Coldplay's Chris Martin Reflects on Avicii's Death, Urges Greater Care in Social Media Era
A decade after its release, who could forget Coldplay and Avicii’s “A Sky Full of Stars”?
Certainly not the band’s frontman, Chris Martin, a former collaborator of the late EDM icon, whose real name was Tim Bergling. Looking back on the track in a new interview, Martin opened up about the pressures of social media and the toll it takes on artists’ mental health.
“I think we have to handle everyone with care, first and foremost,” Martin told Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 ahead of Coldplay’s 10th album, Moon Music. “Secondly, artists, particularly when they’re on their own—it’s a delicate thing, especially now with social media.”
“It’s relentless and it’s extremely stressful for a young artist. So if someone like Tim, who was at the beginning of the real social media craziness, and he was doing four gigs a day—there was no Will [Champion, Martin’s Coldplay bandmate]. He didn’t have a Will to say, ‘Hey, awesome. Let’s rest for a minute,’ or, ‘Let’s not do seven singles this week, let’s do one.'”
“A Sky Full of Stars” is a generational dance anthem for countless fans of Bergling, who tragically died by suicide in 2018. The song’s lyricism (“‘Cause you get lighter the more it gets dark”) continues to remind us of the inherent worth and brilliance within each individual, often obscured by the shadows of depression, anxiety or trauma.
Many in the music industry now regard Avicii as a cautionary tale. Ubiquitously known as one of the most virtuosic dance music producers of all-time, Bergling grappled with mental health struggles contrived largely from a grueling tour schedule.
“The thing you learned from Avicii was we have to protect all people,” Martin added.
Moon Music is scheduled to release October 4th, 2024. You can watch Coldplay’s full interview on Apple Music 1 below.
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