ONCE (original) (raw)

I'm sure you've all heard by now, but a flurry of new dates have been added to the tour! Full tour listing can be found on The Swell Season site. And it looks like Doveman will be opening up for a quite a bit of the North American tour!

Recently, Glen and Mar also did a small press tour. All the articles resulting from that are starting to come out including:

- An interview with Glen, from Billboard where he talks about Edward Norton, Strict Joy, and The Simpsons

Billboard: The Swell Season won an Oscar for the song "Falling Slowly" -- and has been immortalized in an episode of "The Simpsons." Which was more surprising?

Hansard: "The Simpsons," of course. "The Simpsons" is the one thing that binds the world together in a way. People don't watch the Oscars necessarily in India, but they watch "The Simpsons." What really struck me was that they were doing a little bit of a joke on "Once," but "Once" was a tiny film in the world. It did OK in America, but in the world of cinema, it hardly got recognized. I said this to the people at "The Simpsons" and they said, "We don't care. If we like something, we'll parody it. It's up to the rest of the world to figure out what we're parodying." When you've been on "The Simpsons," you know something has shifted.

- An interview with Glen, from the Irish Times, where he talks about the future of the band, the new album, being Irish, success post-Once

- An interview with Marketa, from the Irish Times, where she talks about fairies, the Irish, exploring Ireland and is generally the most adorable thing ever.

You have to be patient with the roadsigns. I know that from experience. You’re driving, trying to find a little town, and you follow the road signs and everything is okay and then you hit a junction and there is no sign whatsoever and you go around in circles for hours. Or else you see a sign for a town and it says it’s 11km away and then you travel 3km and the next sign says its 11½km away. I find it hilarious. I know it can be infuriating when you’re trying to hurry someplace, but in a way it is also endearing

And be sure to head over to this blog post for a few more goodies (incl. a podcasted performance & interview with the always awesome (and Canadian!) Jian Ghomeshi, video of Glen Hansard and Damien Rice busking outside their Ruby Sessions gig and Glen playing a brand new song!) and an interview with KPCS where Glen and Mar talk about "writing the new album, the aftermath of the Oscars and Glen's appearance at the funeral of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who had been one of the cornerstones of the Special Olympics movement.".

Hopefully there'll be more news in the lead up the tour. And as always, I really hope we get to see everyone's pics and hear everyone's stories if you're lucky enough to be going to one (or more?) of the gigs!