Hozier: "I always felt this kind of lasting guilt of being a college dropout – that there was all this literature I had never really dived into"

Looking back at the last 10 years, what’s been a high point and a low point in your career? Are there opportunities that you now look back on and wish you had taken? – Laura Maher, Dublin

Generally speaking, it’s hard to pinpoint any one sort of high point or low point. There’s lessons that you learn along the way and there are moments that you’re super, super grateful for, and that encourage you, and feel that they are in sync with something or that they have an auspicious quality to them.

The lessons that you learn are generally when you make decisions that your gut was not 100% behind, where you make decisions out of a sense of fear of missing out on an opportunity. So it’s not so much opportunities that you wish you had taken, but perhaps it’s more the doing of work that you didn’t need to do; or that you might’ve done which ended up emptying your cup more than filling it, you know, energetically, creatively, psychically etc.

What’s the first song you not just heard, but felt in your bones – and why did it stay with you? – Kayla Henderson, Portland, USA

Some recordings I’d heard as a kid from my Dad’s record collection definitely had a lasting effect on me. He has quite eclectic tastes. He used to play a lot of Bjork in the car, I remember hearing her cover of ‘Like Someone In Love’, from Debut which is just her accompanied by a harpist, such a beautiful performance. It sounds like a live session, you can hear traffc drive by in the background. As a kid I thought that was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever heard. He had these collections that had dfferent singers, jazz singers. I remember hearing ‘Little Girl Blue’ by Nina Simone. I could have been seven, eight or nine and her voice was like nothing else I had ever heard – and honestly haven’t heard since.

I remember hearing Sam and Dave and in particular ‘Soul Man’ for the first time.  The energy in that track, the rhythm in it, the energy in the vocal performances, again completely sort of gripped me. It’s jsuch a flood of joy when you hear something that really seizes you, you know?

You’ve been touring worldwide and performing in front of huge crowds. Do you ever miss the smaller, more intimate venues you used to perform in 10 years ago? – Nadége Driss, Skerries, Ireland 

There is a special quality, a special thing about smaller venues. I was lucky enough to do a few of them in 2023 just before the album was coming out. I did a few underplays. We got to play the Troubadour, we played the Academy in Dublin for rehearsal shows, so we played a lot of clubs.

I did the Bowery Ballroom again. These were rooms that 10 years ago were a huge deal for me to play, so to go back and do them in 2023 again, it felt like a kind of party. It feels like you can just enjoy it, whereas the first time you’re doing it there’s so much nerves, there’s so much pressure, there’s so much weight upon it, but to to do it now, yeah, it just feels like a party. You can be more conversational with the crowd and just enjoy it for what it is.

In 2020, you did some livestreams on Instagram and TikTok reading poetry and short stories and I’ve noticed some of them inspired some Unreal Unearth songs. How did they inspire you and how did you translate them into songs? – Nina Arias, Rosario, Argentina

I think around that time, 2020, 2021, I had a lot more time on my hands, particularly 2020, it was the global pandemic and it was lockdown; I had time to just sit in the kind of imaginative internal space that is created when you’re reading these kind of old epic poems and you’re reading like Dante or Ovid and I always felt maybe this kind of lasting guilt of being a college dropout, that there was all this literature that I had never really dived into.

So certain images, there’s something wonderfully visual about those works, like with Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He also, as I understand it, was one of the first of his kind of poets who started addressing the audience directly. So when he describes the flood, he literally just writes, “you, picture this”, like, “imagine this in your mind”. It’s kind of offered to the reader or to the listener, which I think was novel for his time or he was one of the first of his generation to sort of do that in his style. It’s so simple but I just thought that there was something kind of cool about that.

I guess it’s like that Robbie Robertson song ‘Somewhere Down The Crazy River’ where the second verse he starts with, “Take a picture of this, the fields are empty, abandoned ‘59 Chevy”. So these things would just spark an idea and I’d want to follow it. Or in the case of Inferno, these moments, this unsurity, this sense of dread, this sense of terror, the sense of going into something. I think I just had the space to let my mind make sense of those in song or lyrical form, how that would sound, how that would feel…

What’s your favourite biscuit? – Linda Hayden, Newbridge, Ireland 

Thank you, Linda. My favourite biscuit, if I’m gonna be honest I think a Purple Snack or a Club Milk, something like that. Or those Tunnocks caramel bars are also a serious mention. So I if I’m going biscuit, I’m going big so take your pick from any of those three.

