Music from the Heart

Markéta Irglová and Glen Hansard share their first new music in over 10 years under the banner The Swell Season. It comes ahead of the duo’s summer run of shows celebrating the 15^th Anniversary of the film Once. ‘The Answer is Yes’ is a slow building anthemic track that feels like a long in the waiting answer to their Academy Award winning track ‘Falling Slowly.’ The Swell Season became the duo’s musical namesake in the wake of the movie’s success.

‘The Answer Is Yes’ sprung out of a trip Hansard made last month to Iceland to connect and discuss the upcoming tour with Irglová. As often happens with the two, the conversation turned bringing fresh and new energy to the upcoming shows and they began sharing ideas and sketches of songs.

Irglová states: “Glen and I had been talking about releasing new music prior to our upcoming Dublin dates and US tour. I wanted to write a beautiful duet for us to sing together each night. Something that felt right for the time and place; deeply personal and yet widely universal. Something that summarized our journey through the past 20 years, paying tribute to all that once was and celebrating all that now is.”

Hansard’s perspective is similar but for him it’s an even more organic journey, “We came together and as we’re working thru old songs the chances for new songs became almost inevitable. Creatively Markéta is in a place that reminds me of Joni, where she speaks very honest and clearly. Which can be quite intimidating but is a wonderful contrast to how I write. For me the ideas that bubble up to the surface when we’re together are the ones she’s meant to be part of”.

‘The Answer Is Yes’ was recorded at Masterkey Studios in Iceland and produced by Sturla Mio Thorisson. The song features frequent Swell Season collaborators Marja Gaynor and Bertrand Galen along with Icelandic musicians Tina Dico and Helgi Hrafn Jónsson on vocals, and Þorvaldur Þór Þorvaldsson on drums and Guðmundur Óskar Guðmundsson on bass.

The song depicts the depth of the friendship between Hansard and Irglova, gratitude of having that connection which keeps getting stronger as time passes by. A friendship that stands the test of time.

The cover features the work of close friend and Once photographer David Cleary. David also captured the making of ‘The Answer Is Yes’ and directed the footage for the songs official video which can be viewed here