The Script 'We left cool behind long ago'

From the archives..
Back to 3 September 2010..

What next after a two-million-selling debut from Ireland's unlikely boyband, asks Craig McLean

It's back-to-school time, and there have been tears for the Script. Not because the two-million-selling Dublin trio are poised at that difficult Second Album Moment and wondering how they might go from being a curious kind of boy band (a soulboy band? A boy band you'd never recognise?) to a serious, world-beating act.

No, as it transpires during a conversation with rattlingly enthusiastic frontman Danny O'Donoghue, the Script don't do doubt or fears. Transatlantic pop-soul hits such as We Cry and Breakeven can bring cast-iron confidence, as can ten years' pre-fame slog as producers and writers for other artists. But they do do bad fashion choices.

"We've just taken my girlfriend's daughter to school," says the gregarious, darkly handsome singer and songwriter, 28 next month and fresh off an early morning flight from Dublin to London. "That was fine, but there was crying over the weekend when they sent me out to get some of the clothes! A pair of shoes that maybe didn't fit so well ... " he adds with rueful smile.

The Script aren't overly obsessed with image, neither their children's, nor their own. The guitarist and co-writer Mark Sheehan, 30, is absent today, as his wife is having their second child; drummer Glen Power, 30, is absent, as he seemingly doesn't say much They don't care if they're seen, in some circles, as rather naff. "To be honest we don't really care what anybody thinks of us. We left cool behind a long f***ing time ago. We did! To give honest and heartfelt music, you have to."

And as O'Donoghue says, being faceless has its advantages. "Especially in this day and age!" he says in the impassioned, let's-get-a-round-of-Guinness-in! way he says everything. "The industry is like, 'Let's blow this face up as big as it possibly can get ... ' Then, bang! - it blows up! But that's what we're so proud of. We don't like the way we look. We're not an imagedriven band, we never have been. We're not a self-gratifying band either. We don't put our own image on our own albums just so people know it."

For the Script, the music is everything. Or, "The song is king. If you look after your song, it'll look after you."

You can hear as much in Science & Faith: the band's self-produced second album, the follow-up to the self-titled debut in 2008, is a briskly convincing, efficient and potentially world-beating pop album.

O'Donoghue's rich, soulful voice makes the Coldplay-go-pop lead single For the First Time feel like a hit the first time you hear it. Nothing will impress the band's one-time mentor, the U2 manager Paul McGuinness, with its twinkly, widescreen balladry. Walk Away is a stadium hip-hop song that should do great business in the US. The band who pioneered product-placement e-commerce on the video for Breakeven - click on Mark's jacket to buy it now! - know how to maximise their chances, in every sense.

It's been a defining quality from the off. "The reason we initially got out of Ireland was the amount of other talent trying to make it," O'Donoghue recalls. "You throw a pound in Ireland, you're gonna hit a musician. Or you'll have ten musicians fighting over it!" He and Sheehan, both the youngest of six, met as teenagers in Dublin when they bonded over a love of Boyz II Men and the producer Babyface. They wanted to evoke such huge-selling American R&B artists in their own music. "But in Dublin, if you weren't playing the Irish card - if you didn't have a fiddle, or if you weren't like the Corrs - you didn't get a look-in."

They formed a boy band, Mytown, and came to the attention of McGuinness, who "liked our drive". He helped them secure a record deal in the US, and the pair jumped at chance to decamp Stateside. When Mytown fell apart, they stayed on, "hustling" for jobs as writers and producers. They f lew to Virginia Beach, to doorstep the TLC producer Teddy Riley at his studio. The two white Irish guys "blagged" their way inside, and one busked audition later had been invited to help Riley with vocals and use the studio facilities.

In the close-knit, fiercely competitive US R&B world, word spread. They were in turn doorstepped at their Virginia Beach hotel by a guy "dressed all in denim. He was like, 'Yo, you those Irish guys working with Teddy? Check out my tape, I've got some beats if you wanna write some stuff over it.' " O'Donoghue, bristling with Tigger-ish enthusiasm, is bouncing on the sofa in his publicist's London office as he recounts the tale. "Dude!" he beams, "It was Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes. And he was giving us a cassette to write on!" A decade ago, the fashion-forward producer was some way off being the hitmaker for Justin Timberlake and Kelis. "This was when he was charging three grand for a track. Now he's, like, 200 grand a track! And that tape, it was so far ahead of its time."

For O'Donoghue and Sheehan, it was another lesson learnt, another experience filed away. When, after half-a-dozen years working in studios in the States - a Timberlake remix here, a session guitarist gig with TLC there, a bit of Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys - they decided to make music for themselves as the Script, they had a matchless understanding of the nuts and bolts of crafting airwave-friendly pop songs.

So, second album time: O'Donoghue and Sheehan were a boyband once; the Script were more about songs than looks last time. How are they being marketed this time? A man-band? "Look, we are what everybody wants us to be," he grins. "If you want us to be that, we'll be that. If you want us to be the Beatles, we'll be that for you too."

