Hozier sat down last night (June 22) for a chat with Zane Lowe on Beats 1, talking all about his past material and what fans should be expecting from the future.
Hozier
On his musical foundation and core, Hozier explained: "It was Chicago Blues music at first. Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker. That's how I first learned how to play, was listening to JLH play with open tuning. One chord. Muddy Waters, but folk music, Simon & Garfunkel, a lot of lyricists like Paul Simon.
"As a teenager I discovered Tom Waits and his lyrics and I just fell in love with it. The first time hearing stuff off of 'Black Rider' it was just really weird. There was nothing inviting about that music, it's like jumping into a freezing cold lake."
He also spoke about the success of 'Take Me To Church', and whether he needs a break from the song.
"I learned my lesson on this one," he said. "Not a lot of artists would admit to moving keys for certain performances, but doing that three times a day you have to do it. If that's gonna happen it would definitely happen with Church.
"I try to make a habit of distancing myself from a song. You hear it played, you just walk out of the room. You just put it behind you. The way I look at it is, a hit song that connects, and it connected beyond my wildest dreams, but a hit song is not a career, a debut album is not a career, you have to keep looking forward to making the next thing.
"I love my label but usually when they're greeting and you're going to a reception, they'll play you your own music, and that's the last thing you wanna hear when you're walking in!"
Hinting at that 'next thing', he added: "I've never been so eager to make music. I'm itching for it.
"In a big way if this opportunity had happened at a different time, I would have just been spent, but I had had maybe six days of quiet and I can't really write on the road, but when it all stops and things are quiet again, you're just ready for things to fall out of you.
"You have a phone full of memos and loads of notebooks and stuff. Little melodic ideas. There's many times recording on a phone and trying to transfer it into my laptop and into software and it doesn't feel the same."
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