It was mentioned once that there were multiple versions of the song ‘Francesca’ before settling on the final one. The Francesca Fan Club is dyyinnnnggggg to know, what were the other versions of ‘Francesca’ like? – Mia Raven, Seattle, Washington, USA

The first idea around ‘Francesca’, it was like a transition song which acted as a bridge going from one piece into the next. In these early versions, my idea was that it would transition into what was then the early, original version of ‘Hymn To Virgil’, the lyrics of which had a slightly different focus:

 “I miss the open horizon, I miss the infinite sky, the upper air, the colour there; the riot of blue, the gold, the white.”

It was an attempt at trying to write in a voice that could tell two stories at once.  One that offered pictures from the viewpoint of the characters found in the poem, and in those same words, could offer snapshots of experiences above ground in 2020/2021.

This idea that Dante wouldn’t abandon his companion Virgil in any fair world seemed fitting to explore at a time when so many decisions, sacrifices, policies etc. were undertaken in the pandemic by so many, all ultimately under this idea that we were doing so for each other, and for those we loved.

The early version of ‘Francesca’ though gave voice to the character in her rejection of being in hell at all.  Whereas I like to imagine the released version of the song could be heard as offering some interchangeable voice to Paolo who’s silent in the poem, save for his weeping. The first draft was a few short verses solely focused on her protesting at being involved in the work altogether.

There is a line in Canto V (which features Francesca and Paolo) that I became slightly obsessed with. Everything from how it sounds,  to how it could be interpreted and what he meant by it intrigued me for a time: “Love, that absolves none beloved from loving.”

It’s a line that was so beautiful to me, yet it so darkly contains this language of damnation and judgment.

I wanted to play with the words  “beloved / belonged”, in reference to that line, and how her act of love had in fact freed or absolved her from any sense of ownership. I also hoped to find some way that she would break the rhyming scheme or ‘rule’ by the end.

i
It was not love that swept me here,
But fictions penned by men uphold
the damning of me all these years
ii
My young form pledged to someone old
was ripped from me in blood for the mere
fact of not doing what it was told
iii
And acts like mine inspire fear
Love that absolves and rectifies
for all “belonged” through loving here
iv
I took one freedom for my life
I don’t repent, tell them I
Reject all claims and would defy
the rules of men and their gods a million times

It was an idea that I wrote down and demoed. I wanted to write it in Terza rima, so in the interlocking triplets, which was the rhyming scheme that Dante invented in the Divine Comedies. It was written from the voice of Francesca challenging the notion that she was in hell.  I think something I struggled with initially was, how could you write songs that were inspired by this piece of literature, in 2021 or 2020 where it feels right that you should also in some way challenge the values that Dante was writing the piece from, as for all of the weeping and the fainting and the sorrow that Dante the character in the poem shows towards Francesca and Paolo; Dante the poet, nevertheless, wrote that, yeah these people are or should truly be in hell.

There’s a real conflict there. So the Francesca piece was her opening with the fact that her being in hell at all is a fiction itself written by men and she rejects it, and I wrote it in Terza rima – or tried to.

It’s a hard one looking back;  I had demoed it, I wasn’t sure how the album was going to look and how it was going to take shape, but my initial thought for this piece, which I’m going to share here, was to reach out to Sinéad O’Connor and see if she was interested in being part of the album. It was something I discussed with my management at the time for that song.

This was super early days in the work, but eventually I realised that if I continued down this path, it would be less of a contemporary popular music album and more like a Broadway or off-Broadway sort of production, you know and I couldn’t make those two things meet.

You often blend gorgeous poetic imagery with social commentary, using your platform to speak to your values and important issues. How do you stay hopeful and inspired especially in the current global political sphere? Not only in a professional setting, but personally. P.S. I love your work x – Zoe Stead, Perth, Australia 

Thank you so much Zoe, there’s a lot of stuff that happens in the world politically and globally that I am as horrified by, confused by, revulsed by as anyone else. All I’ve ever tried to do is just put an element of my conscience into the work, or sometimes I find it just naturally finds its way there.

Staying hopeful is a different thing, I think I can put the conscience in the work but staying hopeful day to day is very different and it is very, very diffcult. I can’t say that I am given evidence for being hopeful in the short term. We’ve watched a live streamed genocide unfold with little or no meaningful response from the most powerful Western leaders who have enabled it.

I, like a lot of people am extremely concerned about the future of global politics and for the architecture of human rights and how the human rights regime is being seemingly dismantled across the world by a few bad actors.

