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Zed Recommends: Hozier on Song Exploder

I have been listening to Hozier’s 2019 album Wasteland, Baby over and over. It’s been a while since I have been into an album start to finish — usually, I get into songs, and make playlists, or sometimes put the entire catalogue of an artist on shuffle, but albums are less common. This one, though, still has me on the edge of my seat.

You probably know Hozier as the guy who sang “Take Me To Church,” still an incredible song (though I don’t know about you, but it was definitely overplayed in my life, as it was such a hit). I love that

I think it was the song “Shrike” that got me first. I couldn’t tell what he was singing, so I looked up the lyrics: “Remember me, love / When I’m reborn / As a shrike to your sharp / And glorious thorn.” Turns out, a shrike is a bird — well, more of a family of birds, about 30 different kinds.

As I was waxing poetic to a friend about how much I love Wasteland, Baby, a friend recently asked if I’d heard the podcast Song Exploder. No, I hadn’t, I said. They recommended the episode about Hozier’s song “Nina Cried Power” — and I thought it was just incredible.

“Nina Cried Power” is a protest song in a lineage of protest songs, and it did feel, I’ll admit, a little heavy handed. It’s the first track on the album, and I often skipped it when I put it on. Not after this interview, though.

The interview includes discussion from Hozier about how the song was written and how it came together, and an interview with Mavis Staples, who sings on the song as well. I loved hearing her words and interpretations of the song.

Hozier shared that the whole song started with the opening line, “It’s not the waking / it’s the rising” — and oh, I just love his songwriting. I love focusing on the rising — which calls to mind the idea of “rising up,” for me, immediately — and not just waking. Both in activism, and even with the beginning of a day — it’s not the moment you open your eyes, he says, it’s when you get out of bed.

I loved listening to this interview, and hearing the depths of how the song came together and was made. And now I listen to that song much more deeply than I did before. I never skip over this track any more.

Here’s the video for the song, via YouTube:

Listen to Hozier’s “Nina Cried Power” episode on Song Exploder on their website, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

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Get to Know EroSomatics: Interview with Max

Who are you and what are you passionate about? What is your calling or work in the world?

I am a learner, a seeker, someone who is always curious – curious about myself, the present moment, and the world. I am passionate about learning and joy. And to me, as a Black trans man, the joy of those who have been oppressed is itself revolutionary.  To create the conditions for more joy for us means the world has to change.

Who have you learned from? What are your lineages?

One of my most important lineages is the lineage of scientific inquiry. My Buddhist practice is in the Vipassana/Thai Forest Tradition, and I learned from many teachers in that tradition. I have a long Authentic Movement practice, primarily working with Lysa Castro. I’m learning classical Tantra from Mark Fleming. I have also learned from a wide variety of other teachers, including the Earth.

What inspires you (to keep going, to do your work, to get out of bed in the morning)?

The deep quiet of where I live is probably what makes it possible for me to get out of bed every morning. Greeting the day hearing almost nothing but birds and frogs, and drips of fog falling from leaves on the trees. I am inspired by how incredibly robust and insistent life is – how it pops up in so many places. What also inspires me is seeing other people live their best authentic lives.

What are you most excited about for EroSomatics? Why are you part of EroSomatics? What do you hope we’ll do, change, accomplish?

I am super excited to be a part of the EroSomatics team. Joy and pleasure are revolutionary, and learning about our bodies, and how to live fully in our bodies, learning all that our bodies have to teach us – this is so important to me, and it’s central to what we’ll be doing. I want us to create spaces where everyone, regardless of race, class, ability, gender, sexuality, or neurodivergence, can deeply explore, know and live in their bodies, explore what the erotic and sensual mean to them, and find pleasure and joy.

I’m also especially excited about the intentionality with which we are working to be inclusive, and our own understanding that our conscious work together can create change.

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Get to Know EroSomatics: Interview with Tru

Who are you and what are you passionate about? What is your calling or work in the world?

I’m Tru and I use she/they pronouns.  It’s always been a little hard for me to answer the question “who are you” perhaps because I feel so multi-dimensional and inhabit many “roles” in various parts of my life.  I’m also a shape-shifter in some ways (a skill learned first for survival and now used for my own pleasure).  Or maybe I’m just overthinking the question.  One of my passions and callings is cultivating more connection and intimacy, not just with other people, but with our own body and soul, with the earth, with the divine, with death.  I believe the more connected we our to our bodies, the more access we have to our aliveness, to be full-spectrum human beings, which includes everything — joy, grief, loneliness, longing.  I believe embodiment heals and the more connected we are to our bodies, the less we are able to dehumanize others.

Who have you learned from? What are your lineages?

I have learned from so many amazing teachers.  But one of my greatest teachers was my first real love, who I met during my first year of law school.  He was born with cystic fibrosis, received a double lung transplant on Sept. 3, 2001, and lived for 10 more years after that, eventually dying at the age of 43.  He taught me breath is sacred.  He taught me how to live.   

What inspires you (to keep going, to do your work, to get out of bed in the morning)?

I’m not much of a morning, get out of bed person, but I do love breakfast.  I love food and eating and waking up to a good breakfast.  What inspires to keep going and to do my work is the belief that what we do matters.  Transformation happens, usually in microscopic ways, but it does happen and it does matter.

What are you most excited about for EroSomatics? Why are you part of EroSomatics? What do you hope we’ll do, change, accomplish?

I’m most excited about working and playing with such an amazing group of humans that make up the collective.  I hope this group brings nourishment to each other so we can each continue doing our work and I hope as a collective we provide offerings that support and nourish others in their “becoming.”  One of my teachers once said as teachers what we offer students is simply to “love them into being.”