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
song writing hands
Keeping the pen out of your hand as much as possible is the best way to write a song, in my estimation. But the pen must come in to tighten it up.
morning coffee writing
The muse holds no appointments. You can never call on it. I don't understand people who get up at 9 o'clock in the morning, put on the coffee and sit down to write.
wall writing wearing-black
I grew up wearing black arm-bands when the hunger strikers died. I went on those marches. I grew up basically a Provo, though I never obviously got into any activities. I was writing 'IRA, Brits out' on walls all over where I grew up, but that was a false sense of Irishness.
song writing people
There are people who can sit down and write a song about any given subject, and they can do it really, really well.
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.
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?
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.