In a taxi with… The Script

Back to 'The Good Ole Days' of November 2008 and an interview with 

The Dublin Weekender

The Dublin pop trio have hit the number one spot, but they’re still not millionaires – yet…

From left: Glen, Mark and Danny

We’re picking up the Script from Dublin airport. They’ve flown in from playing a German festival the previous night, and as they get into the cab, the trio – singer and keyboardist Danny O’Donoghue (26, raven-haired, intense), guitarist Mark Sheehan (28, shaven-headed, ebullient) and drummer Glen Power (29, be-shaded, droll) – are exhausted but elated. 

As well they might be; their self-titled debut album, full of ringing-but-funky anthems described as ‘Timbaland meets U2’, and ‘Maroon 5 meets the Police’, has just entered the UK album charts at number one.

‘It’s surreal,’ says Mark. ‘Yesterday someone asked us how it feels to be millionaires. We’re not millionaires at all.’ He grins. ‘Well, not yet, anyway.’

This is a kind of triumphant homecoming; the Script are Dubliners to a man, and are here to perform on Eire’s legendary TV institution The Late Late Show – which means, says Mark, ‘that our parents will know we’ve made it’. 

They believe the spirit of their native city has infused their sound, so much so that they call it ‘Celtic soul’.

Our cabbie, Gerard, is going to take the band on a quick tour of some old haunts. We head for the run-down James Street area, dominated by the Guinness brewery, where Mark was brought up. 

This is where he set up a studio in his garden shed as a teenager, and first met Danny, who lived nearby: ‘I was looking for more equipment,’ he says, ‘and was put in touch with Danny.’

‘We were both into hip-hop and R&B,’ adds Danny. ‘I ended up sort of moving into the shed.’

While still at school, the duo set their sights on becoming a songwriting/production team (their ambition reinforced by an early, unsuccessful stint in a boy band called MyTown). U2 manager Paul McGuinness heard some of their songs and helped them get work at studios in Florida, and later Los Angeles, where they spent six years honing their craft. 

‘It was a real apprenticeship,’ says Danny. ‘We were making tea, programming, doing session work, living in places that were infested with flying cockroaches and where you’d hear gunshots down the block at night.’ 

‘We felt like giving up more than once,’ says Mark. ‘But we would buoy each other up. Then we got to remix a Justin Timberlake track, and that led on to work with R&B legends like Dallas Austin and the Neptunes. It was amazing.

‘We were told our career options were to be electricians or tradesmen – if we were lucky'

It was three years ago, with the arrival in LA of Power, a friend of Mark’s and something of a prodigy in Dublin (he’d been playing pubs and clubs since he was 15 with the blessing of his musician father), that the idea of a fully-fledged band took hold. 

But the recording of their album was interrupted when Mark’s mother became ill, and the trio returned to Dublin. She died ten months later; four months after that, Danny’s father died of a heart attack. 

‘It was an intense period,’ says Danny. ‘We used that time as a sort of therapy session in the studio, getting our thoughts out.’

‘That’s why the songs are connecting with people,’ insists Mark. ‘They’re full of raw emotion. “The End Where I Begin” is all about my ma. When she was dying, she’d say, “Look, don’t let this stop you.” Every end is a beginning. 

'It’s a paradox, because it’s so sad that the two of them aren't here to see our success, but we wouldn't have made the album we did if it hadn't all happened. And coming back to Dublin was a big part of it.’

As we head out of James Street, the band reflects on how far they've come. ‘What’s great is that we've injected an option into our lives that was never here before, of making something of ourselves,’ says Mark. 

‘At school we were told that our career options were to be an electrician or a tradesman of some kind – if we were lucky. You’d be laughed at if you wanted to be a musician.’

‘My careers teacher put me in with a psychologist because I said I wanted to be in entertainment,’ laughs Danny. ‘He thought it was certifiable. I guess now we’re number one, a few words have been eaten. But it still doesn’t feel quite real.’ 

There’ll doubtless be more reality checks to come as the Script conquer new territories. For now, they’re just delighted to be back on native soil for the next couple of days (all three are now based in London: Mark with his wife Rina and their new baby, Danny and Glen enjoying pop-star singleton status). 

‘Oh yeah, coming home is like recharging your batteries,’ enthuses Mark. ‘Speaking of which,’ adds Glen, ‘isn’t it time we got ourselves a pint of Guinness?’

Their album The Script is out now on RCA. The single ‘Breakeven’ will be released tomorrow

Source: The Dublin Weekender 8th November 2008

Edited: DannyODonoghue.Net