Markéta Irglová on reviving The Swell Season with Glen Hansard, 20 years of Falling Slowly, life in Iceland – and musicals ambitions

Musician Markéta Irglová has had a busy 2025, releasing a new album and touring with Glen Hansard under the name The Swell Season, a joint project that had been dormant for some years. The Czech-Irish pairing famously won an Oscar in 2007 for their song Falling Slowly. First recorded in a studio near Prague, it reached international audiences in Once, as well as a successful musical based on the hit low-budget film. After a full-band tour with The Swell Season earlier in the year, Irglová and Hansard returned to Czechia for a short series of intimate shows in late November. And it was then that I caught up with the former, who lives in Iceland, for a wide-ranging interview.
Ian Willoughby