The
Frames are led by
Glen Hansard, a Dublin-based singer/songwriter who quit school at age 13 to begin busking on local streets. By 17, he'd borrowed enough money from his parents to record a demo, 50 copies of which were pressed and distributed to family and friends. One of those copies made its way to Island Records'
Denny Cordell, who successfully lobbied label founder
Chris Blackwell to sign
Hansard to the roster. Now signed to a major label,
Hansard founded
the Frames, taking the name from his childhood fascination with bicycles; he regularly repaired his friends' bikes as a kid, and with the frames scattered about his family's yard, the Hansard home was consequently known as "the house with the frames."
The alternative pop group, whose lineup included guitarist
Dave Odlum, vocalist
Noreen O'Donnell, bassist John Carney, violinist
Colm Mac Con Iomaire, and drummer Paul Brennan, made its debut at an Irish music festival in September 1990. After taking a brief hiatus to allow
Hansard to co-star in
Alan Parker's hit film The Commitments, the band issued a debut single, "The Dancer," in early 1992. With the help of producer
Gil Norton, whose work with
the Pixies proved to be a major sonic influence on the sessions,
the Frames (sometimes credited as the Frames D.C. to avoid confusion with an American group of the same name) completed their debut album,
Another Love Song. A scheduled U.S. tour was canceled when
Mac Con Iomaire fell ill and Carney quit, though, and even though bassist
Graham Downey was quickly added, a shakeup in Island's roster left the band without a label. Moreover,
O'Donnell left the lineup in the midst of recording a second album, 1994's
Fitzcarraldo. Bassist
Joe Doyle soon replaced
Downey, with
Dave Hingerty assuming Brennan's drumming duties for
the Frames' third album, 1999's lo-fi effort
Dance the Devil.
The
Frames switched labels again, this time signing with a Chicago-based indie, Overcoat, before recording the band's fourth and finest effort,
For the Birds. Where previous
Frames records often suffered from over-production, 2001's
For the Birds (recorded in part by
Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio Studios) boasted an intimacy and fragility that complemented
Hansard's heart-wrenching compositions. Despite critical hosannas,
Odlum left the band in November 2001 to focus on production work, with Simon Goode stepping in as the new lead guitarist. A U.S. tour planned for the following month was suspended in the wake of the death of
Hansard's close friend and occasional collaborator Mic Christopher, former frontman of
the Mary Janes. The
Frames finally made it to the States in support of
the New Pornographers during 2002; they also released their first live album, Breadcrumb Trail, that same year. The
Frames' next release was 2003's
The Roads Outgrown, a nine-track collection of studio outtakes, followed in February 2004 by their first album for Anti, Set List.
Although
the Frames continued issuing new material (including Burn the Maps and 2007's The Cost),
Hansard began devoting equal time to
the Swell Season, a side project that eventually turned into an internationally popular band, especially after
Hansard and
Swell Season collaborator
Markéta Irglová were cast in the successful independent film Once, which also featured their music. Members of
the Frames were recruited to form
the Swell Season's backing band, thus keeping parts of the original lineup together. In 2015, as
Hansard was devoting most of his time to this solo career, he helped assemble Longitude (An Introduction to the Frames), a collection of favorite songs from the group's history that also included three new recordings. ~ Jason Ankeny