Episode 316 - Glen Hansard
4/24/202649 min
Acclaimed Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard joins Simon and Brian to discuss his new live retrospective Don't Settle (Vol. 1 - Transmissions East) and his creative life. The Oscar-winning artist talks about writing songs that have a beating heart, why music should be both messy and true, but never clever, and the liberating experience of burning his notebooks.
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First 90 secondsBrian· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hello there, and welcome to Soda Jaker on Songwriting. Brian and Simon here, and joining us for episode 316 is an acclaimed Oscar-winning Irish singer-songwriter known not only for his fine solo work, but also as frontman of influential rock band The Frames, and one half of folk duo The Swell Season.
Simon· Host0:35
The Dubliner's brand new album, Don't Settle Vol. 1: Transmissions East, recorded live in Berlin in the spring of 2025, sees him revisit songs written under all of those musical guises from a catalog spanning well over three decades. We're delighted to welcome the excellent Glen Hansard to the show.
Brian· Host0:52
Glen was born in 1970, the second of four kids, and grew up in Ballymun on the outskirts of Dublin. As a kid, he was exposed to a lot of traditional Irish music and rebel songs before the life-changing moment he was bestowed with a cassette copy of More Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits by his girlfriend's brother. He spent the next couple of years shut away in his bedroom, playing Dylan songs on his uncle's guitar and drawing further inspiration from the likes of Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, and Fairport Convention.
Simon· Host1:19
A somewhat wayward youth, he quit school at 13 at the encouragement of his headmaster, who'd spotted Glen's musical potential. By 15, he was already a stalwart of the Grafton Street busking scene,