Martin explains Coldplay ambitions

Chris Martin has compared Coldplay's ambitions to triple Olympic record holder Usain Bolt.

The singer admitted that the band are constantly striving to be the best in their field.

"I know we're not s**t," he told the Herald Sun. "We want to be like Usain Bolt, we don't want to be the guy who came fifth.

"It's not enough to get into the Olympic finals, you've got to win it."

Martin added that there is more pressure on recording artists than ever before.

"We're on our fourth album, we're doing about as well as you can ask to do, but there's a blessing and a curse to being in a band in 2009," he said.

"The curse is there's so many things that have gone before you it's difficult to be original and also you're competing against all those things in history from Beethoven to Sigur Ros to Gabriella Cilmi.

"The blessing is you have all this stuff to learn from and draw from."

Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends was the best-selling album worldwide in 2008, shifting 6.8 million copies.