“We’re cutting all the frills off” Danny O’Donoghue tells Her what’s coming next from The Script

Danny O'Donoghue, frontman of The Script, is a passionate performer and brought that forceful energy to a recent interview with Her.

The Script’s latest album Sunsets and Full Moons has a release date of November 8 and it heralds a new chapter for the threesome. With Danny keen to discuss the change of direction, we sat down to find out more, starting with recently-released single, The Last Time.

“The Last Time, well it’s our mission statement and it’s showing everybody we’re back as The Script and we’re open for business”.

As Danny puts it, they are coming in "big and ballsy", and that's obvious from the intense drops and high levels of production. However, there are some stripped-back songs too and after a sneaky pre-listen, Hot Summer Nights is one of my favourites. Some lyrics reference heartbreak, sure to be popular with their longtime fans, but other themes include social media, anxiety and grief resulting in a deeply emotive album. Talking about some of their previous releases, Danny feels Sunsets and Full Moons is exactly where they should be, in terms of their sound.

“Rain was a bit of a departure from our regular Script sound, it was a little more poppy and a little more throwaway” .

One of the tracks If You Don’t Love Yourself deals with mental health and online trolling. The singer-songwriter turned his Instagram profile to private in the last few months because he found it was becoming a “very destructive habit”. 

“I changed my Instagram to private because I started off Instagram this year being like f**k it, I'm going to have fun. I found myself checking my phone every two minutes being like what’s it on now." “I started posting there’s me with the Queen, there’s me with Alex Ferguson, and look at me with the head of Apple, and then I was like what the f**k, people know who I am and what I’m doing.” 

Danny has mixed feelings about social media and is eager to point out that looking for attention online is ill-advised.

“If it’s not your job to be on social media, I’d find it hard-pressed to find an argument for you be on there. While there is great things about it, it can be destructive in the hands of a narcissist” .

He doesn't hold back either and talks openly about how appearances can be deceiving, an important message in this Instagram age.

“You could probably look at me and go well he has success, and I would be classed as you know, achieving my dreams. Really, I’m still hollow on the inside. Stuff that you think is going to fix you doesn’t. Faraway fields are always going to be greener but when you get there it’s just another f**cking field”.

True that. Run through Walls is the real tear-jerker on the album. Danny's mother Ailish passed away earlier this year and the singer says songwriting helped him through the grief of losing somebody so close to him.

“When something is going really horrible in my life, be under no illusions it’s going into the song- it’s the only way I can process it. Songwriting for us is therapy and it's me sitting down with my two best mates and talking about what's going on”. “We’re talking about real shit. It’s a no-bullshit album, we’re cutting all the frills off.”

Sunsets and Full Moons will be released on November 8th and The Last Time is available to stream right now. The Script's 3Arena shows are on sale now for 5th, 6th & 7th March 2020. Get your ticket now from ticketmaster.ie.