Stick to the Script

Irish band The Script topped the charts here and in the UK at the weekend with their self-titled debut album. It's fantastic news for the three guys, whom I interviewed for The Star back in March. I'm posting that interview below to mark their success. Well done lads!

Irish trio The Script might not be household names right now, but allthat is about to change with the release of their debut single We Cry next month.

The band consists of Danny O'Donoghue, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power – and their sound is like nothing anyone has ever heard from an Irish band. In fact, the guys' infectious mix of melodic pop and soul, blended with strong hip-hop and R&B hooks, is generating so much buzz that record company Sony BMG has invested more in pushing The Script in the UK and the US than any other band this year.

With so much seemingly riding on the single and their self-titled debut album, you would think the three guys would be buckling under the weight of expectation. But that couldn't be further from the truth. These music industry veterans - even though they're all still in their 20s – are enjoying themselves too much to get bogged down by pressure.

"It's surreal at the moment," front-man and keyboard player Danny (26) says. "We've been touring in England with Newton Faulker and The Hoosiers, which has really helped us build buzz and support from our live shows.

"We've been getting a phenomenal response. Big-time English radio DJs like Jo Wiley and Steve Wright have come to see us and are playing us. Terry Wogan actually played us the other day. He gave us a big intro, pushing the Irish thing. It's like we've broken through, and it's given us great confidence. We're loving every second of this."

The guys' debut single We Cry is a catchy and immensely polished soulful anthem that manages to be both bleak and uplifting at the same time. Lead guitarist Mark (27) explains: "We decided to come back here to make the record. I'm from James St in Dublin. When you listen to the lyrics about the kid who had hope and all of a sudden she has a baby –I know these people.

"I know the people like John in the song who was a great musician and he messed it up by getting into drugs – people who are victims of their environment. The single is an observation that says a problem shared is a problem halved. We're all in this together."

So where did their distinctive sound come from? "Living in Ireland you inherently have one ear on Ireland/England and the other on America," Danny states. "It's a bit of a mish-mash. Everything is going in, but we've spearheaded it into this particular sound.

"Mark's musical tastes are very much R&B, rap, hip-hop; Glen's would be funk and things like Sting and The Police; and mine would be emotional music, ballads, black soul music. Coming into the studio with three such different styles is like waves crashing together."

All three guys have been heavily involved in the music industry sincetheir teens. Glen has been gigging around the country for years, while Danny's brothers Dara and Ian were members of 90s band The Big Geraniums (co-managed by their dad).

In addition, Danny and Mark wereboth members of My Town in the late 90s, mentored by U2 boss Paul McGuinness. Danny and Mark then established a production partnership, moved to LA and began working with a host of American pop and R&B luminaries.

Itwas at this stage that drummer Glen (28) came into contact with the guys, and The Script evolved naturally from their jamming sessions.

"We had this crappy little studio in Venice Beach," Danny recalls."Glen came to visit us, and literally within four hours, we slapped him down in front of the drums and had him play with some of our friends. With us being producers, we used to have the best Venice Beach musicians coming through playing with us. So we threw Glen in at the deep end and he swam!

"From there we got on so well that we started working/writingtogether. It was never an outright intention to make a band – it just came about naturally."

The Script's debut album of the same name will be simultaneously launched in Europe and the US in the summer. It's a record born of an intense period in the band's life.

"The album is a bluntly honest snapshot of our collective lives as a band over the past year and a half," Mark reveals. "Over that time alot of stuff hit us. My mother was terminally ill in hospital and she passed away after ten months, and then four months later Dan's dad passed away suddenly.

"Those songs poured out of us at that point. I always said that if my mam died, then my life would be over because she was everything I had. But then when it happened I realised that every end is also a beginning, so a song like The End Where I Begin is an absolute honest reflection of that time."

Danny adds: "That was a very dark time in the band's evolution. And I'm really proud that we've come out of the opposite end of that, that we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and it wasn't the train!"