CHICAGO, In poor health. — Oscar speeches come and go. Annually a brand new batch replaces the outdated with solely a choose few penetrating public consciousness sufficient to make a best-of reel. Fewer nonetheless can survive a replay with out a component of cringe.
Not a lot for Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, whose timeless “Falling Slowly” from the 2007 indie darling “Once” gained for unique music on the 2008 ceremony.
Hansard’s bewildered attraction to “make art, make art!” and host Jon Stewart bringing the then 19-year-old Irglová again on stage post-commercial break after the orchestra reduce her off to ship a wide-eyed message (“Fair play to those who dare to dream and don’t give up”) carved a spot in folks’s hearts that even surpassed the goodwill introduced on by starring within the movie as two strangers who change one another’s lives via music.
The relentless touring because the Swell Season that adopted whereas embarking on an ill-fated love affair in actual life solely added to their Hollywood story (and fueled a cycle of movie star gossip, particularly in Hansard’s native Eire, the pair hopes to by no means expertise once more).
Remarkably, the duo remains to be making good on these speeches. They’ve by no means stopped dreaming large or making artwork, and now, nearly 20 years later, they’ve reconvened because the Swell Season with a stunning new album, “Forward,” and tour that stops on the Greek Theatre on Sept. 19.
Sitting facet by facet in a tiny field of a dressing room sporting an absurdly sturdy tea choice in July hours earlier than performing on the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, each recall over an hour-long dialog the preliminary telephone name (or textual content — they will’t agree) that jump-started this reunion of types. “It’s not like we’ve lost contact, but [it was] very loose,” Hansard defined via a haze of burning sage balanced precipitously on the self-importance. “Mar sings on my records and Mar will send me songs every so often.”
In Hansard’s retelling, reaching out was a spur-of-the second determination made whereas having breakfast at Mel’s Drive-In on Sundown Blvd., whereas in Southern California for Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Competition. An thought little doubt introduced on by the entire time the pair spent within the space in the course of the Oscar marketing campaign whereas staying at a pal’s home on Miller Drive. “I said, ‘I’m gonna text her and see does she fancy playing a few gigs,’ because as musicians that’s the best way to see your friends,” he reasoned.
For Irglová, the inquiry was a very long time coming.
“Ever since we stopped touring, I always assumed that we would do another tour. It’s like, why did we stop touring? It was supposed to be a break. But then it just became more and more than a break, but it was unsaid. Nobody decided it. The conversation never happened,” the Czech-born pianist mentioned.
“I would have always liked receiving that phone call, but by the time it came, I definitely stopped waiting for it in any shape or form. I felt like, that’s also OK if it never happens. But then Glen called and all of the sudden I’m faced with the reality.”
Irglová questioned if the energy of their artistic connection had withstood the intervening years. “With me and Glen, we’re either really great together or terrible together depending on how well we align with our energies,” she confessed.
In spite of everything, lots of life occurred since 2009’s “Strict Joy” and their ascendance in popular culture — the Venn diagram of musicians depicted in animated type on “The Simpsons,” referenced lovingly in “Ted Lasso” and feted on the Tony Awards for a Broadway musical is miniscule.
Irglová, 37, relocated to Iceland together with her now husband, had three children (the youngest is 7) and launched a trilogy of dreamlike solo albums. Within the final three years, the 55-year-old Hansard grew to become a father, and husband to Finnish poet Maire Saaritsa, splitting his time between Helsinki, Dublin and wherever his self-inflicted rigorous touring schedule takes him. “I’m kind of institutionalized by touring,” he admitted, noting his 4 solo albums that wanted selling. “I love it. It’s where I know who I am.”
Buoyed by the interpersonal success of a five-gig “test drive,” the duo launched into making “Forward” over three fruitful classes at Irglová’s dwelling studio run by her husband, Sturla Mio Thorisson, who additionally produces. Household life etched itself into the bones of the album with grandparents and fair-haired children mingling for yard hangs roasting marshmallows and capturing hoops and even lending some background vocals, which Irglová captured and became a 45-minute making-of documentary known as “The Forward Journey.”
