Eno on Bono, U2, & Coldplay

I consider myself somewhat of a Brian Eno fan and would love the chance to interview him someday. So, I tend to always perk up when I can read new articles or interviews with him — like this one from The Guardian just published today. He makes some interesting comments about Bono, U2, and Coldplay:

On working with U2 and Coldplay at the same time

“It was fine. A few jokes. I felt like a ­philanderer who was with another woman and might make a slip and call her by the wrong name in bed. I had one computer that had all of the Coldplay stuff and all the U2 stuff. I had to very carefully label each folder because I was paranoid that I might end up with the same basic track for each group and I wouldn’t notice until it was too late. There was a chance the same track might have appeared on both albums.”

On ego

“Bono commits the crime of rising above your station. To the British, it’s the worst thing you can do. Bono is hated for doing something considered unbecoming for a pop star – meddling in things that apparently have nothing to do with him. He has a huge ego, no doubt about it. On the other hand, he has a huge brain and a huge heart. He’s just a big kind of person. That’s not easy for some to deal with. They don’t mind in Italy. They like larger-than-life people there. In most places in the world they don’t mind him. Here, they think he must be conning them.”

There’s a lot more in the article, including some thought on the record industry than run counter to what Bono and Edge have been saying lately.