Everything’s going according to plan for The Script, who are celebrating the release of their new album #3
WITH THEIR THIRD album, appropriately titled #3, Irish pop-rockers The Script look set to repeat – if not surpass the success of their platinum-selling previous efforts.
Best known for melodic hits such as Breakeven, The Man Who Can’t Be Moved and For the First Time, the trio have also gained huge exposure since singer Danny O’Donoghue became a judge on UK reality show The Voice.
For the popular singing contest, Danny sits alongside Tom Jones, Jessie J and Will.i.am – the latter of whom is collaborating with The Script for their latest single Hall of Fame, which currently sits atop the UK charts. Meanwhile, #3 sits at number two, behind indie kids The xx but ahead of Bob Dylan’s latest release.
Here, Danny and Script guitarist Mark Sheehan discuss fame and fatherhood.
Is it only when you get on stage that you realise just how successful you are?
Danny: You think you know off sales alone, no – wait until you hear 70,000 people singing The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, that’s unearthly. I remember getting off tour and for the first few weeks I just had football crowds (roaring) in the background. I’d obviously just become so used to it or I needed it…I don’t know. There’s something wrong with me, eh?
Do you still regard Ireland as home?
Mark: We obviously have homes and families in Ireland, but we’re working so much we tend to just keep our b*ms here in London, because we’re either in Manchester or we’re flying to Europe. It’s a nice middle ground.
Danny: It’s always strange coming home and seeing the changes. The mood has definitely changed because people don’t know where their next pay cheque is coming from. Obviously it’s a really bad time for everybody but the optimism is fantastic.
What’s the story behind the very emotional song If You Could See Me Now?
Danny: Both of our parents passed away early on in recording the first album. So we wrote a song called The End Where I Begin, which was trying to come to terms with what was going on at the time. But then years go on and you start to ferment these ideas, like what would they say to you if you could see them today. They’d be so proud, but even now my dad would come and give me a good clip around the ears!
Mark: You think they’d hug you and say ‘Good on you.’ But they’d (actually) say, ‘You’re not looking after yourself, you’re not sleeping enough...’
And Mark, now that you’re a father, do you find that sentiment easier to relate to?
I do catch myself sounding like my dad or sounding like my mum. It’s not my job to be my children’s friend. It’s my job to let them know the realisms of life.
Do you enjoy the fame when you’re offstage?
Danny: We’ve never really been famous. This is the only year, since The Voice, where things have kicked up another notch. Before then we could just walk around completely unheard of.
Mark: I still do!
Danny: The thing I don’t like is that you can choose musically what you want people to hear, but when people are just looking at you and everything about you…you can’t pick and choose what they write about. I wish you could, but you can’t!
Danny, did you jump at the chance to appear on the UK version of The Voice?
Danny: It’s a really easy decision to go on television in front of millions of people to promote the genre of music that you’re in. You’d be stupid to just sniff your nose at opportunities like X-Factor or Idol, but they just came with a different set of morals than The Script had. But when The Voice came along, to judge somebody solely on their voice, that’s exactly what we do with music every day and it brings it back to the artist again. It just seemed to be the right thing to do.
You have The Voice to thank for introducing you to Will.i.am, your collaborator on #3’s lead single Hall of Fame.
Danny: He’s a cool guy. A lot of people see me going head to head with him over our different ideas, but I think people were really surprised to find out we worked together, let alone that the song was actually good! But no, we’ve got a great friendship and hopefully he’s someone I’ll know for a long, long time.
Can you tell us what Hall of Fame is about and how it all came together?
Danny: Will.i.am wanted the song for his album, we wanted the song as our first single with him – or without him!
Mark: It came about because Olympic fever was brewing up here in the UK, and there was also a lot of negativity around Olympic fever. We suddenly thought of writing a song for everyday people – there’s no hall of fame for a nurse or a doctor or those people who give their lives for the job. That song was our little tip of the hat to how we felt, not just about people’s achievements, but about how hard you should be working against adversity.
Where do you tend to write your songs?
Danny: Anywhere, it doesn’t matter. A great idea doesn’t happen in just one place. That’s all songwriting is really, just capturing a great idea at that time.
Is there a song on this album that started with a bizarre thought or in a bizarre place?
Danny: Kaleidoscope was a crazy one. It was just a word – what is a kaleidoscope? It’s a coming together of colours, it’s this little thing that you can spin around…
Mark: We were on an American TV show one time and we were supposed to be doing the soundcheck, but we were literally writing a song on the floor and shouting to the crew upstairs ‘Hit record, we’re writing something here!’ It’s bizarre places like that.
Do you feel a sense of responsibility as role models to your fans?
Danny: The only thing we ever feel responsible for is our music. I feel responsible in trying to show people that you can be famous while talking about things that actually mean something. I don’t think of anybody else when I’m writing songs. I know that sounds greedy and selfish, but as soon as a song’s finished then I don’t feel responsible.
Mark: That’s a strange one. I’ve realised more and more that when a piece of work you’ve created is released then it stops being yours. The fan out there rewrites that song about their life and makes it the soundtrack to their life and what it means to them.
Source: City Times
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