Corkonians Abroad: Tragedy led to musician's cold water role

MUSICIAN Tiz McNamara, who hails from Douglas, has lived in Toronto, Canada, since 2018, with partner Aoife. I asked him how he ended up there, and what he misses about home.

What is life like in your new home?

Life is good, very different to Ireland culturally, but it has taught us a lot about the world and I really value that new perspective.

We get really hot summers - 30-plus degrees - and cold winters, when it gets down to minus 30, so it is a little more extreme.

What is your job?

I work as a musician, but also as a cold exposure and breath facilitator, so I take groups to holes in the lake all winter long, and train people to be certified cold exposure facilitators - so I have really embraced the cold as it’s a long, long winter if you don’t.

What has been the biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge is just finding your tribe and a group of people you want to surround yourself with.

I feel the Irish have an uncanny ability of finding each other abroad and creating Irish communities anywhere, so for us it was a case of trying to not close ourselves off to only hanging out with Irish people, otherwise it’s hard to justify why we’d even left Ireland.

But after a few years, we built up some amazing friend groups and that has been the best thing too.

How might you spend your weekends?

Weekends vary, I generally work a lot of them, either producing music for artists at my studio, taking groups in the lake, or, if I’m not working, we often go to see live music, hang in parks with friends, or just take it easy.

This city can be very hectic so we take time out to chill when we can.

Tell us a bit about the culture of where you live?

Toronto is the most diverse city I have ever been so it’s incredible to learn about other cultures, religions, traditions, etc, here.

There’s definitely a lot more political correctness as a result and I find people can take themselves a little too seriously a lot of the time.

There hasn’t been too many major culture shocks, but one for me has been sports. I have really struggled to get behind North American sports like basketball, American football and ice hockey. They just don’t do it for me like football and rugby so that’s been tough.

Tell us about your music career?

I’m a musician and artist under my own name, Tiz McNamara, and I am currently in the process of releasing my debut album Comin’ Home.

The first single from the album came out on November 25 and was added to Spotify’s New Music Friday UK.

The album was created during the pandemic with Brian Casey of Wavefield Studios, Clonakilty, and 90% of the songs are new.

The album features 12 songs total and is written as an ode to my family and Irish home. I have had a crazy, crazy few years and this is just a summary of it that I hope makes people feel something.

I could not have made this album without the help of my incredible band, Dylan Howe, Kev Herron, Fionn Hennessy-Hayes, Jess Leen, Brian Casey and my partner Aoife.

My full album will be out in June, 2024.

How did your musical journey start out?

I started out playing drums. I’d bang on pots and pans since I was three and started playing professionally when I was 14 or 15.

I moved to London for college, studying under Sam Beste (Amy Winehouse’s music director) and Sandy Beales (One Direction’s music director), but unfortunately broke my hand in the second term and had to drop out.

I then applied for Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts but did not get in so I went to CSN in Cork for a year and reapplied.

I was given a place in LIPA in 2011 and studied a three-year music degree as a drummer.

In second year, I dropped a piano 4ft onto my foot and suffered a horrific injury, doctors initially wanted to amputate but thankfully my mother talked them out of it and they managed to save my foot.

With the injury, I could no longer drum so I had the option to drop out and start again the following year or re-audition on a new instrument to keep my place, so I wrote some songs and re auditioned as a vocalist.

Shortly after, I was asked to sing on a Christmas charity single with Sir Paul McCartney, Shane MacGowan, Robbie Williams and a bunch of other pop stars to raise money for the court cases of the Hillsborough disaster victims’ families.

The song went on to be Christmas No.1 in 2012, beating James Arthur of The X Factor.

I released my own debut single a few months later and the song has now hit more than 10 million streams, been featured in numerous TV shows, and been more successful than I could have hoped

What has been your most memorable moment in your new location so far?

Playing music and leading breath work for 400 people on the lake in Toronto was a highlight for me, but there’s been lots of amazing experiences so far.

Can you tell us a bit about your journey of how you ended up getting involved in the cold exposure and breath work?

I lost my dad and brother when I was 10 months old to hypothermia. They capsized while sailing and died in the water.

Cold, open water has always been my biggest fear so around five or six years ago, I began to challenge that and face it.

I started slowly with cold showers and worked my way up to iced over lakes.

In September, 2022, I spent a week training with Wim Hof, which was a spectacular experience, and since then I have been taking groups and individuals for cold exposure sessions and now train people to become certified practitioners with one of North America’s largest coldwater organisations, Unbounded.

When you create a song, how does that work for you?

Usually, I just sit at a piano or with my guitar and things tend to fall out pretty quickly.

I’ve written well in excess of 500 songs so I find generally they come somewhat easily as long as I’m out living life and experiencing things worth writing about.

And often songs will come fully formed but sometimes need more finesse.

Any special mentions to friends or family back in Cork?

A lot of my family are still back in Cork, my brother Johnny, sister Eimear and my mum are all still living in Cork, as well as my two nephews Rory and Dylan, so it’s always great to get back and spend time with them all. And my in-laws, Deirdre and Pat.

If you were back in Cork for one day, what would be the ideal day for you?

Kinsale for a swim followed by pints of Guinness in The Bulman.

What are you looking forward to in the coming months?

I’m really excited to release this album and I am starting an online training course in Compassionate Inquiry with Gabor Maté which I am incredibly excited for.

Is there anything that you especially miss about Cork?

Just the people and sense of humour. Irish people (especially Corkonians) have the most craic and, despite the many nice things you can get living in different parts of the world, home is home and you can’t replace the Irish sense of humour.