Buck And Lightbody Join Forces For Country Album
By WENNFriday, May 14, 2010
R.E.M. guitarist PETER BUCK has teamed up with SNOW PATROL frontman GARY LIGHTBODY to record a country music album.
The two rockers made the record under the bandname Tired Pony, with contributions from actress-turned-singer Zooey Deschanel and Editors vocalist Tom Smith.
Lightbody had planned the album - titled The Place We Ran From - as a solo project, but started working on tracks with Buck after they were introduced by a mutual friend.
He tells BBC 6 Music, “I can’t get away with writing pure country music because I haven’t lived that life. But I love it so much that I always wanted to try my hand at it… (Buck’s contribution) was the icing on the cake for me, because I’m such a fan.”
Buck tells the station he had “no idea what was going to happen” when he agreed to the project, but admits it was clear “by the second day” that he and Lightbody were a perfect match musically.
He adds, “Gary would just play a song, then (we would) immediately go and play it once, or maybe twice, and then it was done. I didn’t even know Gary was considering it as ‘a band’ until it was nearly finished.”
