You, Me and Everything Else

I seldom do single songs or stand-alone videos, but I am making an exception for this one.

The creative energy comes from Friendmaker. Hailing from Carrickmacross in Monaghan County, near the border with Northern Ireland, David Marron (vocals and guitar), is joined by Maolíosa McMahon (vocals and keys), Paul Finn (guitar and vocals), Paul Markey (bass) and Fintan Marron (drums). Friendmaker combines Marron’s endearing storytelling approach and insightful lyrics with a rich soundtrack of carefully crafted folk-tinged indie rock.

“We like creating songs where every note and every lyric is carefully considered, but we also like embracing the accidental stuff. We like to make songs that have a familiar warmth before bringing the listener with us to darker places. Then we use melody and humour to keep the listener there forever! Ha! but yeah, we’re just a rock band making the kind of music we would want to listen to. We live for those floaty moments when a song begins to magic into life,” says David Marron.

For David and Friendmaker, it would take a global pandemic and an unsold car to get back on track, diving deeper into music with the isolation of the lockdowns spurring him to be more social in his creativity. David was also faced with a life-changing choice: “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 invested in proper recording equipment, and so, over 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.”

On the video, Marron notes, “I used the lyrical themes as a jumping-off point for a tangential narrative. We’re introduced to a confused character, confronted by two temptress figures inspired by the Selkies & Sirens of Celtic Folklore. In this context, they represent opposing poles of thought, the left brain, the right brain, certainty and doubt, the proverbial two paths. Our character is drawn to the sea as his mind dances in thought between harmony and chaos. He seeks control of the inner turmoil and, through that journey, realizes as he nears his point of breaking that it is the very obsession of control that errs his equilibrium and that it is in the actual relinquishment of authority that he finds an inner peace….. for now anyway. At the end, we leave our protagonist where we first met him. He knows similar difficulties may lie ahead, but the experience will leave him better prepared for battle.”

On March 3rd, ‘You, Me & Everything Else’ will be released via the band’s Imprint House of Strange Vinyl and available everywhere digitally, including Bandcamp.

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