Talking Shop: Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol's last album Eyes Open sold 2.1 million copies in the UK

They are one of Britain's biggest bands - but when making their new album, Snow Patrol went back to basics, took music lessons and set fire to their guitars.

After releasing their debut in 1998, the band hit the big time in 2004 with their single Run.

Their album Eyes Open became the UK's best-selling album of 2006, and its anthem Chasing Cars became ubiquitous on the airwaves and in the charts.

Singer Gary Lightbody, 32, explains how they have gone about following that runaway success.

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How does new album compare to your past work?

We've tried not to repeat ourselves, but the basic elements of what makes Snow Patrol - melody and honesty - are still there in force.

It's a much more positive record, it's a record about love and the universe, rather than the break-up of a relationship.

What happened to make you more positive?

I just feel more comfortable in my own skin and I'm a lot more positive in my outlook. I was dwelling on the past and beating myself up about stuff, trying to work out what I was doing wrong.

Now I'm a lot more relaxed and more able to think about the way things went right, rather than the way they went wrong.

Was there pressure to produce another Chasing Cars?

People find you out pretty fast if you keep repeating yourself. The only thing we really knew we had to avoid was to make another record like we did the last time.

I'm glad that it never happened too early for me because it would have been well over by now Gary Lightbody

But aside from that, it was open to anything. We had to push ourselves further than we'd ever done before. We tried every available instrument and approach.

From various levels of water in wine glasses to setting stuff on fire. It's important to love your instrument, but it's also important to set it on fire!

Were you temped to react against your success and go off on a tangent?

We didn't want to spite ourselves - that's just ridiculous. But we neutralised it by going to Ireland.

We got a little house by a lake, set up our instruments in our living room, cooked dinner for each other every night and got back to the bare bones of being in a band, which is essentially five guys and their instruments.

We developed again right from the beginning. That's the way you change tack and avoid repeating yourself and keep the freshness - by trying to treat every album as a new start.

Is it right that the band had music lessons?

Yes - and I know what you're thinking - it's about time. We all wanted to meet our ambitions. We wanted to be better as a band and as individuals.

Everybody learned to play their instruments a lot better and it's really paid off because we were that much sharper, and that much better.

You were quoted recently talking about a drink problem.

I enjoy a drink as much as anybody but I'm not an alcoholic

Those quotes were taken from an old interview I did with Q magazine 18 months ago. And even that interview was about a time in my life when I was 26, 27, and out of control.

The journalist then used that interview to imply that this was an ongoing problem. I'm sober as a judge, fit, healthy, in good voice, in good spirits, in good mind.

I enjoy a drink as much as anybody but I'm not an alcoholic.

It took a while for you to find success - has that been a benefit now?

It wasn't pleasant in some of the years between 1994 and 2004, when Run came out.

But it made us well prepared for not getting too carried away with the trappings of success and our egos were well and truly filed right down to the stub.

When I was 18 years old, I was not mature, I was not ready. I'm glad that it never happened too early for me because it would have been well over by now and I think the drink might have been the least of my worries.

How much have things changed for you since the '90s - are you living the rock star life?

I don't have extravagant passions - I don't need to eat two Faberge eggs for breakfast every morning

I don't think so. I have a house. I don't buy expensive things. I buy a lot of music and a lot of DVDs and a lot of books because they're my passions.

I guess I'm lucky that I don't have extravagant passions. I don't need to eat two Faberge eggs for breakfast every morning.

Is it right that you're interested in science?

Physics especially has become an obsession of mine in recent years. I've read an awful lot about it. It's something that mystifies and allures me all at once.

I'm very excited about particle physics at the moment and the implications that it has. Teleportation and things like that seem to have come straight from the pages of science fiction books, but are maybe 20 years off actually happening.

That would make touring easier.

It certainly would. There's a question of what actually gets teleported - whether it's your whole being and your soul, or whether it's just your physical make-up and you're a blank slate when you come out the other end. If that's the case, I'm not sure I'd be that keen on it.

Snow Patrol's single Take Back the City is out in the UK on 13 October and their album A Hundred Million Suns follows on 27 October. Gary Lightbody was talking to BBC News music reporter Ian Youngs.