By Tom Lanham photo by Julia Johnson

t might not have swept over him like some Kokusai-impressive wave . But Irish folkrocker Andrew Hozier-Byrne – who records and performs as simply Hozier – has been caught in the subtle currents of spiritual change since he turned 33 this March . It ’ s the fabled Christ age , when your proper career trajectory is clearly revealed to you , giving you a crucial choice to follow it or not . “ I feel that happening , I do , and I feel very good ,” the blues-schooled “ Take Me to Church ” singer says , and it ’ s a concept perfectly exemplified on his majestic new “ Unreal Unearth ” album , his third , as well as his recent introductory EP Eat Your Young . “ And I think there ’ s a lot of stuff exorcised on it , a lot of stuff that ’ s very personal , and there ’ s some stuff that I ’ m finally just sitting and coming to peace with and then letting go of .”

And it ’ s a sea change you can veritably chart , song by carefully-plotted song , over the sixteen generous tracks of Unreal Unearth , beginning with its dual literary-inspired openers , “ De Selby ( Part1 )” and “ De Selby ( Part 2 ),” which starts out Gaelic but quickly tumbles into a tub-thumping R & B rhythm . The serpentine thematic path then wends through the jangling “ First Time ,” an acrobatic-voiced “ Francesca ,” the skeletal , string-enhanced ballad “ I , Carrion ” ( based on the myth of Icarus ), a falsetto-funky “ Eat Your Young ,” and the ethereal “ Son of Nyx ,” wherein Hozier ’ s voice itself acts as a symphonic instrument . And that ’ s just the first half of the magnum opus ; It then segues into a soul-stirring “ All Things End ,” the Gaelic-language-inspired piano etude “ To Someone from a Warmer Climate ( Uiscefhuaraithe ),” then a

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somber keyboard dirge called “ Butchered Tongue ,” a sonically-complex “ Anything But ,” the blues-beefy “ Unknown ,” and a twinkling , monastic-reverent closer , “ First Light , which builds to a gorgeous crescendo . What does it all mean ? First , Hozier has to paint an appropriately dark pandemic backdrop , how the world closed in on him during the lockdown in his provincial Irish hometown of Wicklow .

“ It was a difficult time , and I was on my own , just contending with all of the challenging things that you find the ability not to tackle when you ’ re busy , or you ’ re touring ,” sighs Hozier . But I think it ’ s that thing of , when you finally step off the hamster wheel , you ’ re kind of forced to sit in the corner and have a look around whatever space you ’ re in , you know ? So I had to do some serious reflecting then , but now , on the far side of it , I feel infinitely more attuned with the much larger natural world as a result .” In the interim , he also found time to issue the 2022 protest single “ Swan Upon Leda ” ( as Roe v Wade was tragically overturned in America ); contribute “ Blood Upon the Snow ” to Bear McCreary ’ s God of War : Ragnarok video game soundtrack ; donate royalties from his police-violence addressing single “ Jackboot Jump ” single to the Black Lives Matter Movement and NAACP . With Saoirse Ronan and Glen Hansard , he is also part of an Irish charity organization called Home Sweet Home , so he has admittedly been blessed with his fair share of artistic distractions . But he ’ s also happy to break it all down for fans , so they can surf this revitalizing new wave of change alongside him .

IE : What is your relationship with water as an

element ? And you ’ re also a Pisces . But water is somehow in almost every song on the new album . HOZIER : Yes . Yes , I guess it is . There is a lot of reflection on it . Uhh , no pun intended ! But actually , really , I always really loved water , and even as a child , my mother said I was very hard to get out of it . So I ’ ve always found it comforting , very calming . And obviously , coming from Ireland , the stuff kind of falls from the sky a great deal , and it ’ s very often part of the landscape , with 250 days of rain potentially a year . But I think during the pandemic , I was swimming in the sea a lot . At least once a week – even through the winter , because it ’ s a very different experience during the winter – I would meet with my school friends , my childhood friends , and we would get in the sea every … let ’ s say Friday morning . And in winter , in particular , you would catch the sunrise , but it was a time of … I dunno . That experience of swimming in the sea is a challenge when it ’ s so cold , but there ’ s a wonderful feeling where you can ’ t help but reflect on being a very , very small thing in a very , very big thing . And it was a very joyful kind of time , where you could catch up with friends in the pandemic . So yeah , I was spending a lot of time by the sea , either walking by the sea – because in lockdown , for anybody living by the coastline , that was the safest place to walk . So I was spending a lot of time by the water , and with water , or in water .

IE : Which brings up this question , of course – have you ever had a close call or scare in or on the water ? HOZIER : I think there have been moments

where you know that you ’ re out of your depth . There was one winter morning where myself and my buddies met , and we had no business in the water ; we really did not . Even in the little seaside town where we would swim , sometimes there would be two helicopter rescues a week during that winter . But the one morning that we got in , the waves were … well , I remember just bobbing on an enormous wave and looking down at the beach that was only a few feet away from me – it was crazy . And being out there with friends ? I ’ ve had moments where I ’ ve felt like an insect on a bedsheet that had just been wrung out , just been tossed , of feeling very , very tiny and like you ’ re no longer in control . But I always know when to call it quits , but this time there was a moment when I was in the water that gave me a whole new respect , I would say , for the water , for the sea .

IE : I wonder if something in a past life connects you to all this . Have you ever had a regression ? HOZIER : I have never had a clear regression or anything I could describe as such . But I will say that I ’ m not sure if it ’ s from being raised on an island and always knowing which way the ocean is because from there , I always know which way east , south , north , and west is . But for me , when I ’ m too long away from the sea , or if I don ’ t know in what direction the water is , or a large body of water is , I do become slightly disoriented , and a little bit irritated , a little bit restless . So I think having a large body of water nearby , and preferably the sea , is definitely something I feel better with . continues on page 22