Snow Patrol: in from the cold
IT took almost 10 years for Snow Patrol to become an overnight success. The title of their 2003 album, Final Straw, pretty much summed up the state of their career, but, then, to everyone's surprise - including the band's - it sold two million copies, garnered four platinum discs, and propelled them into the big time.
"A lot of people had written us off, which is why we called it Final Straw. To go that long without success and then, suddenly, be doing things like Top Of The Pops and being in the top five in the charts was very bizarre," says Snow Patrol's singer and chief songwriter Gary Lightbody, 29. "It's not something we thought would happen. It's not something we craved, to be honest.
"Every day was a surprise. We were down to earth about it, very level- headed. There were no egos involved. If it had happened on the first album, you wouldn't want to be near me. I'd probably have alienated everybody I've ever met. But, luckily, it didn't."
Guitarist Nathan Connolly adds: "I defy any band not to be a bit shell-shocked. The world decides they like you and, suddenly, your heroes are in the audience. Michael Stipe was very nice to us at the Isle of Wight festival."
Also very nice were U2, who invited Snow Patrol to join them on their European tour last summer.
"It was an amazing experience, seeing how that machine worked, because it is a gigantic machine, but it's also very human," says Lightbody. "All the crew, the catering staff and management are very friendly and very easy-going and very kind to support bands."
Lightbody grew up in Northern Ireland at a time when the big names of rock were not exactly queuing to play there. He recalls only going to two gigs as a teenager, the second being the best gig he has ever seen - Nirvana supported by Teenage Fanclub and the Breeders.
Scene
But it was on the Scottish music scene that he cut his teeth. He and other Belfast lads, drummer Jonny Quinn and original bassist Mark McClelland, met at Dundee University, and their first EP, under the name Polar Bear, was on a Glasgow label. The change of name came about after they discovered another band had already bagged the bear title.
Today, confusing those fans who like to put a nationality to a band, the line-up is three-fifths Northern Irish - Lightbody, Quinn and Connolly - and two fifths Scottish, with bassist Paul Wilson and Tom Simpson on keyboards.
After touring furiously in 2004, to the acclaim which greeted Final Straw, it was to Ireland - a cottage in Dingle on the west coast - which Snow Patrol repaired to craft a follow-up.
"We spent two months in a little house, once frequented by Kate Bush, actually, so it had a bit of musical history," says Lightbody.
When it came to capturing that music, the natural choice for producer was Garret Lee, producer of Final Straw, and, according to Lightbody, a "maverick genius".
"In the process of making that album (Final Straw) there was quite a lot of friction involved and trust issues," he adds. "We had only met him (Lee) a few days before making the album and we were unsure about where he was going with it. We did not realise until very late on in the album that he was right all along, and we should have just trusted him.
"Straight after making Final Straw, I would go down to Garret's house in Kent to write with him, and Nathan would go down and do some writing with him, and we, then, became part of his family and he became part of our family."
The resulting album, Eyes Open, is, says Lightbody, "The most honest record that I've ever written". His own favourite song on it is Set The Fire To The Third Bar - a duet with what he describes as the "lovely, incandescent, glorious" Martha Wainwright.
"It's a song I wrote for her ... to her ... in fact, a love song. I had never met her before, I just wrote to her voice, I guess. She is amazing. She just came in, did a couple of takes and it was perfect.
"It's a song I'm very proud of. The seredipitous part of the story is that she happened to be in Ireland the day we finished in the studio (in West Meath). So, we decamped to Dublin, where she was, hired a studio there and recorded a vocal in a few hours."
As for the title of that new album, Eyes Open, Lightbody resists any deep analysis.
"I wouldn't really read too much into an album title," he says. "It's just something to make sure you don't buy the same album again."
Snow Patrol play at the Ritz, Manchester, tonight. Their single You're All I Have is out now, and their album, Eyes Open, is out now.
Published: Tue, 02 May, 2006
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