The Script FAULT Magazine Covershoot and Interview

For younger millennial, it will be hard to think back on a time where The Script weren’t a permanent fixture in the pop music landscape. Since their second single ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’ skyrocketed to number one, taking their self-titles song alongside it, the band have continuously released hit after hit. Over ten years,  five UK #1 albums, six billion streams, and over two million ticket sales later, the band has now released a greatest hits album entitled ‘Tales From The Script’. 

With so much history, a wealth of success and a tour on sale now, we caught up with The Script to discuss their musical journey and as always, their FAULTs. 

With the release of your greatest hits album, has it given you time to pause to stop and reflect on how far you’ve come in your musical journey?

Yes, it’s been an unbelievable opportunity to be able to stop and look back on our career while we still had the chance and do it right in the middle of our career. I think if The Script had carried on for another three or four years, there’s every possibility that it might have run its course or we could have become a bit bored or stale with it. But we had been starved from music and starved from what we know and love and we couldn’t wait to get back out again. It’s almost like pulling an elastic band back and now the world isn’t paused anymore, that elastic band has been let go and we are going to shoot back out into the musical sky again.

What would you say was your secret formula to creating longevity?

I think it’s about being friends. If you start to let the limelight go to your head then it can go wrong. It’s about being real and the realisation that people genuinely just like us for our music and that’s it. Once you start getting distracted by thinking they like ‘you’ or ‘him’ then you can get into a difficult position. You always have to remember that it’s the music that combines us all and connects us – and that’s when you have longevity. You put your heart and soul into the music and the music then puts it heart and soul back into you.

Has your writing process changed drastically throughout the years you’ve been releasing music?

I think with the first album we didn’t realise there was an audience out there that liked us. So, although we don’t cater to that every time around, we do think about where we’ve been before and what musical things we did on the last album and then maybe where we can stretch and pull it on the next album. I think something that has really changed is crowd melodies because you start to realise crowds don’t want to sing complicated melodies, they love long legato, sweeping long lines, long vowel shapes and descending melodies so we incorporate that a lot into the ideas. You can’t overthink a song though, a song is an emotion and when you’re writing, you just let what happens, come out.

With five UK #1 albums, did you ever feel pressure to always match the high bar you set yourselves with each release?

Not really, because our first album was almost like our 10th album because we had been a band for such a long time, so by the time our first album came out we felt like we were almost seasoned writers! Whether it was any good or not – that’s for everyone else to decide. Every album we release now is a blessing, we don’t think of it as a high bar or anything we need to match, we are just very lucky to be employed as musicians all this time, very lucky to be living the dream. Imagine growing up wanting to be a musician and then you’ve been able to make a career out of it. We don’t take anything for granted and the Greatest Hits coming out is another one we haven’t taken for granted. There’s not that much pressure as nearly all of these songs have been released before too so we don’t feel any pressure for this to perform nearly as well as the other albums. We’re just super proud of it.

Is there an added layer of excitement this tour knowing each track is a certified hit with your audience?

Yes absolutely! That’s the reason why it’s such an exciting thing to do at this point because it’s our greatest hits. A lot of the songs were in the set anyway because of the impact they have on people. These songs changed our lives and put a roof over our heads, put clothes on our backs. We’re a very emotional band and anyone that comes to see The Script knows that it’s almost like a giant karaoke night! We have a big sing-a-long and they have me as a big bouncy ball, jumping along, pointing everyone in the right emotional direction! We just can’t wait to get back out and perform them all again.

Is there anything you regret not doing during your musical journey?

Not really. I suppose people get used to what they want to see and you can’t suddenly do a 360 as a band. But the reason I picked the piano, guitar and vocals is because I love those instruments and I feel like that’s where I belong. Maybe, letting the boys do a few more solos on stage, I’m always too busy singing and talking between the songs to let anyone else show off musically… so maybe that!   

What’s one question no journalist has ever asked you but is something you’ve always wanted to say/discuss?

I’m not sure…but I would love to ask journalists… why do some hard rock journalists think we are a pop band? Some pop journalists think we are a rock band? Some pop rock think we are hip-hop / alternative band? And alternative think we are hip-hop /rock band?! I’ve never really got it, ha… I’ve always just thought it doesn’t really matter -we are genreless!! 

You’ve described the album as a springboard to your next chapter, what uncharted territory are you most excited to expand into?

Just emotionally I feel there are two years of stories from all of us in the band. There are stories we haven’t even heard yet about the travesties and devastations that have been caused by covid. We are only just coming out of it now and think we will need a bit of space and time to look back and really see what happened and what message has been brought through. I feel like the unchartered territory is emotional territory so will be interested to see where we go emotionally over the next few years. 

What is your FAULT? 

My only fault is I have no flaws…ha ha ha..joking….no I probably used to sweat the small stuff a lot and cared too much what people used to think in the early days. If I could go back 10 years I’d tell myself not to sweat the small stuff and just enjoy the whole entire journey, life’s too short. Find out what you love to do and then do it until you die.