Hozier’s Work and My Fascinations
By: Noushin Mostafa
Tags: Music, Indie, Progressive, Hozier, Rock

Andrew Hozier Byrne. An Indie artist from Ireland hit up and spread like wildfire internationally after his EP “Take me to Church”. This singer, songwriter has his own soulful, indie flair that is incomparable to any other artist. Writing songs with depth and meaning, Hozier has won over many hearts all over the world.

Take Me to Church

Take me to Church is Hozier’s most recognized song. This is a track from his EP in 2013. During the writing of this song, Hozier was a struggling artist. He wrote this song at the attic of his parents’ home in Ireland. The song expresses Hozier’s frustration towards certain religious organizations and their stances on homosexuality.

The song talks about two people being in love. Unfortunately, due to the fact that they are of the same gender, they are not accepted by the society. The video of this song captures its main essence. In the video, people of a religious organization chase after the aforementioned gay men. Towards the end, one of them is chased down and beaten while the other partner watches in agony; hiding.

Hozier has explained that he does not quite understand why people would be against “love”. He ponders upon why people would be willing to steal away someone’s ‘human rights’ just because they do not view things the same way. Through this song, Hozier expresses his frustrations and complaints towards these organizations. He speaks out about the gay community, their struggles, and about hate speech.

Due to this song, Hozier has been asked about his own sexuality quite a lot. People have wondered if he has written it on account of his own struggles. But his answer has always remained mysterious. This is where the brilliance of Hozier shows where he has always answered in neither a yes or no, never confirming his sexuality. Due to this, he can stand from an unbiased standpoint, advocating for a cause without own personal gain. To quote Hozier, “two people should be able to love each other without any resistance”.

Someone New

The song is about a person who delves into fantasy a lot. “I fall in love just a little ol’ little bit every day with someone new” refers to imagining being with strangers one meets in their everyday lives. Hozier hasn’t quite explained what he thinks in this video but he features in the music video himself. It starts off with a girl being back from a show, in which Hozier was playing, then she fantasizes about different people she sees on the street on her way back home.

The video shows the girl being promiscuous with other people on the street. At first glance, it does not look like she is fantasizing about this in her head. Slowly, at one point in the video, she looks over to a couple. Then it is shown that she is kissing one of them. Only in the next scene, it shows that she is walking by the couple. This is where it becomes clear that the whole time, everyone the girl was shown being promiscuous being were only in her imagination.

The song talks about someone being lonely, someone who longs for intimacy but not quite comfortable with love. So they settle for imagining and fantasizing in their own heads. The song is rather a plea of someone who is lonely but hurt. They want to feel the comfort of a lover but are scared of being vulnerable. So the more unknown the person is, the easier it is to be vulnerable with them. “Love with every stranger, the stranger the better.”

Cherry Wine

Hozier refers to a song “He hit me and it felt like a kiss” for Cherry Wine. This song in particular showcases domestic violence. Hozier has to deal with social issues in many of his songs, he has spoken out about domestic violence in this one. There is muted melancholy in the song and the video too.

A woman is shown in the video who is in love with a man. The video goes back and forth between her standing in front of a mirror and moments shared with her partner. The woman is shown to be very much in love with the man and it is shown that they are cuddling; the man is holding the woman. But the video goes back to the woman staring at the mirror at herself. Towards the end of the video, she rubs makeup off of her face in front of the mirror, revealing a black eye.

This shows that she was physically abused by her spouse/boyfriend. Yet being in love, she could not leave and kept going back to her memories of being in love with her partner.

From Eden

Hozier wrote this song from the perspective of the Devil in Christianity. He didn’t delve into the rights and wrongs of things but rather tried to explore what it might be like when you look at things from an antagonistic view. What things look like from the standpoint of the “bad guy”.

The song has a direct biblical reference, “I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door.” Satan lost his innocence in a fury. Often depicted as a snake, Satan slithered out of Eden (God’s home), only to sit outside the door of heaven; wanting to return.

“Babe, there’s something tragic about you

Something so magic about you

Don’t you agree?”

These lines depict the tragedy of God’s worshipers only being able to meet Him after they pass away. Yet the magical essence of ‘Miracle of Life’ created by God doesn’t fall short of impressing the devil.

The song ends with the chorus, the last line stating that Satan only wishes to return home to God, a cry for help.

Like Real People Do

Here is where Hozier’s quirks show. He has discussed how the lyrics of the song can be interpreted in different way, as an allegory of relationships. Where the words “I will not ask you where you came from, I will not ask you and neither would you” can be interpreted as two lovers communicating that they will not consider the baggage that people bring into their relationships from their past encounters. This is the most common interpretation of this song generally.

But rather, Hozier has explained that the song was inspired by folk lore, adult fantasy stories and Oscar Wilde. He wrote this song about a woman who dug up a man from underneath the ground. After digging, she kisses the man and the man quite confused and worried sings the song to her. “I will not ask you where you came from, I will not ask and neither will you” refers to the man being worried but still giving the woman benefit of the doubt since he has been ‘saved’. “We should just kiss like real people do” refers to the man wanting to kiss the woman like living human beings do, quite literally, since he is a corpse.

Hozier has confirmed that he quite prefers the literal interpretation of someone being dug up by somebody rather than the allegories of relationships.

He admits that he likes the the song because it is sung from the perspective of the dead man being dug up from his grave and the man’s worried thought process fascinated Hozier.

Hozier isn’t afraid of expressing unpopular opinion or challenging the existing status quo. His songs show that he doesn’t think in binary but rather, his thoughts go well beyond the socially set norms and ideals. He dares to think and express thoughts considered ‘wrong’ or ‘unimportant’ by society. This is one of the many qualities that makes Hozier stand out and these songs are a few examples of that.