It’s been a decade since the arrival of “Take Me To Church,” the crossover hit single that made Hozier a worldwide star and established the native of Wicklow County in Ireland as a new artist to watch on the music scene.
The video for the song was posted on YouTube on Sept. 25, 2013, and almost immediately went viral.
This response got the attention of bigger worldwide labels, and Hozier was signed by Columbia Records in America, which released Hozier’s self-titled debut album in September 2014.
In a recent video interview, Hozier reflects on the song. “I was sort of operating from quite an indie or alternative space, and then that song catapulted me into very, very popular spheres in the way it charted. It absolutely changed my life,” he says. “And I was pretty proud of it when I wrote it, and what its sort of mission statement was and what I hoped to communicate. In ways, I’m very happy and grateful for that. But if any of my songs can have the sort of reach that that song achieved, I’m very glad that it was ‘Take Me To Church.’”
Despite the song’s impact, the man born 34 years ago as Andrew Hozier-Byrne appears to have evaded being known as the “Take Me To Church guy.” For one thing, he’s had more hit singles—including “From Eden” and “Someone New” from the self-titled album and “Almost (Sweet Music)” from his gold-certified second album, 2019’s Wasteland, Baby!
And recently, “Too Sweet,” the single from his recently released EP, Unheard, which includes four previously unreleased songs from the same sessions that produced his 2023 full-length album, Unreal Unearth, became his first song to top “Billboard” magazine’s all-genre Hot 100 singles chart. Hozier has since released another EP, Unaired, featuring three more tracks. The album and two EPs are also available in one set, titled Unreal Unearth Unaired.
Easily Hozier’s most ambitious and accomplished effort yet, Unreal Unearth figures to firmly solidify the notion that he has the talent and creativity to fuel a career that lasts not just years, but decades.
From the start of the project, Hozier wanted to take his sound to new heights, and he worked with a number of songwriters/producers to achieve this objective, with Jeff “Gitty” Gitelman, Daniel Tannenbaum and Jennifer Decilveo being primary contributors.
“I knew I wanted it to be broad. I knew I did want to expand into some sort of soundscapes to play with,” Hozier said, noting he wanted to blend vintage synthesizers and other synthetic sounds with strings and other organic instruments. “I kind of didn’t want to limit anything.”
Thematically, Unreal Unearth is plenty rich as well. The 16 songs offer a journey from darkness into light that reflects the pandemic experience and also alludes to Dante’s Inferno and Dante’s walk through the nine circles of hell. Hozier uses these as a backdrop for lyrics that he said relate to a range of uncertainty and upheaval he experienced himself or witnessed with people he knew, spanning loss and love, feelings of disillusionment and a resolve to recalibrate daily lives to better align with personal goals for work, social lives, family lives and relationships.
“Like any album, if you’re writing from a personal place, you’re processing and sort of exorcising and examining personal experiences over a period of time, or (making) personal observations or whatever of the world around you,” Hozier said.
“A lot of these experiences took place in a very, very particular, unique and prescient time for the world, in a pandemic.” he continues. “I wanted to acknowledge and to gesture and sort of credit those conditions of coming into something—the pandemic—and coming out the other side without necessarily writing songs or writing an album that focused specifically on the experience of the lockdown, the experience of the pandemic.”
The Unreal Unearth Tour hits Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View on Sep 10, with singer-songwriter Allison Russell opening. To translate the kaleidoscopic sound of Unreal Unearth (as well as his earlier material) to the live stage, Hozier has put together a large and versatile touring band.
“There are two string players. There’s a violin player who also plays guitar; there’s a cello player who also plays guitar; there’s an organ and synth player who is also a Latin percussionist,” Hozier said. “Everybody is a multi-instrumentalist in some way, shape or form, and everybody is a singer.”
Hozier and opening act Allison Russell appear Sept 10 at Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mt. View. The show begins at 7:30pm. Tickets are $61.65–$295.85. shorelineamphitheatre.com
