| Fifteen years of SNOW PATROL - Up To Now. |
| Written by Amy Donohue |
| Sunday, 29 November 2009 08:35 |
 Context is an exciting thing. Especially, when it’s context about one of the biggest bands in the world. SNOW PATROL formed in 1994 and struggled away as pale, undoubtedly hungry Irish-Scottish musicians, until their rather miraculous 2003 effort 'Final Straw'. They followed that with 'Eyes Open', an album so delightful my mum has stolen my copy. Last year saw the release of 'A Hundred Million Suns', and to top all that off they’re now releasing a fifteen year retrospective - 'Up To Now' - which mixes the best Snow Patrol tracks and b-sides/rarities, with lead-man Gary Lightbody’s solo supergroup side-project Reindeer Section. Swoon. I was fittingly apprehensive about interviewing bass (and banjo!) player Paul Wilson. This was my second time chatting... and the last time I had come away questioning my ability at interviewing. Our talk had started off okay, but quickly turned into a rather confusing dissection of 'Family Guy', 'The Simpsons', 'Futurama' and goodness knows what else. So this time, I was determined to play it straight. I would focus on the music; get the truth, tackle his musical mind and wrestle out the gritty details for y’all readers. Or so I thought. Turns out, the combination of Paul Wilson + Me does not = SRS interview. Him + Me = delightfully entertaining chat. But first, I did my darndest to ask this sleepy Scotsman about the music. Unfortunately, it was the morning after his birthday gathering and I had one very mumbly, tired chap on my hands. COUP DE MAIN: First off, are birthdays still a big deal when you’re a big fancy rockstar? SNOW PATROL- PAUL WILSON: Well, I haven’t celebrated my birthday in years. Last year I was thirty and I was just working. But this year, all my friends are here so I’ll just hang out with them. CDM: No birthday wishes?! PAUL: No, I don’t really like cake. Not liking cake?! It was obvious Paul was still waking up, if he couldn’t even pick a favourite cake flavour! And this sleepiness continued through my serious, professional questions... although he was so polite and beautifully Scottish; I was happy just murmuring mmmhmmm’s back at him. He told me how Wikipedia lies and although it is correct in saying he became a permanent member of the band on bass in 2005, he previously helped the band with guitar and piano for many years. As for Snow Patrol highlights, Paul seemed pretty grateful for every experience the band has granted him. "There are so many! It just keeps on getting better; being in Snow Patrol." And - although it is a cliché to mention it - Snow Patrol have managed to conquer not only Britain, but also the United States thanks to the help of a little show called 'Grey’s Anatomy'. How does Paul not have a ginormous ego after all that success? "Well, it’s because of hard work. For the most part, it’s all touring. I’ve been on tour since November last year. And the last album; we toured America five times in a year. And every day we do three radio stations a day, interviews, play acoustic sessions, pre-show gigs and pre-show parties, then the gig... and we do that five times a year. That’s why we’re so successful because we’ve worked five times as hard as other bands." So I guess Paul has a pretty good excuse for being a sleepyhead! As for the band's next steps, Snow Patrol are embarking on Snow Patrol Reworked. "We’re going to tour the UK in theatres, and we’ve got strings and brass, and we’re going to play our songs with special guests. We’re trying to work out special guests but everyone seems to live in London, so it’s a problem. So we’re trying to think of people from different places, but it’s going to be a surprise and there’s a few pretty cool ones. Hopefully it will be really epic." CDM: Snow Patrol Reworked is about more than special guests though - it will also lend the songs a more epic, orchestral sound. What does multi-instrumentalist Paul Wilson have up his sleeve? PAUL: I can play a lot of things okay; like a jack of all trades but I’m not particularly brilliant. I went to music school for training in piano, so I can play most keyboard instruments. I can play guitar, bass, drums. I can play most things unless they have to be blown into. But I can play the melodica, that’s quite keyboard-y. We’ve got quite a lot of things - accordians. We’re going to play quite a lot of stuff. I’m going to play double bass for the first time in quite a long time... Well, I’ll try to. As for the next fifteen years for Snow Patrol, all Paul wants is to keep on touring. "I’d love to tour in Egypt. It’s one of the few places I haven’t been, maybe North Africa. Africa in general." CDM: Surely those places would be better holiday destinations, not touring stops? PAUL: No. If I had a holiday, I’d go to my house. Spend time with my family. In the last two and a half years, I’ve never been to my house. [ It would ] Be nice to check it out; see what it’s like. CDM: Oh no, so does this mean Paul doesn’t have a pet?! PAUL: No! It would be dead. After two and a half years, it’d just be a skeleton. No plants or pets. I did use to have a dog. A really nice dog, but he died. I’d like to have a couple of dogs. I’d like to have a really nice, good dog like a Labrador and a really, really stupid dog like a Pug. Or something like that, and laugh at it. That would be ideal. But back to those serious questions I promised myself I’d ask! CDM: Snow Patrol’s new single 'Just Say Yes', was originally intended for Pussycat Doll’s Nicole Scherzinger’s solo album, and their new sound is influenced by indie-electronic bands such as Passion Pit and MGMT. How exactly did the world’s leading purveyors in sweet, soft-rock ballads, turn into disco-dancers? PAUL: Well it’s just that one song we did, and it just came out like that. The reason we put it on the album was so we didn’t have to tour another album. Y’know, it’s not that much fun playing live. It’s all