I’m also watching as online discourse deterioates and privately owned tech giants monetise our outrage and our divisions, and literally program AI chat bots to stoke the same.

What gives me hope though is to see that people are still repulsed by this violence, by the targetting of civilians. That people everywhere are risking a lot by standing up for peace and for humanity each day, that there is a collective conscience that is outraged and feels deeply wounded by the criminality we’re all witnessing.

Do you play video games? Me and my dad love your music! – Brenna Veld, Dublin

Thank you! I was first introduced to video games at an early age.I think my Dad who was really into techy things picked up a NES one day and brought it home. My uncle also used to surprise us with all manner of gadgets. I became fascinated with that medium, especially having been introduced to it as a young kid.

I don’t have as much time for it nowadays, but I do enjoy certain games and try to keep up with the developments of some games from a few different studios.

Is there a particular message or feeling you hope listeners take away from Unreal Unearth or do you see your music more as a mirror for the listeners’ own interpretation, where the meaning is something, they must find for themselves? – Daria Kostadinova, Quedlinburg, Germany

I don’t really have a comprehensive or easy answer for that. I don’t necessarily approach the writing of the album hoping to have one singular thing that people come away with. So much of the making of an album can be to do with moving through a series of iterations and there’s a lot of elements of play involved.

There are elements of creative flow and watching something grow and I’m also making sense of it as it’s being made too. As I’ve said before, in Unreal Unearth there was a few different ways I was trying to incorporate Dante’s Inferno that were far more specific to the text before I allowed it to revolve more around the nine themes. But for me, I wanted it to feel like something of a journey from darkness into light. That there is in the beginning, a reflection on absolute darkness and entering into that absolute darkness with ‘De Selby (Part 1)’, and how you’re sort of freed in that space (like in John Moriarty’s take on what I think he called “The beneficent darkness / The giving darkness of God”) and then ending with ‘First Light’, you know, coming out this sort of glorious scene, the earth illuminated as though for the first time.

Will you ever release a live album and will it include ‘The Monster Mash’ as a bonus track? – Jennifer Van Horn, Absecon, New Jersey, USA 

I can’t speak for ‘The Monster Mash’. I don’t play that song anymore, but I’ve thought about doing a live album but would want to do it in a way that presented the work in a way it hasn’t been heard before. You know, so that it feels that there’s something new brought to the work or with new arrangements, instrumentation etc.

What was the best and what was the most unexpected part about your Latin American tour earlier this year? Did you know you had that many fans, singing every one of your songs? – Malena Bernardim, Guarapuava, Brazil

It was an absolute joy being back in Latin America earlier on this year. I’m always blown away by the energy that the crowd bring to those shows… the kindness, the sweetness, the thoughtfulness of the fans and I got to meet a few fans again for the second time, got to meet a lot of fans for the first time too.

There were times in Latin America where I was hearing the song being sung louder than I’d ever heard them being sung in English speaking countries or primarily English speaking countries. So that blows me away every time.

The touring life would be very tough on anyone.  Does it make it difficult to form relationships or to live a normal life? – David Silva, Dublin

David, thank you. In short, yes. It can be diffcult to form relationships. One of the big questions you have to ask yourself is what does or what will a normal life look like for you. There’s an accepting also that if you’re a touring musician, that is part of normal life, that the planes and the buses and the shows and the promo and the sleeplessness are part of what you do. Part of that is your normal.
I think things become easier when you accept that, but it’s taken me a long time to gain and gather the skills involved in balancing that life to form and maintain relationships, close relationships. And that’s still an ongoing thing. It helps to have supportive people in your life and I’ve been blessed with that.

If you could go back and tell the version of you who was writing your debut album one thing about songwriting, what would it be? – Evie Frawley, Nenagh, Ireland

I would tell them absolutely nothing. Honestly, that’s the funniest thing,  when you look back to yourself, when you had nothing to lose, you were a complete unknown and just an underdog.

Not knowing how to not write a song or having no sense of what is this idea of the right or wrong way to write a song, that’s a kind of a magic that you can lose 10 years into your career. You become weighed down with people’s expectations, these things can become obstacles in your creative path. You contend with people’s projections also, but starting out there is a lightness that you have as you’re unburdened by any of that.

That’s not to say you have all the wonderful skills that you develop in those 10 years. But I would say nothing to myself, and I would just say, do what you’re doing. You know there’s small pieces of wisdom and lessons you’d try and share, but I think for that debut, sometimes you just have to do the debut you’re going to do.

