“The Streets” star Mike Skinner on the unreleased Chris Martin duet

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June 28, 2024

Press/Ben Cannon

Mike Skinner of The Streets has spoken about an early version of his No. 1 hit Dry Your Eyes, which featured Coldplay’s Chris Martin and is still unreleased.

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In an interview with The Guardian, Skinner revealed: “It was never released because Chris just didn’t think he was needed. When you’re making music, you’re always trying different things. Sometimes you think something’s really good when it’s not, and other times you don’t really pay much attention to something and suddenly a whole field of people are singing it. People decide and you just become this weird mediator. I’ve hung out with Chris since then; whenever we were in the same part of the world, we’d have dinner and stuff. That’s what famous people do (laughs). That’s what they do, anyway.

Skinner also revealed which album by The Streets he is most proud of: “Original pirate materialbecause it took courage and nobody expected it. I had a similar feeling when I was making the film – I was really embarrassed the whole time because everyone thinks you’re crazy for breaking out of the norm. At the time, some people thought the first album was a joke, but it’s been a good friend to me. I’m not always good at making music, but I’ve always been good at being a little weird.”

He also talked about how it felt to be mentioned by Charli XCX on her song Club Classics (she sings, “Tight like Mike kinda flow”). “She asked me to be on the remix,” Skinner said. “I wrote some stuff and basically it wasn’t very good! So it never saw the light of day. To be mentioned in stuff like that or rap and stuff is a nice feeling. If I could talk to myself 20 years ago, I would definitely say it’s going to be OK.”

The Streets will play on the Other Stage at the Glastonbury Festival on June 29th at 8.30pm.

Buy The Streets vinyl and merch at the Dig! Store