programmed and wouldn’t be much fun, especially for Jonny our drummer. But I like the track. But it’s really hard because everyone’s playing keyboards. But no, I don’t expect to make an album like that. Paul's influences are varied, he tells me. At the moment he’s listening to Phoenix, Justice, The Big Pink, Bon Iver, Friendly Fires, as well as death-metal, classical and jazz music. My interest perked by the mention of, amongst that impressive list; Bon Iver. I ask if he would seclude himself from society by recording alone in a forest, like Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon did. PAUL: Nah, I tried that. You just end up sneaking off, going to the shops and getting something to eat. We’ve never been in the forest, but we’ve been in the middle of the countryside. We recorded half the last album there, and half in Berlin, and it was so boring. So we just snuck away because we’d recorded our last album there too, and we realised it’s just a lot more fun recording in the city because you can go crazy, go out every night. We still got up at nine everyday and I think we were a lot more productive; there’s more culture. In the city, you know you’re not trapped away. Or it just becomes like Groundhog Day, like every day’s the same. So in addition to a wide range of musical inclinations, Paul also seemed to like the fast-pace of the city... Which begged the question - who would he like to do a duet with? PAUL: Let me think... I don’t know. Anyone, really. There’s millions of people who would be fun, anyone who’s good. I’m trying to think of who it could be. You’ve got me, I hate that. Maybe... Who would you choose? CDM: As a rather fervent fan of the Snow Patrol cover of Beyonce’s 'Crazy In Love' (as featured on 'Up To Now'), the answer seems obvious - Snow Patrol should record a duet with Beyonce. PAUL: That would be really, really cool. I like pop music and I think it would be really interesting. Like in the video, they’re all wearing the same as her. So we could dance in unison with her in unitards! That’d be pretty cool.  It was at this point that Paul seemed to wake up a bit; his groggy Scottish accent becoming remarkably clearer and just a touch of pep in his delivery - just after I’d wasted all my serious, musical questions and was left with - ‘So, you play the banjo right?!’. PAUL: I do. Well not really, but I learnt it. I didn’t really end up playing it. I had it on me for a couple of months, but then I went back home and then put it in storage and now I don’t know where it is. CDM: Perhaps you could crack it out during some of Snow Patrol’s upcoming Reworked shows? [ Cue one very enthusiastic Scotsman. ] PAUL: Good idea! Great idea! Yeah. Banjo. Banjotastic! That’s be great. I’ve just got to find it. And make sure I do it. When you hear about it, you’ll know it was you. CDM: Enthused by the combination of banjo and Snow Patrol, I wonder if you'll ever bring something like Snow Patrol Reworked to New Zealand... PAUL: We’d love to. I love New Zealand. It’s funny; I always forget what it’s like, but when I go I’m like ‘I LOVE IT, I want to move here!’. It’s just like a slightly better version of Scotland!
PAUL: Karaoke until six in the morning. I don’t have a favourite song at karaoke, that’s my problem. I just go up there and see a song and go ‘I wanna sing that!!’ And then when I get up there I realise I don’t know the words, even though they’re on the screen. I do something like a Queen song with falsetto and realise I can’t do it. Then I stand there and go ‘meh... can’t do it sorry’. The line was crackling throughout the interview, so the next segment was a bit unclear - but somewhere along the line, I asked him who would win in a fight between dinosaurs and aliens. He said aliens, because of their advanced technology and after a brief debate (I’m on the dinosaur’s side)... he mentioned dinosaurs with accordions and scientists. And dinosaurs not being able to play the aforementioned accordions, because of their little arms. And from this point onwards, the interview digressed into a delightful chinwag, rather than a serious investigative piece of cultural journalism on one of the most successful bands of recent years. I don’t know how tedious it is for others to read because I genuinely found the conversation funny and interesting - a bit like talking to an old friend with a super foxy accent - but it might be a case of you-had-to-be-there. For the sake of not rambling, I have summarised the next twenty minutes into a Top Seven List of the Thoughts of Paul Wilson: 1) He thinks '30 Rock' is one of the best written comedy series of all time, although 'Arrested Development' is the best show ever written. And he likes the American version of 'The Office' more than the British one, because it is funny rather than boring and depressing. 2) He gets annoyed by Lisa Simpson and the way she talks, although he concedes that he too is a nerd. 3) He is an exceptionally nice person and made me repeat this site’s web address so he could take a look. He even threatened to mail us. 4) He claims the Jonas Brothers wear promise rings so it’s okay for Disney to sell sex. This was said in something of a mocking way but the point was fair - girls put up Jo-Bro's posters in the same way teenage boys put up saucy lady posters. He was laughing when he said this. He also thinks they’re Canadian. 5) He seemed intent on spoiling my image of both the Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus. I would not let him near little children. He will ruin their dreams and aspirations. 6) He found my threat to ‘expose him as an idiot’ funny. And admitted; "I am an idiot most of the time, I make an arse of myself constantly". 7) He would not have a public Twitter because he does not think people would be interested to know that he was at the supermarket buying cheese. I begged to differ. He does however, subscribe to a lot of comedians’ Twitters - Stephen Fry, Sarah Silverman, David Cross, and more.  |
