LOS ANGELES, CA- Some emails hit harder than others. When the press release for The Swell Season’s new single “People We Used To Be” landed in my inbox, I had to sit down. A lump in my throat, a rush of memory—warm, aching, and strangely joyful.
It’s been years since I’ve heard new music from Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová (side note: They released a single in 2023, but it never showed up on my radar), but their voices have never truly left me. I first encountered them like many did—through “Once”, the 2007 indie film that quietly reshaped the notion of the modern movie musical. I took a girl I was dating at the time to see it in theaters. We didn’t last. But “Falling Slowly” did. That song, with its tender, cautious build and interwoven voices, found permanent residence in my chest. Whenever my heart breaks anew, I always seem to return to it.
Years later, I saw Glen perform that song as a duet with Eddie Vedder at Ohana Fest. A song built to be sung by two lovers somehow made perfect sense between two men, two friends. That’s the mark of something timeless—lyrics so precisely human that they transcend the specifics of voice or arrangement.
“People We Used To Be,” produced by Sturla Mio Thorisson is cut from the same cloth. It aches beautifully. “How I miss the people we used to be / And all those things that you brought out in me,” Irglová sings, her voice still gossamer but firm, as if mourning and fighting at once. Hansard answers in kind, and together they resurrect that inimitable emotional gravity—the kind that’s neither entirely hopeful nor wholly resigned.
It’s the kind of song you want to fall asleep to—not because it’s dull, but because it speaks to your most vulnerable self, the one that comes out only in the dark. During one particularly fragile period of my life, I let “Once” spin on loop as I drifted off. Their voices became a lullaby, their melodies a salve.
“People We Used To Be” continues that tradition. Its chorus—“I will not stand by and watch this fire / Burn down everything we worked so hard to build”—reads like a plea and a vow all at once. The accompanying music video, directed by Radim Vanous and filmed in Prague, folds time back on itself, nodding to “Once” while carving space for what’s next. And what’s next is a sprawling tour across Europe and North America, including a date at LA’s Greek Theatre. With luck, I’ll be there, if only to see if they still summon the magic live the way they do on record.
Some music never leaves you. The Swell Season don’t just write songs—they write lifelines. “People We Used To Be” is another one I’ll hold onto.
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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
