While plenty of young bands would kill to be compared to the Grammy-award winning rock legends U2, when it comes to The Script, this is one brush they don’t want to be painted with. Jordana Borensztajn reports.
In the Nova studios in Melbourne, the Irish trio explains they constantly face an all-too-common misconception that just because they play rock and they’re from Dublin, that they’re pining to be the next ‘Bono and crew.’
“It’s not too good most of the time,” drummer Glen Power begins. “The thing is, when you’re Irish, and you pick up a guitar, or play drums, or are in a band, people go ‘oh, you’re the next U2. I think we’re easy targets.”
“It’s like calling every Aussie band INXS,” guitarist Mark Sheehan adds. “Every band strives and struggles to have their own fingerprints, their own sounds. And for that reason we don’t like to be compared to their music because it is completely different. They’re one of the biggest acts in the world. People think we want to be U2 and we’re comparing ourselves to this huge band.”
If there’s anything these Irish groups do share, it’s the ability to woo listeners and build dedicated fan bases across the globe. The Script’s self-titled debut – released last year – went 5 x platinum in Ireland, 2 x platinum in the UK, and peaked on the top 10 charts in Australia and Sweden.
Despite the huge levels of success The Script has reached in a very short time, Power, Sheehan and lead singer Danny O'Donoghue are exceptionally modest and down to earth. Hand-picked to open for both U2 and Paul McCartney this year, these gigs marked milestone moments. And even though The Script’s performed to crowds of up to 80,000, Sheehan says they still get giddy at the chance to meet music legends. “I don’t mean this in a derogatory term but you get what’s called musical turrets, where you’re constantly hearing their music in your head as you’re talking. It feels like it’s about to pop out of your mouth at any moment, and you’re just trying to hold it all down,” Sheehan says, as he sings the chorus of "Can’t Buy Me Love."
“We feel like the Forrest Gumps of the industry,” O'Donoghue says. “You know where you see him with the President, and he’s just not supposed to be there. We feel like ‘what the hell are we doing,’ like we’re superimposed into all of those situations.”
Lucky for these lads, consistent chart-topping singles are a strong indication they’re exactly where they’re supposed to be. When it comes to The Script’s quick rise to fame, O’Donoghue says the key to success is simple. “People are connecting to the music. Sometimes it’s live when you pay it in front of them, and sometimes it’s just listening to the radio. I think it’s the lyrics more so than anything.”
“It’s a funny thing in this industry because it’s one of the only games, I suppose, where your product travels before you,” Sheehan says. “(Your album) represents everything you are before you come to Australia, for example. Everybody gets to hear your music, everybody forms an opinion on you based on your album… then when you go there, you realise it’s only your music they’re connecting to and then they have to connect to you as people. And that happens when you put the face to the music and you play live. You prove yourself in many ways.”
Having created a big buzz in a short period of time, Sheehan says one of the biggest things they’ve caught onto – and try to steer clear of – is the press whirlwind that’s followed, and surrounded them. “It’s a bit like the eye of the storm. I’ve known these two lads as mates since we started and nothing has changed in that way between us but there’s this huge storm going on around us, and every time we stick our head out, it gets blown off. There’s a perception that changes around us of what the band is, and people think that you turn into something else, but generally and creatively, we’re still the same lads.”
The band’s latest single bashing around radio is the heart-wrenching, emotive and very moving track Breakeven. When asked which band member had their heart squeezed, squashed and trodden on, Sheehan was reluctant to divulge the exact details. “The whole point of music is, really, that you apply it to your life, so by us sitting here and dispelling it by saying it was about one of us, or a particular thing, we find we put a picture in someone else’s head and it destroys it for them. There’s not one person that hasn’t had their heart broken. And you do apply that to your life because nobody has ever left a relationship on even terms. There’s always someone that doesn’t want to leave.”
Although this trip Down Under has been in support of their debut, the trio’s already started working on their next delivery. Surprisingly, they say they don’t feel any intense pressure to follow-up their incredibly successful first album with another huge delivery. “A lot of people do say ‘it’s a difficult second record – how are you going to live up to the expectations?’ To be honest we genuinely, genuinely, don’t care. We don’t give a s**t about what other people think. What we have to live up to is the quality of what we decided for the first record,” Sheehan explains.
Knowing they can’t control how their second record is received, O’Donoghue says they don’t waste time worrying about what might lie ahead. They’re just doing their thing. “I hear a lot of horror stories about other bands who get pressure and deadlines. We’re very lucky to have a label that has given us enough rope to hang ourselves. Hopefully we’ve proven ourselves a little bit as a band on the first record so they’ve allowed us time to really nurture the second record. And they know we’re not going to do anything stupid on the second record, like electro pop. They know we’re not going to go down any crazy roads.”
Source: NovaFM
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