The excitement was real when we first reported that The Script was coming to Malaysia as part of their Asia tour. It was a long-awaited concert because the Irish rock band hadn’t been to Malaysia since 2008 MTV Asia Awards at Genting Highlands. At that time, vocalist/guitarist Mark Sheehan was absent from the show because his wife was about to deliver their first child. He did, however, come to Malaysia twice with frontman Danny O’Donaghue and their previous band, Mytown.
After Mytown disbanded, Mark and Danny spent several years in Los Angeles, where they worked with producers like Teddy Riley and the Neptunes. They then moved back to Dublin and recruited Glen Power as their drummer to The Script. After signing a contract with Sony Label Group imprint Phonogenic, the trio successfully broke into the international music scene with their debut self-titled album in 2008.
The album consists of their breakthrough hit singles like “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” and “Breakeven (Falling to Pieces)”.
But their success didn’t stop there.
They continued to garner fans from around the world through their hit singles like “We Cry” and “This = Love”, which were featured in popular TV programmes such as “90210” and “The Vampire Diaries“. Their 3rd album, which was released in September 2012, also peaked at #1 in their homeland and the UK after collaborating with hip hop artiste will.i.am for the hit song “Hall of Fame”.
will.i.am. and Danny O’Donoghue / Image source: The Script’s official Facebook page
And now, the trio is enjoying their continued success through “Superheroes”, a hit single off their 4th album “No Sound Without Silence”. In support of their new album, they began touring around the world for their 3rd concert tour titled “No Sound Without Silence Tour”. After making their 3rd stop for their Asia tour in Manila, Philliphines, the band finally arrived on Malaysian shores for “The Script: Live in Kuala Lumpur”.
Brought to fans by PR Worldwide and Midas Promotion, the concert was held on Sunday (19th April) night at Stadium Malawati, Shah Alam. Before they kicked off the show, several members of media including us sat down with the band for a quick chat.
Due to the time constraints, we only asked very few questions during the interview. Find out what went down during our interview with the band:
Hey guys! How are you guys doing?
Mark and Glen: Good! Pretty good.
Danny: Good! A little tired, but we are excited for the show tonight!
The Script is considered to be one of the forerunners in the Irish rock music scene. Do you check out other Irish bands as well? What do you think of them?
Danny: Yeah we do, actually. You’ve probably heard of some of them like Hozier and Kodaline. There are a lot of bands that may not make it out here. There’s original new voice and very young band coming up. And also, we’ve got Walking On Cars and they are quite a new band as well. These are all very ferocious live bands and they are all very good, very solid bands. We were lucky enough to get the chance for the other territories that accepted our music and we got the chance to tour. But I don’t think the bands are far behind us, you know, they’re on their way as well.
Image source: The Script’s official Facebook page
So, what do you think of the current state of the music industry? Do you think that it has partially influenced your musical style?
Danny: No, I think it’s really hard for us to see it that way because we don’t really go along with the times. We don’t go like, “Oh dance music is in. Let’s do dance! Or hip hop, let’s do hip hop!” We are always just doing our own thing. We have never really gone on a curb because we believe that if you start to adhere to the trend, you will get flushed down the toilet when the trend stops next year. So, sometimes we write all the songs, it’s always like, “Shit. I don’t think anybody would like this because it’s not really like everything else on the radio right now.” So, I guess maybe it can work for your future lineup.
But I think you guys did try something a little different on the previous album, “3”? Like, there’s a reggae or hip hop style in the album? *(P.S: Actually, I was supposed to say “brighter and R&B influenced”)
Mark: No, I read about that on the plane last night when we’re coming here. For some reason, somebody made up those words like an idiot. Think about it for a second, The Script doing hip hop? It’s not hip hop at all, it’s just some of those spoken words. Some of it, particularly in “If You Could See Me Now”, I have a verse that opened with 16 bars where you feel the way about your father or the way you feel about your mother, or your parents passing away, I just think the spoken words are the best way to come across. But to the laziers, they will be like,”Oh they’re trying rock now or they’re trying to do hip hop.” Then I was like, “No, you don’t get The Script.”
So, what did you think when you came across such comments?
Mark: I think sometimes people are just lazy. The music industry is slightly in trouble with music, so is the journalism industry. It’s a copied-and-pasted industry now. It’s really tough to get your own voice across, right? With so many other people taking that copy and messing it over, I saw so many misquotations out there and it’s f**ing funny. So no, I am not annoyed at it. I just get slightly upset at people being lazy that’s all. If you don’t do something with passion, just don’t do it at all. That’s the way.
Danny: You know, I read some interviews and then I will go, “You have a point.” It might be bad, but I’ll go, “You know what? You are well-researched. You’ve done your time. You know what you’re talking about and that’s actually some good points.” There were also other works that are just lazy, in a sense that they don’t even name the songs of the album.
Glen: They weren’t even at the show!
Mark: Yeah you know when they say we played “Rusty Halo”, I was like, “Hold on. We didn’t play that last night. We haven’t even played that for the past 2 years.”
Special thanks to PR Worldwide and Sony Music Malaysia for arranging this interview session for us.
For more information about The Script, visit their official website or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.