Glen Hansard on The Frames, Springsteen and taking the Dart with Letterman
Glen Hansard and The Frames play two gigs at Live at the Marquee in Cork. (Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)
Late last year, Glen Hansard was surprised to receive a call from an old friend. “Bono asked me to take a train ride with David Letterman.. I was like, ‘Really?’ I’m going to spend an hour on the Dart with David Letterman? This could have been the most awkward hour of my life'.”
Letterman was flying to Dublin to film A Sort of Homecoming, a Disney+ documentary with Bono and The Edge promoting their album of re-recordings of favourite U2 songs. Hansard, an Oscar-winning songwriter and frontman of rock band The Frames, knew both: he busks every winter with Bono on Grafton Street for charity and had appeared on Letterman’s talk show following his starring role in 2007 indie movie Once. And so it was suggested he act as an on-screen go-between – travelling the Dart with Letterman and explaining what U2 meant to him. He had his doubts – but who says no to U2?
“Bono said, ‘it will be cool’. Just talk about your son – because David has a son. He’s 19 now but David started a family late in his life. I’m 52 and our son was born just eight months ago. I had the best time. We talked about Christy my son, we talked about his son. And we talked a little bit about U2, which is what ended up in the documentary.”
Hansard is speaking before returning to Cork, where he performs with The Frames. Though raised in Ballymun and a fixture on Dublin’s songwriter scene, Hansard relishes playing Cork. His relationship with the city goes back to the early history of The Frames, which he formed in 1990, shortly before his starring role in Alan Parker’s adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments.
“Cork was kind of the first city outside Dublin that took The Frames seriously. When we played Dublin, a lot of it was our friends and people we knew coming to see us. When we filled De Lacy House [a now shuttered venue on Oliver Plunkett Street], and when put people in [famed 1990s club] Sir Henry’s, that felt like a real success. Here’s a room full of strangers. It felt like we were being taken seriously as a band. Cork has always been a dear city to The Frames.”
Hansard’s connection to Cork goes beyond The Frames. He has precious memories of playing at the Lobby Bar, across from the City Hall and one of Ireland’s most famous acoustic venues until its closure in 2005.
One gig that stands out was a concert by his late friend, Mic Christopher, who brought on Hansard during the encore to duet on 'Fogtown' by Michelle Shocked and 'You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere' by The Byrds. The show was on September 21 2001, Christopher’s 32nd birthday. He would die in a freak fall a few months later. The concert was recorded and released as the LP, Live at the Lobby – a poignant tribute to a talent taken much too soon.
“First of all, it’s hard for me to listen to that,” says Hansard. “I’m so there with him. I remember the feeling so well. I remember him selling out the Lobby and me being so proud. He was in the Mary Janes, who were good friends of The Frames. We would often do gigs together. Me and him were best mates. There was always that thing of wanting to see Mic do well for himself. And again, Cork gave Mic the confidence. I know The Lobby was a small room. But he was selling it out. And that was the first place he ever sold out. That did his confidence the power of good. I look back and those times and see a sense of romance and a sense of beauty to it. And I kind of choke up a bit.”
He has also championed the Cork musician Fergus O’Farrell, who fronted the cult 1990s group Interference. O’Farrell had muscular dystrophy and passed away in 2016 at his home in Schull. Hansard has since performed with Interference – his way of honouring the legacy of an artist he considered one of Ireland’s greatest songwriters.
“Ferg was the finest singer I knew. How often do you get to spend time with real heroes? When myself and Mic [Christopher] were busking, Interference were a seriously heavy duty band. They were people we looked up to. They befriended us and let us open up for them. They were as important to us as The Waterboys were back then – or as Dylan. They were on that same level for us as the greats in music. It’s a double-edged sword fronting Interference. Nobody sings like him, nobody writes like him. The fact I am able to step into those shoes and sing those songs – for me, it’s a great honour. You feel like you’re saying to the audience, ‘gosh I wish you could have heard him do it’.”
Hansard has had many different incarnations across his career. Early on, The Frames were an epic indie band with a 1990s-style quiet/loud sound. Then came his solo career – and the Academy Award success of 'Falling Slowly', a duet performed and composed with Czech artist Markéta Irglová, who co-starred with Hansard in the John Carney movie Once, and with whom he shared the Oscar win.