You know, make what you’re going to make.

‘Too Sweet’ was my top Spotify Unwrapped song for 2024. What’s currently your top song on Spotify? – Sarah Keappock, Dublin

I had to look this up, and unfortunately Spotify only do it in your last month and then you can look at, like, 2024 etc. But a few songs I’ve been listening to a lot recently – and across the past year – seem to be:

Khruangbin & Leon Bridges - ‘Mariella’
Mitski – ‘I Bet On Losing Dogs’
Kings Go Forth – ‘High On Your Love’
Mk.gee - ‘Are You Looking Up ‘
Little Dragon – ‘Where You Belong’
Aretha Franklin – ‘Aint No Way’
Stella Etella & Redinho – ‘Charmed’
The Gloaming – ‘The Sailor’s Bonnet’

And in the last month I was listening to quite a bit of:

J.J. Cale – ‘Sensitive Kind ‘
Angie McMahon – ‘Beginner’
Mereba – ‘Rider’
Original Koffee – ‘Pull Up’
Moondog– ‘Bird’s Lament’

When you first dropped out of college did you have even the tiniest idea that you would end up where you are now? – Jade Rodemoyer, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Certainly not,  I think I’ve been blessed to have an audience that’s grown to the size that it is. That was not something I foresaw or probably even hoped for, that things would get to this scale. I knew that I wanted to write contemporary music and be a recording artist, a solo artist in some form. I knew that the time and skills that I would require to make that happen were not things that I could fully have access to, studying what I was studying at the time. As much as I really enjoyed it and loved that time and all my friends I was making there, I knew I wouldn’t be fully happy or fulfilled unless I gave writing and releasing music a proper go, you know.

Do you remember tipping me when I was busking in 2020 or 2021, it was just opposite Bewley’s and I was singing ‘Zombie’. I didn’t realise it was you till after you walked past again and gave me a nod. By this stage I was singing the ‘Redemption Song’ and didn’t want to stop and make a big deal of it. Anyhoo, just wanted to say I hugely appreciated the acknowledgment, thank you. If you ever want to hear my own music, I go under LARAbEL... – Lara Sweeney Doherty, Dublin

I think vaguely, yeah, possibly. Just opposite Bewley’s. Lara Sweeney, I hope all is going great for you, and I hope you’re still singing.

I do remember that, I remember being thrilled to hear ‘Zombie’ on that street. Maybe there’s a bit more rotation now in live busking music, in covers, but at the time, I was delighted to hear ‘Zombie’ in 2020 on a street because it didn’t feel like it was a common busking choice then.

So well done on that. You did a beautiful job of it and fair play for even remembering that, that’s mad. Keep it up, I hope things are great with you, Lara.

If a busker’s singing one of your songs on the street, do you stop for a sneaky listen or walk past as quickly as possible? – Simon Malone, Ennis, Ireland

Generally I try not to make myself the centre of attention and I can feel very awkward or self-conscious in a moment like that. So it kind of depends on how busy the street is. It could be wonderful to have a moment with somebody who’s covering your work.  But if I’m in a public place I just try to keep my head down.

Many of your songs evoke vivid, story-like imagery. Have you ever thought about writing fiction or poetry beyond music? Maybe a novel or short stories? – Mariana Di Lauro, Buenos Aires, Argentina

You never know, you never know. There’s a few ideas for stories that I’ve had for years, but it’s really just having to have the time and the space to, and I think also telling a long form story,  it also requires a lot of research and up until now I haven’t had time to fully dedicate to that, but you never know.

Who do you think has been a big influence in making you the person, activist and musician that you are today? – Celeste Jara, Curicó, Chile

I think we’re blessed in Ireland to have a wealth of historical political figures and writers who were involved in different forms of activism. We also had many revolutionaries who left a lot of their writing for us. Ireland had a lot of writers around times of great civil change, writers in times of revolution, as well as many writers who were revolutionary in their approach. James Joyce turning literature and the English language inside out for instance, subverting the notion of the traditional novel etc.

So I can’t really pinpoint one, but I think coming from Ireland with an interest in history, or in Ireland’s changing political landscape and how we were affected by colonialism and imperialism, – the penal laws for example: if we’re to look at them with honest eyes and a conscience, these are the influences that I think shape us, shape our political instinct, and shape the instinct of our collective conscience.

