‘I KNOW CRITICS DON’T LIKE US’
Danny from The Script is letting it all out...
Danny O’Donoghue knows The Script will never be critics’ favourites but he sincerely asked all who assembled for a playback of their sixth album Sunsets & Full Moons at Windmill Lane Studios recently to ‘get behind this record’.
This, the Dubliner feels, is the best album that he, Mark Sheehan and Glen Power have ever made. He paints pictures for us passionately of how those nine songs came into being.
As we listen in the small control room of the famous Dublin studio, O’Donoghue sings along and moves his 6ft 2in frame in time to the groove of songs. He has a persuasive personality and at loud volume that panoramic pop rock sound that has seen them sell over 20 million albums is no less persuasive than he is.
When I get time alone with the 39-year-old, I tell him I am curious to know why he would care what the critics think.
‘It’s cooler to be negative and cynical, that’s just the way some people roll; I know that,’ he says.
‘But you know what? We didn’t get things handed to us. We struggled. We’ve paid our dues. We weren’t always playing arenas and stadiums. We’ve played to ten people.’
I tell him I saw The Script play to maybe a few more than that on the NME Tour at the Dublin Academy in May 2008 ahead of One Night Only – wherever they are now – and
The Zutons. ‘Exactly,’ he says and resumes his flow.
‘That’s why I say I want people to get behind this record. I know bands will always say, ‘oh this is the best record’ – I’m biased, I think all our records are great – but this is a brilliant album. I know critics don’t like us and I couldn’t give a f ***.
It’s not trendy for them to say: “You know what? Fair f **** to The Script, that’s a great album they’ve made.” I’m not expecting that, but we deserve a bit of credit... It’s not just critics we care about, it’s also people who like music whose ears are closed to The Script, the minute they hear the name.’
It is true that songs such as Hurt People Hurt People and The Last Time have an emotional heft that would be more kindly critiqued if they weren’t credited to Sheehan, O’Donoghue and frequent collaborator James Barry.
Run Through Walls, Danny explains is about the bandmates he considers his best friends and how, as everyone knows, you know who your real friends are when the chips are down. ‘My mother [Ailish] died this year. That was really as difficult as you could imagine it could be,’ he says. ‘You really know who your friends are.’
Their friends and fans will lap up Sunsets & Full Moons and the stadiums and arenas await them on a 2020 world tour. Danny is fervently hoping that some of those will be new fans, after listening to Sunsets & Full Moons without prejudice.
‘We put our souls into the recording of this album. If people reject it or it doesn’t sell as well as the others, there’s not much we can do about that.’
Sunsets & Full Moons was released on Friday.
‘It’s cooler to be negative and cynical, that’s how some people roll’