Features : Fiachna O Braonain Interview

Hothouse Flowers are an Irish band that formed in 1985, when school friends Liam O Maonlaí and Fiachna O Braonain came together through a mutual love of music and began busking together under the moniker of The Incomparable Benzini Brothers. The duo gained momentum and the band began to grow.

A year after their formation they sparked the interest of U2's Bono and ended up releasing their first single, Love Don't Work This Way, on U2's Mother Records label. A deal with PolyGram subsidiary London Records soon followed.

Eleven albums later and the quartet have announced their return for a three night stand at London's Brooklyn Bowl in October 2015, surrounded by regional dates across the country. Music-News.com caught up with Fiachna O Braonain before the gig.

So a 3 -night residency at London's Brooklyn Bowl - that's very rock n roll is it not?
Yes it is! Of course! But it will have a dash of trad, as well as gospel and African tones going on as well! It will be above all a musical adventure!

How has the audience reaction been to your UK tour so far?
The audience reaction has been incredibly warm… we have been made feel beyond welcome!

You are playing Brooklyn Bowl to coincide with U2's residency at the 02... Do you still feel like Ireland's second Super Group?
No, we feel like Irelands first Super Group! It’s all about how you feel and at the moment we are feeling great!

Bono was the first to sign you, will he be popping over to see you pre-show... He did call you "a masterpiece of a group." after all l!
I hope so.. we have not been in touch yet but I cant imagine us not banging into one another over the course of the few days at the Brooklyn Bowl

Will you be watching U2 post-show?
Definitely!

I hear you've been back in the studio - Any new material on the cards?
Yes, we have a about five hours of music to sift through and make sense of it all without taking away that "first take" magic.. we have been playing a new song, "Three Sisters" during the concerts and it has been going over really well. It is very exciting to be writing new music.

What's the chances of getting the ‘super group’ you formed with Def Leppard back together?
The Acoustic Hippies From Hell?! Well, that would be a great thing to put together again… one of the first times I ever went bowling was with Def Leppard in Los Angeles as it happens! So yes.. you have planted a seed!

You say that every-night you want to play the best gig you have ever played?
Does that mean the best is yet to come? The best is always yet to come.. even if you feel you have been the best you have ever been.. thats what keeps the whole thing vital.

You have been together for nearly 4 decades - what keeps you together ?
Well.. ahem.. just over three decades as a band.. but yes I guess you are right.. Liam and myself go back over four decades! Thats an amazing thing… friendship keeps us together and this undefinable language called music that we constantly speak to one another…