expansive Irish landscape and history. It sees her at a juncture where sounds and styles blend and collide, and she looked to masters of this feat, albeit largely maligned masters, to study how it is done.
Coldplay’s first two records, Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head became her pathway to the album. These records were truly original in their own right. Savage, like most music lovers, knows at least one track from each project intimately. She gushed about the band in a recent interview with The Line of Best Fit, sharing that ‘Yellow’ was the first song she learned in the early days of music making, but ‘Shiver’ remains true as her ‘everything’ song. “‘Shiver’ was the Coldplay song for me. It started out my obsession.”
This may come as a surprise, and Coldplay tends to get flack for their image, their popularity, their message (that Peep Show quote). But, in truth, they also rose to this lofty stage on their own steam, and before the ubiquity became overbearing, their first few records were lavishly praised by many of the same critics who now sweat over what they once said.
Savage is all for it, however, admiring the positivity they promote in today’s political climate, and their unique beginnings. Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head, released in 2000 and 2002, respectively, depart radically from the pop of the era, which was dominated by the likes of Britney Spears, Rihanna, and Gwen Stefani.
Despite being out of step with the times, these early Coldplay records were received with commercial success. Parachutes quickly reached number one in the UK and peaked at 51 on the Billboard 200 in the US, winning the Grammy Award for ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ in 2002 and ‘Album of the Year Award’ at the 2001 Brit Awards. A Rush of Blood To The Head also won three Grammy Awards in 2003, for ‘Best Alternative Album’, ‘Best Rock Performance’, and ‘Record of the Year’.
Coldplay had its own unlikely beginnings. The band formed after lead singer Chris Martin met guitarist Jonny Buckland during freshers’ week at University College London. Drawing from the likes of U2, Radiohead, and Echo & The Bunnymen, they began writing their own music. They were to be joined shortly after by bassist Guy Berryman and drummer Will Champion.
Unlike any mainstream music of the time, Coldplay’s first two records honed indie tendencies that were way ahead of their time. From abstract yet introspective lyricism to musical compositions attuned to the human ear, Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head, by definition, present records that are indie in every way, right down to the fact that they didn’t have any major backing.
For Savage, as someone who has herself found success against the odds in the industry, she’s equally as surprised that two albums rooted in the indie genre garnered that much popularity in the 2000s mainstream. “I can’t believe that those two albums are as popular as they were, because they’re fucking weird.”
She continues, “No major label these days would let people write songs like that and put them out. You just wouldn’t be allowed.” If you want to be hit-makers who go on to headline Glastonbury, then channelling Radiohead and blending it with gospel would not be deemed advisable.
Savage drew from the otherworldliness evoked by Coldplay’s early work for her newest project, You & I Are Earth. To her, these albums just capture a feeling like no other—she wanted her music to have that same effect on listeners. Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head invoke a certain joy yet sadness, an angst that still maintains gentleness, and an intimacy within the recording production.
Much like all music heads and Coldplay fans, Savage consistently returns to Coldplay’s first two records, getting that chill every time and the sensation of “feeling all the things.”