Somebody with a parasocial attachment to the pair would have a subject day making an attempt to decipher which of the album’s eight tracks are in regards to the different. And, sure songs like Irglová’s wistful “People We Used to Be” with lyrics corresponding to “How I miss the people we used to be / And all those things that you brought out in me” and Hansard’s pleading “Stuck in Reverse,” which begins, “My love, can we go backwards / Back to the days before the going got rough,” throw gas on any theories about lingering emotions, however they’re additionally amalgams of a few years and experiences. Sorry to disappoint the shippers.
The duo has reunited because the Swell Season nearly 20 years later with new album “Forward” and a tour that stops on the Greek Theatre on Sept. 19.
(David Turecky)
Autobiographical particulars come immediately in “Factory Street Bells” the place Hansard calls Christy, his 3-year-old son, a “full-blown, solid gold miracle” earlier than launching into one in all his signature yelps that stretches a single syllable right into a voyage between dimensions. Unsurprisingly, welcoming a toddler into the world radically shifted Hansard’s perspective. “It made me think much more about staying alive,” he mentioned quietly.
Buying and selling in pints of Guinness on the pub in post-concert celebrations for Guinness Zero, Hansard now writes the variety of days with out alcohol on his interior wrist to maintain observe. “I stopped drinking. Just because I have no time for it. I have no emotional space for it. It’s just very selfish,” he concluded. “[Christy] has definitely affected my relationship with living. I choose porridge over the bacon and eggs.”
The album’s hovering nearer, “Hundred Words,” got here to Irglová “in a dream.” She wakened with a melody and the craving to obtain 8.3 dozen particular phrases from a companion. She nonetheless can’t determine them. “I wonder about the 100 words as well. I thought maybe it would come to me over time,” she admitted. As a substitute of discarding the concept in lieu of readability, she trusted within the supply methodology and Hansard helped fill within the blanks.
The music hits that candy spot distinctive to the Swell Season the place the somber and celestial meld. The place traces like, “Don’t give up; don’t stop believing; keep the faith” can rework from overworn platitudes right into a chant of quiet confidence and inflate the listener’s coronary heart just like the Grinch on Christmas. Written the best way most of the outdated songs got here into being — sitting in a room bouncing concepts backwards and forwards — the observe holds a particular place in Irglová’s coronary heart as a result of it’s “the one song on the album which is equally me and Glen,” she mentioned. “That’s our song.”
Irglová exudes a boundless presence on this iteration of the Swell Season. Her contributions all the time felt integral, however usually sweetly complementary to Hansard’s outsized showmanship. Even reside, she usually appeared tucked away on the facet of the stage, her piano appearing as a bodily border between her and the remainder of the motion. Now, her angelic voice acts as a power for Hansard to push up in opposition to as a substitute of flattering his components. Later that night onstage in Chicago, the luxurious, tender album hulks out with drummer Piero Perelli and unique bassist Joseph Doyle. These lean, muscular renditions enable Hansard and Irglová to fully lock in with one another for a riveting dance.
“There’s nobody on this Earth that I’ve ever met who can do what Mar does when we sing together,” Hansard affirmed.
Going again to that life-changing Oscar, Irglová reveals that again then she considered it as an unbelievable time for Hansard and factors out in the event you rewatch the footage, she instantly seems at him to gauge his response as their names get known as out. “At the time, I really felt like, ‘I’m on Glen’s journey,’” she mentioned. “I thought, ‘It’s really Glen’s moment and I’m so happy that I somehow got to contribute to it.’”
Right this moment, she revels in possession over the respect: “That was for me too and I recognize what my part in that was. I know I was put in this role for this,” she attested.
Hansard relied on that sure-footedness within the studio the place Irglová “cut to the chase” and reined in his tendency to tinker and noodle — a tactic his band The Frames indulged in when not on hiatus. “Mar would be like, ‘I’m gonna go pick up the kids and put on the lunch, have those lyrics finished by the time I get back and we’ll record it.’ And for me, that’s shocking ‘cause I can spend years writing a song,” he mentioned. “And she was like, ‘Have it done by 12 o’clock,’ which is an amazing challenge.”
Accepted — and gained.