As an artist, I struggle knowing when to say a work is complete and walk away from it. How do you know when the piece you’re working on is done? – Alia Bell, Colorado Springs, USA

Alia, honestly that’s one of the hardest things I find about working on a song. Not to be glib about it but a deadline can really, really help.

Sometimes it’s also about accepting that the work can’t be everything. It just can only be what that one piece wishes to convey.

If you can get that boiled down to itself such that it resonates appropriately, that the feeling resonates with you and that it achieves all that it needs to achieve in its own remit, it’s suffcient unto itself

Has there ever been a visual work of art – a painting, sculpture, or graphic piece, perhaps even something from your mother’s work – that directly inspired one of your songs? If so, could you share what piece, and which song it influenced? – Jennie Hadley, San Diego, USA

I can give one example maybe, so you know the image, it’s sometimes called a celestial rose or the white rose of Heaven? You know that lasting picture in Paradiso and so if you if you’re familiar with that image, that always struck me.

So that was something of this big expansive sense of lightness and brightness. I was trying to capture some of that in like ‘First Light’. That would be one easy example.

You have such a recognised taste for reading classics and incorporating them into your art. Do you ever read something ‘fun?’ I’m dying to know if there’s a fantasy or romantasy book hidden on your bookshelf! – Ceyda Erem, Sydney, Australia

While I’m on the road, I don’t really have huge capacity for heavy stuff at the moment, I find.

The last few books I’ve been enjoying, it’s been some fantasy stuff. So, Frank Herbert’s Dune I was listening to as an audiobook just while I’ve been on the road.

I never got into audiobooks until recently, took me until really this year and last year. I’ve been enjoying that, something that just takes me out of the moment, you know

What song or songs is the more vocally demanding from all your repertoire? And what do you do to take care of your main instrument: your voice? – Lizeth Casian, Mexico City, Mexico

Some of the newer songs are pretty vocally demanding like ‘De Selby (Part 2)’, I hit some of the highest notes I’ve ever sang on stage in full voice.

‘Nobody’s Soldier’, ‘Francesca’, these are all kind of big songs to sing, ‘Unknown’ also. Recently I’ve gotten help from a wonderful vocal coach Rob Stevenson just to hone my technique and prevent strain.

So I’ll warm up at least an hour before a show, like kind of two sets of 30 minutes or more and then I’ll do like a warm down or a cool down after a show, so yeah, there’s a lot.

Then on a show day, I’ll drink three or four litres of water. I kind of treat it like I’m going in for a race, you know.

You’ve got a huge fanbase in Latin America. Have you ever considered recording a song in Spanish, or collaborating with Latin American artists? – Lucy Lucio, Mexico

I would love to explore that at some point or even the translating of some of my work or some of my songs. could be really rewarding. So, you never know, its something I’d love to look at.

Hello Andrew! What’s one feeling you’ve never been able to put into a song, no matter how many times you tried? And I just want to say thank you for your art. It’s my muse when I write or paint. – Maria Ibrahim, Iraq

I’ve attempted to write feelings around creative paralysis. There were some songs that I wrote during lockdown, during the pandemic that did not find their way to release because they were about this sense of stagnation. I think that’s one feeling that is very, very hard to execute compellingly.

I’ve not released them certainly, but the feeling of like a crushing depressive episode maybe also. There’s tons, I think writing about creative paralysis or a kind of writer’s block is maybe an interesting thing to do as a writer for yourself. Though I don’t know how enjoyable it would be to listen to.

Do you have a favourite word in the Irish language and what does it mean? – Mikayla Mason, Corvallis, Oregon

I have a good few. I think it’s such a a beautiful language in how it describes things in the natural world. I just heard the other day that there’s a word for the sound of wind or air whistling through a cove. That’s so wonderful to me, I believe the word was ‘stranach’. I love Bóín dé (ladybug) you know, “God’s little cow” and I’m seeing people celebrating these wonderful facets of the language more and more and I think it’s a wonderful thing.

Given everything happening in the world today, do you feel a responsibility to use your platform to speak out or make a difference? – Shirley Murphy, Cork

I think like a lot of people, like a lot of actors, musicians – I’ll paraphrase what Liam Cunningham said, which is, “I don’t want to find myself in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years time, when invariably hindsight changes views and people are asking all too late how was it that this genocide continued, that the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people continued, and we can’t pretend we didn’t know what was happening, or we say oh, yeah, we didn’t do anything.”

