The Script Open Up

In the new issue of Hot Press (out today), our cover stars The Script give their most revealing interview to date.
Speaking on his recent spilt from model Irma, Danny O'Donoghue admits: “It’s hard, but I’m kind of finding my feet now... Now I’m sitting here thinking, ‘I need to call her!’"

By now the masses will be listening to their latest album, #3. The record features a collaboration with will.i.am.

“I still can’t believe will.i.am is on our record!” Danny beams. “Towards the end of The Voice I played him three or four songs we’d been mixing and when it got to ‘Hall Of Fame’ he was like, ‘Play it again!’ So I did and at the end he said, ‘Can I have that song?’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? To play to other people?’ ‘No, I want it for myself'...
"I was there in the Irish polite way going, ‘Yeah, we’ll think about it.’ As soon as he left I called Mark and said, ‘We can’t give him the song, but let’s get him on it.’ will.i.am was cool with that so we got the drinks in and arranged studio time and, bang, he stood us up! I’m like, ‘What a bugger!’ The next day I asked him, ‘What happened last night?’ and he was like, ‘I was at this dinner.’ ‘You blew me off for a dinner?’ ‘Yeah, with Bill Clinton.’ So, I went, ‘Okay, fair enough. Just this once…’ It kind of turned into the Will.I.Won’t.Show!
“Will calls me up and says, ‘What are you doing tonight?’ and I go, ‘Here’s what you’re doing tonight – I’m coming round to collect you in a taxi and you’re recording the fucking song!’”

Another song from the record might just be their most personal yet. 'If You Could See Me Now' is inspired by the loss of Danny and Mark's dads.

"That’s the album’s whiskey song!” Mark Sheehan laughs. “We’d been through so many bottles of wine on this album that I thought I’d change it and bring some whiskey in. After a few we were looking at each other going, ‘Right, we’re ready for this song.’ But we did have to fuck off to opposite sides of the room. He did a verse, I did a verse. It was super-honest. It’s so emotionally-charged that I don’t know whether it’s a good song or not.”

Speaking of high emotion, the lads are still coming to terms with the experience that was their massive Aviva gig in the summer of 2011.
"The best part of that day was that we caught it on DVD," notes Danny. "We had only shot to get it right but the stars aligned – the weather was great, the audience was up for it and we all played well. There’s a point in the show – it gets me every time – when you can see me mouthing at the lads, ‘Take it all fucking in!’ You have to savour those moments because they may never happen again.”

Danny also talks extensively about his role on hit talent show The Voice, whilst the ever-fortright Mark Sheehan admits he's never been one to keep his opinions to himself:

"This political correctness annoys me. I probably piss a lot of people off with my brutal honesty. What I say to them is, ‘I didn’t give you fucking cancer, I only told you how it is. You’re not walking away with a disease, get fucking over it.’ We’re only trying to better things by speaking out against them. I really am not politically correct, which is probably why I’m not on The Voice and he is!”

For more from the massive Dublin trio, pick up the new issue of Hot Press, on sale now.