Irish singer/songwriter Glen Hansard, who won an Oscar for the 2007 film Once and later saw it earn multiple Tony Awards for its Broadway incarnation, died early this morning (July 29) in a single-vehicle motorcycle accident in Lucan, west of Dublin. Hansard, who was 56, is survived by his partner Maire Saaritsa and their three-year-old son, Christy.
“With broken hearts, we announce the passing of Glen Hansard, who passed away, in the early hours of this morning, following a road traffic accident in Dublin,” reads a message from ATC Management. “Glen’s family is deeply shocked and heartbroken by this tragic loss and respectfully requests privacy at this extremely difficult time. The family is grateful for the support they have received and wishes to thank the emergency services who attended the scene.”
As a kid in Dublin, Hansard found music after a bout of stealing cars and experimenting with drugs and alcohol. “Where I grew up, there was no excitement,” he recently told SPIN. “So, we were looking for it the whole time. I was definitely slipping, and my mom was a bit worried about me. She had every right to be.” The discovery of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits and a guitar left behind by his uncle in jail set him on a different path.
“The convergence of the instrument being left at our house and discovering Bob Dylan was, I would say, one of those moments where everything aligned,” he said. “And I disappeared into music. I had that moment where I stepped out of one skin and into another, and I completely metamorphosed into a different person.”
Hansard found himself in Dublin City, hanging out with writers like Seamus Heaney and directors like Jim Sheridan, while listening to Paul Meehan reciting poetry in a basement. Though he had dropped out of school, he was getting a different kind of education. “Suddenly, I was in a very different world,” he said “I had an inferiority complex, with the fact that I was from a working-class neighborhood, didn’t have a proper education, left school young, all of that. But man, did I catch up because I was excited about information. I was excited about literature and about songwriting. And Dylan was my north star.”
At 13, Hansard started busking on the streets of Dublin, first in the laneways — the narrow thoroughfares behind buildings that connect the city’s major roads — so he could learn to project his singing as he listened to his voice echo off the walls. As he grew in confidence, he moved to Dublin’s main street, Grafton.
“When you take out your instrument on the street, you’re declaring yourself; that’s the hardest part of busking,” said Hansard. “Unzipping the case, taking out the instrument, putting the case on the ground, putting the instrument on. After that, it’s a doddle. But when you do that, you’re saying, ‘I’m doing something. I’m declaring myself a musician. I’m declaring myself a person who is worthy of your attention.’”
When Hansard was 18, he signed with Island Records, and in 1990, he formed the Frames, which would eventually release seven albums. While they were working on their first record, he joined the cast of the film The Commitments, which became an international sensation. He performed steadily for the next decade-plus before crafting Once with director John Carney and fellow musician Markéta Irglová, who was 17 years his junior and was introduced to him by mutual friends.
In the Dublin-set movie, Hansard and Irglová starred as musicians whose brief collaboration upended both of their lives. Its soundtrack, credited to Hansard and xx as the Swell Season, became almost as famous as the movie, led by the song “Falling Slowly,” which eventually won the Oscar for Best Original Song. In 2012, Once opened as a Broadway musical, for which it eventually won eight Tonys.
The Swell Season reunited in 2022 for its first shows in 11 years and has performed and recorded steadily ever since. Hansard was also a member of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s side project Earthlings and toured with both Pearl Jam and Vedder on numerous occasions in the past decade.
“Marketa and I hadn’t played together for so long before that, and we just enjoyed it so much,” he told SPIN in early 2023. “Season is the right word. It seems like a good season to give it another go and put the old songs back up on the stage. Singing with her is kind of incomparable. There’s a musicality and a shorthand there that I can’t say I have with anyone else.”
In his most recent SPIN interview, Hansard acknowledged getting older and how music still possessed the power to keep him going. “I want my voice to hold out. I want my body to hold out. I want to write 10 good songs. I still don’t feel like I’ve done that,” he said. “I’m in this for the long haul. So, I’m a believer in the energy and the spirit of the music. And when it’s flowing through you, and you’re in that exalted high, sweet place of playing music, it’s fucking invincible.”
“Whether with the Frames, with Markéta or as a solo artist, Glen was renowned for his incomparable live performances, beautiful evenings of music where Glen would regale audiences with stories as well as his music, along with that of many of those who had touched his life over the decades,” Irish president Catherine Connolly said in a statement. “Glen will also be remembered for the generosity with which he shared his fame, providing encouragement to young musicians and performers, while working to assist with important causes, in particular those suffering from homelessness, with his annual Christmas Eve busk in Dublin’s city centre one of the highlights of the Christmas period. Glen was one of the vital driving influences of the Irish music world, bringing people together in the sharing of live music. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him or experienced his work.”
This is a developing story.