Perfectly Scripted - The Script on their success both sides of the Atlantic - SEE VIDEO

But he really did like the whole album and was very generous with his audience. He encouraged us to go for it!

I spoke with Glen Hansard about supporting groups…

(Interrupts) I am very familiar with Glen!  He inducted me into rock and roll. My brother’s band toured with them years ago and at the tender age of 14, he fed me booze and cigarettes in the back of the tour bus and taught me cards. 

I remember a game called s***thead that he would play. It was an Irish rock and roll hall of fame moment.

Good story. Glen’s philosophy is that he would love to be the support band so that he could steal the audience. Did you feel that way? 

I’d say that. A lot of bands would shy away from having a band that gave them a run for their money, but the ones that know they deliver the goods aren’t too worried about the support band.

You don’t want to go see two crap bands, and the headliner knows that. There is a lot of ego there as well, but we have been lucky in that the people we have worked with have encouraged us to do our best. 

You must have been gratified as a songwriter for Kris Allen to have a hit with “Live Like We’re Dying.” (O’Donoghue and Sheehan were co-writers of the song.)

When we did that song we did it loads of different ways. We believed in it and loved it, but it didn’t look like a hit. We released it as a B-side for Germany.

His A&R man heard something in it that he liked for Kris.  We had a battle in some stations where they would add his song and drop ours from rotation and vice-versa.

We were delighted to have that kind of problem! It was a good battle to be in because you win either way. 

Did you like what they did with it, and how did it feel to hear the song re-worked?

It was cool. One thing as a songwriter you are trying to do is that you hope the song stands up, regardless of who sings it. Can you strip it down to piano, guitar, and kazoo -- will it still be a good song?

I loved your album when it first came out and I played it for my teenage daughter. She hated it, until she heard it on the radio more and she is now a fan. Kids today!

It’s great to hear you say that, and not the first time I have heard it go down that way. True music lovers caught onto the album first, and then the industry turned their ear to it. From there, it becomes popular culture.

It’s great to have the popular success, but it is equally great to have music aficionados love what you do as well. 

What was the behind the decision to wait for three months before you release the new album here in the U.S.? U.K. fans are already buying it.

For us right now, “Breakeven” is still doing massively well on radio.  We don’t want to compete with our own stuff.  We are an Irish band and are mindful of those acts that abandon the U.K. fans to make it in America.

​
Nster.com