But just in case ... next week, the Script are launching Science & Faith with a showcase gig for 300 of the world's "tastemaker" media. It's being held in the Guinness brewery in Dublin, just along the road from Sheehan's family home and the shed in the back garden where they recorded their first album.

"We'll play them some of the old stuff, some the new stuff, and get them all so pissed they'll hopefully like what they hear!" Science & Faith is released by RCA on September 13.

Source: The Times, Londen / 3 September 2010

Seeking comfort from Danny O'Donoghue? Bo Bruce's mum dies

The Voice star Bo Bruce is mourning the death of her mum.

Rosamond Winkley, who was seriously ill throughout Bo's time on the BBC talent show, lost her 6-month battle with pancreatic cancer this week.

A statement on Bo's official website reads: ''Bo's mother Ros passed away peacefully in the night, at home, surrounded by loved ones.

''Bo would like to thank all of you for the messages of love and support, they mean so much to her. She promises she will be back before too long, for now she is spending quiet time with her close friends and family.''

Aristocrat Bo - whose real name is Lady Catherine Anna Brudenell-Bruce - cancelled an appearance at the T In The Park festival to be by her mother's side last week.

Bo has been estranged from her father - the Earl of Cardigan, David Brudenell-Bruce - since he divorced her mother seven years ago.

He tried to get back in touch with his daughter when she appeared on The Voice, but she reportedly wants nothing to do with him.

Bo could be seeking comfort from her Voice mentor Danny O'Donoghue, who she's been romantically linked with since their time on the programme.

The pair were snapped partying together in London last week, but strongly deny any rumours of romance.

The Script singer Danny, 31, called Bo 'an inspiration' and performed a rather heated duet with her on the show's final, but his spokesman said: ''Danny and Bo are definitely just friends.''

Source: SoFeminine

New video added

We added a new video to our YouTube Channel, The Script wishing you a happy 4th of July..





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By: DannyODonoghue.net

Danny and Bo’s late night hook-up!

Just good friends? Check out these candid snaps of Danny O’Donoghue and Bo Bruce heading home together.

Secret hook-ups, stolen kisses, when nobody’s looking... We’ve all been through that stage of trying to keep a new romance secret.

So we have to feel sorry for Bo Bruce and Danny O’Donoghue, who just can’t enjoy that butterfly stage of their romance, and instead they have to keep it under wraps.

Proof that their paper thin ‘we’re just good mates’ excuse is basically is basically gubbins came last week, when Bo and Danny were snapped clambering into the back of a taxi at 2.30am after partying the night away in London’s Soho.

‘Bo and Danny arranged to meet up at a private members’ club where they thought they’d get some privacy,’ says our source.

Danny was already out with mates when Bo and a female friend turned up, and our insider adds: ‘Danny had invited Bo out as he’s really trying to cheer her up at the moment. She’s been down over her family dramas and he wants to inject some fun into her life.’

Electric feelings

And fun with Danny clearly did the trick, as our source continues: ‘Bo was laughing hysterically most of the night as Danny kept her entertained with his attempts at funny accents. She and Danny have so much in common, and really fancy each other.’

‘If things keep progressing like they are at the moment, it won’t be long before they are a full-on-couple.’

After copious amounts of alcohol, Danny, 31, clearly wanted to continue the night alone with Bo, 27. They hotfooted it to another venue before piling into a taxi, attempting to look inconspicuous,

‘Bo has told Danny that she has feelings for him. She says he’s been her rock and that she couldn’t have got through the past few months without him,

‘Bo’s mum has been poorly with cancer, and she’s estranged from her Dad, the Earl of Cardigan. Meanwhile Danny has recently split from long-term girlfriend Irma Mali, and their rough patches have drawn them together.

‘Bo didn’t want them to play games so she just told him the truth about her feelings. He said that he’s always just a phone call away, which made Bo melt,’ says our source.

Definate chemistry

‘There’s a definite chemistry between them, but they have been keen to stay out of the limelight and see where their relationship goes without any pressure.’

But after their London love-in, it’s clear that the new couple just can’t keep their hands off each other.

‘It’s very early days,’ adds our sauce. ‘Danny isn’t ready to jump head first into another full-on relationship just yet, but he has a very strong connection to Bo.

‘He isn’t ruling out things developing in the future.’

Rosalind Sack, Hannah Doyle

Source: Reveal

Two new videos added

Danny O'Donoghue & Allesha Dixon on Capital FM London Breakfast

The Voice UK judges dancing

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By: DannyODonoghue.net

Interview 2008: Dubliners' story has punchy intro

With a debut album in the pipeline, the Script look forward to the next chapter, says Lisa Verrico

In the BBC's Maida Vale Studios, the Script are sitting on stools, squirming through a Q&A session with the DJ Simon Mayo that involves revealing the most played songs on their iPods and which of the trio is the chattiest. When the front man, Danny O'Donoghue, is asked to describe the Script's sound, he steals a cheesy quote about "a new sort of Celtic soul" from the band's own press release, then, embarrassed, buries his head in his hands.

