In one of his most personal and passionate interviews yet, Hozier talks about the raging culture war that has given birth to his jolt-to-the-senses new album, Wasteland, Baby!
“It’s an end of the world record," he reflects. "I characterise it as ‘a squeeze of the hand’. There are songs dealing with a storm raging outside and possibly the end times. It’s always trying to do it through the personal, hence that squeeze of the hand.”
Asked whether Wasteland, Baby! is also a falling in love record – some of the lyrics definitely suggest it! – he shakes his head ruefully and says, “There are definitely reflections on love but I write from memory. Sadly, I kind of hermit-ed myself away when I was making the album. I didn’t have anybody to curl up to.”
There’s absolutely no pulling of punches as Hozier turns his attention to what's going on in Ireland.
“Direct Provision really is an obscenity,” he states. “It’ll be one of those things we look back on in 20, 30, 40 years time and think, ‘How did we as a society let that happen?’ People will only integrate if they’re given the fucking opportunity to integrate!”
Elsewhere, he ruminates on the government's failure to tackle the housing crisis (“When we don’t deal with a crisis like this or, worse still, collectively normalise it, we inflict a serious injury on not just the homeless but also the whole of society”); the nurses' strike ("I hope that everyone will show their support for the people who’ve literally brought us into the world and will comfort us out of it"); the free speech/safe space debate (“It’s become such a politicised Them v Us issue. Katie Hopkins is somebody that referred to migrants as cockroaches. That to me is incitement”); and mandatory consent classes for students (“If we were to go that route I think it should happen at a far earlier age than twenty when you’re already having sex”).
He also talks about the man who guided him through some tough times as a kid.
“I wanted to be Tom Waits. I was in love with Tom Waits. As a teenager he saved me in a lot of ways and turned me on to wanting to make music.”