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
HozierFrom 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.
HozierI 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.
HozierThe 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.
HozierI 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.
HozierWill there be a time when equality will exist? I think given human nature there will always be conflict.
HozierSexuality, and sexual orientation - regardless of orientation - is just natural. An act of sex is one of the most human things.
HozierI 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.
HozierWhen 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.
HozierI 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.
HozierI 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.
HozierSexuality, 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.
Hozier