Although currently busy with his Tired Pony side-project, Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody has been talking to Hot Press about the band’s highly-anticipated follow-up to A Hundred Million Suns.

“Well, I’ve written something on a board which is Unfortunately For You, This Is No Bloodless Coup,” he tells Olaf Tyaransen. “And that’s the only thing that I’ve written down yet. So that’s kind of our statement of intent for the next record. A bold move, I believe.”

While they’ve already started work, the Patrol’s sixth studio album is still very much at the embryonic stage.
“I don’t really know what the next record is gonna be. We’ve started writing and the songs are huuge sounding. I don’t know whether it’s to do with the Tired Pony record or something, but the first Snow Patrol record after the Reindeer Section was Final Straw and that was the record that changed everything, so perhaps something extraordinary is about to happen to Snow Patrol because of Tired Pony. I really don’t know, but the songs at the moment are the best we’ve ever written by some considerable distance.

“I feel like we tried something with the last record, but we didn’t quite carry it off. We tried to be a little bit more esoteric and a little bit more inventive and go a little bit darker and deeper, but I think we got caught halfway or something and we just didn’t quite get it. I love that record, I think it’s a brilliant record, but I think the next record will be the one that changes everything. I think the next record will be the one that we’re remembered for. And the ones after it, hopefully!”

Read the full interview in our next issue, out on Thursday July 29th.