Glen Hansard

Glen Hansard
Glen Hansard is an Irish songwriter, actor, vocalist and guitarist for Irish group The Frames, and one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season. He is also known for his acting, having appeared in the BAFTA-winning film The Commitments, as well as starring in the film Once, which earned him a number of major awards, including an Academy Award for Best Song...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth21 April 1970
CountryIreland
thinking class issues
I think it's very interesting, people who can't stand people who whinge and whine. It seems almost like a class issue. Because you think about who is the most positive, who's the most redemptive songwriter that's ever existed in your lifetime?
thinking snob pens
What happens to us all, I think, when we pick up a pen, is that we just become snobs.
sadness thinking artist
Sadness is a very interesting idea, this idea of sadness being some kind of default setting that artists will go into. And then I started thinking about this idea of sadness and happiness, and the idea that sadness is very loud, and happiness is quiet.
art selfish thinking
I think ultimately, people are selfish in that department [blues], in a good way - the reason we're attracted to art is because it somehow reflects us. And I think, ultimately, we're a tribal people by nature. We're not individualistic. We almost like to hear that there's other people in a worse state than us. Sometimes even more than we like hearing there are people in better states than us.
live-life writing thinking
I think inside every rock journalist, there's somebody who wishes they had the courage to live the life that they're not, and that they're writing about. But at the same time, inside every songwriter, I guess there's a wish for happiness.
hope paper sending someday
You keep sending out these little paper boats, and hope that someday one will come back laden with gold.
dublin falls guy love playing songs street writes
Well, playing a guy who writes songs and busks on Grafton Street in Dublin and falls in love with Marketa Irglova wasn't very difficult for me. There was very little acting going on.
feeling good great life musicians somehow therefore weird
This weird thing that musicians have... it's got something to do with approval, and not feeling good enough, and therefore going out and being great somehow makes your life valid.
artistic bar classic cooking home life local planting super
My life at home is super simple. My local bar with my mates, cooking for my mother, making tables, planting vegetables: It's the classic idea of the artistic existence.
office another-day ships
If you don't mark your successes, the day your ship comes in could be just another day at the office, and there's no poetry in that.
powerful imagination path
Our imagination it is our greatest ally . . . Imagination is a very, very powerful thing. It literally invents the path before you.
music song rest-of-your-life
A song is like a saddle: you ride it for a while, and if it's the right kind of song you can sing it for the rest of your life.
song self play
As a busker, one thing that does not work is self-consciousness. A busker needs to be working. A busker needs to shed all ego and get down to work. Play your songs, play them well, earn your money, and don't get in people's way.
song moving finding-yourself
Certain songs have a life, and certain songs don't. A song is like a saddle: you ride it for a while, and if it's the right kind of song you can sing it for the rest of your life. And then other songs are only really important for certain periods of your life, and you move on from them and find yourself not necessarily needing to sing them anymore.