Glen Hansard figured out a good way not to have to deal with the pressure of following up a hit album that featured an Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly." He pretty much made the new Swell Season CD, "Strict Joy," before he realized what had happened.

"It takes the pressure off," Hansard explained in a phone interview. "If I was to sit around and think about it, I'd be like, God, I'd probably never do it. I probably wouldn't make a second record because I'd be like, gosh, how is this going to be viewed? You know what I mean, you start thinking about the context in which you're going to be viewed and how are critics going to see it. Then you start getting afraid, and fear is no place to do anything from."

The story of the Swell Season and its sudden arrival in the limelight has been well documented. Hansard, long-time songwriter and frontman of the Irish band the Frames, teamed up with classically trained pianist and singer Marketa Irglova on a side project they named the Swell Season.

Shortly after making a self-titled debut CD (which took all of four days to record, at that), Hansard was asked to participate in a low-budget movie being made by a friend and former Frames band mate, John Carney, called "Once." Hansard and Irglova starred as struggling musicians who fall in love, and some of the songs from the Swell Season's debut CD were used in the movie, including "Falling Slowly." That tune became a left-field winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song, and the duo performed the song during the Academy Awards telecast.

Suddenly, the Swell Season became far better known and more popular than the Frames had ever been. "Falling Slowly" became a hit single and the sound track to "Once" went gold, selling more than 500,000 copies.

The group was wrapping up a tour in spring 2008 when it had a free week in its schedule. Hansard contacted producer Peter Katis and set up a recording session at Katis' Bridgeport, Conn., studio.

"We went down there and we recorded for a week," Hansard said. "We recorded songs we had been playing live, so it was easy. We went in, and we started recording songs, and then we wrote a couple of songs in the moment, in the studio. It just felt so natural. So in a lot of ways it was very similar to the first Swell Season record only so much in that we went in and we just basically started playing. Then we realized at the end of that week that we were in the middle of making a new record."

After two more sessions, enough songs were recorded to complete "Strict Joy," a CD that Hansard said is more melancholy than he'd ideally like but finds balance in sunnier songs such as "Feeling The Pull" and The Verb."

It's little surprise that "Strict Joy" had its share of downbeat songs. Over the course of making "Once" and starting the Swell Season, life imitated the movie script as the friendship between Hansard, 39, and Irglova, 21, blossomed into love. But before making the new CD, their two-year romance fell apart.

The fact that Hansard and Irglova stayed together to carry the Swell Season forward speaks volumes for how they worked through their breakup.

"Myself and Mar are very close," Hansard said. "Of course, we had our drama. We just didn't have it in public. ...I think we both realized that we love doing this and we don't want to stop it, and if there was any way for us both to continue doing it without it being weird, we both decided let's do it."

The CD the Swell Season made is likely to please fans who discovered the group through the "Once" sound track. Like that material, "Strict Joy" retains the group's melodic folk-centric sound. But the songs on the new CD are fuller and more fleshed out instrumentally. More importantly songs like "Low Rising," "High Horses" and "The Verb" offer striking melodies, and the additional instrumentation gives the songs more color and melodic interest.

On tour, some of the new songs may take on a different character. Along with Hansard and Irglova, the Swell Season now essentially includes the three other members of the Frames (violinist Colm Mac Iomaire, bassist Joe Doyle and guitarist Rob Bocknik) - a move that resolved potential problems that could have occurred if Hansard had needed to divide time between the two groups.

"We'll present the songs slightly different from night to night," Hansard said. "Because the good thing about being a band is we can sort of switch out arrangements by the day. 'Look, I'm going to do this song acoustically tonight.' Or, 'Let's do this acoustic song with a full band and see how that feels.' What's good about working with a band you know is you get to shake it up and they all sort of get it."

Hansard had to overcome sadness that came with success

Glen Hansard of the duo the Swell Season was, of course, ecstatic when he and musical partner Marketa Irglova in 2008 won the Oscar for Best Original Song. It marked a stunning turn of fortunes, especially for Hansard, who had spent more than a decade and a half leading the band the Frames, but in most countries (including the United States), managing only modest success.

He now realizes that his life in the Frames helped explain why, in addition to his excitement about the Oscar win, he also had a nagging feeling that wasn't so pleasant.

Choosing his words carefully - "I tried to explain this in an Irish newspaper right after the Oscars, and I got murdered. People were saying give it back, you ungrateful (expletive)," Hansard noted - he sought to describe his complex reaction to this career-changing and life-changing event.

"When we won that award, it was actually the happiest night of my life because it was so uncynical," Hansard said in phone interview. "It was one of those evenings where there was no room for cynicism. There was no room for darkness. It was just joy. And even weeks before it, I was like, God, the Oscars are so huge. Is this the place we ever set out to be? You know, there were questions.

"Anyway, to get to my point, I couldn't understand why for months after we won the award, I was struggling with some sadness in me that I couldn't quite shake. And everything, all the logic was saying this is the best moment of your life. Embrace it. And I was, and I did enjoy it. But there was something underlying that I could not figure out. There was a deep sadness."

It took a very perceptive friend to help Hansard understand - and not feel guilty - about his emotions at the time.

"It was a conversation I was having with a friend. He just said something so off the cuff that really shook me," Hansard said. "He said, 'You've had to let go of the guy you've always been, which was the struggler, the guy who struggled, the guy who chased, the guy who wanted success. You've had to let go of that guy, and surely there must be some mourning.' ... I was grieving the death of a part of myself.

"He also said something very smart," Hansard added. "He said 'You've been struggling for so long, Glen, you've forgotten how to not struggle. ... Stop struggling. Enjoy yourself.' And it's like that's easier said than done. But it was an amazing suggestion."

These days, Hansard seems to have overcome any mixed feelings over the Oscar and remains proud of the accomplishment. He said what helped him was getting away from music altogether for a month this past summer, during which time he took a carpentry course.

"I hadn't had a month off in years," he said. "I took a month off, did the carpentry course and about a week into doing it, the most amazing thing happened. I had this huge overwhelming sense of good will. And it was just like my soul had caught up."

— By Alan Sculley

If You Go

What: The Swell Season in concert.

When: 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 6.

Where: Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston.

How: tickets are $40. Call 617-747-2261