I didn't even have that many close LGBT friends or anything like that, but I suppose it was growing up and becoming aware of how you are in a cultural landscape that is blatantly homophobic... you turn around and say, 'Why did I grow up in a homophobic place? Why did I grow up in a misogynistic place?'

Hozier

Categorized in : You Place Grow Friends

All you have is your fire by Hozier

All you have is your fire

demon fire needs

There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin by Hozier

There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin

innocence gentle sin

I found the experience of falling in love or being in love was a death, a death of everything. You kind of watch yourself die in a wonderful way, and you experience for the briefest moment – if you see yourself for a moment through their eyes – everything you believed about yourself gone. In a death-and-rebirth sense.

being-in-love falling-in-love eye

The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity... by Hozier

The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love.

acts-of-love humanity song

Art and music are the vehicle for the zeitgeist. by Hozier

Art and music are the vehicle for the zeitgeist.

art-and-music zeitgeist art

I think humans are driven by othering people, by defining themselves by who they are not and who is different from them. Human beings are in love with othering.

different people thinking

No masters or kings when the ritual begins [making love] by Hozier

No masters or kings when the ritual begins [making love]

soil making-love kings

Will there be a time when equality will exist? I think given human nature there will always be conflict.

conflict human-nature thinking

When I write songs, I try to remove myself a little bit. Obviously they're very personal to me, but it feels easier if I feel like I'm writing characters.

writing song character

The song, to me, is about what it is to be a human, what it is to love someone as a human being, and organizations that would undermine that, and undermine the more natural parts of being a person

organization natural song

Sexuality, and sexual orientation - regardless of orientation - is just natural. An act of sex is one of the most human things. But an organization like the church, say, through its doctrine, would undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation - that it is sinful, or that it offends God. The song is about asserting yourself and reclaiming your humanity through an act of love.

teaching song sex

Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life. by Hozier

Offer me that deathless death Good God, let me give you my life.

good-god let-me giving

The church is an organisation that institutionalises an aversion to homosexuality, it institutionalises gender inequality and it speaks from a place of teaching people being ashamed of their sexuality.

church teaching people

I am a politically motivated person, and that will come through in the music. I'm not sure if every song will be Take Me to Church, but I can only hope that people enjoy the body of work that I have ahead of me.

church song people

Sexuality, and sexual orientation - regardless of orientation - is just natural. An act of sex is one of the most human things.

humans natural sex

From Eden is spoken from the Devil's point of view. I always loved in blues music how the Devil can be a character who walks and talks. So awful is your state that it seems to be a presence around you. I don't really spend time thinking about the nature of God but I'm interested in what people say about God, how it is used to control people and change policies in the physical realm.

eden character thinking

I think if more people would understand how simple and what really feminism is, I would imagine that most men I know are feminists without verbalising or saying so.

simple men thinking

I am absolutely behind equal rights but I am also bridging the gap between cultural mentality and society's mindset as there are huge amount of gaps that need to be addressed and progress needs to be made. Yeah I am a feminist, it is not a difficult thing to explain.

progress feminist rights

By nature, I'm an awkward person; I'm a gangly introvert. by Hozier

By nature, I'm an awkward person; I'm a gangly introvert.

person introvert awkward nature

You grow up and recognize that in any educated secular society, there's no excuse for ignorance. You have to recognize in yourself, and challenge yourself, that if you see racism or homophobia or misogyny in a secular society, as a member of that society, you should challenge it. You owe it to the betterment of society.

yourself you society racism