ANDREW HOZIER-BYRNE of HOZIER: It Wants What it Wants
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
He is the artist that brought us ‘Take Me To Church’ – a song that spoke to millions across the world on so many levels. The County Wicklow born singer from Ireland began his career in his parent’s attic, his distaste for the Catholic religion that featured heavily in his schooling poured into his lyrics.
His debut album took the world by storm and began a chain of events that saw Andrew Hozier-Byrne – or Hozier as he is known to his fans – on the road for several years both touring and making numerous talk show appearances.
Taking time out to decompress in his home in Ireland and work on his new album Hozier is back with his stupendous sophomore offering entitled Wasteland, Baby! An album that has been hailed by critics as showing both depth and an exploration of music itself as Hozier fuses together several styles.
Back in New Zealand to perform at Spark Arena this weekend, I caught up with Hozier to discuss the making of the album and the idea of genre when it comes to song writing…
I would just like to start off by just saying congratulations on the release of your latest album Wasteland, Baby! Must be a great feeling to finally have it out?
“It is, yeah, I’m thrilled to just have it released and that people enjoy it. It’s kind of been burning a hole in my pocket for a while you know.”
The album has been likened to the works of such artists as Peter Gabriel and Leonard Cohen which is high praise indeed!
“Wow, I didn’t know that, but that’s really, really sweet. Two serious influences.”
With compliments such as that, does it feel like you have made it, or does it instead push you further onward to better it?
“I’m eager to get writing again I gotta say, I need to see what’s next. Hopefully I can release stuff sooner than the last two albums!”
I was about to say it has been five years since your debut album and of course the song that shot you to the forefront of the music industry, does it feel like it has been a very long wait between drinks?
“I was on the road for so long on the first record, and I just needed a breather, like to be honest there was just no point of me looking at going back into the studio until I had recharged the batteries and stuff.
So, I took about six months breather in Ireland, in the countryside and then I spent the next twelve months, working solidly on this, you know twelve to eighteen months working solidly on this so for me I never really stepped away from the guitar, but I am sure it did for listeners.”
I Agree with your philosophy of taking a break though, as being on the road must be quite draining?
“It can be, it can be. It’s super thrilling you know and it’s so much fun, you’re kinda living the dream. But there is a burnout that comes at a certain point and it can be exhausting yeah; but you develop skills for that, and it gets easier as you go on.”
How would you say that the time span and all that was encompassed within it between albums helped shape your music and sound? As it is not only your own personal changes – relationships, family, ideals – that occur within that time, but the world around you…
“I think yeah it’s all of the above really in a big, big way. I think part of it is also is like I said I got off the road in 2016 and I’ve often said it was just a funny time. I was trying to reconnect with what was going on in the world after living in kind of a tour bubble for so long.
And it was an interesting time, you had the doomsday clock moving forward – two minutes to midnight is a nice way of symbolising that – and then you would have had you know talk of nuclear escalation with North Korea etc and then also the twenty-four network news cycle whose business it is to sell that concern and sell that fear to people.
So, it was just engaging with all of the kind of anxieties that stems from that and writing to that and just trying to credit that feeling.”
With the new album there is that feeling with some of the tracks of unease about the future of the world as you see it, an underlying darkness if you will…
“Yeah definitely, it’s kind of a gentle sense of foreboding [chuckles] it’s definitely there across a lot of the tracks.”
…but I also like the fact that you have created your own shining lights in the darkness; and of course, one of the songs that encapsulates that light is ‘Nina Cried Power’.
“Totally, that was more just trying to write something that was decidedly uncynical. I just looked at the legacy of artists from the twentieth century that put their values and put their hopes where their music was and put their outlook where their music was.
People like Mavis Staples – one of the greatest people I have ever been lucky enough to meet, just a really incredible and important artist – who showed amazing bravery in her life’s work and the Staples singers work, amazing moral leadership as well. Or someone like Billie Holiday who just put their values and the values often that a lot of people shared, just put them into the songs.
And I just thought that in the time that we were sitting in I wasn’t hearing a lot of protest music on radio, so it was really just writing towards artists who for more it was just a commonly done thing. So yeah in doing so hopefully trying to write something hopeful and that spoke to the spirit of action and the spirit of protest and that’s what the intention was there.”
With this album you have also explored several different musical styles, Blues holds hands with Gospel, there’s fuzzed out guitars and even a little jazz. In other songs the instruments take a back seat and it’s your voice that leads the way. An intentional decision or musically did the songs become this way organically?
