Marlon Funaki started as a drummer in his middle school jazz band in Rancho Cucamonga before teaching himself guitar, and the jazz training still shows up directly in his solo work — complex chord voicings and psychedelic textures underneath an alternative-rock vocal delivery. His Japanese and Mexican-American heritage shapes the songwriting too, by his own account.
He writes, records, mixes, and masters everything himself, and 'Get Out of My Face,' his 2020 debut single, kicked off a run that's built more than a million monthly listeners through word of mouth alone — no label push, no viral single, just a self-taught multi-instrumentalist building an audience one listen at a time.