What you need to know about Hozier

January 4, 2015 5:22 am 21 comments Views: 175
Luck of the Irish ... Hozier has landed on the global charts with Take Me To Church. Pict

Luck of the Irish … Hozier has landed on the global charts with Take Me To Church. Picture: Getty Images.
Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIAN music fans seem to have been the last in the world to jump on the Hozier train.

His debut single, released in September 2013 in his native Ireland, finally catapulted into the top 3 for the final ARIA chart of the year.

Just like The Veronicas’ comeback chartslayer You Ruin Me, so Hozier’s Take Me To Church would appear to be an unlikely pop hit.

Unlikely hit ... Irish singer Hozier has rocketed up the ARIA charts.

Unlikely hit … Irish singer Hozier has rocketed up the ARIA charts.
Source: Supplied

It sounds unlike anything else commanding the airwaves and relies on the power of his resonant voice to strike its chord.

Take Me To Church sounds like it should be performed in a cathedral (or a smoky dive bar on open mic night), with its minimalist music bed of gospel blues piano and complex, poetic lyric.

Adding to its global impact has been the compelling black and white video for the song which was also the title of his debut EP released in 2013.

In a year when booty or ex-bashing were the prevailing lyrical themes, Hozier gave us a nuanced narrative about sex and humanity with an acidic attack on the religious or state-run institutions which attempt to interfere in our bedrooms.

The video, a brutal and haunting depiction of the persecution of the LBGTQ community in Russia, was sent on its way to virality by British entertainer Stephen Fry and has now had more than 56 million views.

Hozier Take Me To Church

Further confirmation of the song’s appeal, particularly in America where he reached No. 2 on the Billboard charts, came with its Grammy nomination for Song Of The Year alongside Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off, Sam Smith’s Stay With Me, Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass and Sia’s Chandelier.

Andrew Hozier-Byrne is understandably finding it all rather surreal. One night he is the Saturday Night Live guest and feeling the weight of expectation.

Another trip down the rabbit hole had him singing Take Me To Church at the Victoria’ Secret fashion show as Adam Levine’s wife Behati Prinsloo and her fellow Angels strutted and sang along.

Who would have thought that gospel blues is the stuff of catwalks?

Choir of angels ... Hozier performed as models walk the runway at the annual Victoria's S

Choir of angels … Hozier performed as models walk the runway at the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion. Picture: Eamonn McCormack. Source: WireImage.
Source: Supplied

Also performing that night was Ed Sheeran, who had done his bit for Team Hozier with a cover of Take Me To Church for the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge in September.

All these moments kept fuelling his success and turning the world’s collective ear to an artist who is desperately needed in the vacuum created by auto-tuned, computer-programmed dance pop hit factories.

The 24-year-old admits that even with the DNA-influence of the blues courtesy of his musician father, writing in that vein wasn’t his first inclination.

Hozier quit college, and later his role as a soloist with Irish choral group Anuna, when talent scouted by a music executive who heard him perform.

A-list support ... Taylor Swift is one of Hozier’s superstar fans. Picture: Owen Sweeney

A-list support … Taylor Swift is one of Hozier’s superstar fans. Picture: Owen Sweeney / Invision.
Source: AP

“Before I released Take Me To Church, for a long time I wasn’t writing things that weren’t as reflective of my influences,” he says.

“I always thought (the blues) would be something I would do later in my life but I decided to go straight there instead of exploring pop.”

Written and recorded in the attic of his parents’ home in County Wicklow, his self-titled debut album — and the preceding EPs — distilled his love of gospel, blues, Motown and the vocal gifts of Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone.

The album, released in October, has also muscled its way on the global charts and debuted at No. 20 in Australia a few weeks ago.

More than a year after the debut single release in Ireland, Hozier still finds it intriguing that the vocals recorded in that attic are the ones being broadcast on radios and smartphones and computers around the world.

“I never thought those vocals would end up on radio. And the song, well, it’s not a typical pop radio hit,” he says with characteristic understatement.

“That added the surreal nature of getting all these messages back from people on the Facebook page, or Twitter, these very, very personal things people would share with me.”

Meteoric rise ... it has been a year of success for Hozier, but it took Aussie fans a whi

Meteoric rise … it has been a year of success for Hozier, but it took Aussie fans a while to catch on.
Source: Supplied

Combined with the video, Take Me To Church opened some deep emotional veins for a lot of fans and continues to do so with more than one million copies sold in America alone.

It was also Spotify’s most virally shared track of the year with more than 87 million streams.

“I wasn’t prepared for that, for people telling me how the song or the video resonated with them and it was very moving, overwhelming, particularly when they shared stories about coming out to their families or hate attacks,” he says.

“If it is a very personal conversation, it is just a case of me listening and saying thank you, just respecting that moment. It’s not until after the conversation that I will find myself emotionally reacting to it.”

He admits he was equally unprepared for being ushered into pop’s A-list by its current standard-bearers Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, who also performed at that Victoria’s Secret gig and have been spotted at Hozier’s shows.

“I lived in my folks’ house working in an attic a year ago,” he says.

“In a short space of time, I am now hanging out and talking about music with Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran is covering me.

“Yeah, everyone (back home) freaks out when you tell them that.”

Hozier plans to tour Australia this year.

www.news.com.au/entertainment/music

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