'Speed of Sound' demonstrates one side of the album. So we thought we should do a different style of song, a ballad, just to show there are other aspects to the album.

The first single is the hardest to pick because basically you're trying to express the whole album through one song,

I don't concentrate on technical things like where a microphone is placed and things like that. As a producer, I try to keep the initial feeling from when I first heard a song and make sure we do what were initially aiming for.

Magne Furuholmen is a very dear friend of mine. A-ha are a classic pop band and they've got some brilliant songs. I'd say 'The Living Daylights' was one of my favourite Bond tunes: regardless of it being a Bond song, it stands alone as a great piece of music.

I only shoot on film. I like the quality, the grain and the imperfections. It offers me something much more rewarding than any digital camera can give me. I believe the extra expense is worth it.

I don't think we've been influenced massively by our success and by our travels. The lyrics [singer Chris Martin] writes are more basic than that, more basic, emotional ideas rather than life experiences. There's probably a few lines in there which reflect what's happened in the last year or so, but it's hard to say