Snow Patrol Slate New Album for 2011

Snow Patrol have revealed that they are planning to return to the studio and hope to release their sixth studio album in 2011.

Their last album, 'A Hundred Million Suns,' was released in October 2008, while last year they put out the compilation 'Up to Now.'

Speaking to the Scottish newspaper the Daily Record ahead of this weekend's open-air show at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, drummer Jonny Quinn said the new album would see the band in a "new direction".

Asked when the as-yet-untitled new album would be released Quinn said, "Definitely next year, at what point we don't know. It will be after February and before July. We're going to record new material in October."

Singer Gary Lightbody, who now lives in Bangor, Northern Ireland revealed that he has been writing a lot of the band's new songs outside.

"These days, it's better to be out somewhere in the open, by the sea," he said.

"I live by the sea in Ireland and I find that's the most inspiring time, sitting with a guitar on the beach. But we write on the tour bus, in dressing rooms, in the studio and in phone boxes because no one is using them because everyone has mobile phones."

Ahead of any new Snow Patrol material Lightbody's country side-project Tired Pony -- whose line up includes R.E.M.'s Peter Buck -- release the album The Place We Ran From on July 12.

The album was recorded in one week last January and also includes guest contributions from Tom Smith of Editors and She and Him's M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel. The group have just announced a second show at London HMV Forum on July 14.