The Swell Season (the acclaimed duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) today announced their first new album in 16 years, Forward, will be released on June 13, 2025.
An eight song collection that manages to capture both the familiar heartrending, joyous emotions and moments of beauty listeners have come to love from The Swell Season-as well as new slice-of-life, where-are-we-now chapters still being determined and understood-the album was produced by Sturla Mio Thorisson and recorded at his and Irglova’s Masterkey Studios in Iceland, alongside original Swell Season musicians Marja Gaynor and Bertrand Galen (strings) and Joseph Doyle (bass), and newcomer Piero Perelli (drums and percussion).
The duo also shared the impassioned, soaring lead single “Stuck In Reverse” with a video produced by James Del and Anthony Mulcahy, and filmed during a surprise show last month at New York bar Scratcher.
“In any situation of letting go, moving on is clearly the right and natural thing to do,” explains Hansard of the song. “This song speaks to that part of us that can’t quite get there. The moment just before complete acceptance.” ”
Stuck In Reverse” follows last month’s single and additional album track “People We Used To Be” (with a video directed by Radim Vanous and produced by Little Greta in collaboration with The Swell Season), which saw praise and support from The New York Times (‘Playlist’), Rolling Stone (‘Songs You Need To Know’), SPIN, Consequence, The Needle Drop, Brooklyn Vegan, and more.
Next month, The Swell Season will embark on a lengthy tour of Europe, the UK, Ireland, and North America in support of the album. The run includes a July 26th show at Brooklyn, NY’s Kings Theatre and a September 19th show at Los Angeles, CA’s The Greek. A full itinerary is below and tickets are on sale now.
When 16 years have passed since the release of their beloved duo’s previous album, 2009’s Strict Joy, it might be expected that Hansard and Irglova would title a new collection of The Swell Season songs as something commemorative or reflective instead of the succinct Forward. But, as anyone who has followed their career will tell you, The Swell Season doesn’t exactly do things the typical way. First formed by Hansard-then best known as the frontman of Irish rock band The Frames-and Czech pianist and singer Irglova in 2005, The Swell Season released a self-titled LP in 2006 before going on to star in and perform their songs in the film Once. Much-loved and critically praised, the movie catapulted them into the spotlight, and earned the duo the 2007 “Best Original Song” Academy Award for “Falling Slowly” before being adapted into a Tony-winning Broadway smash. Yet they have never spent much time looking back. So when the longtime friends decided amid their respective solo careers to officially reconvene for a handful of Swell Season shows in 2022, it led to not only a larger run of dates in 2023 but a recording session as well. A single, “The Answer Is Yes,” encouraged the pair to converge again in Irglova’s Iceland studio to write a new album in 2024, and from there, well, it seemed there was only one direction for The Swell Season to go.
“It felt right to title the record ‘Forward’ because it’s a reunion of sorts, but we’re not going backwards,” Irglova says. “Both of us have grown and changed; we’re in different places and getting to know each other again as the new people we’ve become.”
“After our whirlwind that led up to the Oscars and after, we were so busy and with that came a pressure that neither of us particularly wanted, and ultimately we kind of drifted in the middle of all of that hard work and celebration,” Hansard says. “We remained good friends, helping on each other’s records, keeping up with each other’s families. While touring my last record, I realized I just missed her. I remember calling Marketa and saying, ‘Do you feel like doing some gigs?’ She said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great,’ and the shows went really well. Once we were hanging out again, new songs started coming through, and we started trying new ideas and playing the songs onstage. From there the idea was to do a little recording and not put any pressure on it, just see what happens, and suddenly we found ourselves making a record. And we were both totally into it, and so here we are, a new chapter of our lives.”
The pair started working through song ideas they had written independently, choosing pieces that could benefit from the other’s touches, while some were composed entirely on the spot, seizing on the inspiration of their shared space. The synergy of their dynamic returned instantly-like turning on a tap-with Irglova seated at the piano and Hansard on his guitar; Hansard, who doesn’t typically set out to write intentionally for any specific project, found that Irglova’s ability to “call (him) out, artistically” and keep things on task really helped him to dial in on what the song required in the context of The Swell Season. “We serve as a mirror to each other, like playing catch; it’s so interactive, like sparks hitting off each other,” Irglova says. “It’s almost like alchemy; we pass this through the sieve of our experiences and who we are as people. I really respect Glen as an artist and a writer and I love writing and performing with him.”
With the intention of keeping things succinct, Hansard and Irglova walked away after three different sessions with eight songs decided on for Forward. There is space to move around in these songs, and enough air to let the listener settle in and appreciate the loveliness-and, above all, a measured, harmonious balance. Where Hansard’s tendency is to keep things rough and raw, stripped-down and grainy, Irglova’s songs move more into the lush, polished, cinematic world; the duo challenged themselves to find each song’s meeting-point while always staying true to each other’s intentions. Through it all, the group’s thesis statement remains as strong and unwavering as ever: never, ever give up; keep going, no matter how hard. In other words: Forward.
The Swell Season live dates:
5/13 – Amsterdam, NL – Koninklijk Theater Carré
5/14 – Antwerp, BG – De Roma
5/16 – Köln, DE – Stadthalle Köln-Mülheim Jülich GmbH
5/17 – Hamburg, DE – CCH – Congress Center Hamburg
5/19 – Berlin, DE – Admiralspalast
5/20 – Vienna, AUT – Wiener Konzerthaus
5/21 – Prague, CZ – Forum Karlín
5/23 – Kraków, POL – Klub Studio
5/24 – Warszawa, POL – Klub Stodoła
5/25 – Brno, CZ – Sono Centrum
5/28 – London, UK – Royal Festival Hall
5/29 – Gateshead, UK – The Glasshouse
5/31 – Dublin, IE – National Concert Hall
6/01 – Dublin, IE – National Concert Hall
7/11 – Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap
7/12 – Cincinnati, OH – Taft Theatre
7/13 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
7/15 – Milwaukee, WI – Riverside Theater
7/16 – Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre
7/18 – Chicago, IL – Auditorium Theatre
7/19 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
7/21 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
7/23 – Rochester, NY – Kodak Center
7/25 – Northampton, MA – The Pines Theater
7/26 – Brooklyn, NY – Kings Theatre
7/29 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met
7/31 – Greenville, SC – Peace Center
8/01 – Durham, NC – Durham Performing Arts Center
8/02 – Atlanta, GA – The Woodruff Arts Center
9/09 – St. Louis, MO – The Factory
9/10 – Kansas City, MO – The Midland Theatre
9/12 – Dallas, TX – The Majestic Theater
9/13 – Austin, TX – ACL Live at The Moody Theater
9/15 – Santa Fe, NM – Lensic Performing Arts Center
9/16 – Mesa, AZ – Mesa Arts Center (Ikeda Theater)
9/19 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre
9/20 – San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
9/22 – Portland, OR – Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
9/23 – Vancouver, BC – The Orpheum Theatre
9/24 – Seattle, WA – The Paramount Theatre
