[4][5] In 1994, Lightbody left home for Scotland to study English literature at the University of Dundee, where he was a keen hockey player, often being dragged from his bed on a Saturday morning to play matches.

[6][7] Lightbody formed a band with Mark McClelland and drummer Michael Morrison in 1994, called Shrug.

[8][9] Today, Lightbody owns a small place in Glasgow and says he will never leave the country behind, though he resides in Belfast.

[16][19] "What Are You Waiting For" was written before Snow Patrol released Final Straw, during a time when Lightbody was staying over at the band's place for a few days.

Lightbody has filled in for DJ Zane Lowe on his BBC radio show on one occasion during the 2007 takeovers.

[20] He has compiled two DJ mix albums, one in The Trip series: The Trip: Created by Snow Patrol, and another with bandmate Tom Simpson, called Late Night Tales: Snow Patrol on the Late Night Tales series.

He made a cameo appearance in the Game of Thrones episode, "Walk of Punishment", playing a Bolton soldier who begins singing, "The Bear and the Maiden Fair".

Growing up, Lightbody listened to artists like Super Furry Animals, Quincy Jones, Kool & the Gang, and Michael Jackson.

He subsequently got into hard rock bands AC/DC and KISS as a teen, and then alternative acts like Sebadoh, Mudhoney, Pixies and Pavement.

[citation needed] His songwriting style is mostly simple and basic, and he acknowledges that, saying he "[never] advanced past rudimentary".

He feels the best way to write an honest song is to be simple, and that trying to complicate matters distorts the intended message.

Although he considers himself a political person and has tried writing songs with such themes, he eventually abandoned his efforts as he found all of them awkward.

[citation needed] Of Snow Patrol, Lightbody has said that all albums they managed to sell in the early days were from touring, as there were no unauthorized copies of their music available then.

[39][40] This is supported by the song "Lifening", in which he sings the lyrics "Ireland in the World Cup, either North or South".

He bought several comics as a child and has some that he has never opened, hoping they would become rare collectibles someday; in a later interview, he light-heartedly mentioned that they could earn him a small pension.

Lightbody is one of the supporting voices for the growing music-scene in Belfast in Northern Ireland and once stated in an interview to have grown up as an "Indie rock kid" inspired to become a musician through influences of artists and acts such as Kurt Cobain, Super Furry Animals, and Sebadoh.

Lightbody has worked with the aid organisation Save the Children in Uganda, an experience on which he has written in New Statesman.

[48][49] In July 2012, Lightbody received an Honorary Doctorate in Letters from the University of Ulster at a ceremony in the Millennium Forum, Derry.

Lightbody was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to music and to charity in Northern Ireland.