Interview with The Score

Pop duo The Score shot into the limelight after ASDA used their song 'Oh My Love' in their advert. It took the #1 spot on the Spotify UK Viral Chart and the #4 spot on the iTunes UK pop charts, going on to become the second most Shazam'd song in the UK. Following the success of the single the band were signed to Republic Records and following the release of their EP they played their first UK show at The Borderline in London. Sonically similar to bands like OneRepublic, American Authors and The Script, their EP showcases their feel-good, get up and dance vibe. The duo is made up of Eddie Anthony, vocals and guitar, and Edan Dover, keys and production, I was lucky enough to organise an interview with them before the show and was struck by how down-to-earth they are.

These guys are going to be big - their music is brilliant, their live show is amazing and they are captivating in every sense of the word. They took time out of their schedule to sit down and talk to me before their show, we talked about their influences, how the band started and their forthcoming debut album.

How did you guys meet?

Eddie: On a dating website.

Edan: Grindr. [Chuckles]

Eddie: We met in New York like four years ago through a mutual friend.

Edan: We were writing for other people, before The Score was a thing.

Eddie: And we got linked up, we just met through a mutual friend and started writing together trying to get songs for other artists cut. After a little less than a year of that we had accumulated a bunch of songs, that didn’t really sound like the radio at the time, that we loved so it was a shame to not play them. So we just decided to start a band and started playing.

 

Where did the band name come from?

Edan: We were like really under the gun to figure out a name for our first show. We were procrastinating, we couldn’t figure out something. We came up with some terrible names like E². [Both laugh] I think at one point I was looking through a magazine and there was a section called The Score. And we were like ‘oh, that makes sense’. Score like a musical score.

Eddie: Or a score like winning.

Edan: Yeah, like everyone wants to know the score of a game. It just really fit.

Eddie: Like when Chelsea plays Man U, every wants to know the score.

 

 

I think it’s a cool name. What inspired you to become musicians? Is it what you always wanted to do?

Eddie: Yeah, we come from like very, vastly different backgrounds musically. I think we both individually wanted to do music. I come from like a more DIY, like classic rock, like motown – that type of vibe. And Edan’s like a really great Jazz-trained piano player. And I think we always wanted to do music, I just don’t think we were really sure in what capacity. Then when we met it really just kind of clicked.

 

Did you have anything you wanted to do before that? Like, you’re three years old and wanted to be a superhero.

Edan: I wanted to be a sumo wrestler. No, I’ve always been really good with computers and I’ve always done web design and graphic design and programming and stuff like that. So, I’ve worked in that capacity in an office, but 9-5 does not compare to this life – it’s so much better.

Eddie: In all the pictures of me growing up, I’m like two or three with a guitar bigger than me in my hands, I know I always wanted to do that. You know parents always make you have back-up plans and go to school and all that. So yeah, I studied and worked at a hospital doing administration. But music is what we both always wanted to do.

Edan: We were working and we had professional careers – we were making money. But then I’d say about a year ago we were in New York and we were like all the action is in LA, all of our friends had moved to LA. If we really want to do this then we gotta leave everything behind and take a risk and say screw it we are going to do this. And we moved to LA and now a year later we’re doing it.

 

Well, it paid off. You guys write all your stuff; what do you think is the most important, easiest and hardest part of a song to write?

Eddie: That’s a hard question. For us we try to write songs that can connect regardless of the audience, whether you’re young or old, or what background you’re from, a song that just connects and is universal- I think that’s just the key for us.

Edan: If you write something that’s too specific, for example if I were to write a song about my dog named Alfie. If it’s about a very particular situation nobody is going to relate to that unless we can write it in a universal way. We’re aware of that and we try to write lyrics that are universal. That’s one thing we think about. What’s the hardest thing?

Eddie: I think melodies are the easiest. Lyrics are hard.

Edan: Sometimes though we get stuck, like we’ll have the whole thing and there’ll just be one phrase missing. And getting that one phrase, we’ll bang our heads against the wall for hours.

Eddie: Lyrics are tough. It all depends on the song, some songs are easy to write and they just kind of come out and then production on that song is hard to do. Like the song comes together pretty easily and then trying to figure out how to finish the thought with the lyrics is kind of hard. It just depends.

 

How does the writing process work for you guys?

Edan: We write and produce all of our own stuff because we came from the song writing and production world. Eddie’s a guitarist, he does more melody and lyric. I do melody and I help with lyric but really I’m mainly focused on production – I’m the one behind the computer. So, not only do we come from different backgrounds, we also have different skill sets. Together we make a complete picture, a complete song, a complete record. The stuff that we record and produce in my apartment is usually the final thing that ends up going on the record. Or in this case on the radio. ‘Oh My Love’ we wrote and produced ourselves in my bedroom apartment and that’s it – there was no additional production.

 

I love that song. I have to admit getting the song on the ASDA advert was a great move.

Eddie: Oh yeah, that’s a great thing.

