Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody: 'It's great to have money... but I just want to help the people of Northern Ireland'

Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody
-Credit: (Image: Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live)


Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has been through the dizzying highs and crippling lows of life as a rock star but says quitting has never been up for discussion.

The 48-year-old was a struggling indie musician for many years before breakthrough single Run, and the album Final Straw, propelled him on to the world stage in 2003.

Since then he and his bandmates have performed in front of 100,000-strong crowds, had a string of massive international hits and have written songs with everyone from Ed Sheehan to Taylor Swift.

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But Gary, from Bangor, Co Down, always struggled with depression and anxiety - and later drink and drugs - while seemingly living his dream life. However, the singer - now sober - insists the idea of hanging up the mic has never come up.

He said: “I've never thought about it. I've honestly never thought about it. I don't think about the end of anything, we’ll just keep going for as long as it feels good to keep going. And at the moment it feels very good. Obviously the knees might not hold up. They might dictate how long we get to play live. So we'll see what happens. I'm a lot more still these days on stage than I was, and there’s a lot less jumping off drum kits and stuff.

"It's the same thing it always did that keeps me going, I haven't changed, my mindset hasn't changed. It's making music, it's always just been my first instinct every day, I wrote a song last night at midnight, you know what I mean, it's just constantly going. We don't release albums for six or seven years, and maybe people get the impression that we you write sort of 12 songs in a five-year period or whatever, but it’s constant for me.

Snow Patrol
Snow Patrol are playing an intimate gig at Ulster Hall -Credit:Tom Beard

“And for Johnny [McDaid] and for Nathan [Connolly], we’re just thinking about little else other than music. So it’s always been that way. Of course, it’s great to have money and success, but the most important thing for me is the music, and with the money it just means that I’m able to do things, especially in Northern Ireland, like set up a record label, set up a music centre, actually try and help create an environment where the next generation of musicians in Northern Ireland can spring off from.

“There’s many, many, many more people than me doing this sort of thing, so just a link in the chain really. But yeah, that was always the sort of main thrust of it. It was never to be successful, it was never to make money, those were very happy side effects from it, but not the primary mover in my life.”

Bandmate Johnny has a high-profile relationship with Friends superstar Courteney Cox while Nathan is engaged to the Irish actress Sarah Greene – but Gary has been single for a long time. He insists he is content with his situation but won’t rule out finding love again in the future.

Gary said: “I’m very happy in life right now… just because I’m not in a relationship right this minute… I have a lot of love in my life and my heart is open as well to whatever happens in life. It’s not closed. It’s not like I’m never going to be in a relationship again. That’s not the mindset that I’m in.

“But yeah, I'm getting to spend a lot of time with friends and family these days and making time because, I think, when I first got sober, I sort of shut myself off to try and do what they call in [TV comedy] 30 Rock ‘werewolfing’, basically locking myself in the shed so that I didn't go to the pub.

Snow Patrol on stage
Snow Patrol have played in front of sell-out crowds -Credit:Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live

“I’m not worried I'm going to drink or anything like that, so I’m a lot more social these days and that mindset has changed to outwardly rather than inwardly.

“Obviously when you’re writing, you’re writing about mostly inward processes, even if it is about the wider world. You’re sitting on your own, usually, writing lyrics. Music is a collaborative thing. Lyrics are, for me, more solitary. So you tend to think in a more solitary mindset. But that’s not the mindset that I’m in every minute of every day.”

Snow Patrol release their seventh studio album, The Forest Is The Path, on Friday, September 13. And Gary, who formed Snow Patrol while at Dundee University in 1994, says it’s the band’s best work yet.

He added: “I'm so proud of it. We're all so proud of it. I'm so excited that it’'s coming out this week. It has been a long road. We recorded it twice.

The second time was with [producer] Fraser T Smith and that was a dream. It really was. It was a really lovely recording session, but there was a little bit of a strangled route to get there, probably informs the title as well a little bit. But I think it’s certainly my favourite record that we’ve made and I think the songs are as strong as we’ve ever written and I’m delighted with it.”

As a supporter of young bands, a director of Belfast’s music hub the Oh Yeah Centre and a keen advocate of the arts, and their importance to the economy of his home country, Gary might seem like a perfect spokesman for his generation – but he ruled out ever moving into the political arena.

He added: “No, no, no. I will do everything. I wake up every day thinking about how I can help and I’ll keep doing that for the rest of my life. But no, as far as politics goes, I'll stay out of it. I'll just try and help the people in Northern Ireland without getting political [that] won't be me.”

  • The Forest Is The Path is released on September 13. Snow Patrol play in the Ulster Hall on the same night and at the SSE on February 27 and 28 and at Dublin’s 3Arena on February 25.