Irish Artist – Snow Patrol

Snow Patrol

It may be a diminutive aspect of Europe’s geography with a population barely topping four million, but Ireland has a ridiculously disproportionate number of internationally famous musicians and bands. What is it about this small, rain-soaked island that breeds such excellent music?

This is the ninth in a series of profiles I’m doing on prominent Irish musicians and bands.

This week’s artist is Snow Patrol.

After sweeping the Irish Meteor Awards a couple of days ago, how could I not do a profile on Snow Patrol? I suppose I’d best remind ye of why you know them. It’s probably because of this song:

From Northern Ireland originally, the band got its start when Gary Lightbody and Mark McClelland were students at Scotland’s Dundee University. Often associated with other Scottish bands (such as Belle and Sebastian), Snow Patrol has really taken the world by storm in the last year. A poll taken by Virgin Radio declared their song “Run” as the best song of all time on December 30, 2006.

At least it wasn’t “Chasing Cars.” I swear to God if I hear that song played one more time I’m going to vomit.

It’s a great song, but Irish radio stations have fecking played the damn thing to fecking DEATH. I have fantasies wherein the CDs of that single explode like Inspector Gadgets’ secret mission messages.

Anyway, the Meteor folks gave Snow Patrol four awards: Best Irish Band, Best Live Performance, Best Irish Album and Most Downloaded Irish Song (for “Eyes Open”).

Buzz buzz buzz, kids.

Snow Patrol’s official website
Their MySpace site