The nerves, the stools, the Smash Hits-style questions and the fact that all three are good-looking lads from Dublin would lead a casual observer to conclude that the Script are Ireland's latest boy-band export. Except they are in the prestigious, if slightly shabby, BBC studios to record a concert for Radio 2, in a slot that recently featured Duffy and Adele, and when they start to play they sound like a hip-hop-infused Maroon 5.

Far from a manufactured act, the Script consists of a pair of former R&B producers - 25-year-old O'Donoghue and the shaven-headed guitarist, Mark Sheehan, 27 - plus the funk drummer Glen Power, 28, a former session musician they met through a mutual friend four years ago. Their debut album, The Script, due in August, was entirely written, played and produced by the trio, mostly in O'Donoghue's studio in a shed in Dublin's run-down St James's Street. That they are now tipped for fame in Britain and America has left the band more bemused than big-headed.

"Our only ambition was to get one of our songs on the radio," says Sheehan. "Now, every day, we hear that more stations have playlisted the single, or Yahoo is broadcasting one of our gigs, or Perez Hilton has us on his home page. When we supported the Hoosiers in March, we didn't expect anyone to know who we were, but we had every song sung back at us. It's almost going too well. We're waiting for the bad news now, because none of us believes this can continue."

Yet the success of their debut single, We Cry, looks set to snowball. The album is stuffed with similarly catchy songs that blend hip-hop, soulful pop and 1980s rock with tales about characters they know from Dublin.

Sheehan and O'Donoghue met in their mid-teens, when the former advertised studio equipment he no longer used in Dublin's Buy and Sell. O'Donoghue - whose pianist father played with Tom Jones and Roy Orbison - answered the ad and bought the home studio, with which, two months later, the pair began writing their first songs. Both had dropped out of school by the time the U2 manager, Paul McGuinness, took on their band Mytown and, having secured a major-label deal, sent them to America to work with a host of A-list R&B producers.

"We had produced our own demos," recalls O'Donoghue, "but the label thought Teddy Riley and Dallas Austin could polish our sound. Our songs were soulful hip-hop, or so we thought. In the end, the album never came out. In the States, they said we were too pop. Over here, we were told we were too R&B."

Rather than return to Dublin, the two set up base first in Orlando, then LA, where they built a tiny studio in their flat in Venice Beach and began picking up production work. "There was nothing glamorous about it," says O'Donoghue. "We'd get a remix in January, and that would pay the bills until March. We had to become jacks of all trades. One day, I'd be on turntables for TLC or remixing Beenie Man, then Mark would do some programming or get a gig playing a guitar part. We were mostly scraping by."

A remix for Justin Timberlake got them hired by Jive to help the label's new pop signings establish their sound, but by then they were sick of writing for other artists. "We always write from our own experience," says O'Donoghue. "When someone else sang our lyrics, they never came across as we intended."

The Script formed almost by accident when Power, who was still based in Dublin, came to stay with his friends for a fortnight's holiday. Rather than sunbathe, as he intended, he was taken straight from the airport to a jam session. A few hours later, the trio resolved to become a band. Their first demo tape got them a record deal, but just as they were about to begin recording, Sheehan's mother was diagnosed as terminally ill and the guitarist decided to return to Dublin. His bandmates opted to move with him - the Script's debut album was written between Sheehan's hospital visits.

"I would spend every night at mum's bedside, writing down how I felt while she slept, then go straight to the studio," he recalls. "There were so many emotions rattling round, the songs poured out of us. We Cry came from walking down St James's Street early in the morning, smelling Guinness from the brewery and watching girls who should have been at school pushing babies in prams."

The band's storytelling songs inspired the name the Script. "We'd walk past girls with babies called Mercedes or Diamond," says Sheehan. "You can laugh, but the reason these girls give their kids 'expensive' names is because they honestly believe they are giving their children a better chance in life. In no way are we looking down on them."

Then there is the album track Rusty Halo, which refers to their Catholic upbringing and the sense that they may already have sinned too much to get to heaven. "It's about us scouring the Bible to find a loophole that gets us out of going to hell," explains Sheehan. "Unfortunately, we're still searching."

The temptations, you sense, will only become trickier - the Script's MySpace friends are almost entirely female, while their recent appearance in a Bebo online soap saw them cast as the pop-star heart-throbs they are about to become. Their current concerns, however, are more commercial than carnal. "We tried to bet on We Cry being a hit with Paddy Power," reveals Sheehan, referring to the Irish bookie. "But they wouldn't let us wager on our own song. We thought if the music doesn't work out, we should make some money in the meantime."

I try to tell them they no longer need to scam, but the unassuming trio are unwilling to believe it.

Source: The Sunday Times (London) (May 18, 2008)