Since launching into the charts 16 years ago with their eponymous debut album, The Script have risen as one of the biggest pop rock bands of the 21st Century, and after a tumultuous period that saw the group lose founding member, guitarist Mark Sheehan, at the age of 46, Danny O’Donoghue and co. are looking to the future.

On the back of their ‘Greatest Hits’ album and tour, the band’s frontman was already working on new material when his longtime friend and bandmate passed away in April 2023, leaving the Danny and drummer Glen Power to question the future of the group.

“When Mark passed away, everything got put on the backburner and we were really trying to round up the troops as far as, ‘Where do we go from here?’,” Danny tells RETROPOP.

“Everybody was trying to work their way through the devastation and decide what’s next for us. You know, do we stop The Script? Or do we want to continue? […] I needed to finish what we’d started.

“What we’ve done so far in the music industry so far has been absolutely incredible – and even if my career did finish tomorrow I’d be really happy – but at the same time I’m a born musician and I love making music. Genuinely, I have no idea what I would do if I wasn’t in music.”

While dealing with the loss, Danny made a conscious decision that The Script’s new music would be uplifting, insisting the material on their new album ‘Satellites’ “celebrates” Mark’s legacy.

He adds: “I’m sure people are expecting it to be quite an emotional album, or an album that deals in the past, but it’s not. It’s more of an optimistic album; it’s like, ‘Let’s stop grieving and start celebrating someone’s life’.”

Over two decades since their formation, The Script have gone from strength to strength, scoring a run of massive hits – The Man Who Can’t Be Moved, Breakeven, For The First Time, Hall Of Fame, Superheroes, to name a few – and six UK No. 1 albums (three of which went Top 20 Stateside too).

Now, social media – and their recent support slot on P!nk’s ‘Summer Carnival Tour’ – has introduced them to a new generation of fans, with Danny admitting it’s the music that’s responsible for their enduring appeal, not the band themselves.

He elaborates: “It’s like an Indian summer, where we’ve got this whole brand new legion of new Script fans and that’s really exciting because I’m having meetings every week about content and putting out things that aren’t the ways that I would have thought our fans would connect with.

“So we’ve got loads of different ideas about how to market our music and the best way to get it out there, because people don’t actually give a shit about me or the band.

“They just care about the songs, which is amazing because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I just come free with the music – take me or leave me!”