Successful road for Snow Patrol

Posted July 17, 200718 yr

'Eyes' opens successful road for Snow Patrol

Nicki Escudero

azcentral.com

Jul. 16, 2007 12:00 AM

Snow Patrol has had a lot of success with its sophomore major-label album in the United States, Eyes Open. The disc was the biggest-selling album in the United Kingdom last year, and Chasing Cars was one of the most downloaded songs on iTunes.

The group played the Live Earth concert July 7 at Wembley Stadium in London after which keyboardist Tom Simpson was arrested for failure to appear in court for cocaine possession. Simpson's case is still pending, and the band is preparing for its American tour, which comes to Dodge Theatre in Phoenix on July 18.

Drummer Jonny Quinn shared his thoughts on the environmental concert, touring in the States and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which stars his aunt, Patricia Quinn, as Magenta.

• On Live Earth:

"It's always quite nerve-racking whenever you know there are billions of people watching, but it was quite a big thing. After watching An Inconvenient Truth, it was like, you can't open a newspaper here in the U.K. without seeing something about how the climate's affected. Even in Ireland, where I come from, you can notice the sea levels are rising, and beaches are moving, and that's something people haven't noticed before. The problem with us is that we're all guilty of using a lot of fuel and travel a lot, but we also wanted guidelines to make our tours more green. Two years ago, we found this calculator which keeps track of all the emissions we use on the bus, and then we planted 6,000 trees, and we use merchandise which is from eco-friendly companies and use bio fuel. We started making the venues recycle as part of the contract when we play.

"I think (Live Earth) is more an awareness thing, and I think it puts pressure on government, but I think I've noticed a lot of people are starting to recycle and start thinking that way."

• On the success of Eyes Open:

"It's quite stunning for us that it's gone so big. (Our first album) Final Straw was a shock to us because when you write songs and go to the studio and set out the album, you've heard it back so many times that you're not even sure if people will like it or how it will be judged. It was just great to see Eyes Open did better than Final Straw, and we keep improving. It's been great to see a lot of time has paid off, because we've played a lot in America, and the gigs keep getting bigger, so we just keep going forward all the time."

• On touring in America:

"It's really easy to get fast food, but it's not easy to get really good food because you're sort of on the road all the time. I miss tea. I miss the Guinness that you can only get in Ireland. I love going from state to state, and it's sort of like a different country every time you leave from one state line to another."

• On their music being featured in American television and film:

"We saw Grey's Anatomy, but we don't really like the medical dramas, the things that have the operations and stuff in them. We're always on tour, so we don't watch a lot of TV. I don't know why (our songs) keep coming up on television series. We certainly didn't imagine that was going to happen while we were in the studio."

• On his aunt, Patricia Quinn, being featured in the cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

"(Patricia) comes to a lot of our gigs. It's such a cult movie, and it really developed over the years, and it's amazing to see it really lasted the time. It's quite a crazy movie, but it is quite clever, and it's standing up still. People are 25 years later still into it, and 25 years isn't bad for any movie to have it keep running every week."

• On their relentless tour schedule:

"It can get really tough because you can be away from home for three months, and it's quite weird because you miss a lot of friends getting married and things like that, but it's still an amazing job. Every gig is a big night to us, and we give as much as we can, and I think we're a great band."