Platinum award for high-flying songwriter Flynn

Darren Flynn - who performs professionally as "Flynn" - has had to clear a large space on his living room wall: after all, an award marking platinum and gold success in NINETEEN countries takes up a lot of room.

The talented 31-year-old Mullingar-born songwriter, now based in London, received the award after the single he wrote, "Bad Memories", recorded four million sales for the Italian electronic music group Meduza.

"I wrote the song in Brixton in January 2022: then a few months later Meduza heard the demo and they loved it: they believed in the record and hopped on board," says Darren.

Meduza have previously collaborated with Dermot Kennedy and Hozier among others.

The success of Bad Memories marks another milestone in the career of a musician who works full-time as a songwriter, mainly in London; occasionally in LA, sometimes Stockholm, also from time to time, in Berlin. Flynn also visits home as often as possible: usually every six to eight weeks.

"This release really puts me on the map as a songwriter," says Flynn, who has had previous successes with the likes of Lost Frequencies, DJ Benny Benassi and the US rock band Papa Roach, as well as a number of solo successes as a performer. While the songwriting sees him work pretty much a regular five-day-a-week job, turning out as many as twenty songs a month, that is alongside his career as a performer.

Previously signed with Sony, four weeks ago he signed a new six-single deal with Warner Music, performing as "Boy Loco" with Welsh musician Tudor. The duo have just released "Slow Dancing" which has had 1.5 million downloads in just four weeks.

He also still performs under his "Flynn" identity.

In ways, Flynn can't believe that what was actually a schoolboy dream for him has become a reality: “I feel very grateful to be able to call this a job, getting to travel and write songs with so many talented people every day really is a dream,” he says.

"In my school years at Coláiste Mhuire (Mullingar), I decided to give Transition Year a go, and during it, two guys came in to talk about songwriting, that was the first time I really considered it as a job option and I never looked back after that really," he continues. A school talent show came up, he entered and came in joint first place and so after school, he headed to Bristol where he studied music performance.

In 2019 he signed his first publishing deal with BMG.

So has having a 4m-selling song made him rich? Comfortable? Or just sorted a few bills?

“Em….it’s definitely paid off a bill or two,” he laughs.