Liam Ó’Maonlaí is not afraid of exposing his heart and soul in his music so it’s no surprise when he tells me he sees ‘nature intensely alive’ in Tasmania and loves to experience the exposure of the outdoors that Tasmania offers. Including the white water rafting he enjoyed on his last visit. We spoke late last year about his performance at The Cygnet Folk Festival earlier this year.
Liam is well known for being the co-founding member of the band Hothouse Flowers, yet he tells me he never had a particular career strategy to become a musician although his parent’s influence may have steered him into the arts. With his mother an actor and father skilled in the bodhrán (Irish drum) he seemed destined to follow them, which he did, both into acting (which he says is hard work but he’d like to do again) and music. Liam by courtesy of his father is also fluent in the Irish language.
Liam is also an imaginative and abstract visual artist and developed his talents as a poet during time at Seamus Heaney’s guest house. Liam is a great believer in the Julie Cameron book ‘The Artists’ Way’ which encourages everyone to uncover their artistic self by writing three pages of expression every day.
Liam asks if I’m going to get along to any of his gigs, which I inform him I’m unable to do and ask him if he might consider a return engagement next year. Liam does a little something like ‘only for you’, dare I say he was using another talent, the ability to ‘plumause’, the Irish word for flattery!
You can read more about Liam at his site
https://www.liamomaonlai.ie/
Paula Xiberras
