A Cork band, which draws its inspiration from the likes of Prince, Republic of Loose and Talking Heads, is bringing some ‘Good News’ to 2021, in the form of their new single, made possible through crowdfunding efforts.

Naked Animals released their debut track from their forthcoming EP ‘Business as Usual’ on Friday, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic.

The band, which consists of Ben Bickerdike on vocals, Fionn O'Neill on vocals/guitar, Mattie Barker on lead guitar, Ben Janning on bass and Cian O'Sullivan on drums, are all graduates of Cork School of Music.

Our Ben couldn't more chuffed at the response to our new release 'Good News' over the last few days.

More to come towards the end of this week so keep those eyes and ears open. The good news has just begun ✌️#goodnews #irishband #irishartist#independentband #independentartist pic.twitter.com/8ET7wbujMa

— Naked Animals (@Naked_Animals) January 25, 2021

Although Naked Animals is in its infancy the members have been playing together in various other formats for many years.

Speaking to The Echo, lead vocalist Ben Bickerdike described the band as a “rock band, with elements of funk and blues”.

Their latest track, produced by Cork producer Cian Sweeney, carries an apt message.

“It was written in late 2019/early 2020. The lyrics started to gather more and more meaning as time went by because it's about trying to see the world through a more positive outlook and knowing how to limit your intake of negative forms of media.

“We were recording the song throughout the course of 2020 and it was just ironic that that became such an important message,” Ben explained.

Their dreams of releasing their debut EP could have been scuppered as a result of the pandemic, had it not been for the generous support of the public.

“We put up a GoFundMe page and reached out to family, friends and any fans we had and just said we’re hoping to create an EP.

“The response was incredible. We had the money made up in no time and we were able to get recording straight away.

“All of us are professional musicians by trade so when our entire business collapsed last year there wasn’t any opportunity to fund our music through our music so the only way that we were able to record the EP was because of our family, friends and fans.

“It’s thanks to them and their support that we’ve been able to do this.”

'Good News' is available to stream now.