Coldplay are set to return next year to work on a ‘surprising’ new album, their friend and collaborator Mat Whitecross has revealed.

Having known the band since university, Supersonic director Whitecross has just released ‘A Head Full Of Dreams‘ – a new film that tells the full 20 year history of the band via up-close, personal and unseen footage. The band have been largely quiet for much of the year, but now it seems that they’ll be back in the studio in 2019.

“They’re on a sabbatical at the moment so they’ve been ruthlessly on holiday for a year,” Whitecross told NME. “They’ve never done that before. I don’t know if you can call Chris a workaholic because he loves what he does; he’s in and out of the studio writing three or four songs a day.


“This year, they decided to take off. They haven’t been doing anything as far as I know, but they do have plans for next year however I’ve not been party to them.”

Asked if he knew anything about where the band plan to take their sound on their upcoming eighth album, Whitecross replied: “I’ve heard a few things and filmed a few bits of them talking about it, but I don’t think I’m allowed to share anything. It’s interesting.

“They’ve been such a successful band that the narrative that gets portrayed of them in the press is ‘Oh, they must be very middle of the road. Whether you love the band or not, each album is an experimentation and markedly different from the last one. Just like a band like Radiohead. They haven’t written a ‘Kid A’ yet where their entire fanbase goes ‘What the fuck is this?’, but I feel like if you play the first one then the most recent, it’s not a foregone conclusion. They always want to be challenging themselves and surprising other people – that’s why they work with people like Brian Eno. In that sense, I’m sure whatever they do next will surprise people.”

Whitecross added: “After every album, they just feel so spent. Chris always feels like ‘Oh, we’re done now. As a band we don’t have anything else left to say’. Gradually, it all rekindles and they start to get excited about what’s happening next.”


A Head Full Of Dreams hits Amazon Prime Video on November 16.

Meanwhile, Coldplay have announced the release of a new live album and concert film to finally round off their ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’ world tour.

The full ‘Butterfly Package’ of ‘Live In Buenos Aires’ will be released on December 7, and is available to pre-order now as a 2 x DVD / 2 x CD set and a 2 x DVD / 3 x gold vinyl collection. A 2 x CD edition of the ‘Live In Buenos Aires’ album will also be available for fans to buy.