His and Irglová’s Oscar was a lot to take on board. All his life Hansard had regarded himself as the underdog, and now, here he was, on top of the world.
Two things helped. One was that he’d already had to deal with surprise success, having appeared in The Commitments when The Frames were still getting off the ground. He played Outspan Foster– a scamp synonymous with Hansard for many years.
“Outspan Foster has followed me around. It’s a wonderful caricature to be known as. And it was an amazing experience, The Commitments. But there’s something about winning an award of that kind – some people can laugh it off. To some, it’s of great magnitude. Tell you what – it certainly made my mother and father very proud. They were over the moon. For me personally, I was like ‘this is incredible. But what’s next?’”
He was at sea until he sat down with an artist who knew a few things about the spotlight. “Of all people, it was Bruce Springsteen, who I was very fortunate to get to know just after we won. He was playing a show in Ireland shortly afterwards. He asked, how are you doing? I said, you know what – I’m not great actually – I don’t know why. It’s a weird thing to say – I’m not great form. I don’t know if I feel a bit embarrassed. Or just a bit off’ .”
Springsteen nodded. He knew what Hansard was feeling. “He said, ‘You’re mourning the death of your old self’. This was an amazing bit of advice. He said you’ve been in a band for 18 years. It’s you and them against the world. Suddenly the world takes notice. The light is shone on you. You’re no longer the guy who struggled. You’re the guy who has had success. The one who has success is a new person to you. The one who struggled suddenly has nowhere to go – his prayers have been answered. If you’ve been struggling for18 years, what do you do when success comes? You struggle: struggle is your mode. You’re figuring it out. Do yourself a favour. Mark your success. If you don’t, the day your ship comes in might be just another day at the office.”
A few years after Once, Hansard was in the spotlight again – this time for his role in the occupation by homeless campaigners of Apollo House, an office block in central Dublin. “I was crying on the Nine O’Clock News. It was a massive learning curve,” he says of the 2016 protest. “All I can tell you is the energy behind whatever happened in Apollo House was sincere. We went and said, ‘let’s give this a shot’. We dived in two feet forward: we just went for it. It was a powerful thing to have done.”
The Frames return to Cork ahead of the reissuing of the band’s first three albums on vinyl on June 9. These were initially put out by ZTT Records, the avant-garde pop label founded by music journalist Paul Morley and Trevor Horn, the 1980s producer best known for his Buggles song 'Video Killed the Radio Star'. ZTT’s most significant successes were Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones and the Art Of Noise – conceptual pop groups who could not have been further removed from The Frames.
“Paul Morley had a brilliant mind – my god, what a mind. Some of the best conversations about career and stuff I’ve ever had were with him,” says Hansard. “Trevor was our producer and head of the label. Trevor was much more aloof. Trevor was a big smoker. He was always on the vibe. Paul was the guy you had a deep conversation with. When I delivered the demo for [the Frame’s 2001 lo-fi classic] For The Birds to Paul, I said, ‘Look Paul – you know, and I know…that this band and these songs and this label are a not a good mix. Will you have a word with Trevor and let us go? This is where we’re at. He was like, ‘you’re right… you’re absolutely right’.”
Hansard has played on every rung of Irish music – from pubs to arenas. One of the biggest audiences to whom he performed was with Ed Sheeran at Croke Park in 2015, where he and Kodaline joined the English singer for a version of Dick Shannon’s The Auld Triangle. He will be the first to admit that he doesn’t know every Sheeran song by heart. That isn’t to say he doesn’t respect his achievements.
“I see him in the same light as I see Van Morrison. I know that’s a mad comparison. Ed is basically a pop star of our day. Van the Man was the pop star of his day. If you were Bob Dylan, then Van Morrison was Ed Sheeran.
“Van was on the radio. Van was selling records when [Dylan’s collaborators] The Band weren’t selling as many records. Van worked hard and did his thing. I don’t know Ed’s records. When he up and asked me to sing the Auld Triangle – that was because Christy Moore had said to him, ‘you should call Glen and get him to sing with you’. I did the Auld Triangle in front of 80,000 people. It was a mad experience. We had a great night. We went for a couple of pints and had a great chat. I have nothing but respect for anyone who works that hard.”
- The Frames play Live at the Marquee June 2-3. Glen Hansard plays Cork City Hall on December 19
