Biography
Born Andrew Hozier-Byrne in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, on March 17, 1990—St. Patrick’s Day—the performer known as Hozier emerged as a distinctive singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose touchstones range from James Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Leonard Cohen to John Lee Hooker and the communal power of choral singing. Raised by a father steeped in local blues traditions, he absorbed the genre from childhood onward. At fifteen he entered his first band, drawn especially to R&B, soul, gospel, and blues. He enrolled in music studies at Trinity College Dublin and performed with the Trinity Orchestra, yet left after one year to cut demos for Universal Music. Between 2009 and 2012 he lent his voice to the Irish choral ensemble Anúna, traveling with them on international tours. His debut solo EP, Take Me to Church, arrived in 2013; once its title track—an explicit protest against anti-gay policies in Russia—circulated widely on YouTube and Reddit, an international following quickly followed. A second EP, From Eden, surfaced the following spring.