blog post How I write: Glen Hansard

This series asks songwriters to describe their writing process, and what influences them. Here, Academy Award-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard (the Swell Season, the Frames).

"It's a little bit of everything. I pick up my guitar and play. Something might come, and then the pen comes out. Then an edit, until something comes out that you're actually satisfied with. I love the idea of leaving some of the original abstract thought in, because the problem is that when you pick up a pen you become a snob, your own worse critic. You edit yourself in a way that is non-creative. 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."

"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. That's craftsmanship, and craftsmanship is very valuable, but inspiration is much more valuable. I tend to still operate in that area, where I let the songs come when they are ready."

• Glen Hansard's debut solo album, Rhythm and Repose, will be released on June 19 on Anti- Records. Read our interview with Hansard, and listen to him perform tracks from CBC Q, here.

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