Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody used to write 30 songs a day before he got writer’s block.

The group’s singer-and-guitarist suffered from serious setbacks when writing songs for the band’s sixth album, which left his bandmates worried, as he has always been so prolific before.

Drummer Jonny Quinn exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “I remember recording 30 songs one day, he just belted them out, so I’ve never seen this happen before, it’s kind of scary.

“The more he tried and the more we encouraged him to start writing the worse it got, it is self perpetuating and it gets harder and harder.”

The whole thing when you’re writing is that you just start with what you’ve got and then it starts flowing, obviously the song doesn’t come out perfectly straight away. We were all really worried to be honest.”

Jonny added the band’s record label put pressure on them because of their schedules, and at one point he wasn’t sure if they would ever have a new album.

He added: “We had these pressures that we’ve never had before so it’s not something that you really think about, but it is subconscious.

“I thought we might never have an album again. We told Gary just to take as long as he wanted and he did take quite a while, but as long as we do an album that’s not put out there just because it was time to do it we’re happy.”