Because so many people – my Mum called me down stairs and she was like ‘listen to this song’ she thought it was OneRepublic. She was like aren’t they great, I knew it wasn’t OneRepublic being the massive fan that I am. I can tell Ryan Tedder a mile away, like just his voice.

Edan: We’re massive OneRepublic fans too.

See, that was going to be one of my questions because your music is very similar, it’s got that vibe.

Edan: We get the comparison sometimes. We love OneRepublic, we love Ryan Tedder, we love how he’s evolved as an artist and writes and we respect them. But we’re not trying to copy them. We’re doing our own thing.

You can tell it’s you guys, especially if you're a fan of one or both of you.

Eddie: I think it comes off as similar just because, most bands I think kind of look up to other bands. We love music from all different genres, but because of the background we come from, like I know at least for me personally, I’m always listening to like the writing and that’s probably why it comes off that way. Guys like Ryan Tedder and guys like Max Martin, those guys are writing pretty much all the music that dominates the radio, so I think we’re heavily influenced from talented writers.

 

Do you feel any pressure after the success of ‘Oh My Love’? Because that’s done really well.

Together: Has it?

It was the second most shazamed song in the UK, so loads of people are trying to find out who you are. And when I was telling people who it was I was interviewing, and told them that you sung that song they instantly knew what I was talking about.

Eddie: The good thing is, it’s funny, not to sound cocky. Let’s just sound confident. We’re very confident in our ability and what we can do and so we look forward to putting out the next single and the one after that.

Edan: The next ‘Oh My Love’.

Eddie: And having these songs just react in the same way. And we’re confident we can do that.

 

We’ve touched on this, but who influences you and who do you admire?

Eddie: Yeah, we’re big OneRepublic fans.

Edan: All the guys who are writing and producing, controlling pop radio. They have it figured out to a science and write great songs. But as far as bands go, like Kodaline and Arctic Monkeys.

Eddie: Arctic Monkeys are cool. Hozier is cool, we listen to him a lot. The Weeknd, that album is really great.

Edan: James Bay. He’s our label mate and he’s awesome.

 

Those were some awesome artists. Is there anyone who you’d like to collaborate with?

Edan: Obviously Ryan Tedder, Butch Walker.

Eddie: Who’s the guy who did all the Adele stuff?

Edan: Paul Epworth. These are like high standards. We have a song that Adele would be great on, if that could ever happen. Who else?

Eddie: Everybody.

 

Are you already working on the debut album?

Eddie: So the EP came out on Friday, so we’re excited about that and then we’re going to be putting out like a complete my album type thing, that’ll come out early 2016. That’ll be the four songs off the EP and probably another 5 or 6 more. So yeah, that’ll be January/February 2016.

Not too long a wait.

Edan: You’re gonna make it, I know you’re really eager to hear the songs but its only a couple of months.

 

Is there anyone like who you idolise and have met and freaked out? Or who you think would get that reaction from you?

Edan: We’re so new to this that we haven’t met anybody yet.

Eddie: I feel like we haven’t had time to fully comprehend everything. Literally it’s been like just planes going to like from LA to New York, then back to LA for a day, then back to New York and then to London. We’ll holed up either writing or playing, we’ve been out in London for like two days and we haven’t heard the song on the radio yet because we’ve been in studios and doing random stuff so we haven’t had a chance I think to soak everything in. So we haven’t got to meet anybody.

Maybe you’ll just run into someone completely randomly.

Edan: You ran into what’s his name, the rock guitarist?

Eddie: Gary Clark Jr. He’s awesome.

Edan: You were pretty excited about that.

Eddie: He was really cool, he was just super down to earth, like I’m a fan of his but I’m not a die-hard – I couldn’t tell you every song on his album. But like he made we want to go buy his album after I met him.

I met, or got hugged by, Danny O’Donoghue at the iTunes Festival last year and completely freaked out.

Edan: We would like to meet him, we’re fans of The Script.

Eddie: Funny story, someone commented saying that The Score and The Script should collaborate and call it The Movie.

Edan: That should be our answer when people ask us who we’d like to collaborate with. 

 

That’s really cool. If you could make a band out of anyone, alive or dead, who would be in your dream band?

Edan: John Mayer on guitar.

Eddie: No.

Edan: Why? That’d be fucking awesome. That’d be so much fun. Steve Jordan on drums.

Eddie: No. I’d have Jimmy Page on guitar because he’s Jimmy Page and it’s like, that’s it. For drums, yeah like Steve Jordan or John Bonham. We’ll just collect the Led Zeppelin guys and have them be in the band.

Edan: That’s what he said, I don’t know if I would say the same thing.

Eddie: You’d get automatic cool points and everybody would love you.

Edan: That’s not why I want another band. [Laughs]

 

If you’re buying music would you buy it as a CD, vinyl or digitally?

Edan: Stream it. That’s the easiest thing right now.

Eddie: I’m into vinyl right now. I saw an article the other day that vinyl, the vinyl market is making more money than all the streaming companies combined.

 

And vinyls are selling more than CDs. Has there been a moment that’s really stood out for you on the journey so far?

Eddie: Probably the ASDA performance.

