I’ve been listening to the cuts off of “Eyes Open.” It’s a powerful album.
Well, thank you very much
Tell me about this studio in Ireland where you guys recorded.
There’s a little bit of confusion over where we actually recorded the album. First of all, we did a little bit of writing at this place called Dingle on the west coast of Ireland. It’s this little round house overlooking the sea, but we actually recorded the album in this old kinda’ condemned complex in a place called West Meade, right in the middle in Ireland. It was a secluded area with rolling landscapes and cows munching on grass and stuff… kind of a laid back place.
I think the nearest pub was about six odd miles away, which was even too far away for even me to go looking for a pint, so it was a really good place for us to go. There weren’t too many distractions and there was a lot of space for us all to work. It was sort of a family run studio with lots of animals running around… horses and cats and dogs… it was almost like a holiday home but a place were we could also work.
How long were you guys held up there with the cows and the horses and everything?
We were in that particular studio for about 6 weeks, but we did some recording in a studio prior to that. I think Garret (producer, Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee) had a philosophy to not let us become too comfortable with our surroundings, so he kinda’ shifted us about a little bit so we always had a little bit of strain and stress so we weren’t getting up and having a yawn and worrying about doing nothing. If you’re slightly disoriented, that’s kinda’ good as well.
The texture of the album gives it this larger then life quality. It’s a huge sound. How does that come about in the studio?
The songs sort of developed over time, some songs came quite quickly and quite easily but then some of the other songs got left alone for awhile. Instead of trying to overwork something, we were able to leave it alone and come back later. Songs were always changing and the arrangements to the songs were always changing, and I think we had a lot more time to consider songs that we had and songs that we were going to develop. I think time was a big factor in that. We were able to sit down and analyze what we where doing and make the relevant changes to songs, which we never actually had a chance to do before.
The album has a feeling of clear collaboration and a sense of everyone working well together. Is that Garret’s influence or because you guys have known each other for so long?
I think Garret is an excellent person at bringing all our best qualities together. He’s got this great ability to praise you when you’re doing well and criticize you when you’re not doing well and when you’re not pushing yourself, but not enough to send you out of the room in tears. He is quite a supportive person. He explains to you in his own colorful and imaginative sort of way what he needs out of you and then you have to go in and think about that and come back.
We had space to go off and work in another room and then come back and speak to him. Just because you weren’t in the sound room that day didn’t mean that you couldn’t be doing something else somewhere else on the location. There was a sense of hard work that was really good. That’s another thing that brought us together. We’re close anyway, but when we’re working hard, we become even closer.
Your last album, Final Straw, did very well. Did you guys go into this record with any distinct goals following that success?
I think our main goals are always to make a better album then the last album. We never expected Final Straw to sell as many as it did. We wanted it to sell enough records to do another album. I think that’s what always stuck with us. We just want to do something better then we’ve done it before. With this album we’re confident and I think that shines through. We have moved forward as people and musicians as well.
Where do you draw your inspiration and ideas from during the writing process?
We all have such a broad taste in music and we all have our very own taste in music. There are just so many influences. We all have massive records collections. We all spend so much money on it ourselves. It’s our main vice. It’s what I’ve always spent most of my money on. Even in college if I had the choice of going out and buying some new records or eating that week, I always chose the records and then tried to get food anyway necessary.
Any particular reason to launch the tour in Denver?
Great omelets! No really, someone else draws up the plans but we played in Denver two years ago and we had a really great show. It was one of the surprise stops on the tour because we hadn’t been there before and we’d been to places like New York and LA, Boston, and San Francisco, but we hadn’t really been anywhere between the two coasts, so we didn’t think anyone knew who we were. We thought we’d get maybe 8 or 10 people, and I think it turned out to be a sold out show, so we made a point of wanting to come back.
Is there anyplace in particular you’re looking forward to on this US tour?
New York’s always been a special place for us, we’ve made a lot of friends there. I’ve got family in Boston, so I’m always looking forward to that. Places like Seattle are always favorites and I’m looking forward to Austin. We’ve made a lot of friends as we travel. Being Irish and Scottish people, we like to get out and have a drink and get to know people. It’s always nice to see a face you haven’t seen in a while. That makes touring quite enjoyable as well.
What kind of advice can you give musicians who would one day love to find themselves in a band like Snow Patrol, touring the world?
I would take other people’s examples! It’s taken us 10-12 years and there were a lot of times we thought about packing it all in. But from that experience I would say that if you really believe in what you’re doing, just keep holding on and just keep trying and get as many shows under your belt as possible because the experience of playing live strengthens your confidence and you get a clear response of how your music is working as well. |