Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody To Debut His Tired Pony

Tired Pony began as a sketch in Gary Lightbody's imagination. During the idle moments on Snow Patrol's year-long tour for their acclaimed album A Hundred Million Suns, Gary began writing songs for an imaginary band. The more songs that accumulated, the stronger he felt about making this band-in-his-dreams a reality.

Upon the tour's completion, he decamped to Portland, Oregon's Type Foundry studio, inviting along Troy Stewart, a regular touring member of Snow Patrol; Iain Archer, a longtime Snow Patrol collaborator; Richard Colburn, Belle & Sebastian's drummer and former collaborator with Lightbody in Reindeer Section; and producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee (U2, Bloc Party), who helped to recruit Tired Pony's final two members: Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Scott McCaughey, R.E.M.'s full-time auxiliary member since 1994.

Inspired by his love of Wilco, Calexico, Lambchop, Palace, Smog and more, Gary set out to make what could be called an American gothic album, a country-tinged gem that looked at the darkness of America. The resulting collection of songs is heartbreakingly beautiful, a true sum of tremendous parts culminating in something stormy and dense, with flickers of darkness shimmering through each song's melodies. Instituting a "no more than two takes" rule, and bringing in She & Him's Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward and The Editors' Tom Smith for guest turns, the album was made quickly, with the entire recording session lasting only a week. At the end of it all, the players felt so close and so connected, they decided to take Tired Pony out of the studio and into the world.

With that being said, Tired Pony will be playing only two live shows in the U.S.. Dates can be found below. The Place We Ran From releases September 28th via Mom + Pop Records.