And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #277: Hozier v Chilly Gonzales

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 9 October 2015

Musicians being accused of ripping off other musicians is nothing new. It’s a tale as old as time. The first amoeba to crawl up onto the land only did so to complain that another had stolen a song from it. Sometimes these claims go to court and damages are awarded. Will.i.am prefers to settle out of court. And this dispute was settled in an altogether more gentlemanly manner.

Yeah, that’s right, this beef was actually resolved this week. Does that count? Fuck it, it counts. Chilly Gonzales has publicly apologised to Hozier, after the former suggested that the latter’s tedious 2014 hit ‘Take Me To Church’ ripped off Feist’s ‘How Come You Never Go There’, which was released in 2011, and which he played on.

Gonzales made the claim in the latest of his excellent ‘Pop Music Masterclass’ videos on YouTube, in which he deconstructs pop songs. In the now deleted clip, he said that it was “a crazy coincidence that my good friend and musical little sister Feist with her song ‘How Come You Never Go There’ had the exact same idea to use those chords and that slow triple time as Hozier”. Cheeky.

But Gonzales has now seen the error of his ways, and declared on Facebook: “I would like to fully retract any and all implication of copyright infringement in last week’s Pop Music Masterclass ‘Take Me To Church’ and sincerely apologise to Hozier whose work I respect”.

There had been reports that Hozier was considering legal action, like a big humourless jerk. However, this was not the case, he said in his own Facebook post: “There has been some talk in the press of legal action and I’d like to clarify my position and the goings-on of the past week for fear that gossip runs unchecked, as it often does”.

“What was sought from my end was an apology and redaction of an unfair inferral”, he continued, like a big humourless jerk. Although any “unfair inferral” was clearly his own fault. The unfair implication was possibly Gonzales’s responsibility.

Having seen the apology and checked the redaction, Hozier said he was appreciative, and of Gonzales he committed to “continue to follow and respect his work and look forward to moving on from this issue”.

So there you go. Let’s watch Gonzales’ deconstruction of ‘Shake It Off’, in which no one is accused of theft: