The Script

0:00Yeah, that's all good. Okay, so let's get into this. So my town, you're in your late teens, early 20s. You guys do okay. Nothing like the level you're at now. But the fact that you've gained success later and it didn't hit you at first probably has made you guys one a lot better musicians because you've got more time to practice and two probably more grounded now that everything is hit. Do you want to talk about how those have dealt with it a little bit? Yeah, I guess so. I mean, it's not where I guess there's no thinker that we were in. We were in the pop-ons when we were younger, but it's a totally different thing. I mean, I ended up getting signed for the script when I was 27 years old. So I think that was definitely definitely paid your benefit that we've gained experience that our song. I don't know what it is.

0:55But you know when you have a young band singing songs that I will be on the years, it's just not believable. And I think that we just gained this wisdom. I guess we gained a lot more lines than our face to be able to be more of a believable band. But I know if you were saying, I mean, it's definitely a lot more, you get a lot more time to practice a lot more time to hone the craft. But not only that, but we got a great experience with being in the industry. We had record labels. We were signing acts. We were doing loads of stuff after the band had disbanded. So, you know, when learning to rip off people and record deals, we obviously learned how not to get ripped off. So I think the big kind of like full circle of, you know, we've been in the industry, got in the industry. You know, in the band, then went behind the glass. So it speaks like before we were in front of the glass recording.

1:44And then we got behind and started producing and writing. I have to say, I think it's one of the best ways you can invent yourself off as an artist or a producer. It's just to lighten to the fire in line. So we went to Orlando for four years, went to LA for another four years. I mean, we'll just haul down just studying our craft, trying to get in with people, trying to get in with them, you know, producers, songwriters, everything. You know, really go front to try and make it work. And so I said, you know, a lot of people can see the script and go, well, I've run a success, but you're not being a longer fucking nightmare. My life. So then the success hits. And here's what I find extremely interesting because I can't remember if it was you or Mark talking about this in an interview, but you break even hits. You guys get this massive success. The economy collapses at the same time. And instead of you being the starving musicians with your friends feeling sorry for you at the pub, buy a new pint, it's turned the other way around.

2:35So that must have been really interesting when science and faith was recorded. Yeah, I mean, first, for the first time was the first song that came along. We went back to Ireland. I mean, realize that, you know, everyone's down and out. You know, everyone's just fucking really, really in a bad way. I'm glad I've been coming home to share the success of what we've done well. You know, you almost just wanted to short time out and, you know, just dig in, take a show and dig in. Because, you know, it was such a long, long time. You know, we were there 10, just being years, being very, very unsuccessful lot and borrowing money doing the whole shebang. And then, you know, the tables turned out, you know, where we were enjoying success. And again, it took a, I got this period, you know, two years time, it could all flip around again. You never know. Fucking were broken. Everyone else rich.

3:24But for us, you know, going back and actually writing about that and being part of it, that was really important for us on this particular time. But, you know, I think now even on the new record on number three, we just, we still have the chance of optimism. You know, we may not have a participation, but at least we're all here together. You know, we still prescribe that. Yeah, and I do want to talk about the optimism and especially the Hall of Fame, the empowerment song. And there's a whole bunch of cool tunes on the record, but kind of go into order here. So we're still at science and faith. And I found the title of science and faith really interesting. And I'm sorry to go back to the record, but we've never spoken before. And I want to kind of encompass everything in this article. Science and faith. Can the two live together? That's a very interesting pairing. You know, the science and faith is the ultimate question is that it kind of to go together.

4:15And I've talked to people, I've talked to, you know, men of the cloth and I've talked to people who are, you know, men of tools or science, you know, doctors and et cetera. And it doesn't matter how far you go down one of the other roads or one of the two roads, they always lead to the other one because religion can only explain so much and then science can take over. And then on the opposite, science can only explain so much and then religion can take over. And I want to think very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very crazy thing when we talk to doctors, they've, you know, a friend of mine is a brain surgeon. And the more he goes in, he wanted to help people and, you know, start looking up there, you know, the chaos of the human body, but the more that he got involved in it, the more he gets involved in seeing the, you know, down on this very molecular level, he sees that there's a pattern to all of this.

5:06So he went away from religion, went to science, and then came back to religion that he's seen on a, you know, in a, in a, in a small level. There's a pattern here. There's a maker. There's a sign of a, of an architect. And I just thought that was amazing. I just said, oh, whoa, those don't matter how far down the road you go. You can only explain so much before something else has to take over. I mean, that was the, it's really, it really is interesting. But I mean, for us on science and space, and we kind of went to write, well, imagine science being a man and space being a woman. And science being a lot of that kind of logical guy, you know, he thinks he has it all figured out, but then space, you know, can say one or two words and just flat one right down. And there is no real winner. You know, I just started with a great kind of male energy, female energy.

5:53That's why we have the two hands on the front of the album, which is basically saying, well, if her name was fake, his name was science, there's a tune, but two can't live without each other either. So although they are opposing ends, it's like, you know, I guess, good and bad, you can't live without either one. We're not one can exist without the other. I mean, I'd sound like we've overthought it a lot, but I just, I don't hope I think I'm so. Oh, I don't think you can overthink the, the where do we come from question, man? I don't think we're ever going to really get answers to that. So, so there's no overthinking. I think we're all made of music. I think generally we're all made of music. We're all made of frequency. We're all made of music. Even though it's tiny, tiny, tiny level, we're still vibrating every part of your body vibrating. Even on a tiny, tiny level. So we can walk around. You're a piece of music. I like that. I like that a lot. Does that, does that, does that topic come across on this record anywhere?

6:41I'm trying to think of any lyrics that pop up in my head. I will say on the new album. Yeah, on three. Yeah, on three. I don't know. Maybe kaleidoscope. Oh, yeah. So kaleidoscope, along the line with it, it's just basically me and my colors come alive when I'm alive with you. And it's basically that giving me everything in this life, giving me absolutely everything, the pleasure, the pain, the F, the F, the F, the F, the F, absolutely everything, because that's what makes life. That's the good and bad of life, you know. I like that. Let's start with kaleidoscope. Then when talking about hashtag three or number three or whatever you guys are calling the record. It's kind of has this, like, I guess maybe maybe touring with you too. Does it has that edge kind of arena rock guitar lick to it? Like it sounds like it's built for stadiums.

7:28Well, I mean, from from playing in stadiums, you kind of learn a trick or two. We kind of envisioned, you know, we definitely envisioned ourselves playing. You know, arenas and stadiums on this time around and you always go. Shit, like, we've been through loads of, you know, rock shows and we've been through loads of hip hop shows. What were the best moments and can we kind of create that with our own music? And kaleidoscope is one of those songs that we just went, you know what, if it doesn't make a thing or we don't get a shit because it's just such a great life song that you can really see in it out when it comes to playing live. You know, as far as the colors go, and that's the opportunity to, I don't know, just blast the cradle of the colors. It's just a really fun, old tempo song that, you know, a lot of our songs are, you know, with the individual relationships and life, general and general life stuff.

8:19But that was just a fun song. Everyone just gets fucking kick off the boots and just go crazy, you know what I mean? Great. Do you write with the stage show in mind then now that you know this is, you know, you're playing these massive crowds? No, we don't write with the stage on. Now we never do that. You can't help when you're in the middle of the song and the chorus kicks in and you just stop laying down the vocal. You can't help but dream. You know what I mean? You can't be fucking great if playing, you know, because you're no from conception to completion that you've done it before. So, you know, when you find something, you go, shit, this is really fucking working. Then you can't help shooting the video, shooting the live, you know, even on them, it's only even going back to unscient and fate and for the first time. But there's a power that's going, oh, these times I get to make it crazy. They don't get up on it. They get to be that part.

