2015 has been a very good year for Hozier. This songwriter, whose lyrics are as good as poetry and whose chord structures are orchestral, almost cinematic, truly stands above his peers in his musical genre at the moment. His voice is infused with a spiritual passion and an almost longing, as in gospel and blues music. Hozier, whose full name is Andrew Hozier-Byrne, is a multi-instrumentalist whose way with words and sense of romance can really put you under a magic thrall. His songs often incorporate vivid imagery, and deals with intense emotions. This is all the more impressive when one considers the fact that he is only 23 years old. He was raised in a musical family, and studied music briefly at Trinity College in Dublin. He actually never completed his studies because his musical career took off. As an adolescent he listened to a lot of American blues and jazz music. “I was always drawn to singers with something haunting about their voices. The same goes for writers such as James Joyce and Oscar Wilde. You can’t define what it is, but it buries itself deep in your soul,” the young artist reports. It is easy to see how these giant works of literature have influenced Hozier’s own style. His performance at Bonnaroo was exceptionally good.
