Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has said he uses rapper Kanye West's confidence as a source of inspiration.

Martin said he admired West's belief that music could still be challenged using new instruments and sounds, despite its long history.

“That's what I really admire about Kanye. Because for all the flak he gets, I feel so inspired by his confidence,” Martin told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“He knows that there's been all this history of music, but he still believes he can do something that no one else has done.

"That, for me, is a liberating idea.”

In the interview, conducted during the band's US tour, Martin said he was still hungry to write music, but expected the band to take a break before recording the follow-up to 2008's 'Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends'.

"We spend an awful lot of time creating. Maybe it's because we're about to turn 33, but I just feel hungry to write all the time,” he said.

"I think at the end of this tour, we may not tour for a while. We may put out a record without quite so much fanfare.

"I think the next one will be quite stripped-down and based upon this story idea which I can't talk about because it might be bad."

Coldplay are due to play a host of UK dates later this year, including two shows at London's Wembley Stadium with Girls Aloud and Jay-Z.

(by Jason Gregory)