It was back in 2010 that The Script last released an album but next month the boys are back with their highly anticipated new record #3.
The first track off that album Hall Of Fame has already been well received and #3 could well be the biggest album for the band.
I caught up with Danny O'Donoghue to talk about the new single and album as well as his time on The Voice.
- Your new album #3 is due for release next month and so what can we expect from the record this time around?
This time around you can expect something that you can play in bars and clubs and you will actually be able to dance to The Script instead of drinking some red wine and missing your lost love (laughs).
We have definitely got some big banging anthems that you can sing in your pubs - pubs not really clubs.
Emotionally we have reached another level and it just sounds amazing to me and I am really proud that we have been able to put our hearts on our sleeves and let the whole of the UK and the world wear our jackets (laughs).
And that is what we have done on this album just bear it all out. The mantra of the album was the head, heart and feet and it was something that you can think about but dance to at the same time.
- I was listening to the sampler for the album this morning and there is a real personal feel to this record - perhaps more than ever before - so how much was this a conscious choice or is it simply the way the tracks just came out?
I think it was just more confidence in yourself that you have a voice and that there are things inside that you are very confident to say - they may not be the right things to say but you just have the confidence to own up.
And I think that is what is on this album more than before as I think we have always second-guessed how people were going to perceive these songs.
I guess over the course people have just loved our honesty and our song-writing and that is something that we never ever shied away from with this album we just wanted to be completely honest and open as a book.
I think that is really the only way that people will accept you as a person as there are so many people trying to be pretentious.
They are literally trying to be everything that they are not by covering their eyes with shades they are wearing hats and so on to try and cover the fact that they don't have any self-confidence. In music you have to confident in the fact that you are unconfident (laughs).
- Hall of Fame is set to be the first single off the album and it is turning into a bit of an anthem so what is that track all about?
It wasn't really meant to be an anthem but it is in the spirit of the Olympics. We wrote this song before the Olympics and so it was never meant to be an Olympic tune.
But we have been seeing people getting ready for the 4k marathon and women really busting their arse as if they were in the Olympics and it was just to raise money for charity - and we thought that that was just an amazing thing to do.
There are very few kids now who aspire to be firemen or policemen or people of the neighbour because you ask them what they want to be and they just say ‘I want to be famous’ for doing what? ‘For being on the telly’. So we are just saying put the f***ing work in because you have actually do something for people to recognise you like that.
What I love about the whole Olympic Games was they took the celebrity out of the celebrities hand and gave it to proper people. These are people who showed hard work and dedication in the last four years to stand on the world stage and do something good with their life - I really commend that.
And that is what the song is really about the silent people that you don’t hear about everyday in the papers but work hard and put the time - if you do that you could be there too.
- Will.i.am is on the track so how did that come about?
It came about in the last week if The Voice as we had just been chilling out together and playing some of the songs on the album and he was really digging the music.
Track 3 just happened to be Hall of Fame and he was like ‘that is dope; I really want that song’. He wanted it for his own album and I said ‘dude you can’t have it as it is supposed to be out first single’. And he just said ‘well why don’t we sing it together?’ and I was like ‘cool, let’s do it’.
He said ‘well when do you want to do it?’ and I said ‘well I need to get it done by Saturday otherwise you won’t be on the single.’
It was Friday and we were just one day away from having to get this done and I was like ‘dude are you on this or not?’ He was like ‘I will do it tonight’.
We jumped in his car and went to his hotel room, he had a recording studio in his hotel room, and we just buzzed around. An hour and a half later he had laid his vocal down on the track while I was just standing there and it was f***ing great.
What you got to see was him being Will on the show but nobody got to see what he does best and that is producing and song-writing and being in the studio like that.
It was an honour and a privilege to be there to get to see something that very few people have seen - Michael Jackson got to see that.
Being in the studio with Will is big stuff as he is sitting on hundreds and millions of records and you can pick up a thing or two about the way that he produces.
- What have you found to be the initial reaction to the new single?
Incredible. It is the fastest growing single that we have ever had and it has the makings of being the biggest single that we have ever had. It is #2 in Australia, #4 in New Zealand, #10 in Italy, #5 in Switzerland - so it is really heaving up to be a monster.