9:09They're genuinely heard as a crowd. So, like when I play a chain, I just heard as a crowd. I just heard it was like, I could just hear thousands of people singing that part. We laid it down like that. You know, and then lo and behold, you get to the stage and that was the first time I've taught us on a new studio that I corrected saying and they did actually sing it. So many times you go, I'm really going to sing this bit and be down. They fucking whistle the whiskey there. You know what I mean? When did you have time to write this? Because you guys basically got off the road and just went right to the studio, right? Yeah, we went right to the studio. I was a coach on the North of the UK back home. And we just decided we could look, I'm not in this to talk around. You know what I mean? There's a lot of band out there who are putting them in a lot of their room, a lot of footwork.

9:56And so we could either take time off, although, you know, do the TV show. Obviously it's going to bring with the profile of the band and give us a better chance and a better platform for us to bring our music to people. I think people get misconstrued with the script that there's a little bit pointed at this band. You know, that we're all about ourselves or, you know, trying to get out there as far as, you know, we don't care about anything that was what we looked like. We just care about music. We genuinely care. So when we go on a show like the voice, you know, I guess like the real hard music critics will go, well, there are bands going on the reality show. We just feel that, you know, it's actually quite a big head of the approach because, you know, we're, as one quarter of that panel, you know, there's no other bands on any of these shows, you know,

10:46we're all in a group. I mean, the band, and I think it's really important that the band don't actually snoop their noses at these opportunities to get their music out there, to build up a profile, because, you know, I guess, we build up our own profile, but we also brought a band in general. You know, kids will come in for me a week after the voice and said, well, I just picked up a guitar and I want to play it like you did on my YouTube song, or I just picked up a keyboard. I want to play it just like you. Nobody was saying, well, I want to spend on my red chair. It's just like you. So I was proud of that. I was proud of the fact that a lot of kids are actually watching it picking up instruments and going, I want to be like him. I think that's really, really important because, you know, musicians out there, they might be the next year of Jimi Hendrix, but you know what, he hasn't had a guitar in a time yet, and he's probably sitting there watching X Factor. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? You're never, I'm just talking to you today, because 14 million people watching the singer, one of them is down to the good at the, I'm being, the woman's down to tell people the guitar afterwards.

11:41You know what I mean? I'm proud of that. And you know what about you? When you pick up, what do you pick up first? When you're typically going to write a song, do you gravitate towards piano or guitar? Well, I mentioned different stages of, I wrote, you know, I used to spend all my early days on guitar. I was first mentioned. What about for this record? I always go to that sort of board. What about for this record? What about for this record? What about for this record? What did you gravitate to more? Or was it more of a group dynamic writing in the studio? Oh, right. This one, I guess, I don't know. It wasn't really, you can consider it one of this. And I actually think it was more of a guitar. I actually think it's a little different. Obviously there's piano wrist the whole way through. Like if you could see me now, Hall of Fame, et cetera.

12:29But they kind of didn't start on there. They just started on kind of guitar ideas and stuff like that. And then they evaporated into, I spoke guitar really. I think it was more or less logic. I think it was the instrument, the logic just fucking around with samples and SMM with bass lines. I'd say bass and keys as well. Sometimes I'm just, I wrote the bass. You know, a few channels that we started. I mean, Clodoscope was definitely a bass start at the time as well. Interesting. So, Logic, that's interesting. So you guys choose Logic over Pro Tools. I'm not going to get all nerdy on you. It doesn't matter. You mentioned two songs in there and we don't have to. You mentioned two songs. I don't know what I do, but they don't. That's fine. So let's talk about one of those songs. You mentioned the voice. You mentioned Hall of Fame. So, will I am obviously a big part of that song.

13:14Did you know him before the voice or is that where you met and said, hey, come join me on this tune? Yeah, that was exactly it. You know, we were on the show. I've been playing on a couple of tunes and you just gravitated towards Hall of Fame. So, I was like, yeah, no, no, no, no. So, can you play it again? And I went, yeah, absolutely. So, he just turned on and he's like, well, what do you think about the song? He said, well, it's a possible first single. And he goes, not, he got needs to be a single. He goes, no, it's almost so. Can I have the song? If you're not, he's not like, no. He's going to have it. So we kind of got, we got him to, he was trying to get him to a verbal headlock to greet for him to be the song. It's all your lyrics are to do right stuff too. No, they're all that lyrics there. Okay.