But your question asked about trying to make a dfference. There is a challenge in standing between one’s own horror, dread and outrage in what I’ve heard Gabor Maté refer to as a ‘moral injury’, that we as witnesses are experiencing, watching this inhumanity.

So there’s this personal feeling of outrage, but then also your desired outcome.

And so your question asks about making a difference and that’s the trickier part I feel is like, okay, well, what outcome do I want to see, and how could that be achieved?

You know, I was told we sold about a million tickets in the US tour for 2024. So I had a chance to speak to about a million US citizens on American soil in places like New York, Texas, Florida, East to West coast and all different walks of life and all different sorts of political inclinations, and to ask them to please contact their representatives, and to support a ceasefire and an end to the occupation and the violence that we were seeing on our screens. A night didn’t go by that I didn’t ask them to voice their compassion and their concern.

So, yeah, I do feel the responsibility. Even just to try and make a difference, that was the opportunity I had, to implore people and to do that to their faces, and it was an opportunity I was going to take. I still do it now night after night.

You’ve been very open on the influence of black music and art on your own music. How has black music and art influenced your activism? – Liberty Haynes, Cashel, Mayo, Ireland

So much of Ireland’s civil rights journey in the 60’s, and its own civil rights movement is owed to inspiration from the American civil rights movement.

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey has talked about how influential that civil rights movement was for their movement up North. I’m quite fascinated by how these struggles have been linked at times in the past, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass taking hope from the writings and petitionings of our celebrated emancipator Daniel O’Connell, for example before his travels over to Ireland to speak to crowds of supporters. From what he’s written about it, that act of Irish solidarity is one that seems to have been truly significant for that incredible man.

I’m also always fascinated by how Bernadette Devlin McAliskey described being honoured in New York, surrounded by wealthy Irish-Americans and other New Yorkers who weren’t as interested in her concerns about the commuities of other minorities being excluded or left behind in that city.

She described hearing the same things said about black communities in New York that she had spent a lifetime hearing about her own Catholic community in Northern Ireland, and after having been given the key to the city by the mayor, she went across town and gave it to the Panthers. I’m always fascinated by that story.

Which of your songs hurt the most to write, and which one healed you without you even realising it? – Osana Farias, Santiago del Estero, Argentina

I struggle with the word catharsis, but some songs feel like you are letting go of something or you’re bringing something up from the lake bed that you can finally air out, and maybe give a proper burial to or whatever.

Certain songs are super close to my heart. I listened back to ‘Swan Upon Leda’ recently and I had forgotten how personal that song felt to me, you know, or how much I needed to write that song.

What are your top four films? – Maddie Prentice, Westlake Village, USA

I really struggle with this. I remember falling in love with John Carpenter’s The Thing, I just love the animatronics, the model making in it, the slow cook of those tense scenes; also the soundtrack is just fantastic against it.

The Royal Tenenbaums was my first Wes Anderson film. I saw when I was a kid and it totally stole my heart.

Always loved The Departed, maybe that’s too predictable but thought that was a fantastic film.

Although I can’t think of a fourth favourite film I’m a huge Gary Oldman fan and I think he did a magnificent job in Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy. That was one I saw recently and really, really loved.

How are the bees doing, and how many do you have? If you’ve counted... – McKenzie Franco, Houston, USA

The bees are doing great, thank you. I think at the moment there are about four hives, four very healthy hives and I can take no credit for their upkeep this summer while I travel and tour, but neighbour and dear friend Quincey Fennelly has so kindly been keeping an eye on the bees and rescued a hive very recently. Which brought that to the fourth hive, but the bees are doing great, thanks.

Do you remember your favourite childhood toy? Do you still have it? – Rimma Rudakova, Kaliningrad, Russia

I don’t know if I remember my favourite childhood toy. I loved Lego, I probably spent more time building things in Lego than anything else and, yeah, that to me sticks out. I also remember having some great Star Wars figurines, all of which I’m a little bit sad to say went the route of a car boot sale at some point.

When I listen to your music, I feel as though I’m floating, and my chest opens like a flower blooming. What sensations do you experience in your body when you sing and connect with your own music? – Carolina Díaz, Santiago, Chile

Thank you so much, Carolina. I think for me, that feeling of being open or having some affecting emotional experience happens more for when the song is written or when it’s sort of stumbled upon, or when the idea is discovered for the first time.

Like when you have this idea and you sing it for the first time or you play it for the first time, that’s for me, this outrageous mix of excitement and again, to use that tricky word, catharsis, that’s really where that happens.