Radio 1, Radio 2, Capital Radio and everyone is playing it and everyone is jumping on it. And the video is also getting a great response - it is about two people who have had hard lives and adversity and how they have overcome that to become champions.
- You were working on The Voice while you were working on this album so how did you find juggling those two commitments?
I found it easy in all fairness - I know a lot of people will go ’how the f*** did you do that?’ - because it is music and I never switch off from music, anyone who knows me knows that.
I am literally working on music all day - I am looking at my guitar now and I know I will pick it up as soon as I put down the phone.
A change is as good as a break for me and working with some bad ass singers on The Voice that just inspires you to go off and be great that night.
- I have mentioned already that there is a very personal album but no song is more poignant than If You Could Seem Me Now so why did you decide that now was the right time to pen this track - it is a beautiful song?
Thank you very much. The reason why we decided to write it now was because we were emotionally ready - I don’t think we were ready to write it before. I am there is a rap critic out there going ‘what is this f***ing white guy doing rapping?’ but it is spoken word - I wouldn’t be able to sing those lyrics because I would just crack up.
Mark and I both had sixteen bars to sum up all those emotions and try to get all of those complex emotions into really palatable thing that people can listen to.
It was one of those songs that was a pleasure to be around and pleasure to be involved in at that moment - even if the song didn’t make the album; and there was every chance that it wasn’t going to make the album - just because of how personal it was. It was a really close one to our hearts.
Being able to do it or no being able to do it ever night is now going to be the question as it nearly didn’t make it on the album because it was so personal.
But, as I said, I am just glad that I was involved in a moment where I was able to say what I wanted to say, what I needed to say and then executing it correctly - sometimes you start of saying ‘I want to say this’ but then you don’t get there and you go off on some weird tangent point.
But it was so eloquently put in Mark’s verse as well, I love my own verse but I love his verse as well and I find it quite hard to sit through his verse knowing how much it meant to him as well.
- Yourself and Mark have once again produced the record so how much do you enjoy that side of making a record?
I love it, that is where I came from and it was my bread and butter. I use to go in the studio and create different sounds and different soundscapes.
We are trying to do what all the other big bands are doing and that is writing a great album, having great producers, big tours and all these sorts of things but at the same time we are doing it all on our own.
Other big bands might have massive producers and different song-writers and huge teams around them but we don’t have anything it is just us.
So we are trying to replicate what these massive bands have been doing and it was a challenge initially but once you get into the meat of the songs and you have ten or twelve songs done that is when you start to have a body of work.
- You have been enjoying some huge success in the U.S. so what plans have you got for over there for this album?
It will be touring, we have been on tour three of four times over there and so we have set down a great foundation to go back and tour and we have picked up a good American following. So hopefully this album will be no different as we haven’t let ourselves down.
What I have found the most difficult is a song that works over here won’t necessarily work in America and so we have been very blessed as song-writers and producers to actually find a sound that does.
- We have also been seeing you on The Voice now you have had a bit of time away from the show how was your experience when you look back on it now?
I loved it, I had a great time. I am just glad that the BBC edited me so I don’t come across as the knob-head that they know that I am (laughs).
- As a musician and writer yourself what were you looking for in the contestants that came through the door - did you find it?
Yeah I think we found it on everyone’s team. I was just surprised that we have spent all this time looking across the pond at all these different singers and artists - even some B grade U.S. artists people would hold over UK artists - and shows like The Voice but all that to shame. Seriously look at Jazz and Ruth Brown they are great singers.
- And back to The Script are we going to be seeing you play some live shows this year?
Oh big time yeah! We have a few select shows that we are doing at the very start of this album just to remind everybody who we are and what we do (laughs).
- How much are you looking forward to getting out there and playing these new tracks?
It is going to be amazing and I can’t wait to get back out there. That is where it all makes sense for us - it is one thing doing it in the studio but actually being on the frontline is where it all really clicks. It is going to be really fun.
- You have a huge fanbase so for any of those fans reading this interview do you have a message for them?
Thanks to everyone out there who has gotten the band to where we are we really… I know people say this but we wouldn’t be anything without that.
- Finally what's next for you between now and the end of the year?
Work, work, work, work, work as nothing ever comes for free. So yeah you have go to be prepared to put the work in and you will get it out.
The Script’s new album #3 is released 10th September.
Click here to pre-order #3 the new album
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in The Script Danny O'Donoghue