"yellow" was written in a rockfield studio in wales. the studio is called the quadrangle. it is where coldplay began working on their first album, "parachutes". one night after finishing recording "shiver", the lead single of the album, the band took a break and went out of the studio. outside, there were few lights on and the stars in the sky were visible and "just amazing", according to the song's co-producer, ken nelson. he told the band to look at the stars. the band looked at the stars and felt generally inspired. the song's main melody popped into the head of chris martin, the band's vocalist. the melody was a chord pattern. at first, martin did not take it seriously "as he relayed the tune to the rest of the band in his worst neil young impersonation voice". martin has said, "the song had the word 'stars' and that seemed like a word you should sing in a neil young voice." the melody "started off a lot slower" according to will champion, the band's drummer, and sounded like a neil young song. not long after, despite not taking the song seriously, martin's idea worked out when he had developed the tempo of the verse. when jonny buckland, the band's guitarist, started playing it and added to it with his own ideas, they had created the riff, "and it sort of got a bit heavier".