But it can happen on stage where you see somebody’s enjoyment of a song and it does reconnect you with what you loved originally about a song that you wrote.

The very first time I heard your voice on Radio Woodstock, I was so gobsmacked that I had to pull my car off the freeway because I literally lost my mind! I had never heard a more soulful voice in all my life and I was 58 at the time! Is there one artist that had the same effect on you? – Mary Zaslansky, Fishkill, New Jersey, USA

As I said earlier on, there’s a few voices that took my breath away when I first heard them, you know Nina Simone’s voice was one.

I can remember the first time hearing ‘Cosmic Love’ by Florence and the Machine, hearing her voice and that song and feeling like there was such an enormity in it, and being quite affected.

Hearing Nick Drake for the first time was something that was mesmerising to me, hearing ‘Riverman’ for the first time. I was stunned by that song.

Have you ever written something that felt too personal to release, something you’ve kept just for yourself? – Meriem, Algeria

Yes, absolutely. There’s a lot of stuff that I write that does not find it’s way to other people’s ears. That could be a poem that I’ve written for somebody I love or, you know, a song that’s been written for someone. Sometimes it is the case that you write something that just feels so niche to your own experience that sharing it feels dare I say, like, indulgent, you know

What book or collection of poetry by an Irish author should I read next to feel more connected to Ireland when I go back in a few years for my 40th birthday trip? – Harper Cottam, Arden

I love Dubliners by James Joyce and if you’re interested in the history and politics of early 20th century Ireland also, Portrait Of The Artist as A Young Man is a wonderful read. But Seamus Heaney’s poetry is just an ever giving kind of gift in my life for sure. I think I would start there.

Hey, Hozier! I had the opportunity to watch the two shows that you did in Brazil this year and I NEED to know what’s the cultural differences that you can notice when you play in different countries or even continents? – Karol Candida, Brazil

Thanks for coming! Everywhere is different and something that I really, really love, and this is just a surface thing but when the crowd sings a song at you to hear them sing in their distinct collective accent. That’s just a delight.

So we were in Canada in Quebec City recently and to hear it in that sort of French Canadian accent or in South America in a Brazilian accent or an Argentinian accent, it’s amazing.

That’s not even to mention that there’s just different energies and different chants, different ways that people express themselves in a crowd. But yeah, the accent thing is just such a delight.

Is there a lyric you’ve written that, even today, you still look at and think, “I don’t fully know where that came from?” And is there any super unexpected or even cheesy song that you love but would never admit until now? – Sabrina Cástela, Belo Horizonte, Brazil

There are lyrics that sometimes I look back at the first record, first album, I think wow that was very personal or very kind of starkly intimate or something where I wonder where I got the courage to put that down on paper. It’s like reading a journal or diary from years back, so I try forgive myself for being in my young 20s.

Like a cheesy song of somebody else’s that I love? There’s tons and I would admit to them. I can’t think of them now, but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a song that has a bit of cheese to it if it’s something that brings you joy.

What has been the biggest “this can’t be happening” moment of your career so far? – Rafaela Moreira, Porto Alegre, Brazil

I don’t know if you mean in a positive or a negative way. “This can’t be happening”... I do remember for Unreal Unearth – if I can share this and it’s not hopefully an indiscretion –I had signed thousands and thousands of those inner album sleeves, and then it was shared with me shortly afterwards that they had been couriered by the record company, but the courier company given the task ultimately lost them.

So they were either lost or stolen in the end and I had spent many a night, many a day, many a spare moment signing thousands upon thousands upon thousands of these things and then they were lost in transit or nicked and we resolved finally to just do it again.

So when you say this can’t be happening, that was this can’t be happening moment. But we did it, and got through it. It was fine.

I have a tattoo inspired by Wasteland, Baby! with your handwriting, the lyre of Orpheus, and Eurydice from the song ‘Talk’. I’d love to know — do you have any tattoos? – Gabriella Simoes, Sao Paulo, Brazil

I have two small tattoos in Latin, one which was given to me by the artist, writer and musician Stevie Appleby, a dear friend of mine, absolute wonderful human being with a stick and poke on my first tour. I came home, caught up with him and over a long night, we thought it was a good idea to go at me with a needle, thread and ink

It’s the last recorded words of Seamus Heaney “Noli timere”, “Don’t be afraid” that he texted his wife Marie Heaney before passing.

