Music
Ticketmaster meets… Hozier
Andrew Hozier-Byrne, better known as just Hozier, is an Irish musician who’s single ‘Take Me To Church’ has already racked up more than seven million views on YouTube. We got a chance to catch up with him before his performance on the Festival Republic Stage at Reading Festival.
What was your first festival?
My first festival was Oxygen in 2008 or 2009, when I was 16, so actually it might have been earlier that.. anyway it was great! Yeah I was 16 years old and, if it wasn’t that year it was the following, that I got to see James Brown before he passed away which was fantastic.
It was early Arctic Monkeys, back to back with The Strokes, back to back with I think The Who played that night, it was amazing! That was a fantastic line up, and another one of those years was Kings of Leon, circa early Because of the Times, so that was also a great year.
Who would be your ideal festival line-up?
For a current festival that was pretty ideal! If I could go older, I’d probably go to something like Newport folk festival 1964. You would have had people like Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Bob Dylan would have been playing so you could catch some fantastic acts there. But if we’re talking dead acts then I could go on forever, Nina Simone headlining, maybe David Bowie comes in for a few songs as well… If it was a time travel affair – that would be great!
Do you have any festival essentials?
Pack light and bring wet wipes. Things that you can freshen yourself up with when you can’t necessarily actually wash yourself!
How does today compare to your other festival experiences this year?
I was lucky enough to perform at Glastonbury earlier this year and they’re very different festivals, but I’ve never actually been to Reading Festival before so I don’t know – I’ve never played it!
Glastonbury was a bit of a nervous one for me. At the time it was the biggest crowd I’d ever played to so I was quite shaken by that, but I’m looking forward to today. Every time is different but I’m really liking the atmosphere here today and it seems like a great crowd.
So what’s next for you after this?
Well I’m going to have lunch… (laughs). No really I’m going home. I have a few days at home, then in September I go to America for a six week tour and I’ll be doing a lot more touring up until the album comes out on 6 October
Hozier’s new single ‘Take Me To Church’ is released on 15th September and his febut album ‘Hozier’ is released on 6th October.
He plays London’s Koko 17 September – tickets available here
