Added another Hope & Colm interview today, this one from the Irish Times, Nov. 28, 2016:
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/warm- ... -1.2880474It's been a steady stream of one H & C interview after another coming out over the past month. I'm enjoying it while it lasts. This "feast" of communicativeness by the artists will no doubt be followed by "famine" of years of semi-seclusion and near-silence, as typically happens between albums. Good news is they are now used to being somewhat active on their official FB pages, so we may see occasional short FB messages from them, at least, once they've stopped doing press interviews. Plus, we may see more new videos uploaded to their mysterious Tendril Tales site.
..........................................................................................................
A number of 2016 interviews have mentioned Colm has recently moved back to Ireland from California. I've wondered what might have sparked the move. A FB Group member, Tim Cummings, was wondering about this too: Whether they are or were a couple, or married, and did Colm's move to Ireland mean they weren't. So, I did a little research, looking up quotes re. these topics, and will paste below what I posted at FB:
............................................................................................................
I believe Hpe & Colm have been a couple a long time, and I've wondered what it may mean Colm's reportedly moved back to Ireland recently.
In a SF Examiner interview with the two, 2009-09-24, here's the interviewer's question and their answers:
INTERVIEWER: "Are you two a couple, boyfriend and girlfriend?"
HOPE: "Of course we’re a couple. We’re together now, aren’t we? And Colm’s a boy, he’s my friend and I’m a girl. We’re best friends and we live together. But it’s a very big house."
COLM: "Uhhh ... the answer’s no."
-I believe Hope's first sentence is the informative one, i.e. "Of course we're a couple," not Colm's "...no", which I view as a leg-pull!
Btw, in interviews of prior years with Hope & Colm, I noticed Colm pulling legs of interviewers on a few occasions, something I don't notice him doing in 2016.
-Others have mentioned in interviews re. the two living together in California (Berkeley), e.g. Andy Cabic of Vetiver who recorded the first Vetiver album in Hope's and Colm's house in 2004 I think it was (Hope sings on one song, "Angels' Share"). In 2011, Cabic recalled,
QUOTE: "He [Colm] and Hope Sandoval were living together so they brought a space that we recorded in. We recorded at their house."
-In the Bayern 2 German radio interview, 2016-11-04, the two describe typical recent daily routines together, which sound as if they've continued living happily together in California. Words in round brackets are ones you can hear verbatim on the radio recording. The rest are translations from the German text.
QUOTE:
COLM: "The two of us like to walk in California every afternoon.
(Well, we do hike, and then we have food). Afterwards,
we do our business calls on the phone."
HOPE: "Sometimes we only do our phone calls till (maybe lunchtime.
Then we go have a nice lunch, and have wine, and then
go back home, and then have some more wine. And then
we play music "
COLM: "A perfect day"
HOPE: [laughs] "Perfect day")
-And in the Irish radio interview, 2016-11-16, there's this passage which
suggests they commute back and forth between California and Ireland.
Plus, Colm says he may move back again to California.
QUOTE:
INTERVIEWER: Yeah. How does that work, uh, Hope, as a matter of interest? Um, and you are kind of living in different continents. Uh, how do you write songs?
HOPE: Well, we spend a lot of time together. I mean Colm had been living in California for about-
COLM: Long time
Hope: -seventeen years, um-
COLM: I've only recently moved back over here [Ireland]-
-Okay
COLM: But, you know, may move back again-
HOPE: Yeah
COLM: So, it's in flux
HOPE: Yeah, and then of course I'm back and forth, um, you know, we rehearse
in Ireland, we record in Ireland, but we also work in California, you know
.................................................................................
So, they don't sound like an unhappy ex-couple recently busted up, exactly, do they? But a mystery & question remain: if they're still a happy couple, why is Colm apparently living primarily in Ireland now, and Hope in California? One could speculate there might be family reasons for such a move. E.g. a plausible possibility might be one or more of Colm's aging parents are ailing and needing assistance from a family member, and he feels obliged to be closer to them to help. If I was an interviewer, I might want to ask a few "nosy" questions, such as: "Why the move?"!
-As for whether they married, there are clear videos of Hope onstage showing a ring on her ring finger that looks to my eyes like a wedding ring, possibly, but who knows for sure? (Not me).