Gary Lightbody - Other Projects

Other Projects

As a songwriter/bandleader, he has written songs and lyrics for a wide variety of artists and genres. In 2001, he formed the Scottish supergroup The Reindeer Section including members of bands like Belle & Sebastian, Mogwai, Idlewild, Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap and other else musicians. He is one of the supporting voices for the growing music-scene in his hometown Belfast in Northern Ireland, and stated once in an interview to have grown up as an "Indie rock-kid"-inspired to become a musician through influences of artists such as Kurt Cobain, Super Furry Animals and Sebadoh. Lightbody prefers to keep his private life very private.

Furthermore he writes as essayist articles or columns in variously music magazines and newspapers like Q magazine and previously wrote for The Irish Times music section as guest-editor. As an impassioned music fan and DJ he recommends in his blogs or essays albums and artists of different and wide-ranging genres of music. In the magazine "The New Statesman", he referred to his journey to Uganda with the aid organisation Save the Children.

Gary Lightbody is currently on the board of directors of the Oh Yeah Music Centre in Northern Ireland, a project set up to give young artists a place where they can share ideas and kick-start their music careers, as often is the trend of talent leaving the country from lack of appraisal. He supported young bands from Northern Ireland and involved them as support bands to shows of Snow Patrol's UK & Ireland Arena Tour of February–March 2009.

Lightbody has been in many doomed relationships, and he blames their failure on only himself, considering himself "rubbish with women". He attributes the failure partly to him "never being in the same place for very long", and admits that at times he's been hopelessly in love.

2000–2002

• Lightbody formed in 2000 the Scottish supergroup The Reindeer Section, made up of 47 musicians from 20 different bands. They released yet two albums: Y'All Get Scared Now, Ya Hear! in 2001 and Son of Evil Reindeer in 2002.
• In addition to work on Snow Patrol and side-project material, Lightbody has also lent his voice to the band Mogwai (one track on Rock Action).
• In 2001 he contributed furthermore British Breakbeat/Electronica musician Cut La Roc's song Fallen.

2005–2006

• In 2005 he was included in another musical collective, The Cake Sale, formed by Brian Crosby to raise funds and awareness for Ireland's Make Trade Fair campaign. He partnered with Lisa Hannigan to perform "Some Surprise", a song written by Bell X1's Paul Noonan. The song reached #5 on Irish charts as a radio–single release.
• He contributed vocals to The Freelance Hellraisers Waiting for Clearance debut album in 2006 and for UK producer Kidda's debut album Going Up.

2007–2008

• As songwriter for the track "Just Say Yes" for Nicole Scherzinger's debut solo album Her Name Is Nicole but due to the album being shelved the single was re-recorded by Pussycat Dolls and remains unreleased by Scherzinger. In 2009 Gary Lightbody announced in an interview that Snow Patrol would be releasing "Just Say Yes" as the first single from their Up to Now compilation record.
• In 2007 he lent his voice to British House musician and DJ Cut La Roc's track Mishka on his album Larger Than Life which is yet to be released.

2008–2009

• In 2009, he announced that he'd begun work on two solo side projects, a country group Tired Pony and an avant-garde group with Snow Patrol producer Jacknife Lee: Listen... Tanks!.
• In May 2009 he started to write as essayist his music column Gary Lightbody's Band of the Week in the magazine Q The Music.com
• August/September 2009: Gary Lightbody joined with bandmates Johnny Quinn and Nathan Connolly to form Polar Music, a publishing music company "run by artists for artists" in cooperation with Universal Music Group and which will be administered by Kobalt Music in London. Polar Music's debut signing is artist Johnny McDaid from Northern Ireland who is currently writing with German Electronica/Trance DJ Paul van Dyk for an album due in 2010.

2010

• In January Gary Lightbody recorded in Portland, Oregon the debut album of his side project Tired Pony with title The Place We Ran From. The album's release was announced for July 12, 2010. This new supergroup he founded includes Jacknife Lee as producer and musicians like R.E.M.'s guitarist/co-founder Peter Buck, Editors singer Tom Smith, singer and songwriter Iain Archer, Belle & Sebastian's drummer Richard Colburn, The Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5 singer Scott McCaughey, She & Him singer Zooey Deschanel, Snow Patrol's touring member guitarist Troy Stewart and guitarist M. Ward.
• Gary Lightbody and producer Jacknife Lee contributed to the original score for the Irish film My Brothers, which appeared in the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.
• Gary Lightbody lends his songwriting and vocal talents to Mishka, a collaboration with Cut La Roc, released on La Roc's 2010 album, 'Larger Than Life'.
• During 2010 on tour for several concerts of Snow Patrol and Tired Pony in Europe, U.S.A. and South America
• Collaboration with Ex-Kinks-singer Ray Davies on Davies' album See My Friends as song Tired Of Waiting

2011

• Recording of the 6th Snow Patrol album Fallen Empires in Los Angeles with producer Jacknife Lee
• Essayist for The Huffington Post
• Start of the promotion of the new album Fallen Empires

2012

• Several TV-performances on European and American shows as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and the Late Show with David Letterman
• Start of the Fallen Empires tour of Snow Patrol in Europe
• Lightbody was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster
• Records a scene for the TV series Game of Thrones
• Performs with Snow Patrol at the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony Concert in Hyde Park, London
• Featured on the track "The Last Time" on Taylor Swift's 2012 album Red