Interview by Jonathan Bowen
The Script’s world tour hits Australia next week. The tour starts in Brisbane on the 15 of September. Jonathan Bowen had the opportunity to have a chat with Danny O’Donoghue about and the bands new single Dare to doubt you, their new album Tales from The Script and their upcoming Australian leg of their world Tour.
Thank you, Danny, for making the time to chat with me. Dare You To Doubt You, is the bands newest single. The video for the song is brilliant, how did you come up with the idea to mix video of the band cycling around Dublin with live concert footage?
I wanted to create something that linked all the places that we had been to and not just create a visual tour diary. I engaged a friend of mine to work on the project with, his name is Peter O’Neill. We come up with this quirky idea of putting green, white and orange lights on bikes and video the band riding around key parts of Dublin at night. The aim was to mix footage of us riding through both the old and new parts of Dublin and linking that with footage that captures the energy and magic at our live shows.
The tour the band has been on, has been in support of The Scripts Greatest hits album. What led the band to look back at its catalogue of music and put this collection of songs together?
I hate to say this because I am so glad to be out and, on the road, again but lockdown made us have look at everything, who we are now, where we want to go in the future and more importantly who we were in the past. I think that for me, it led me to getting the old memory box out and having a look through our catalogue of songs. The songs that stood out in the collection were the songs that lyrically I thought would resonate the most with our fans and would be the songs our fans would want to hear again coming out of lockdown. I am a big fan of our band and I believe in the power of music and the power of these songs, and I believe this catalogue of songs really needed to be played again.
Which song on the album would you say is your personal favourite?
They are all like chocolates from a selection box to me. Some are like mint, and some are like hazelnut which are my favourite.
Was there a song that resonated more with you during that lockdown period when you were revisiting the bands back catalogue?
For the first time was probably the one that resonated with me the most. The lyrics
“But we’re gonna start by Drinking old cheap bottles of wine
Shit talking up all night Saying things we haven’t for a while, a while, yeah
We’re smiling, but we’re close to tears, even after all these years
We just now got the feeling that we’re meeting For the first time.”
That was kind of what kicked off the idea to do a greatest hits tour. The lyrics sort of asked the question was the song written fifteen years ago or was it written yesterday? I felt it was such an important lyric.
The song the man who can’t be moved reminded me of a time that we all just wanted to get back to. A time when things were simpler. A time when you can do something as simple as going back to the corner where you met your ex-girlfriend, and you are not trying to buy your way back into a relationship or win them back through money or fame almost like Forest Gump in its simplistic thinking.
Hall of Fame is a great song, it is a world beater. It is a song with a positive message it is not a love song or anything like that. We had no idea just how big that song would become. It has over one billion streams alone on just the Spotify platform not to mention the other platforms. Six degrees of separation was going to be the first single released off the #3 album, but we just had a feeling about the Hall of Fame track and went with it.
One unique thing with the script is, as a band you are very in touch with your fan., They seem to be involved in many aspects of the bands creative process. What led the band to involve the fans in its creative aspects?
We have a very creative fan base, many of whom work across multiple and various industries like graphic designers, some work in the recording business. Some are in bands that have gone onto do big things. Our fans invest their time into the band, so we invest our time in our fans. I understand that for every unit we sell to our fans that fan could easily be a better musician than myself given the opportunity. So that is why we throw things on a creative level out to our fans on a regular basis so we can get that creative feedback from them or for them to contribute to.
The chances are when you go to a script gig the person you are sitting or standing next to is a person you are really going to like because if you really like the same type of music, it creates a whole new level of connection between you. People who connect through music connect of a very different level than just an average connection between people. When I am singing at a gig, I don’t just see fans in the crowd, I see people who have connected to us through the best and worst of times, marriages, births, and deaths of loved ones.
This upcoming leg of your world tour hits Australia next week. It will be your 6th tour of Australia; I remember your first gig in Melbourne was in a pub or club in China Town. Do you pinch yourself sometimes when you look back at how far the band has come since those first gigs?
I think it was the Celtic club in Melbourne! We have had a bit of time to look back at our achievements and like the old saying hindsight is always twenty- twenty. When we look back at what we have done you’d think we’d have planned it that way but when you are going it in the moment you have no idea which way you are going. It funny to think that at any time the whole thing could have ended but in the end, we just wanted to make music and do the best job we could. We have amazing memories in Australia, it has always been a country that has been good to us. There are certain countries that things really kicked off for us and Australia was one of them. We have gone on to make lifelong friends there. Australia is a great country; it is very similar to Ireland in it doesn’t take itself so seriously. The people like a drink, good music just like in Ireland. There are also so many amazing musicians in Australia.
The Scripts live shows are always famous for surprising its audiences and expecting the unexpected to happen! Are there any tricks or surprises the band has in store for the people looking to attend your shows?
I think the last time I was in Melbourne I came out on a surfboard! We have a few things planned that are up our sleeve. It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you but when you get to this stage, we have kind of done everything, so we are looking to do things from the past that have worked well before or we think could be revisited.
We have rehashed an old favourite trick which is to call and ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, but we do it in a different way now. We also have done impromptu performances within the crowd; we grab the instruments and microphones and head into the crowd to really break that fourth way barrier.
We will be preforming every song off the best of album and besides that our plan is to enjoy our time in Australia! We never really had time to do that in past with previous commitments so this time we have not committed ourselves to as much work with the aim to do more fun things while we are down under.
Once this tour is over, What’s next for The Script? Is there new music or a new collaboration in pipe works?
Yeah, just more music and more records. It will be interesting to see where the bands head is at after this tour ends. It feels like we have been revisiting our old roots and God knows what that will dig up. Old stories will come out and I found myself thinking about girls I left fifteen years ago and parents who passed away ten years ago so I find myself revisiting those memories sometimes and I feel that there are still some things that can be rinsed of those memories. I normally don’t look for things to write about, normally things just come out in the form of music.
I want to take this time to enjoy being a performer, enjoy the catalogue and enjoying where I am now and enjoy what I have achieved as a person. When I was a kid, I remember saying to myself I want to be an Irish music legend not thinking that it actually happen. So, I want to take this time to soak in what we have achieved.
Thank you very much for your time today, Danny, Good Luck with the tour and have a safe travel to Australia. Look forward to seeing you next week!
https://www.frontiertouring.com/thescript
