SNOW BUSINESS

With Snow Patrol having just released latest album Reworked, we meet frontman Gary Lightbody to discuss his recent team-up with Bono, winning awards, NI’s new breed of bands and more.

INTERVIEW EDWIN MCFEE

When Snow Patrol quietly drifted off into their selfimposed Odinsleep at the start of the decade, some wondered if they would return and, if they did, would they be able to take back the stadiums and festivals of the globe? Last year’s Wildness finally ended their hiatus, and proved another commercial hit, maintaining the group’s place in the rock vanguard.

Aiming to make up for lost time, and also to perhaps strike while the iron is hot, the (mostly) Bangor-bred bunch have served up another new record in the form of Reworked. The opus features 13 reimagined cuts from their back catalogue, plus three new tunes to tide fans over until Wildness’ sequel (more on that later…). When Enterprise catches up with singer/guitarist Gary Lightbody in LA he tells us that, like most worthwhile art, the seeds of the LP grew from a refusal to do what was expected

“It’s been 25 years since we started,” he reflects. “So maybe the obvious thing would’ve been to release a Best Of, but we didn’t want to do that. We already released a Best Of 10 years ago, so we wanted to give people something they hadn’t heard before. That was preferable to trotting out another one, and rinsing people for the thing they’ve already got, you know?

“We’ve been playing acoustically a lot on side tours these days, so I thought we could do an acoustic record. I talked to Johnny about it and he was like, ‘Nah let’s do something more ambitious than that!’ I didn’t think we’d have the time, but he made time on tour and worked his butt off. We recorded it across a hundred different cities, just setting up in hotel rooms and dressing rooms. Johnny worked until goodness-knows-when-o’clock in the morning. This is the first record we’ve ever made on the road.”

Snow Patrol appeared at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on November 7, to receive their thoroughly deserved Oh Yeah Legend Award at the now annual NI Music Prize bash. How does Gary feel about being an official legend, then?

“I think we all feel old,” he laughs. “It is an amazing honour. Therapy?, Ash and the legend that is Terri Hooley have received it in the past and we’re proud to be part of that list. I actually gave Terri his award at the first event many years ago. I’ve been to the Northern Ireland Music Awards a few times and it’s a brilliant night.

“The NI music scene is infinitely healthier now than when I was starting out. When we were playing gigs at 18, 19, 20, there were great bands, but it didn’t feel like a deeply connected music scene, whereas now it does. There’s so many great young bands, there’s people playing on each other’s records, getting gigs sorted together… you feel like it’s a real scene, and more akin to what happens in Dublin. In my early days, I’d go down to Dublin and see what was happening and you’d be almost kinda jealous. Everybody knew each other, everybody was hanging out and enjoying themselves, and that’s how it feels now in Belfast, which is amazing.”

The Best Album category was particularly competitive this year, and Gary marvels at the high standard of the nominated acts.

“Saint Sister’s album is is my favourite record on there. Two Door Cinema Club’s is great too. They’re also Bangor lads and have recorded with our long-time producer Jacknife Lee. He’s actually their long-time producer too – they’ve done three albums with him. There are so many incredible records and they just keep coming out. Like Kitt Philippa just released an album, which is stunning and

it’s not even in contention until next year’s awards. It feels like there’s a continuum that’s developed. Before, albums came out in dribs and dabs, now there’s a constant flow of awesomeness.”

Speaking of a constant flow of awesomeness, earlier this summer Snow Patrol silenced the naysayers when they famously sold out their homecoming show at Ward Park in Bangor.

“It was amazing,” reflects Gary. “MCD looked after the first two and we went into co-production with them on this one. It wouldn’t be something we’d rush straight back into (laughs). I now understand what it takes to put a gig on, from building the stage to the lighting to the toilets to the bars… I know that we got the bars wrong, because it was the only thing people were complaining about! There’s never enough bars at an Irish festival, let’s put it that way. There’ll never be enough.

“It was an incredibly immersive experience. We were on tour all over the world and we were getting calls about various things that needed sorting. But it was something we had a lot riding on, and we had a lot of belief in it, so it was worth it. Some people thought we were mental to try it again nine years after the last one, but we just trusted it was going to work and we were proved right.

“It was the first time an all Northern Irish bill was attempted on that scale, and so many of them played out of their frickin’ skin. Like The Wood Burning Savages were playing on the second stage and they were unreal. Every gig they do, it’s as if they’re playing Wembley to 80,000 people and that is the sorta belief you need if you’re a rock band. They’ve such extraordinary confidence and stagecraft for such a young group.”

And of course, Bangor also received a visitation from Bono that night too, with the U2 frontman joining the band on a version of ‘One’. Gary tells us the whole experience left him feeling like he was back in school. “It’s funny, we were talking about having a special guest,” he notes. “Obviously the first person I thought of was Bono, but I didn’t want to say it out loud because I thought the idea was too mental! I thought, he’s not gonna be free, but then Jonny Quinn said it and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll text him I suppose…’. I sent him a wee text and fair play to him, immediately he said look, I’m busy that day, but I’m going to see what I can do to move things around.

“He was up for it right from the get-go. He was only able to get there at 10 o’clock, so we were already onstage by the time he hit Bangor. We didn’t officially know it was happening until he walked out onstage! It was a flying by the seat of your pants situation if ever there was one. Obviously he doesn’t have to rehearse ‘One’, but we’d never played it together before. So I texted him beforehand and said, as soon as you go out you’re in charge – take over. There’s no point trying to stand beside the greatest frontman in rock ‘n’ roll history, so I let him do his thing. I stood in the background and sang along a little bit every now and again. I think you can tell from my face in the photos that I felt like an 11-year-old kid thinking what the hell is happening? This has broken my mind.” Finally, we turn to the subject of Wildness’ follow-up. Lightbody reveals that his band’s fans won’t have to wait another seven years to get their hands on it. “On Reworked we’ve showcased our gentler side,” he says. “So on the next one, I’d like to do something big. I’d like to do something rocky, a bit more up. Not that I don’t enjoy softer music, but there’s an itch that I definitely want to scratch, and that’s making a big rock record. That’s my plan. I haven’t spoken to the rest of the guys about it, they might have a different answer. But everybody in the band loves rock music, so I don’t think it’s going to be a plan that we’ll disagree on.”