Few Bands Are Known For Their Punctuality

Aside from Spinal Tap, few bands are known for their punctuality. So for a band to hand in their third album two months early must be something short of a miracle in the music industry.

But that’s exactly what The Script did with #3, home to their biggest single to date, Hall Of Fame.

Drummer Glen Power puts it down to the band’s work ethic.

“We are always working on ideas,” he says. “We are always writing. Even when we’re not recording we’re messing around with guitars with something on the boil.

“Handing in our album two months early just shows the productivity of this set-up.”

The album #3 was seen as a chance to go back to basics.

“We always try to keep it organic,” says Power. “We used sample kicks and snares on Hall Of Fame to see how it would work – we wanted to stretch ourselves a little bit. We wanted to get out of our comfort zone and it worked.”

Often recording a third album is the point where a band starts to fall apart.

But The Script had been together as a unit for six years before hitting the big time in 2008 with their eponymous debut album.

Close relationship

“We are lucky that we can maintain our relationship within the bubble,” says Power. “The busier it gets, the more people you have around you. Often a band doesn’t get a chance to talk to each other.

“A lot of people talk about an overnight success because when you appear it is the first time they have seen you. It has been the longest night of our lives – we had been trying for years.”

The band came together in their hometown of Dublin. Childhood friends Mark Sheehan and Danny O’Donoghue had spent a few years in the recording business as part of the band mytown and as a songwriting and production partnership.

When they met drummer Power, The Script was formed.

“When we found each other, we knew we had the pieces of the puzzle,” says Power. “As a musician you want to be in a gang where you look after each other.

“I met Mark as a singer-songwriter working on his own songs and when I met Danny through him it was like I had known him all my life.

“We realised we should do something together because of the chemistry between the three of us.”

Perhaps it is that collective strength which has allowed the band to produce some of their most heartfelt songs on their third album.

The single If You Could See Me Now is a very personal tribute to O’Donoghue’s late father and Sheehan’s mother, who both passed away in the early years of the band.

O’Donoghue’s lyrics talk of seeing his father in the crowd alongside his mother, and wonders what his reaction would be to the band’s achievements: “Would you stand in disgrace or take a bow if you could see me now.”

“It’s an area that a lot of people wouldn’t go towards,” admits Power. “I have both my parents here but there are times on stage when we play this song and I wonder if I will play it when I have lost one of my parents. I really feel for the other boys when we are performing it.

“When we share it with the audience it feels like a problem shared is a problem halved. If you can identify with the song you won’t feel alone any more. It’s a very moving thing.”

The band were already a multi-platinum-selling outfit with two UK number one albums before the release of #3.

But O’Donoghue’s role as judge on BBC talent search The Voice has seen their recognition grow – perhaps explaining Hall Of Fame’s number one position on its release last year.

“Danny has become a bridge between the band and the songs,” says Power. “People would say they didn’t know the band before but they knew our songs – there was no face to the band. Now Danny’s name is out there. Him being on the show did more than we could ever have done on red carpets.”

It was through The Voice that the band were able to collaborate with O’Donoghue’s fellow judge, US rapper Will.I.Am, on Hall Of Fame.

“It was hard to pin him down but it was worth waiting for,” says Power. “We couldn’t get him to agree to a time to record, so Danny kidnapped him in a car.

“He loved the song and wanted it for himself – we said he had to be on it with us.

“You can’t turn that man down – he’s like that Bible quote, the mist driven by the storm!”

Now the band are focusing on their live show, with support slots for Paul McCartney and U2 under their belts, and a recently announced main stage set at this year’s V Festival.

“Watching U2 was like going to school,” says Power. “We were watching the masters in operation. It made us so hungry to aspire to that level.

“The first time we played V we were in the new band tent wondering if we would ever get on the main stage.

“Six years later we are second or third from the top of the bill – it’s great!”

Source: Argus / Edited: DannyODonoghue.Net