Hozier boost for Hudson Taylor in US

Hudson Taylor have revealed how supporting Hozier on his US tour has boosted their fanbase stateside.

The Dublin duo, made up of brothers Harry and Alfie Hudsontaylor, are fresh from a lengthy tour around North America with the Nina Cried Power hitmaker.

Speaking to The Beat, Harry described the experience of performing to sold out crowds every night as “surreal” and compared it to the band’s early days of busking on the streets of Dublin.

Harry said: “It was amazing. Hozier, obviously, is a really great and amazingly well respected artist.

“He had a whole sell out tour in America and it was all sold out before we were announced, so we were on this tour basically playing to crowds of two or three thousand people every night all over Canada and the States.

“Not many people knew us because they wouldn’t… It was a great opportunity to play to an audience who have never hear you before.

“It was pretty much like busking. No one really cares or is there to see you but you do your absolute damn best to try and make sure they enjoy it or at least feel warmed up and ready for Hozier.

“We had a really good reception, very happy with it.”

Along with getting crowds going for Hozier, the songwriting siblings also played their own tour dates around the States.

Harry admitted that working with Hozier certainly helped their ticket sales.

“It is very surreal because it’s a brand new audience. We’ve played that sort of size audience ourselves, it’d be like the Olympia here,” he said.

“We’ve done our own Olympia shows but to go to another country and play to very receptive audiences, it’s insane.

“In some of the cities, we would do Hozier’s show and then we would play our own show.

“Our own shows were doing already before the Hozier ones, but when we started doing his shows our’s would sell out.”

The brothers are back on home soil for now but are about to set off on a European and UK tour for the whole month.

They’ll finish their string of gigs with six dates in Whelans from December 17 to 22 - all of which have already sold out.

Harry and Alfie will finish off the year by joining Gavin James, Wild Youth and Inhaler in performing at the 3Countdown Concert on New Year’s Eve, which is part of the New Year’s Festival Dublin.

This is the second year the annual gig will be held at Custom House Quay, where thousands will gather to ring in 2019.

Harry said he had fond memories of celebrating the new year at the festival in the past.

“They used to do it in College Green and we used to go to it all the time, me and my brother and our friends… It’s something to do on new years,” he said.

“I remember last year hearing it was going to change to the Custom House Quay and thinking it was a bit weird.

“I thought it was going to be really cold and exposed, and it was, but no more than College Green.

“We played at it last year and had a great time with Kodaline, it’s really nice to be asked back again to do it this year.”

ltickets for the 3Countdown concert are priced at €29.90 and go on sale on November 5.