Street Style: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova on The Art of Busking and the 15th Anniversary of ‘Once’

Editor's Note: This feature originally appeared in the Spring 2022 "General Admission" issue of No Depression. We're sharing it now in tribute to Glen Hansard, frontman of the Irish folk-rock band The Frames, solo artist, and co-star of the film Once, who passed away on July 29 in a motorcycle accident at just 56 years old. The entire No Depression team sends their condolences to Hansard's family, collaborators, and team.

The streets of Dublin were Glen Hansard’s first musical home, training ground, and performance stage. As a young teenager, the Irish singer-songwriter busked on the city’s busy thoroughfares, and almost 40 years later, he still performs with that same freewheeling spirit — both on the bricks of his beloved Grafton Street and in theaters around the world.

“When you’re a busker, it’s like you’re some kind of information point or light people move towards,” he says, speaking from an Italian airport on his way back home to Dublin after a weeks-long recording session. “It’s not necessarily because they like your music, they just move to you because there’s some kind of energy around you and people just want to stand near that energy. It’s not necessarily good energy or bad energy, it’s just an energy that draws people in.”

Being a magnetic fixture on a bustling city street can also bring about some unexpected responsibilities. Over the years, parents have asked Hansard to watch their children and Hare Krishnas have temporarily stockpiled their extra books and treats at his feet. And there are always the people who are unimpressed with the public performance of an unsolicited sidewalk serenade.

Sometimes, this can be innocuous; people are simply preoccupied as they move from Point A to Point B. For example, a 2007 Washington Post experiment followed Grammy-winning, internationally renowned violinist Joshua Bell as he busked incognito in a Washington, D.C., Metro station. Of the reported 1,097 pedestrians that walked by his 45-minute impromptu rush-hour recital, fewer than 30 subway commuters tossed him any money and only seven individuals actually stopped to listen. He received exactly $32.17 in his violin case that day.

Sometimes indifference can veer into something more sinister. In 2021 alone, a few prominent anti-busking stories and videos went viral. In Hong Kong, 22-year-old street musician Oliver Ma was arrested for “public disorder” after he performed the anti-extradition protest song “Glory to Hong Kong” outside of a Queen’s Road Central shopping area. In the UK, five Dorset police officers wrestled and bloodied an unnamed busker in Bournemouth Park after he was reported for performing illegally in public. In the US, many Las Vegas buskers spent 2021 modifying their setups with backpack amps and tip jar necklaces to try to subvert repeated police ticketing via the city’s “Obstructive Uses of Public Sidewalks” ordinance. 

Luckily for Hansard, even after logging nearly four decades of busking experience, he has rarely experienced the darker side of street performance. “There’s this beautiful magic to being a street musician,” he says. “As a busker, you really have the opportunity to meet the soul of a city.”

‘Once’ and Again