Then I have another one in Latin, which I got along with my brother and my father. Another phrase, “Sine qua non”, which means, “without this, nothing follows” It’s a Latin expression that sometimes is used in legal terms etc. We got that to honour my dad on his 60th birthday.

How do you feel about the Irish people protesting against migrants? – Laura Gutierrez, Bogota, Colombia

It makes me sad to see it, Irish people ourselves have such a history of emigration, especially in times of extreme hardship, or in fleeing colonial backed violence and starvation. I’m troubled to see how some of the poorest people on the planet have thrown at their feet the blame for so many deeply and truly serious problems which have been explicitly brought about by the most powerful, wealthiest people and institutions in the world.

Also to see how some Irish people, who would say they are proud of their ancestors’ anti-imperial activities, in some extreme cases choose to target the fleeing victims of horrendous modern day imperialisms, instead of showing resistance to the systems that continue to cause these issues.

I don’t have easy answers for a Hot Press questionnaire on this topic Laura, but I’d take these inches to encourage people to look at what’s going on in the world right now, and in the lives of people fleeing it and just try to empathise through an understanding of our own history and experience.

You’ve put your own spin on songs like Van Morrison’s ‘Sweet Thing’. Is there a particular cover that, when you first heard it, made you think “I could do something really special with this”? How do you approach making a cover feel like your own? – Mack Mettey, Cincinnati, USA

I think it’s just a case of sitting with a song that that moves you or you find beautiful and singing it in a way that feels your own.

Sometimes it’s fun to engage in a re-arranging of a song, but sometimes it’s just as simple as, like, bringing yourself to what you love about a song.

I am a high school English teacher from the US! Did you have any teachers who inspired you or encouraged you to pursue singing/songwriting? – Ally Gildersleeve, Ohio, USA

I was blessed in school to have members of faculty that really nurtured and offered space where kids could cultivate their musical skills or their talents or their interest in music.

So a big thank you to Miss Owens and Jackie Olahan, who created a number of opportunites in the year where students could perform music they had been working on. Stuff that they cared about be it like rock music or blues music in my case, so the performing of a song or the performing of your music to a crowd wasn’t as alien or strange as it might have been having not had those opportunites.

So I’m really grateful for that opportunity and the work they did in creating that space, creating that time for us.

The Spinc in Glendalough, Bray Head, Devil’s Glen which would be your walk of choice? – Lee, Gloucestershire, UK

I’ve done the The Spinc in Glendalough a number of times, love it, Devil’s Glen is beautiful. I think I’d do Bray Head, Though I heard that there was some sort of land collapse between Greystones and Bray Head. I don’t know if it’s still as passable but I’d do the walk from Greystones to Bray and finish up in the Harbour Bar for a pint.

I love the Spinc and Devil’s Glen, but you can’t really just walk to a pub at the end of it. Maybe you can, but I’d be far from home at the end of those pints, so there you go.

Do you own multiple pairs of white Converse or do you keep one pair scarily clean? – Zoe McCasland

fI keep one pair but it’s not as clean as you think. If you see from out in the audience or from photographs, it looks pretty tidy. But if you’d look up close, it’s covered in all sorts of stuff… ketchup, coffee stains.

I’m pretty hard on those shoes and I just try to give them a scrub, so I think generally the white Converse might last a year or so on the road and that might take a few washes. But the pair I’ve been wearing for the last, year and a half was just given to an organisation in Ottawa and will be auctioned to raise money for a local charity.

Would you ever be a guest judge on Drag Race? – Winter McCarthy, Cork

All I’ll say is, I don’t think I have the necessary qualifications to be a guest judge, kind as the thought is.

Mbeidh liricí as Gaeilge i do cheol arís amach anseo? Hearing the Irish lyrics in ‘De Selby’ really moved me, I have very limited Irish as I found it extremely hard to learn when I was younger. I have now slowly begun relearning the basics. – Aoife Rosser, Dublin

I would love to, I would love to explore that more. I’m super encouraged and I’m so grateful for artists like Kneecap who are bringing the Irish language to people or are offering a space and offering work that’s allowing people to approach the Irish language differently in a new way. In a way that’s youthful in its approach, in a way that is subversive, also in a way that is decolonial. I’m super grateful and excited about that. It is something that I’d love to explore more in the work down the line 100%.

Hozier headlines Electric Picnic on Friday, August 29.

Read the full Electric Picnic Special in the current issue of Hot Press, featuring cover star Hozier: