And a lot of storytelling.

The Frames have made no attempts of hiding the fact that they don't like playing in England. Seeing it as a necessary evil, they realize it must be done. I asked Hansard if he has changed his opinion of London and learnt to like it. "Definitely we enjoy playing in London, because in London there's a big enough audience of people we get that get us, so a gig there is fine but once you start getting outside that to the Manchester's and the Liverpool's, outside the center, everybody is basically held by the press. In England the music press and media have a real strong hold on what's popular and what goes on, it's basically that their culture is media led, where as in Ireland it's very much word of mouth, our media is so late with everything. In America it's so fractured, there isn't one radio station that will give you everything there is to offer or in any way leaning to the left. Anything that's big and goes to the whole country is incredibly corporate, and I suppose that's a real restriction because the only real music press over here seems to be Rolling Stone, maybe I'm wrong, but there seems to be only one paper, maybe two, Spin, I never read music press anyways though, we've all realized that none of us do, we're kind of a bit lost as to what is and what isn't."

If you're reading this and wondering who the Frames are you're not alone. What Canada has in bands like The Tragically Hip, Ireland has in the Frames. Quietly touring their own country for fourteen years and popping over here every couple to appease the labels, The Frames have built a strong family of fans in Ireland and a following in North America. "We won an award in Ireland a couple of weeks ago, first time we've ever won an award in our fucking career, and it was a weird one because, what happened to us in Ireland is we got big just through being a band with our own audience, working through our own people that the media had to acknowledge us. U2 have won this award every single year since the award ceremony began, and it was really weird for us because you have to walk into the main gate and everybody takes your photograph, and you sit in your seat and the camera follows you, then you get your award and say your little speech and you go to a press conference, you go out and you do little T.V. spot with a station, and then you're ushered back to your seat, and I have to say it was fucking horrible. We've never had to deal with it before and why would anyone want to, to have to live that sort of a life. I say fuck it, for me, it's all about, you live your life. The artistic path is all about having good friends and leading a good life, and having a career where you can go to a town and play. The award meant something to everyone else but us, my mother fucking loved it. But over the years, our bullshit radar has become so sharp, being on labels and being dropped and signed again."

"Some people need that validation that all the effort and money they've put into a band has finally paid off. But then again there exactly the kids that are going to say 'the fucking bastards sold out, I loved them when they were small, and now I can't go to see them in a small venue anymore', it's kind of a double edged sword constantly, that you're striving to get to a point in your life that you own your own house, you know, just simple stuff as human beings where you can support the family you have around you. It's kind of getting where you need to be without anyone else's blood on your hands is the task, but it's not always simple like that, but so far it's good."

Sitting down with Glen Hansard is like sitting with Jaffy Rider from The Darma Bums. Kerouac couldn't have painted a better picture of what a philosophical man with a soul and a voice should be. Be it the pain killers or the fact that Hansard has been living with his music since he was in school, he gives you the impression that he knows a lot more about the world as it is than you will ever know. Even if it's all bad news he's telling you, he still can make you feel everything is going to be alright. "Something that is very unfortunately becoming big in Ireland right now is that everybody has decided that money is credible, and that's really disgusting and sad, especially for us, because in America you can understand it, the heart of capitalism, you can understand it at that level but in Ireland it was always about something else but since our economy has picked up we've actually become a lot uglier as a nation and we seem to be okay with it. I'm not trying to change the world or anything, I'm just a fucking singer in a band but it just makes you look at your home town and go (shakes his head) it's a pity."

That could explain what's going on with bands like The Thrills then. Seeing how I don't know how to wrap my head around these guys I asked Hansard what he thought of the new trend of bands conforming to the 'American Eagle' ideal. "There a funny bunch because every time you look at the Thrills they look like a bunch of Californian kids, I don't really know where The Thrills exist. I kind of like it in a way you know, you've got this Irish band that has absolutely no relationship to Ireland except for the fact that they were born there and they go out into the world, I like the fact that they have no Irish in them, that they could be from anywhere. There's a thing in Ireland right now where everyone's wearing baseball caps and growing beards and trying to look like fucking truckers, every band I know and I have to say 'lads, what are you are'."

That only begged the question of "then what are The Frames about? What drives you?" "We 're much more about the heart, as in it's much more based in the relationship, it's the only thing I can really sing about with authority, is myself, it's like I would never take on a political topic because I really feel that the only true terrain that I know is the man within, you know, your own path and I think that's valid, I think The Frames will be like kindergarten level spirituality, we don't have any answers, just questions and if I have a few of the same questions as one person in the audience then that's really good because then at least we're all asking the question and if we're all asking the question it's like the answer's will filter through."

"There's a lot of good questions out there, I think living your life and making it a good life is the most important thing and I think the songs are just the residue that's left after you've past through situations. I find, certainly with myself, that I'm never really singing about the present, I'm singing about years past or six months into the future and predicting what might come and it's becoming more important to me to try and sing about the moment that I'm in. I think we're at a point now as a bunch of human beings where it would neither surprise us nor freak us out. If the band turned huge I would hope we wouldn't lose our own respect."

With respect being there for The Frames, having been awarded the best band award at the Meteor Awards, you'd think Hansard would feel content with achieving success at home, being the best band in Ireland is no small thing, but being on top and looking down on the situation can make you afraid of heights sometimes. "We're kind of known as being a very patriotic country, after we won our award, the next day when it went on TV, the only thing that was shown was Lionel Ritchie and all they talked about was the fact that this American had come over and played in our award ceremony without mentioning any of the Irish bands that won awards. They mentioned The Darkness, an English band, so that will show you that we're not in fact a very patriotic country. We're a weird country. It's a real pity that we don't love our own a little more. You get a very interesting perspective as a traveler, as a drifter, drifting through town, it's very rewarding."

With that said, it seemed only logical to ask the story teller one quick, final question. Why are you in a band? This wasn't as quick and easy as I thought. The man that seemed like he could talk forever fell silent. Staring at me with a concentrated look he simply stated, "I think the only reason anyone's ever in a band is because they think what they do is cool or that they like it. Within that is all the challenges; we're shit, we're brilliant, and I think what all of us are constantly trying to do is musically get to a better place or make cooler music, trying to say what we want to say with a slightly better voice, trying to just hone it the whole time."

Give The Frames a whirl on CordMag's audio player.

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By Jack Libby
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : May 23, 2004.