Like recent featured act White Lies, the Script recently topped the U.K. album chart and are now setting their sights on America. But while White Lies draw inspiration from the sounds of '80s Brit post-punk acts like the Teardrop Explodes and Joy Division, the Script is an entirely different animal. Instead of focusing on one genre, the Irish trio attempts to mix it up with a whole slew of different influences.
"There are so many people who are going on iTunes now to mix and match songs from lots of different genres," Script front man Danny O'Donaghue told the BBC. "Why isn't there a band that can do the same thing? You have to be rock or hip-hop or pop. That's what excites us about the Script." It's nice that O'Donaghue finds his own band so exciting.
If you're wondering how these Irish blokes ended up getting so funky, you'll find it all explained once you learn about their background. O'Donaghue and guitarist Mark Sheehan first worked together in the mid-'90s in the Brit boy band My Town. Although the group scored a hit in Canada and was featured alongside Hoku and 98 Degrees on the soundtrack to Snow Day in the U.S., the band fell apart. Down but not out, O'Donaghue and Sheehan remained together and fled to Los Angeles where they worked as engineers on sessions by top-shelf R&B mavens Dallas Austin, the Neptunes, Teddy Riley, and Rodney Jerkins. When the duo met fellow Dubliner drummer Glen Power, the Script was born.
The Script has christened its sound "Celtic soul," while one wag described it as "U2 versus Timbaland" or "Van Morrison remixed by Teddy Riley." Those over-ambitious descriptions might leave some perplexed, but the band's rap about soul seemingly makes sense. "Irish people have soul," O'Donaghue once explained. "It comes from generations of pain, and generations of understanding emotion to be able to physically get that in a solid sound." Added Sheehan, "Soul is not a black thing or a white thing, it's a human thing." I agree with that statement, but I'm not convinced that the Script's "Celtic soul" will fly in America. How about you?