On this date in 1990, singer-songwriter Andrew Hozier-Byrne, known professionally as Hozier, was born in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland. The son of a blues musician, Hozier grew up around music, joining a band when he was 15. Hozier began a degree in music at Trinity College in Dublin but dropped out to record for Universal Music. In 2009 he toured internationally with the Irish choral group Anúna.
Hozier’s first solo EP, “Take Me to Church,” was released in 2013. The music video for the title track, which addresses gay discrimination in Russia, went viral: “Take me to church / I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies / I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife.” Hozier spoke of the song in an interview with Buzzworthy: “It’s about humanity at its most natural, and I guess the song is very much about sexuality, about the sexual act itself. It’s also a little bit of a tongue-in-cheek swipe at, say, the Church and organizations that would undermine humanity at its most natural by pontificating over things like sexual orientation or natural humanity.” (March 14, 2014.)
Though raised a Quaker by Catholic apostates, Hozier rejects the notion of faith. Instead, he finds absolution in creating the soul, R&B and blues music of his childhood. Hozier’s second EP, “From Eden,” appeared in 2014. In 2018 he released an EP titled “Nina Cried Power,” featuring the title track as a single. He released his second album, “Wasteland, Baby!,” in March 2019. It debuted atop the U.S. Billboard 200.
