Singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has admitted his mother is to thank for his music career after she helped pay for his first demo.
The Oscar winner revealed his mum Catherine took out a bank loan so his band The Frames could make their debut record.
“I got to the point – and I don’t know how I got there – where I needed to make a demo of my own songs, so I went to Sun Studios and asked them how much it would cost,” he said.
Loan: Glen revealed his mother took out a bank loan so he could record his demo | VIPIRELAND.COM
“And my mother went to the bank manager and asked could she get the house done up. The bank manager gave her IR£3,000 (€3,800), IR£2,000 (€2,540) of which we spent on the demo.”
After recording his demo, the Dubliner was invited to listen to it alongside The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, The Police’s Stewart Copeland and former Island Records chief Denny Cordell at Marina Guinness’s Kildare home.
Although surrounded by music greats, Glen admitted he didn’t recognise Ronnie Wood but was captivated by Stewart.
Star struck: Glen revealed he was captivated by The Police’s Stewart Copeland | VIPIRELAND.COM
“I knew who Stewart was, but I didn’t know who Ronnie was,” he told RTE’s The Works Presents.
“I was a huge Police fan when I was a kid and they were commenting to me on my music, saying ‘Well done, it’s really good’. Then Denny said: ‘Can I see you play?'”
“I said, ‘You can come in and see us busking’, so he did and then I met Chris Blackwell of Island Records,” he added.
RTE’s The Works Presents is on tonight at 11:15pm on RTE One.
