Snow Patrol Wants to Work With Gaga

Snow Patrol wants to collaborate with Lady Gaga because she is "much smarter than your average pop star."

The "Called out in the Dark" group has a lot of respect for the "Bad Romance" hitmaker and would love to get her into the studio to add something different to one of their songs. "I think she's pretty incredible. To get her to guest vocal would be a coup. I love watching her and reading her interviews. She knows exactly what she's doing, she seems so much smarter than your average pop star and is really talented. I've seen those early videos of her playing New York gigs, she's just an amazing keyboard player, great musician, great writer, she's the whole deal, drummer Jonny Quinn said.

The only thing which would make the band hesitant to work with Gaga, however, is the fact that Coldplay recorded the track "Princess of China" with Rihanna, and the group is worried people would think they were "copying" them.

Among their other rock star friends, Snow Patrol count funk band Red Hot Chili Peppers, but they're not sure if trying to marry their very different styles would have great results: "We know the Chili Peppers they're really good guys, I know Chad the drummer quite well but I don't know if us collaborating with them would work out," Jonny said.

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Michael Stipe Cured Snow Patrol Writer’s block

Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody was lifted by Michael Stipe while suffering writer's block.

The singer and songwriter of the "Chasing Cars" group was writing "a lot of rubbish" as he struggled to come up with the words for the band's sixth album Fallen Empires, but he was given a "boost" when the REM singer praised some of his tracks.

"I'd try to write but was frantic. It's like pulling a thread of bulls**t out of your head and then you write a lot of rubbish, and then clarity ascends. But I couldn't find any clarity and then just had to stop trying. It became a very dark time for me. Even the thought of trying to write made me feel like I was about to have a panic attack. I started phoning people because I was at the end of my tether. Then Michael Stipe came to the studio to listen to some of the songs I'd already done and he loved them. He gave me such a boost of confidence. I managed to get to the heart of the matter - that this record is about home, the empire of childhood and the naivety of that falling away into adulthood and forgetting how blissful it is as a kid. Once I got to that I could write again."

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