funny business

You have to hand it to Funzo frontman Liam McDermott. He knew what he wanted to do – write music – and, regardless of expectations, he went for it, refusing to be distracted by any of the other pursuits that way-lay your average Irish young person.

“College is great, but it wasn’t for me – I just really wanted to do music. I had a piano at that stage and I was obsessed, absolutely addicted. To actually do music I knew I needed money, so I started working straight away. So I was able to buy a studio for myself, plus drumkit and keyboard. And I was able to do what I loved,” says the singer and songwriter.
After school, McDermott started working in Carroll’s Irish Gifts and, by night, wrote and recorded ‘60s-inspired pop songs at home in Leixlip, Co Kildare. He has amassed hundreds of tunes.
“In work, I would be obsessing over lyrics and I’d rush home and get stuck in, and sometimes it’d be my whole day ‘til I slept. I was writing a song every day. I was on my own, but I never felt lonely. All I wanted to do was write, create as much as possible. I was perfectly happy on my own, then I’d go to bed and listen to my new song and I was happy as Larry,” he recalls.
At that point, music was a solo project for McDermott. But every three months or so, he’d get some friends together to play at a launch for an independently-released record of his latest songs. In 2007, a college Battle of the Bands competition brought Funzo into being. Some friends entered McDermott’s songs into a competition to play the Trinity Ball; a new moniker was needed and the band was born. They won the competition, and other awards (the An Tostal National Songwriting Contest and the Access Arts Centre from Demo to Breakthrough Competition) soon followed.
The current line-up has Liam and his brother Stig as singers, Kevin McNamara on bass, Ronan Dempsey on drums, Brian Coleman on guitar and Mark ‘Minty’ Whelan playing keyboard and rapping.
The tunes are old-school three-minute pop songs, with a hint of ska, reggae and hip-hop.
“We’re very much into The Beatles and The Beach Boys and The Turtles. There’s a bit of ska in there, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Specials, Madness. I’d basically sum it all up as pop. I think The Specials were a great pop band, even though they had elements of punk and ska. I think hip-hop is as catchy as it comes – it all comes under the banner of pop.”
As you can probably tell, McDermott – unlike many songwriters – has no absolutely problems with the term pop. Actually, he’s something of a champion of the cause.
“Is life not about having fun? Because that’s pop’s aim. Not every song that was ever written – because in every genre you get rubbish. Actually the majority of every genre is rubbish, to be honest. But honestly, I don’t think I could understand a person if they didn’t like any pop music.”