Simon LipmanSnow Patrol, whose members spent the last few years doing high-profile pop collaborations and having Hollywood romances, are back to making music.
The band best known for the smash hit “Chasing Cars” returns May 25 with Wildness, their first album in seven years.
Explaining the album’s title, lead singer Gary Lightbody says, “There are many types of wildness, but I think it can be distilled into two: the wildness of the modern age…and a more ancient wildness. Something primal, alive and beautiful that speaks to our true connectivity, our passion, our love, our communion with nature and each other.”
He adds, “This is the kind of wildness the album is centered around. The loss of it. Trying to reconnect with it. To remember it.”
The album, Lightbody says, is “defined by memory in a lot of ways,” in no small part because his father is suffering from dementia.
“I think it’s the first record I’ve ever written that I haven’t just asked a bunch of questions,” he notes. “I actually tried to figure out why I was unhappy, why I feel out of place, why I’m afraid. There’s nothing really to protect myself for — it’s all in the album. I want to remember.”
Since the band’s been on hiatus, Lightbody’s made a cameo in HBO’s Game of Thrones, and appeared on the track “The Last Time” on Taylor Swift’s album Red. The band’s guitarist, Johnny McDaid, co-wrote seven songs on Ed Sheeran‘s hit album Multiply, including the single “Photograph.” He also co-wrote the #1 hit “Shape of You” from Ed’s current album, Divide, and Pink‘s recent single “What About Us.”
In 2014, McDaid became engaged to Courteney Cox. They called it off in 2015, but then reunited in 2016 and are still together.
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