Snow Patrol plows ahead to conquer States
(CNN) -- Snow Patrol is preparing for a U.S. invasion.
The Scotland-based band, with roots in Northern Ireland, heads stateside this month for its first full-blown American tour.
Gary Lightbody (vocals/guitar), Mark McClelland (bass), Jonny Quinn (drums) and Nathan Connolly (guitar) are set to introduce their third album, "Final Straw," to new audiences.
The band has been compared to British sensation Coldplay, but Lightbody said he doesn't expect stadium crowds just yet.
The Music Room chatted with Snow Patrol in March at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, about the band's music and upcoming tours.
TMR: Growing up in Ireland, who were some of your inspirations when you guys were kids?
QUINN: From an Irish band point of view -- well, coming from Belfast everybody from Ireland when I was 12 or 13 was into U2, and they were kind of ... the "War" album had just come out, and they were [starting] to get big at that point. ... And everybody kind of looked up to them 'cause they were going to be the biggest band in the world.
You know, so, there were loads of good bands in Ireland, especially in Dublin -- there's about a thousand good bands there. But there's always been quite a good rock scene and good guitars.
In Belfast, the punk scene has always been really big, the Undertones and stuff like that. And the whole punk thing was inspiring to many bands because it was in a lot of venues and people could get to play. So that's the sort of bands that we've looked up to before.
TMR: What's next on your agenda?
McCLELLAND: We have to finish our U.K. tour. It's going great, and then we're over here in America for five weeks, and we're going to properly tour for the first time in America. We're very excited about that, and there are tickets on sale already, and apparently they are going pretty well. So hopefully there will be people there to see us, and it won't just be two old men and a dog like we're used to.
LIGHTBODY: Those guys are really annoying.
McCLELLAND: I know, but they're big fans though. And after that, we have to go and do Europe, and there are the festivals. Then after that we're going to come and do the United States again. So it's all go this year. We just want to try and play to as many people as possible and get the word out about us.
TMR: Do you guys like playing live?
McCLELLAND: We love playing live. I don't know, just because you get a big round of drinks, every night ... free beers.
TMR: Are audiences different around the world?
LIGHTBODY: From what we've experienced it's pretty much the same, in terms of a normal gig. Gigs in the U.S. are pretty much the same as gigs back over in Europe. It's just the scenery that changes. It's always been a dream of ours to come over here [to the United States] and tour, so we're getting to fulfill that dream at the moment, which is just amazing. It's been 10 years in the making, but we're here.
TMR: Does the media put too much emphasis on categorizing bands?
LIGHTBODY: It's very easy to name a new band and say what the closest approximation of another successful band is. And we're pretty happy to be compared with Coldplay in terms of their success, but I think it's slightly misleading in terms of the musical content. "Run" might well sound anthemic like Coldplay, but we don't do many songs like "Run."
Everything else is a bit more skewed. Coldplay is a phenomenal band, but I don't see us in stadiums this year at any point. We'll be in a stadium if we're watching Coldplay!
