Hozier

“Fame created a lot of pressure, I think I’m very humble.”

What is more important for your performance? The concert hall or the audience?

I suppose the audience, I mean the stage depends on the venue. Sometimes an oddly built stage can cause a lot of weird sounds, and make it tricky and difficult for a gig. Ultimately it’s the audience that make you / it break the soul. Yeah totally the audience.

Have you felt pressure after releasing your album which includes “Take me to Church”?

Yeah, I think. I mean after this album, I am going to take a long break and work on the next one. For me, I wasn’t expecting commercial success for “Take me to Church” so that was never in my mind, which is why there was no pressure for commercial success. I think if I start allowing that pressure to start influencing my decisions, I might end up in trouble. It’s not why I make music; it’s not why I started making music in the first place at least. I trusted my instincts the first time and I will do it again the next time.

Which songs do you listen to when you’re touring?

Lots of different types of music. I listen to a lot of blues, a lot of jazz. I’m into hip hop and funk. I am the boss when we are unwinding and partying. I guess a big mix of jazz music, a lot of soul music as well. But a lot of old music for me; I listen to a lot of stuff from the early twentieth century to the ninety fifties, and the nineteen sixties.

What makes you feel excited when writing songs?

I think just when you stumble across an idea when you’re writing music; that is the really exciting part of the process. Nothing excites you as much as getting an idea for something. That is really rewarding, one of the most rewarding parts of the job; stumbling upon an idea for a song. So yeah that is a super, very exciting one.

What kind of a man do you become on stage? Are you wild or calm and collected?

I don’t know, I don’t think you think about that too much. You just try to perform energetically as if it’s the first time you’re performing. Sometimes a song needs to be very energetic and sometimes it needs to be sung in a mellow manner.

Is there something you say “never” to in music? What are your limits in this field?

Not being able to play two guitars at the same time would be a limit. I dropped out of college when I was studying music. So I don’t have a great gift in theory of music. Therefore when arranging, I have to do it by how it sounds and how it feels rather than on paper; I can’t really work on paper. I can’t write music or read music so that would be a big limit as well.

“Like a lot of albums were written and recorded in my attic. So in that regards I am very encouraged that you can still have in success out of something so humble and so homemade.”

Are you surprised to be known world-wide?

Yes I was surprised.

How does this make you feel?

I think the success happened very very fast in the last two years and I get a much wider audience than I ever imagined I would. But ultimately I feel good about it. I try not to think about it all too much or let it influence the way I think about my music. I’m only concentrating on what I’m picking to put on my next album. I think I come from a very humble background. Like a lot of albums were written and recorded in my attic. So in that regards I am very encouraged that you can still have in success out of something so humble and so homemade.

Do you listen to different kinds of music?

Yeah a lot of the influences are clearly from gospel music. I sang in church quite a bit. I was part of a choir for many years and sang a lot of sacred music. I spent a lot of time during collage with the choir groups as well.

Do you want to say anything to your Turkish fans?

I was really really surprised and blown away by the support coming from Tur- key and I am really looking forward to our show in İstanbul. I’ve been on the road for two years and Istanbul will be the final show of the tour so we are very excited for that. Thank you all the fans and hopefully we will get to see some of them.