The Script's Danny O'Donoghue on relationship advice and losing his father

The Script made a name for themselves with emotional, heartfelt songs like "Breakeven," "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" and "For the First Time." The Irish trio, made up of vocalist and keyboard player Danny O'Donoghue, guitarist Mark Sheehan and drummer Glen Power are back with a new album #3 that hit stores earlier this month. Gimme Noise talked with O'Donoghue ahead of The Script's performance at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday. 

"The goal of #3 was to just stretch the sound," O'Donoghue says. "We weren't looking to try to reinvent the music in general. A lot of bands are trying to change the music industry and we were just trying to stretch The Script. Really we had two albums that were about a guy who was heartbroken all the time and we wanted to share that we're actually quite happy people." 

The new album features upbeat songs like "Hall of Fame" featuring will.i.am and "Good Ol' Days," but also includes the hugely heartfelt tracks that the Script is known for. The song "Six Degrees of Separation" -- rumored to be about O'Donoghue's breakup with model Irma Mali -- follows the range of feelings a person goes through after breaking up. When asked for his best relationship advice O'Donoghue laughs, saying, "Don't get in one in the first place! No, I'm joking. I would say my best relationship advice is to listen more than you talk." 

"If You Could See Me Now," another track from #3, is an emotional tribute to O'Donoghue's late father and to Sheehan's parents, who have both passed. 

"We're a very personal band. We're a band who prefers honesty and a good melody and a good lyric," O'Donoghue says. "Everything that hurts us we put on paper anyway, so the things that hurt the most are the things we most care about. That's why we put it on the album." 

O'Donoghue talks openly about his dad and the pain of losing someone so important to him. 

"You hear it in the song -- my dad means everything to me. Everyone who has a father knows exactly what I'm talking about. He's what I aspired to be. You want to walk like your dad, talk like your dad, dress like your dad, do what your dad did and because you are a boy it's that connection like a daughter with her mother -- it's not any more or any less, but it's a different connection. Losing my father so early on in the career that he was also in -- he was a musician, producer songwriter, he was all those things too- that kind of makes it more painful," O'Donoghue says. 

With the success of their first two albums, O'Donoghue says that there is a bit of pressure with #3, but The Script just wants to put out good music. He is quick to mention that The Script's rise to fame didn't happen overnight. 

"We went from selling 26 tickets at the club to selling 54,000 tickets four years later," O'Donoghue says. "It was a long time coming because we'd been working on it for such a long time. We've been unsuccessful for longer than we've been successful." 

The Script will play Friday, October 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre, located at 910 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis. Tickets are $38.50. 

Source: City pages