Michael Stipe - Michael Stipe Helped Lightbody Find Fresh Inspiration

The Chasing Cars hitmakers were working on tracks for their next album at a studio in California earlier this year (11) but the sessions were progressing slowly as Lightbody's creative juices dried up.

But a chance meeting with the R.E.M. frontman gave him inspiration - and Stipe even made suggestions on how to improve Lightbody's songwriting.

The Run singer tells Q magazine, "I couldn't even write my name on a cheque. It was that bad at the time... (Stipe arriving at the studio) was amazing because the first song I ever played live was R.E.M.'s Find The River at a school concert.

"Michael just made a few suggestions here and there. On a track called New York there was a line, 'Your face has never left me.' He said, 'That sounds like you've got a girl's head in your bag.' So we changed that."