Snow Patrol return with a new album ahead of BBC's Biggest Weekend

It taps into something raw and primitive and lead-singer and songwriter Gary Lightbody is happy to be back. “There are many types of wildness, but I think it can be distilled into two: the wildness of the modern age, all it’s confusion, illogic and alienation and a more ancient wildness. Something primal, alive and beautiful that speaks to our true connectivity, our passion, our love, our communion with nature and each other. This is the kind of wildness the album is centered around. The loss of it. Trying to reconnect with it. To remember it.”

Since their 1998 debut, Songs for Polarbears, Snow Patrol have racked up an impressive number of critical and commercial accolades, including 15 million global album sales, one billion global track streams, five UK platinum albums, and are Grammy, Brit Award and Mercury Music Prize nominated.

After their Fallen Empires tour ended in 2012, band members Gary multi-instrumentalist Johnny McDaid, guitarist Nathan Connolly, bassist Paul Wilson, and drummer Jonny Quinn decided to take a step back from the band, and focus on their own projects.

Gary continued his work with his Tired Pony side project with members of Belle and Sebastian, R.E.M, Reindeer Section and Fresh Young Fellows and moved to Los Angeles to begin writing songs for movies (including “This Is How You Walk On” for 2017’s Gifted), and doing a number of high-profile co-writes with Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Biffy Clyro and One Direction. Taking an extended break from Snow Patrol proved to be a source of inspiration, and writing songs that were not pulled directly from his own psyche helped heal what Lightbody considered to be not so much writer’s block as life block.

It was in that search for clarity and connection that the songs were written and refined. “I think it’s the first record I’ve ever written that I haven’t just asked a bunch of questions. I actually tried to figure out why I was unhappy, why I feel out of place, why I’m afraid,” says Gary.

“There’s nothing really to protect myself for – it’s all in the album. I want to remember.” This impulse was partially inspired by Lightbody’s father, who is suffering from dementia. “I think the album is defined by memory in a lot of ways,” says Gary, “including my father’s loss of memory.”

Guitarist Nathan adds: “We finished touring Fallen Empires and did our last festival in 2013 and we decided at that stage that we needed to take a break. We had been going for 10 years non-stop. It was a great 10 years but we’d been together longer and it was hard. It was record, tour, record, tour and we were away a long time.

“A couple of years ago we decided to get back at it. Wildness wasn’t a difficult album to make once we were in there. I know Gary had a little writers’ block and he had stuff going on and depression, which he’s been open about, and alcohol, which is for him to speak about. There were distractions for want of a better word, good and bad, to keep us away from the band. But last year was when we decided it was 100 per cent in the right head space. We were excited and keen. I never thought we woulnd’t get back together but we didn’t know it would be five years.

“We weren’t sipping cocktails on a beach. The longer it takes to make a record the better it has to be when you are coming back. We wanted it to be the best record we could make and it’s way beyond what we’d hoped for.”

The songs on Wildness are surefooted, displaying a newfound sense of self and purpose, and the rest of the band members rose magnificently to the occasion. The album is produced once more by the great Jacknife Lee, Snow Patrol’s longtime producer and collaborator. Life on Earth opens the album with its mission statement, “this is something else, this is something else.” Heal Me feels like an ancient hymn: “Finally, after way too many years of smashing my body to bits with booze, I met someone who helped me find my way back to health and clarity,” says Gary. “This song is about her, that journey and is dedicated to her.”

Empress, written for Gary’s goddaughters, is fierce and heartfelt, with runaway drums and keen words of wisdom. What If This Is All The Love You Ever Get” is a heartstring-puller, posing the question nobody wants to ask. The last track, Life and Death, is a rumination, and a human story of love and forgiveness – mostly self-forgiveness for Gary, demonstrating that perhaps everyone ought to take this long between albums to reflect before they write.

Nathan adds: “It’s good to be back. We were always in touch. We’re family. We’re brothers, so it wasn’t like we didn’t see each other at all, quite the opposite.”

Snow Patrol play BBC’s Biggest Weekend in Coventry on Sunday.