In A Week is our look back at Hozier highlights and happenings from the previous week. This edition covers a two-week period.
News
Prince
Prince’s death on April 21st caused disbelief and shock for Hozier and his band mates.
Words fail with a loss of this magnitude. Prince was a rare genius, & despite news reports will absolutely live forever. Thanks for the joy
— Hozier (@Hozier) April 21, 2016
Alana named her new cello, Princello, in Prince’s honour.
So sad to hear this news #RIPPrince https://t.co/fawLWqP9vY
— Mia Fitz (@MiaFitzMusic) April 21, 2016
Alex mentioned one of his favourite Prince tracks.
‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’, man. Ain’t gonna be a party without that one.
Prince – I Wanna Be Your Lover (Official Video) by Prince-Official
Causes
Before leaving the USA recently, Hozier reminded us about Cherry Wine fundraising efforts. #FaceUpToDomesticViolence
Bye again, America! Reminder that all US @iTunes download proceeds go towards @NCADV, help combat domestic violence https://t.co/744DQAfp7P
— Hozier (@Hozier) April 19, 2016
Llamau is auctioning an original Hozier sketch as part of its fundraising campaign to help young people and vulnerable women facing homelessness across Wales. The Celebrity Illustrating Homelessness event will be on May 16, 2016 in Cardiff, but you can bid on the sketch in advance (by May 12.) Here’s how.
 Chart News
Arsonist’s Lullabye topped The Hollywood Reporter’s Top TV Songs chart for March after it appeared on the March 6 episode of The Walking Dead. The chart is calculated on Shazam tags and streaming information from Neilson Music.
Along with its 305,000 Shazam tags, “Lullabye” garnered 21,000 downloads and 1.4 million U.S. streams in March, according to Nielsen Music. The song sold 9,000 downloads in the first tracking week after the episode aired (ending March 10), marking a 3,074 percent gain in sales and its best sales week.
Appearances
Tracks of My Years
MORNING! @Hozier is choosing the #TracksofMyYears with @realkenbruce this week + #PopMaster! pic.twitter.com/kY5istXrs7
— BBC Radio 2 (@BBCRadio2) April 25, 2016
Hozier  picked 2 songs a day and had a little chat in between on each of 5 episodes of Tracks of My Years. Recorded last December, these segments are available to listen back in full on BBC iPlayer for 30 days. You can catch Hozier’s segment around the 2:10:00 mark each day. Or, you can hear all of his selections in this handy Spotify playlist we made for you!
Dublin Music Shops
Hozier stopped by X Music while Musicmaker reminisced about their long friendship.
Zaska Single Launch
Hozier’s old friend Max Zaska hosted his single launch at The Sugar Club in Dublin on April 23. The day before the launch Hozier posted about how much fun he had playing with and watching Zaska.
Current and past members of Zaska’s jazz-funk ensemble took the stage to perform an encore of Lauryn Hill’s Doo Wop (That Thing). We call this ferocious supergroup the #zasquad. On vocals: Hozier, Karen Cowley (Wyvern Lingo), Jess Kavanagh (BARQ) and Keith Fennell, with Tommy Gray (drums) and Neil Dorrington (bass), both from BARQ. Rounding out the band were Paul Kiernan (trumpet), Oisin Murtagh (saxophone) and Mark Flynn (piano).
There was so much joy on that stage that there was major FOMO from friends who were away. There’s a second video here and you can see more about the Zaska single launch in the Friends section.
@JessNoelleSoul just a man who knows a load of really sweet musicians:) love you all â¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸
— ZASKA (@zaskamusic) April 24, 2016
Band Projects
Rory Doyle with Bell X1
Rory was back behind his drum kit for Bell X1’s appearance at Vicar Street in Dublin.
Life
Hozier returned to Dublin where rabbits became a recurring theme.
A sweet sight to be met with on arrival. Brisk orange morning, rabbits playing on the runway #wudjalook
— Hozier (@Hozier) April 19, 2016
Dublin airport runways’ grassy verges are home to many rabbits. Singer James Vincent McMorrow was concerned for their well-being and Hozier painted their doom, prompting us to compose a haiku.
Later, Hozier took in Lake Street Dive at Whelan’s, at once complimenting them and casting dark clouds over pet rabbits.
If @lakestreetdive were a box of some kind, your pet rabbit would suffocate. Air. Tight. pic.twitter.com/BPHNa8yXfu
— Hozier (@Hozier) April 28, 2016
Hozier has been a fan of Lake Street Dive for some time, sharing their cover of I Want You Back and gushing over their live performance. It’s fantastic that he’s at home and able to catch them live once again.