“I think for me it’s just fun and interesting to lean into different rhythms and it often becomes just whatever the song needs for itself you know? You start with an idea and you flesh it out from there, the song just kinda needs what it needs or wants what it wants.
I think also we are at a point where genre is fairly unhelpful – I think for artists anyway it’s a fairly unhelpful box to put your yourself into or box to put music into; especially nowadays where we’ve kind of melting down across a lot of fields I suppose.
It certainly wasn’t intentional; I think it was just writing towards whatever felt each song wanted or needed you know?”
Yes, a far more organic approach which really is what music should be.
“Yeah, hopefully.”
I totally agree though, it’s a human condition to put things into a box…
“Yeah!”
But I think if more people were genre-fluid [chuckles] – for want of a better term – I think we would see a significant shift in the music industry if we stopped trying to put everything into little boxes.
“Yeah, it’s helpful for marketers and stuff like that, it’s helpful for labels to be able to sum something up and that makes sense. But I think none of us ever have one singular influence that we channel into one singular type of genre or even one or two or three that we can say this is this type of music or that type of music because all the influences are going to be so widespread, especially nowadays.
It’s very, very hard to filter that into one particular recurring style. For me I’m a songwriter before I’m a ‘x’ type of songwriter. I would see myself anyways as just a songwriter before being a blues songwriter or a folk songwriter, so if an idea comes your way and you want to explore, it just explore it!”
And that’s exactly how it should be! Now Wasteland, Baby! At fourteen tracks is a solid selection; which tracks do you personally take most pride in?
“Hmmm, that’s a really cheeky one!”
[laughs]
[chuckles] “It is a cheeky one! I was super proud of ‘Nina cried Power’, just as well as getting to work with Booker T Jones and Mavis Staples, two total heroes of mine and I’m really, really grateful that I got to work with them and I’m really proud that I got to spend that time with them. I was proud of that.
I really enjoy the final song on the album ‘Wasteland, Baby!’ It’s one of my favourites. And there is a song called ‘As it Was’ which I have a soft spot for I suppose.”
I would definitely agree with ‘Nina Cried Power’, I think that’s an amazing track, and for me one of my favourites is ‘Shrike’…
“Oh yes, it’s a type of bird. I do have a soft spot for that.”
I must say that there are several causes that you are well known for being quite passionate about and obviously these feed into your music, would you say they have fed into a lot of this album?
“There’s all sorts of things that finds it’s way in, there’s loads of stuff that I’m passionate about and yeah of course it finds it’s way into the music. There’s references to stuff in certain songs that resonate with me or resonate with the way I see the world.”
And of course, what is an album without the cover – yours I find quite interesting, and I believe your Mum created it?
“Yeah! That was super cool. So, she had composed the cover of the first album, and I used to borrow some of her paintings for early singles before I was signed and early releases before I was signed to majors.
So, we kind of just kept that going with this one as well, it’s one that she composed. We took some photos, some source material, and like did a few photo shoots and then she painted the actual cover itself which is really nice.”
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You weren’t worried that she was trying to drown you then? [laughs]
[chuckles] Yeah that’s it, that’s it totally. I had weights in my pockets keeping me down. But think if it was a posthumous release you know, that’s really where the gold is…
[laughs] Now you last played here in New Zealand a good four years ago, are you looking forward to coming back?
“Totally. Very much so in fact, I love New Zealand. I had – sadly – a very, very short time when we were last there, but I just loved it. I really, really love the people, New Zealand really is a beautiful country, just the people if nothing else!
And then the scenery, and the food, like the culture of good coffee and good food. I find when I meet people from New Zealand, I’m reminded a lot of people from home, people from Ireland, so love the place, really do!”
[chuckles] Everyone loves our coffee; I hear that all the time from touring artists…
“There you go! And when you’re on the road and you need that caffeine, you need that treat, like food and coffee in particular, good coffee, is much coveted. You never forget good coffee that you have on the road.”
It’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you Andrew; any last message for your fans in New Zealand?
“Just thank you so much for the support, and the support I have gotten in New Zealand is a major. And I can’t wait, can’t wait to be back in Auckland, and be back in New Zealand, it’s like nowhere else.”
Hozier is performing a one off show at Auckland’s Spark Arena this weekend (28th April 2019) alongside Hollie Smith. Tickets still available via Ticketmaster but get in quick as they’re selling quickly!
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