13:59The whole track was done. I mean, literally the whole thing was done. And then we brought up to where we just wanted to literally just sing it. So we brought this track to the part where his, and his hotel room, they have his record in studio. I was just killed. He just got panned and he did, I thought he was going to maybe take a verse. But he hit it line by line. So I was like, I was like, I was like, it's fucking really, really cool. It's just kind of changes that look from the usual G-W-X where someone's, you know, waffling in the middle, like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's it. Now, let me know. This is like a proper, proper G-W-X. What kind of class do you just do this? Do this. I like that, yeah. That's a good quote. Yeah. You also mentioned if you could see me now, and and pardon my ignorance in this, but I mean, YouTube lies and you, or not YouTube.

14:44to Wikipedia as in always have the correct facts. So your father passed away. And Mike Adilence is for that. And Mark's mom passed around the same time too. Thank you. Mark says he can't play it live. He said he could barely listen to it in the studio. How are your feelings on that song? You know, because I come from a different mentality as well, I just love the song. And I think those songs that are most personal and are the hard to play, you have to play. You know, if it is new enough that you can't bring yourself to play it, then it's obviously just something there that needs to come in. You know what I mean? And you want to show away from that. But I think what he said was he was unsure whether we should

15:29play it every night or not. You know, when is the right time? Because we played it a few times now until we've played it maybe three or four times. And it's gone down incredible. In the first night, I know we were all a bit nervous about that down the book at the same time when we did it. You know, you just see the from Rowan, there's far and I'm under estimating here of people who are just compared to streaming down the face. And you know that well, with a son like that, they're no longer, no longer really our choice whether we play it or not, because it means something to other people. And I think for me personally, I feel the more that you sing something or talk about something the better it gets. Definitely for me. But you know, that's why I'm prepared to sing it every night. I love the song.

16:15But again, it's hard. When I'm on stage, you're kind of, it's an out of body experience when you're on stage because you're like, you're on stage. OK, look at this person. Look over there. Walk over here. You're kind of thinking in your head. Well, and you can kind of get away from it. But when you do, if you do zone in on the lyrics and I do kind of concentrate on stage, Mark's on stage, and he's singing that missing the parents. I'll go for the match. So I mean, if I kind of like, you see me shout for us with the drum, I'll go, go, go, go, go, go. Well, you sing in his lyrics. He's just too tired. It's a hard time to get to, you know? Absolutely. What about another tune I wanted to talk about just before I let you go here is Six Degrees of Separation. That needs to be a single if it's not already planning to be because that thing's going to be massive if it does get released. Is it an easy? I just got the video yesterday. Oh, so it will be perfect. Good. Take that off my list. Yeah, you got good ears on me.

17:01Thanks, man. The sixth is when you admit you may have fucked up a little. That line is killer. Yeah. So is that you tend to have a poignancy for writing breakup songs, or at least the ones that get released, I guess they relate to most people. Are these easy songs for you to write to put them on paper? You were just saying, you feel better when you talk about things more. So do these words come out easily? Yeah, they do. It's just a lot older. You know, I think that's the thing. I mean, because I've been writing songs for 20 years now. And I think the hard part, the easy part is now what you want to say, but the hard part is how to say it. And when you come from a songwriting background, and I actually just a general blokes background,

17:51with songs I break even, what I love about break even is that it manages to wrap up between 1.5 minutes, what I've been trying to say for four years to the one person, you know what I mean? And in a fashion that it wasn't just a new opening for diary, it was like, Mark came in with the lyric break even, and I was like, fuck, I am just unbelievable. But it was, I think a point in time where the perfect melody, the perfect sentiment I was ready to talk about it, but then also a lyric that stands above a lot of the people, lyrics that are on the radio at that time just having to come along. And I think that's really where a break even came out of because it was just the right time for a lyric. It was one of the best things we'd written.

