Snow Patrol's former bassist Paul Wilson quit the band to pursue his love of metal.

Frontman Gary Lightbody was "heartbroken" to announce drummer Jonny Quinn and Paul decided to depart the group.

The Northern Irish band - which racked up a string of chart-topping hits including ‘Run’ and ‘Chasing Cars’ since they formed in 1994 - vowed to carry on as a trio, also including Nathan Connolly and Johnny McDaid.

And Paul has explained that whilst it was a hard choice to quit, his "priorities shifted so much", and he's now focused on his new band Above As Below, which is very much in the vein of Foo Fighters.

Paul happened to be in the US rock band's bass player Nate Mendel's group Lieutenant.

He told Rolling Stone: “It’s quite a tough decision to walk away from a huge entity like Snow Patrol.

“But my priorities shifted so much.”

He continued: “I’ve done Bon Iver-style stuff, and I thought, ‘This isn’t good enough.'

“It’s not authentic. And I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I love metal mostly.’ My old band before, Terra Diablo, was a metal band, and I played lead guitar in Nate Mendel from Foo Fighters’ band, Lieutenant. But heavier music is what I’ve listened to."

Paul also touched on the gossip that surrounded the double departure after Jonny's wife, Mariane, claimed there was a major fallout.

And he suspects it was nothing more than "creative differences” but was peeved that it took precedence over him launching his new project.

He told the publication: “After being in this band for 20 years, and then all of a sudden there’s this salacious gossip. It’s like, ugh. This has completely ruined my moment of leaving and doing my own thing.

He added: “I don’t really know what went down, but I’m guessing there were creative differences in the studio; I can’t imagine it was anything too crazy.

“I don’t have any ill feelings towards the guys.”

Above As Below have released their new single 'Luna' today (29.09.23).