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An Interview With Mark Sheehan, Guitarist For ‘The Script’

Christian Allaire — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:17:39 +0000

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‘The Script’ is responsible for many hits we hear on the radio today, from the ever-so popular ‘Breakeven’ to the more relaxed ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved.’ They’ve written for fellow artists, including ‘American Idol’ champ Kris Allen. They’ve performed at major award shows. They’ve done it all.

I got the chance to speak with Mark Sheehan, the guitarist for the infectious Irish band, to see how they’re dealing with international success. By no means am I saying that their success is a new matter, in any sense at all, but for Sheehan it still feels that way.

“It’s pretty bizarre, because it’s like looking at the front page of your iTunes account,” says Sheehan, on attending the Billboard awards earlier this month. “The next day I’m thinking, holy shit, I was chilling out with Bono last night having a drink, what the fuck, you know?”

The band, whose music has appeared in many American television shows and award shows, has definitely begun gaining some major exposure over the past couple of years.

Because of it, the band is now popular across the globe, embarking on an across-the-globe tour they are currently still playing. And there ain’t no sign of it slowing down.

But Sheehan makes it clear that this newfound fan base does not affect their music, nor does it affect how they write and play it.

“The sort of music we do is about genuine connection,” says Sheehan. “It’s kind of cool in that respect, that we get a chance to play the sort of music for everybody to see the same, everywhere we go.”

Sheehan isn’t using television or mass-media to solely promote his band’s music, though. He uses it for more than that, aiming to use their success not only to promote proper music, but to help out fellow bands with their success as well.

“There’s so many bands that we meet on a daily basis that say ‘thank you for getting out there’ and for being real forward about your music, because it helps other bands as well,” he says.

But Sheehan does have a boiling point when it comes to overexposure.

“You don’t want to see your music on fucking Sesame Street, you know, but at the same time, when you make food or many anything creative, you can’t choose the people that use it and like it.”

The band plans to make a pit stop in Toronto on the 31st, performing at the intimate Kool Haus venue – well, intimate at least when compared to the Air Canada Centre. They could have easily filled a large theatre, so why the smaller venue?

“There’s a certain amount of energy in a smaller show that you just can’t replicate on a very, very large stage, so it’s better that people see us at this venue first. It’s a really high energy show, so we want people to really feel that first and hopefully when we come back, we’ll step it up a bit.”

I don’t think the band really needs to step up anything at all, though. They write their lyrics, they play their instruments, and they make good music – that is miles better than many artists today. Sad? Yes, but true.

As one of the few bands not “made by computers,” jokes Sheehan, I ask him what a typical writing process entails. Is there lots of wine and crying involved? Does it come to you while shopping for cereal?

No matter where the inspiration comes from, Sheehan is adamant about one thing: writing holds no barriers.

“We try to just open ourselves completely to the music. We decided that if we’re going to be artists, the cool thing about an artist is that he reveals his life in order to turn the people to relate to that,” says Sheehan. “We tend to just give it everything and don’t shy away from the actual, let’s call it dirty words, or dirty thoughts.

“There is no line drawn, we kind of write music to heal ourselves more than anything else.”

Meet The Script

Blake Dillon — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:45:00 +0000

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Emerging from the depths of Dublin, Ireland, to the top of the charts, The Script and their unique sound have taken the world of music by storm, selling an excess of a million records along the way.

“Nobody can put our sound in a box,” said Mark Sheehan, the band’s lead guitarist. “We often here that we are ‘the hip-hop version of U2,’ or, ‘Timbaland mixed with Coldplay.’ It’s just pop music, with a little less pop, I suppose.”

The unique sound, however, did not front them into fame overnight. For it was a long and painful road to stardom, littered with tons of snags, obstacles and traps along the way.

“My mother had been terminally ill for about 10 months, and in the middle of recording our first album, she passed away,” said Sheehan. “About four months after that, Danny’s father passed away.”

“Dealing with all of these tragedies really influenced the record,” added the rocker.

In the end, however, these tragedies developed into triumphs.

“Things eventually started to look up,” he said. “Our album going No. 1 was just unbelievable. The day it made it to the top was also the day my second child was born.”

The Script has also become the supporting band for a collection of legendary rock acts including U2, and Paul McCartney.

The Script is a rather fitting name for the band based off of their desire and style.

“My desire to tell stories is what really drove me to play music in the first place,” explained Sheehan. “If you look at our lyrics, they are very much in story or script form.”

“Music is a punching-bag to me,” he added. “If I’m going through crazy stuff at home, music provides a crafty outlet for me to vent and rant.”

The band is in the midst of recording their second major record, and decided to take a similar route to their successful debut – and why not? Chart-topping probably feels pretty good.

“We decided to produce the first record ourselves, and the reason for that is we were afraid that if we had somebody do it for us, we would just end up sounding how they wanted us to,” he said. “We are doing the same with the second record.”

Upon finishing recording, the band will head out for an arena tour of Europe.

Keep your eyes on the top of the charts, because The Script is sure to reclaim it’s throne.

The Script To Open For Paul McCartney

Ilan Mester — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:06:13 +0000

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Ireland’s The Script were one of UK’s biggest breakout bands last year and now they’re on their way to becoming the next big thing in the U.S. The Irish trio consists of Danny O’Donoghue (keys and vocals), Mark Sheehan (guitar), and Glen Power (drums).

In case you haven’t heard their single “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” that’s burning up charts, The Script boasts a new brand of Celtic Soul with a blend of hip hop lyrical flow, rock dynamics, pop melodies and R&B production.

Their self-titled album was released in the U.S. on March 17, after debuting in the UK, selling more copies of their first album than any other debut group.

Before heading on a headlilining American tour with Parachute on July 30, the band will be opening up for Sir Paul McCartney as the first artist to ever perform at Citifield in New York.

To check out their music, visit: www.TheScriptMusic.com