Profile Glen Hansard - the lead singer of The Frames and occasional actor with an aversion to fame:The acclaim that has greeted the film Oncewill be most gratifying to its star Glen Hansard for the recognition it accords to his main passion, songwriting, writes Tony Clayton-Lea.
It's no small irony that, on occasion, major success comes to those who'd rather whittle wood and talk to themselves in ramshackle sheds miles away from anywhere. Fame really does have a habit of biting one on the buttocks, however, which is possibly why Frames singer and songwriter Glen Hansard is (metaphorically speaking, of course) currently sitting ever so delicately on a maternity ring. The brouhaha surrounding his new film, Once(which has just won the drama section of the World Cinema Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival), sees the leader of one of Ireland's most enduring bands, The Frames, step up to the mark and once more have to contend with the glare of the spotlight. The critics have also been effusive in their praise, with the Chicago Tribunedescribing it as "the best musical of a generation".
In terms of plaudits for appearances in films, Hansard has been here before. His performance as Outspan Foster in Alan Parker's 1991 treatment of Roddy Doyle's The Commitmentswas notable for being the least grandstanding of the ensemble cast, and probably the most naturalistic. The success of the film took most people by surprise, its small-movie-with-a-big-heart ethos making instant stars of its cast. Instant, however, doesn't necessarily mean long-lasting, and while the main trio of female stars (Maria Doyle Kennedy, Bronagh Gallagher and Angeline Ball) have flourished in music and acting roles since, the male cast of unknowns - with the exception of Hansard - have maintained low-key careers that inevitably generate "Where are they now?" articles every five years.
From the very start of The Commitmentssuccess, Hansard was careful to distance himself. A songwriter first and actor very much second, he found the celebrity status afforded to him and his co-stars during the media circus rounds of promoting the movie in the US off-putting. Although he says he was proud of his work in The Commitmentsand of the film itself, the idea of a sequel made him queasy. And so Hansard disappeared from films, television and follow-ups, and concentrated on music.
It was always going to be music, too. He left school in the mid-1980s in order to fulfil his ambition of being the next Bob Dylan. A rooted Dublin childhood spent hanging around Moore Street (his mother once worked from a stall there) and its environs toughened up an Artful Dodger-like Hansard to the point where an old head started growing on young shoulders. By the age of 17 he had left home and set himself up in a flat, which he shared with another up-and-coming Irish singer-songwriter, Mic Christopher. Lifelong friend and fellow Frames member Colm Mac Conlomaire recalls that even at this point in Hansard's life he was aiming for something.
"Having your own flat in town at that age was very unusual, so he definitely stuck out from the rest of us, who by comparison were really just kids. He was a man at that point, I reckon, and someone who stuck out as a leader. He had an air and a command whenever he played. He seemed very much in tune with what he did, although whether or not he actually knew that is another thing."
SIGNED TO ISLANDRecords before filming started on The Commitmentsin 1990, Hansard was already a figure on the Dublin music scene. He had worked his pitch on and around Grafton Street, where he became one of the city's best-known buskers. "When you busk," he told this writer some years ago, "you're playing your songs to anyone who cares to listen. It's a shame how music is confined to indoors, venues where there is drink involved, or you have to be a certain age. The Frames ethic at the beginning was to play to as many people as possible." From Grafton Street it was a short walk to Wicklow Street and the International Bar where, throughout most of the 1990s, a raft of Irish songwriters honed their craft. Battling against the groundswell of critical sniping (which continues to this day), alongside Hansard were the likes of Damien Rice, Gemma Hayes, David Kitt, Nick Kelly, Margaret Healy, Mic Christopher, Ann Scott, Paddy Casey and a host of other hopefuls that gradually transferred their blood, sweat and sensitivity to Whelan's on Wexford Street, a venue that quickly became synonymous with the Dublin singer-songwriter scene.
Hansard and The Frames quickly rose to the top of the pyramid, in the process becoming standard bearers of an attitude that didn't define success in terms of record sales or securing a major label record deal, and that didn't wish to be capitalist or mercenary about such matters. Hansard cared little for the celebrity tag.
"With The Commitmentshappening around the time of our early days," says Mac Conlomaire, "there was a frustration where almost overnight he became a celebrity. The frustration came about due to not being recognised for his craft - the very thing that he was truly passionate about was sidelined via the hype surrounding that movie."
YET HANSARD'S CRAFTis something that has slowly been allowed to mature. Through a series of archetypal record company deals, The Frames have experienced a career that has stopped, spluttered and started - a sequence of situations viewed (perhaps in a blinkered manner) by band insiders as little more than working with the wrong people.
"They say that boxers and musicians are the two most abused groups in entertainment," Hansard told Three Monkeys Onlinein June 2005, "because all they want to do is go out there, get in the ring and fight, and it's so true. All I wanted was a contract. When I saw the contract it wasn't money I was thinking about. All I saw was a big stage and loads of people. Me, a guitar, songs."
ESSENTIALLY, THAT ISwhat is still at the heart of Hansard and The Frames. He and movies might not be regular bedfellows, yet Onceprovides a curious symmetry in that his song craft is very much central to it. And the fact that it's made by former Frames bassist John Carney only adds to the flavour of it being a film that is very much suited to Hansard's creative instincts.
The success of Oncehas taken everyone concerned with it by surprise. A by-product of time off from The Frames, it was undertaken by Hansard as something to keep him busy, to keep him amused. Colm Mac Conlomaire: "He's a terrible man for not being able to sit still. It's one project to the next. His idea of recreation is playing music, whether that be in front of an audience or not, and Onceis another extension of that." Whether Oncegenerates more awards and plaudits remains to be seen. Most certainly its success in the US can only mean good news for Hansard, Marketa Irglova (his partner in the film and on the album The Swell Season, the songs from which feature heavily throughout the film) and The Frames. Success will rest easy on Hansard's shoulders, but will accompanying fame? And will Hansard, as in the days of post- Commitmentscelebrity, once again walk away from the spotlight?
"What has stood out about him all through the years is that he doesn't wear a mask," says Colm Mac Conlomaire. "That has brought him a lot of trouble and conflict with people and the media, in that it isn't that he refuses to play the game, it's just that he doesn't have the game in him. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and we live in a time where so many people wear masks, are obsessed with cool and how they're perceived. He's never been anything other than himself, and he's never set out to portray himself as anything other than himself. Above all, he's an honest bloke.
The Hansard File
Who is he? The lead singer of The Frames. A reluctant movie star.
Why is he in the news?The two-hander movie, Once, in which Hansard co-stars as a Grafton Street busker, has just won the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, one of the most important in the US. Hansard has also been shortlisted for an award in the forthcoming Fourth Annual Irish Film and Television Awards in the Best Music category for the film.
Most appealing characteristic?Uncomplicated homespun philosophical man of the people.
Least appealing characteristic?Can anyone be too modest?
Most likely to say?"I'm not in this game to be famous."
Least likely to say?"A sequel to The Commitments? Sign me up!"