The duo, which features Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer/pianist Markéta Irglová, made headlines last week after a fan jumped to his death during the folk rock band’s performance at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Calif. The 32-year-old man jumped at least 20 feet from a roof onto the stage, landing next to Hansard.

The hiatus is not a result of the tragedy but rather a chance to give the bandmates time to work on their individual projects.

“I’ll go back to The Frames, and Mar will make her own record at some point. This band will eventually naturally end,” Hansard told Spinner.

“Getting together and making music with Mar was a side thing for me, but it felt absolutely right,” Hansard said. “I followed through on it even when it felt like I might’ve been abandoning [The Frames] a bit. But I had to follow through. I knew there was something in this that I had to follow through on.”

Hansard said that Irglová’s debut solo album may feature a new piano-driven ballad called “Crossroads” which the duo has been playing during their live show.

“I love the way she writes,” Hansard said. “I think she’s an incredible songwriter and I think she could make a really beautiful, beautiful record. I have no doubt, in fact. She could call it what she wants. She could call it ‘Marketa Irglova.’ She could call it something else. It doesn’t really matter. She’s writing great songs. I’m very, very proud of her.”

The singer/guitarist told Spinner that the Swell Season isn’t ready to call it quits just yet.

“The Swell Season will continue to do things. I just don’t know whether it’s … I don’t know in what context we’ll do it,” Hansard says. “The thing that this band has proven to me is that when you’re political, it doesn’t work. When you’re careerist about it, it doesn’t [work]. It just shines less.”

This weekend The Swell Season plays Brazil, with a Friday performance in Sao Paulo and a Saturday show in Rio de Janeiro.

In October the duo has gigs lined up in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Solvakia, the United Kingdom and Iceland.

Irish rock band The Frames has booked a series of U.S. performances in November to celebrate its twentieth anniversary.  Performances include Terminal 5 in New York (Nov. 20), the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., (Nov. 21) and The Fillmore in San Francisco (Nov. 28).

In other Swell Season news, the band is offering free grief counseling sessions to fans that were in the audience at Thursday’s tragic gig.

The band has donated an undisclosed amount of money to set up four free group sessions at Kara, a counseling center based in Palo Alto, Calif.

Click here for The Swell Season’s website.

Click here for the Spinner story.