Living in the hall of fame
From taking on Trump to the changing music business, The Script are determined to keep making great music
GUITARIST Mark Sheehan wasn’t always the tartanclad maestro who masterminded The Script’s meteoric rise to fame. In a past life he joined the short-lived and rarely-discussed boy band MyTown along with his pal Danny O’Donoghue. With their limp fringes and glittering jumpsuits, the group had a minor hit with Party All Night in 1999. Their fame was short lived, but the pair, infected by the music bug, reinvented themselves as The Script and along with drummer Glen Power wrote Breakeven. And the rest, as they say, is history as the band’s rise to fame testifies.
Mark has always embraced change and on the group’s current record, Freedom Child, has tried to evolve the band’s sound. As a result, you are left with a mix of songs that cover everything from break ups and mental health issues to the political unrest that is tearing America apart.
But the decision to record and release Divided States Of America has caused them consternation on their recent tour of the US.
‘It’s positive and negative and the minute you decide to get into a political conversation you split hairs,’ Mark says. ‘That’s just the nature of the beast — you divide opinion, that’s the beauty of it. And the point we were trying to make is that it’s OK to have an opinion.’
Mark feels these days people are all too quick to turn opinions into arguments, firing the words out on social media, rather than just having a conversation about things and maybe agreeing to disagree.
‘I feel like the album for us was an average conversation down at the pub with your mates,’ he says. ‘You cover a bit of politics, football, a bit of relationship conversation. That was what was happening amongst the album tracks and we wanted to have that freedom to talk like you would to your mates without someone jumping down your throat for having an opinion.
‘With Divided States of America, it was divisive, so to speak. We did a US tour and we noticed a lot of people saying “You’re not going to play that song are you?” And it was like “relax, we didn’t bring a bomb with us, calm down, it’s just a song.” There was a bit of a backlash. The point was to raise awareness that we all need to have freedom of opinion and freedom of speech.’
The band’s new album, Freedom Child, went straight into Number One in the album charts and their debut single Rain hit the top spot in radio play in both Ireland and the UK. Freedom Child saw them working with outside writers and producers for the first time, including Toby Gad and Nasri Atweh.
There’s an infectious formula that seems to come with a Script single and Mark says their current single Arms Open is a more ambitious number, designed to open up the conversation about mental health around the world.
‘Rain did what it did and it was everywhere — it was the Number Two radio song in the UK and flew around the world, that was job done. We then wanted to bring in the other songs that are a little bit serious in nature. With Arms Open, hopefully people can realise in the lead up to Christmas, you do need a mate who’s there for you and is just going to listen to you and not try to force his opinion on you. That’s what the song is really about, someone who’s there for you. Especially at this time of year.
‘Christmas is this really happy time, but for some people dealing with serious problems, it can be an extremely testing period. I know that might sound a bit cheesy. It’s needed now more than ever.’
If anything, Mark says, the band is on a creative roll and the trio are more likely to release a new album in 2018 rather than release another new single.
‘What’s happening is Rock The World is doing the business for us around the world right now. Every day I’m signing off on it for a big American sports show or a TV show. That’s flying for us. What will be quite interesting is letting the album do its thing for the next couple of weeks, having a look in February, and maybe take a different song off the record.
‘Or we could go with a more modern approach, write another song from scratch and put that out there. It’s keeping things exciting, you have to keep things moving forward. The appetite is bigger than ever and you have to keep busy. It would be nice to show the world that we can evolve and can bob and weave with the industry.’
Songs, Mark says, can take time to get right and The Script have their own way of doing things. ‘It shouldn’t cost you money to write a song,’ Mark explains.
‘It should cost you money to record a song. But a lot of people are going into the studio, writing and recording at the same time and wasting a lot of money on that. We find you can write ten songs, go in and pick one, record that and throw it out and you can be very modern about that. If that’s the approach, I’d like to pop out a new album next year. We’ve been in the studio on and off for the past couple of weeks and it’s been really fertile ground for us.’ Innovation and relevance are phrases that dog bands the longer they stay together. Just ask U2, who get plagued by irrelevance claims every time they set out on tour.
BUT The Script pride themselves on never standing still. They’re aware that the live aspect of music is where the money resides and they’re exploring the possibility of adding a Virtual Reality option at shows for fans around the globe.
‘We’ve done it already — we’ve tried and tested it and it looks really good,’ Mark says. ‘We did a show in Brixton Academy where we kitted the place out for VR and it was amazing. The accessibility is something that might stop people and it’s still a bit expensive, but that won’t be the case forever. There are real practical benefits to this move for us.
‘If someone was in hospital and couldn’t leave their bed, imagine being able to put a VR headset on and then be at the gig. We get a lot of requests from people who are in hospital and can’t make a show and the idea that we could send them a VR headset and bring them to us that way would be incredible. I know you’re not physically there, but it’s the next best thing.
With the music industry constantly changing, Mark knows the band has to offer something beyond what fans can stream on their phones. ‘The future of music for us is an interesting one because we’re still trying to create the undownloadable experience and that is live music,’ Mark says.
‘You can’t put your finger on it. This next tour we’re doing is going to be the most interactive show we’ve ever put on. We did this thing on the last tour where we walked on the stage from the back of the arena and in through the audience. I noticed U2, Adele and Imagine Dragons are all
doing it, even Coldplay. That’s all about bringing the audience into the show and I think we were on to something there.
‘That’s what we’re all about and we’ve tried to involve the audience and get in with them. We want to make the show as interactive as possible and give people value for money.’
The Script’s CV isn’t too shabby either, and so far they’ve sold more than 29 million records and notched up three multi-platinum albums, all of which were Number One in the UK. But making money, now more than ever, is a tricky endeavour and playing live is really the only way a band do that in the current climate.
‘A lot of the time people experiencing the music through streaming services and that naturally takes time to get around to you,’ Mark explains. ‘We get played 1.5 million times a day on Spotify alone. It’s an incredible amount of music being played.
‘It’s not where you’re going to make your money though. I think you get 0.9 of a cent per play. It’s something mad like that and it’s certainly not good for song writers. They haven’t worked that kink out. What’s really cool for us is our back catalogue is starting to crop up in new playlists, which means people are still finding our music. People are using certain songs as workout songs or for chill-out time and all that lifestyle side to music is affecting how playlists are created and shared.’
Mark does think the concept of an album has suffered because of streaming. ‘The music business has changed and then ITunes decided you could chop up the album and charge 99 cents per song,’ he says.
‘The album was then devalued and the songs that maybe didn’t get downloaded were devalued. Musicians have had to evolve and are guilty as well. What we’re now selling is concert tickets and merchandise.
‘At the end of the day music is this ethereal thing that sits in the air and brings everyone to the party and we’re all selling something off the back of it to make a living.’
The Script will play Live at the Marquee in Cork for the first time ever next June, while Nathan Carter will take to the stage in July. Touring is clearly part of the nuts and bolts of their business, but Mark says, sometimes they wonder if they’re still relevant.
‘So we bought one of these old Nokia phones, brought it to the studio and tweeted out the number to see what happened,’ he says.
‘Suddenly the phone was ringing off the hook and every time we answered it, there was another call. We answered it all day and had the craic with fans and it gave us that boost we needed to keep going.
‘It showed us it’s still alive and kicking for us — you never really know that until you stand on stage and get the energy from the roaring audience.’
The Script play 2FM’s Jingle Ball in the 3Arena on Tuesday followed by a date at the same venue on February 8 and the Marquee in Cork on June 25.