18:37And to happen at that time where it had so much, I guess for us to be writing songs. Six degrees is no different. You know, six degrees is obviously I was going to some crazy shit, well, it was my first time on television and I broke up with my girlfriend and stuff like that. And it was just a horrible, horrible part. And for the lab to be able to see that in me and then to not only help me, I think therapy for me, you know writing songs, which is what it is at the end of the day. But then to also for another lyric like a break even to come along with six degrees of separation. It's just when you take a look at something like a lyric that you know, it already is something else. You know, six degrees of Kevin Bacon or whatever. You can't find yourself, you know, seven degrees or six degrees away from, you know, anybody in the world.

19:24And it started off being the idea of, well, it's not a crazy thought to think that we, no matter who you've broken up with in your life or who, how far away anybody is from you, there are only six people. I'm not feeling quite as tired as it was like, well, that's a bit sad actually. You know what I mean? No matter how you could be missing them thinking the halfway around the world, but you are still only six people away from them. I thought that was really interesting. But then we changed the lyric to turn around to be like the six degrees, like the six steps of the separation. I'm like, oh, I can't have it. You know what I mean? Like I've been there with this and I was it. Oh, it has a songwriter for sure. You know, you can recognize a great lyric when you hear it. And I was like, well, look, you're just like, I know it's the right bed for me to be on the bench.

20:11And they have the open ultimate to talk about it. Obviously what I did, because you feel comfortable enough knowing that shit, this is a fucking big one. You can't get on the mic. I'm quite big. I mean, here's a song that, as you said, when you started this conversation was that it's going to be heard by a lot of people. A lot of people are really going to gravitate towards it. Just because it's so on, you know what I mean? And the show is all solid. I think that's a brilliant thing in the song as well. You wouldn't forget it with the songwriter and you think about yourself, you know what I mean? Mm hmm. Back to the songwriter thing just for a second here. I wrote this down. One of you guys said we're still writing the man who can't be moved. Like as a songwriter, you're still never happy with the finished product. There's always more that you can improve on. There's always more that you heard, oh, maybe we should have done. This way, maybe we should tune that. That way, maybe we should have added a kick here

20:57or something like that. How are you still working around that? Or have you able to separate yourself? No, it's kind of the same way, you know, we went to the last one of the paintings. You know, and the art just put the last paint on it. And I think deadlines are a really good thing when you talk to musicians because it's never done. You know, we did a perfect example of that was when we were just doing, ah shit, what is it? And yeah, it's quite a scope actually. The song called I Just Cope, we, it was the same thing to be mixed with the way it's done. I'm trying to round on there. It was like two days before we sent it. We actually just got in the studio market if he was on us. And I just turned around and went, I don't think I need a late, but good.

21:43And he's like, what? And he just touched me and re-wiped in the middle eight. And he's like, why? Because we're two days away from fucking completing the album. And it's gonna be the next tomorrow. I'm like, just to do it. So we went in anyway, I'm recording the middle of the middle eight. And it was two weeks later then, it was gone into the display studio to hear all the final mixes. And we got to the political, political, the last album. And then we're listening down. We got to the middle eight. About me and my totally forgot that we changed. The middle of the night we changed the middle eight totally. So this other thing, without you, without you the shadows and that black pitch is a hundred thousand lipos, but there ain't no switch. Like, there's a marathon out there going, what the fuck is this? I told you, because I thought we changed it. What's going on? What the fuck is this? And he's like, and my fucking, he's like, I don't know, I think it's really good. I know some like, I'm just walking badly.

22:29So it literally opened to the point where it would be refilled by hand, we were changed. You know what I mean? It's so funny. I just thought I was going to kick out when a meter of us remembered the middle eight, but it was better than the one that we can't just remember the film. That's fantastic. Before I let you. Sorry. Are we just gonna do? I do. It's five quick questions, one more answers. Road or studio? Oh. Studio. Leonard McCartney. McCartney. When you hear a song, what usually hits you first? Lyrics, melody or rhythm? Lyrics. Song you've written your most proud of. That I'm all over here. Cool. So instead, what are you most excited to play live tonight?

23:20It's the greatest operation, property. Awesome. And in one word, the script. Truthful.