Glen Hansard

With a host of real-life songs and lilting vocals that reflect his passion for his influences (Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan), Glen Hansard is best known as the founder and vocalist/guitarist of the Frames. Born to a working-class family in Dublin in spring 1970, the dedicated music fan left school at age 13 in search of making music his career. Busking in the local streets of Dublin during his teen years was trying at times, but having his mother's support ultimately led the budding singer/songwriter to shape his descriptive world-view quickly, and work on his playing style. By his late teens, and thanks to a loan from the bank courtesy of his Mum, Hansard recorded his first demo. One of the 50 tapes landed in the hands of Island Records' Denny Cordell (Tom Petty and Joe Cocker). Upon a meeting at Cordell's flat, the 17-year-old Hansard also met Ron Wood, Marianne Faithfull, and Stewart Copeland. The meeting, to say the least, left a lasting impression on Hansard, and in the end, Cordell signed him with the approval of Island founder Chris Blackwell.

From there, Hansard quickly gathered a group of fellow buskers and formed the Frames. Unfortunately, such quick accolades proved daunting for Hansard and the Frames, whose grunge-influenced release Another Love Song came and went (the bandmembers don't consider it part of their discography now), forcing the label to drop the group. To distract him from the disappointment, Hansard took the role of Outspan Foster, a guitarist in the famed Alan Parker film The Commitments (1991). He would later admit that he shouldn't have taken the role, for it merely placated his struggle with making music. But a trip to New York gave Hansard the space and time to dream it all up again, and a newfound focus and desire to keep the music alive was enough for him to write the guitar-blazing anthem "Revelate" and "Say It to Me Now," both of which eventually landed on the Frames' proper debut album, Fitzcarraldo (1996). Over the next decade, Hansard and the Frames continued releasing albums while also becoming one of Ireland's finest live acts. In 2003, Hansard played host to Other Voices: Songs from a Room, a popular television show featuring Ireland's best in new music. Three years later, prior to issuing the Frames' sixth effort, The Cost, Hansard made his solo debut with The Swell Season. The acoustic-based beauty featured his collaboration with Czech songstress Markéta Irglová. He and Irglová also appeared as working-class immigrants in the Irish movie Once, slated for debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, All Music Guide