Andrew Hozier-Byrne Quotes
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There's not a lot of room for thinking in popular culture; there's not a lot of room for being conflicted.
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The success of 'Take Me To Church,' I never imagined it. I never imagined that it would work on radio, that it would find its way onto the charts, even at home and certainly not in America.
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I had just discovered jazz, and I started singing in a kind of blues cover band at the age of 15. We called ourselves - it was a terrible name - the Blue Zoots. We couldn't actually get our hands on zoot suits, nor did we dress in blue. We did covers of Screamin' Jay Hawkins and kind of Blues Brothers repertoire stuff.
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I'm still finding my feet in many ways as a performer. I'm not an extrovert, and certainly the attention isn't what drew me to it, and I find that quite jarring at times. I used to stress a lot about shows and get palpitations before shows, but eventually you learn to love it, and it is a thrill.
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I'm not sure if every song will be 'Take Me to Church,' but I can only hope that people enjoy the body of work that I have ahead of me.
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Religion wasn't imposed on me. I dabbled with faith, and I explored religion quite thoroughly.
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I feel my duty is to make music.
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It's so easy to look forward when you're travelling; you spend your life looking forward, thinking, 'What's next? When do I get time to work on my music again? Or when do I get time to get my 'normal' life back?'
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I am a politically motivated person, and that will come through in the music.
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If I could, I'd sing old French songs or American folk music, but I sure as hell can't do it as well as Mississippi John Hurt - no way in hell am I getting near that!
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I will play around with an idea for a very long time until it's found it's feet and it's good enough to become a song.
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I didn't even have that many close LGBT friends or anything like that, but I suppose it was growing up and becoming aware of how you are in a cultural landscape that is blatantly homophobic... you turn around and say, 'Why did I grow up in a homophobic place? Why did I grow up in a misogynistic place?'
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I love making music, but if you make something that inspires somebody else to make something, without getting too airy-fairy, you've contributed to the zeitgeist in some way, and that's just an amazing feeling.
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I spent quite a bit of time in choirs, growing up, and in the world-touring music group Anuna.
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I try to face things without regret, or make sure that I'm happy with things and leave nothing unsaid if I can.
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The main thing is, I can't stay up late partying when I'm on tour. That's not good for my voice or my health in general.
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There are a few Irish writers who have a very strong influence on me, especially on the 'Take Me to Church' EP.
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Much of social media can be seen as the 'News of me.' It's not so much a platform for connecting and sharing as it is a platform for advertising the idea of yourself you want to portray to others: the image of yourself you want to project.
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Certainly in the case of having to answer questions about where a song comes from, it's a hell of a lot easier when you say, 'I've removed myself from it.' But they start from quite a personal place. They always do.
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I think it all started with Nina Simone. When I was maybe seven or eight, I used to listen to one of her albums every night before I went to sleep. For me, her voice was everything.
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The way I did the first album... the way I wrote 'Church'... was just to trust my instincts with the music and let it kind of do what it does.
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It's kind of strange to hear your songs sung back to you! You get a big insight into what people connect to, what's moving to people or what songs people are really into.
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For me growing up, I had a Christian upbringing, and I just noticed this Catholic influence in school.
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I love the sound of voices singing together, congregational singing, anything like gospel, or folk, or sea shanties. I spent quite a bit of time in choirs growing up, and in the world-touring music group, Anuna. It's a sound with very rich texture, voices singing together.