Snow Patrol’s last two albums (and a timely playing of “Chasing Cars” on Grey’s Anatomy) have made them one of the world’s indie music giants. Indeed, the Scottish and Northern Irish rockers have come a long way from their early gigs as Polar Bear at the University of Dundee, back in 1994. Just ahead of their trip Down Under for the V Festival, a hungover Paul Wilson (the band’s Scottish bassist) had time for a quick word…
Hi Paul, are you excited to be heading down toOz?
Yeah, totally. A bit of sun will be good.
Have you been here much before?
We’ve been round Australia loads of times. I’ve had a few holidays there as well. I like Melbourne a lot.Perth is pretty cool for some bizarre reason.
Your new album, A Hundred Million Suns, came out not long ago. With the last two being massive hits, is there added pressure on you now to come up with the goods?
Not at all, no. We just go in the studio and do whatever we want.
You recorded it in Berlin. How come?
It was Berlin itself. In Europe I think it’s one of the best cities. It’s more modern and, I think, it’s like the New York of Europe. Art-wise and creativity-wise and design and everything. It’s a very forward-thinking, amazing and modern city. To come from a little rural village in Ireland, where we’d been recording, and then the juxtaposition of going to the complete and utter opposite. I think that was probably what attracted us. Because we’d always thought we need to be in the countryside, to get away, but we’ve realised it’s actually a lot better recording in the city, a lot more creative, a lot more fun. I think that’s what we’re going to do from now on.
Not keen on the countryside now then?
[In the countryside] you don’t have anything to do, so you just work. But we thought we needed that because we thought if we get distracted we wouldn’t do any work. But it’s really inspiring [in the city].
How much do you think “Chasing Cars” being played on Grey’s Anatomy helped make you as big as you are?
It’s hard to say because “Chasing Cars” was number one on iTunes in America before it was even on Grey’s Anatomy. In Australia it was number one in the singles charts. It gave us a little bit of help which is kind of cool, but I don’t know to be honest. It wasn’t that important.
Were you hoping it might be a stepping stone to get you on really big shows, likeCasualty or Holby City?
Ha. Yeah that’ll be awesome. Maybe The Bill or something, that would be pretty cool.
You were the last band to ever appear on long-running British music show Top of the Pops. How was that?
It was weird afterwards. At the time you didn’t really know because you’re just in a TV studio, but after, you thought about it, you’re like, “I was on the last one, oh God”. It was cool. Ah, I think they’ll bring it back one day, although I kind of hope they don’t as then I won’t be able to say, “I was the last person on it”. Tell the grandkids.
Snow Patrol, Keane and Coldplay have been described as the Holy Trinity of big indie bands. What do you think of that and would you be the Father, the Son or the Holy Ghost?
Er, the bastard child. I don’t know. If you listen to our new album it doesn’t sound like any of those bands.
What sort of music do you usually like listening to?
God knows. I’ve got 120,000 songs on my iTunes, from like metal to anything. I listen to most new good records that come out. I’ve got a back catalogue of everything important. If I don’t have it, it’s not worth having.
What do you do when you’re on the road?
A lot of catching up with sleep.
You don’t ever fall out?
No, we’re very good. We’ve been together 14 years. Most bands I know absolutely hate each other. I’m not going to name names, but most of the big bands. When we come off tour, one of us will be like “so what you doing now, shall we go for a pint?” and we’ll be like, “yeah”. We’re all great friends.
So how rock ‘n’ roll are you?
We’re the most rock ‘n’ roll and un-rock ‘n’ roll band. We could drink anyone under the table, but can chill as well. I think at least one of us is hammered or hungover at any one given time. That’ll be me today.
See Snow Patrol at the V Festival in Sydney (Mar 28), Gold Coast (Mar 29), Melbourne (Apr 4) and Perth (Apr 5), plus sideshows. Tix at www.ticketmaster.com.au