Rory Doyle and Hozier made the journey to Kerry to visit Alex Ryan. It’s great to see them together again!
Thanks to @alexryanbass & @Hozier & Rory for dropping in last night. We hope ye enjoyed the pints! pic.twitter.com/ubjlAG76V9
— Florry Batts Bar (@FlorryBatts) April 27, 2016
Alana Henderson continued her writing retreat at the Tyrone Guthrie centre, improvising a vocal booth with a cello case and discovering piano.
Lorraine Barnes stretched more than her creativity over the last fortnight.
@LorraineBarnesL oh I'm hurting today đŁ did a combat class yesterday, now the pain is kicking in âşď¸âşď¸.ouchhhh
— Lorraine Barnes (@lorenguerra5) April 20, 2016
Mia Fitzgerald was still in Los Angeles and was working on writing new music.
Rachael Lampa gave a vocal master class in Nashville and took her tiny hands fishing.
Friends
Pure M has opened nominations for your favourite Irish artists. Although this is not a voting competition, the Pure M Awards team looks at your nominations. So, if you follow Hozier’s Friends, why not show them some support?
Zaska
Zaska released the video for the Got to Go single on April 18. It was shot and edited by Patrick Ryan of Lagoon Pictures and features the song’s vocalists Keith Fennell and Nicola Hegarty. The drummer on this track is Dylan Lynch from Little Green Cars, who, like Hozier and Karen Cowley, has played with Zaska in the past.
Zaska and pals brought the funk to the single launch at The Sugar Club on April 23 to fantastic reviews.
Itâs rather difficult to properly examine what we had just seen, other than saying it was the funkiest, most professional and ultimately, the funnest gig of the past year. Max Zaska should be a very proud man right about now.
Zaska and company closed their set with a cover of Prince’s Kiss before their incredible reunion encore. Zaska will be headlining Down With Jazz on June 1.
A #Prince tribute. The purple one would be proud.@zaskamusic @sugarclubdublin pic.twitter.com/H9m4vsJ1nu
— Independent Ents (@IndoEnts) April 23, 2016
Little Green Cars
Over the last two weeks, Little Green Cars have played 11 shows, moving up the US east coast, into Canada, and then back down into Ohio. Life on the road has brought them surprises, a stint as guest DJs and illness. They have had great responses from audiences and, for some, life got better as a result.
The band channelled an emotional performance of The Factory in Boston in tribute to their friend Katie Farrell who recently passed away.
Adam O’Regan from Little Green Cars previously produced the videos for The Song They Play Every Night and Easier Day.Â
This time, Adam co-directed, edited and filmed the lush video for They’re Cutting Down The Old Oak Tree by Bleeding Heart Pigeons which was released on April 21.
Wyvern Lingo
Wyvern Lingo played a set at LinkedIn Live Lounge, are back in studio working on demos and announced a date for Interlude Fest this June. Coming up this week, Wyvern Lingo are excited to be opening for one of their favourite bands, Hiatus Kaiyote.
.@WyvernLingo are bloody great live. That is all. pic.twitter.com/iylxenZViv
— Aaron Casey (@AzzaBagdad) April 22, 2016
Saint Sister
Madrid has over 100k streams on Spotify, Blood Moon was used in a BBC documentary on Greece’s migrant children, and Saint Sister returned to Dingle to play St. James’ Church again and drop into the South Wind Blows. Harpist Gemma Doherty celebrated her birthday and they announced they’d be playing The Great Escape festival.
Back in magical Dingle. Tonight we play in the beautiful St. James' Church as part of Feile Na Bealtaine. pic.twitter.com/pITF0MtGYW
— Saint Sister (@Saint_Sister_) April 30, 2016
BARQ
Three-quarters of BARQ were on stage for the Zaska single release. These past two weeks also saw them in RTà studio with Dan Hegarty performing Gentle Kind of Lies, and announcements for Saturday at Longitude and the Carlow Arts Festival in June.
Happening now in #Studio8: @BARQ_music recording 'Gentle Kind Of Lies' pic.twitter.com/h74IAJQnU3
— Dan Hegarty (@talldanhegarty) April 28, 2016
Ruby Amanfu
Hozier tour backing vocalist, Ruby Amanfu is featured alongside Jack White (they have collaborated before) on Don’t Hurt Yourself off BeyoncĂŠ’s latest album, Lemonade, that was released on April 23. Billboard had a chat with Ruby about the experience and she caught up with Mia Fitzgerald in Los Angeles this past week.
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Featured image: Jessie Dormer
Omg that was great – love reading about what Andrew, the band and his friends are doing! Thank you HG
So glad you liked it! Thanks for stopping by.