Edan: That was pretty cool.

Eddie: When ASDA decided to use the song for their advert we were like ‘that’s awesome’ but we didn’t know what ASDA was, we know what Walmart is but not ASDA. So when we saw the advert, we thought it was awesome, we didn’t know it was going to react the way it did. And then going to Leeds to play at the ASDA headquarters, there was like 1500 people watching and singing along to the song. So far I think it’s been the coolest thing, it was really surreal.

Edan: Maybe tonight will be.

 

What’s your earliest musical memory? Can you remember the first song you heard? Because I can’t.

Edan: The Chicken Dance? I remember when I was very young, maybe four or five, I remember getting a tiny play keyboard that my parents bought me.

Eddie: My parents told me that I was like four I would just like strum the guitar and start singing ‘shoot the bad guys’. I don’t know why. I don’t remember any of it but that’s what they said.

 

What’s been your fondest musical memory?

Edan: From a musical standpoint there was one time, I was a real jazz head in high school and this guitarist named John Scofields, he’s a virtuoso, amazing jazz guitarist. His son went to my high school and we were in rival battles of the bands competitions and then through that connection I was actually able to jam with him. So I went over to his house and it was me and a couple of buddies jamming with John Scofield. That was amazing. When you play with a musician that good they make you sound ten times better.

 

What song would you recommend to someone that hasn’t heard your music before? Would it be ‘Oh My Love’?

Edan: ‘Oh My Love’ is good as the beginning of the narrative.

Eddie: I think it’s a great intro piece and I think people across the board will get it. Personally I really, really like ‘Where Do You Run’, I think it’s a song that like Kodaline and The Script could do. There’s a couple of songs on our album that’s coming out that we both really like a lot.

Edan: I agree, ‘Where Do You Run’ is my personal favourite.

Eddie: And ‘Livin Right’ is fun too but it has like a different more 80s vibe and it’s kind of like a party song that you can rock out to.

 

If you could see any band get back together who would it be? And you can bring them back from the dead if you want.

Eddie: The Beatles. Hands down.

Edan: I agree.

Eddie: I was just talking about this today, like they had already conquered the world and were like done before most of them were thirty. Which to me is kind of, I can’t fathom and to see the effect they have on popular music.

Edan: I think, he’s obviously alive and still playing, but Stevie Wonder. I saw him a year and a half ago and I was like on cloud nine.

 

If we were going to see you at a concert, who would you be seeing?

Eddie: James Bay. I don’t know, like Keith Urban I’d like to see him. And Taylor Swift just to see who she’d bring out as her friend for the night, her guest for the evening.

Edan: I like jazz too. Artists like Brad Meldhau and his trio, I get excited about, so you might see me there.

 

This is a question from my mum and she asks it every time I’m doing an interview, what apps do you have on your phone and which one is your favourite?

Eddie: It’s a good question. I always Instagram a lot, snapchat a lot, I’ve been using Shazam a lot more lately.

Edan: I have Tindr.

Eddie: Have any cool apps? He’s more the tech one, I have like basic apps.

Edan: I use Uber all the time in LA. That’s how we get around in LA, besides driving. A lot of it’s just not interesting. Repost, I use that to repost Instagram posts. Facebook obviously.

Eddie: I like checking out all the stories on Snapchat, that new feed where you can go to different countries and like CNN I think that’s awesome.

Edan: Sorry that’s kind of a lame answer. Bank America because it’s where I check my money. Ever since the band started getting real and getting business like you have to document all your receipts for tax purposes. So I have this app where you take a photo of your receipt and you can throw it away right after and it automatically digitises it, it detects all the words and how much it says on the receipt.

 

That sounds really useful. What is your advice to aspiring musicians?

Edan: [Laughing] Give up now.

Eddie: You’ll never make it. [Laughs] Seriously though, I think it’s super cliché but to keep working and writing non-stop and it’s always that kind of mentality. To have a lot of faith and belief in yourself and just rely on yourself, because you’re not going to get a lot of help.

Edan: When we wrote ‘Oh My Love’, there was a lot of people who shot it down. The record, the way it is now basically and they shot it down, it just goes to show it doesn’t really matter what one person thinks, all you need is one opportunity and everything can take off. Take the criticism and learn from it, but also don’t let it control your life.

Eddie: Take everything critical with a grain of salt, because that person, they have their own opinions, but you know how opinions go.

 

 

 
Their genuine passion for music was palpable, and being able to witness the reaction of the fans at the show was brilliant (a review of the show will be up eventually). I've said it already but these guys are going to be massive, their EP is brilliant so make sure you grab a copy and their live show performance is akin to those of more mature artists like OneRepublic, demonstrating a boundless amount of energy without taking away from the delivery of the song. I love them. Thank you ASDA for giving The Score their break, now go out and buy their EP and keep an eye out for their album early next year.

 

Facebook: The Score

Twitter: @TheScoreNYC

 

This interview took place on 29/09/2015.


Are there any questions you'd have liked to see? Let me know below. I'd love to hear what you think.