Friendmaker Biography

(Short Version)

Friendmaker is a five piece alternative band from the Irish borderlands. Fronted by singer, songwriter and producer David Marron (Sanzkrit, Somefinn), Friendmaker showcases Marron’s insightful storytelling with a soundtrack of carefully crafted layers of folk tinged alt rock and indie. 
 
The band’s line up is completed by Maolíosa McMahon (vocals & keys), Paul Finn (guitar & Vocals), Paul Markey (Bass) & Fintan Marron (drums). The Monaghan five piece are currently recording the debut Friendmaker album. 
 

(Full Version)

Friendmaker is a five piece alternative band from Monaghan in Ireland. Founded and fronted by singer, songwriter and producer David Marron, Friendmaker combines Marron’s insightful lyrical approach with a rich soundtrack of carefully crafted folk tinged alt rock and indie. 
 
“I love songwriters who genuinely place the same emphasis on music and lyrics. The artists who are neither composer or poet, but both and more.  I love the compressed story arc and the discipline it requires. The importance of space, how the unsaid often says more. How the same lyric can mean ten different things if you change the chord or melody beneath it. I love the meticulous attention to detail and the subtle layers of production that reveal themselves slowly. I love how good songs grow with you and how their meaning changes with time, how you can hear something new in one of your favourite songs after years of listening. I love how a song must stand alone but also stand together in the context of an album. Song-writing still excites me like no other art form and I believe so much territory remains as yet undiscovered. That’s what drives me.”
 
When Friendmaker’s David Marron was a kid he wanted to be a pilot, so he started a band, had a career in architecture, became a festival director, worked in European politics and finally started another band..... Friendmaker. Along the way he chatted to Sting about the Irish famine, had singer-songwriter Declan O’Rourke soundtrack the moment he proposed to his girlfriend and accidentally laughed in the face of his favourite guitarist Joey Santiago of the Pixies. “It’s not the path I had planned but I wouldn’t change it for the world. There’s still time to become a pilot. Life has always been very interesting and I’ve always embraced its accidental nature. The good and the bad. I’ve never been short of things to write about it.”
 
Marron had previously fronted Sanzkrit, a critically acclaimed Irish indie rock band who had a modest cult success on home shores. After the band ground to a halt, Marron found himself trying to fill a void. “In those intervening years I crammed in lots of new experiences, I played guitar in a few bands, I was DJing, I did graphic design for a few artists, I founded and ran an Arts Festival. I kept my self quite busy in creative fields but there was definitely a sense that I was ignoring a big part of myself. An important part of myself. I was still writing and demoing stuff but not as prolifically as I had previously done. Music was solely a personal therapy for dealing with difficulty. It wasn’t something I really felt like sharing at that time.”
 
For David and Friendmaker it would take a global pandemic and an unsold car to get back on track. 
 
The change of circumstances in 2020 made me want to dive deeper again and I think the isolation of the lockdowns spurred me on to be more social in my personal creativity. In early 2020 I had saved a few quid to upgrade my car. If lockdown hadn’t happened I definitely would’ve changed my car and I don’t think any of this new material would exist.  Thankfully the money I had saved for a car was instead used to invest in proper recording equipment, and so, over the course of six months I built a studio and began writing and recording. New ideas flowed seamlessly. The new environment was inspiring and the songs kept coming. I was writing the best music I had ever written and you’ll be glad to know my car is still hanging on too, but just.”
 
Over the next year and a half an album of Friendmaker songs started coming to life. Marron played and produced everything he could himself, Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keys and even some drums. Anything he couldn’t play or could be better played by the someone else was. Maolíosa McMahon (vocals & keys), Paul Finn (guitar & Vocals), Paul Markey (Bass) & Fintan Marron (drums) became a vital part of the process and what had begun as a solo project flourished into a five piece band.  ‘You, Me and Everything Else’ is the first song to be released to the public from these sessions. Additional recording and mixing of the track was by Darren Clarke, and mastering was by Peter Montgomery. 
 
Of the forthcoming music, Marron says: “It’s great to be able to start sharing some of what we’ve been up to. As work on the album progresses, to me it sounds like a love letter to all my favourite musicians. Whilst I think we’ve found a unique sound, I can hear ideas and techniques that owe themselves to all the artists I’ve listened to over the years and sound-tracked my life. The music that helped me celebrate the best moments or kept me company in my lowest moments. I think musically it’s a thank you note to those artists. Now hopefully we can do the same for somebody else.”
 
‘You, Me & Everything Else’ by Friendmaker is self-released on “House of Strange Vinyl’ on  Thursday 3rd of March 2022