IN JOHN CARNEY's new film, Once, Glen Hansard plays a confused young Grafton Street busker slowly finding his way through life. Needless to say, it's not a role the 36-year-old musician would have had to research too thoroughly.

Hansard has 'done' busking on Grafton Street, he has 'done' confused, and now, slowly, he is 'doing' the finding-his-way-through-life bit too.

Method acting at its finest, you could say.

Having spent most of the last 16 years trying to distance himself from Outspan Foster, guitarist in Alan Parker's 1991 film The Commitments, it is somewhat ironic that Hansard looks set to find wider fame once again on the big screen.

While he has gone to great lengths to insist that he is a musician/actor, and not an actor/musician, his work in front of the camera has earned him greater public recognition than his work in front of a microphone; no matter how many albums the Frames release, it seems that, to many people, he will always be Outspan Foster, one of Dublin's self-proclaimed 'saviours of soul'.

Hansard was born in Ballymun, among the very people who Commitments lead character Jimmy Rabbitte famously referred to as "the blacks of Dublin." Growing up, the sounds of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan were permanent features at home, and it wasn't long before young Glen decided that his future would be inextricably linked to the guitar.

He left school at 13 and made Grafton Street his home.

Throughout the mid and late '80s, Hansard was part of the Grafton Street furniture as he strummed guitar for passing shoppers. His street performances gaining in confidence, he decided that it was time to take the step of going into studio. His mother secured a bank loan and used the money to finance his first journey into the world of the recording artist. He made 50 demos and sent them around to various record labels.

Island Records were the first label to respond, when Denny Cordell, former manager of Joe Cocker, invited the burgeoning star over to his flat. The 17-year old arrived at Cordell's place to be greeted by Ron Wood, Stewart Copeland and Marianne Faithfull who, together with Cordell, dissected Hansard's four-song demo. At the end of the evening, they were all in agreement: Hansard had a gift, and that gift should be signed up to Island.

At that stage, Hansard was a folk performer, but one day - or, more specifically, one album - would change that. He was already in possession of a signed record contract when he bought Surfer Rosa, the groundbreaking album by US rock group the Pixies. It was a purchase that was to change his direction and, ultimately, his career.

He wanted a sound that would challenge the Pixies, and so he went about assembling a band to record his first album. Thus, the Frames were born.

Their debut album, Another Love Song, was released in 1992, but despite positive reviews it did not achieve the commercial success so craved by record companies. It was at this stage that Hansard, together with his bandmates, was to learn valuable lessons about the music industry. Like film studios, ultimately everything in the music industry comes down to money, and so short-term commercial success gets ranked over quality produce.

The Frames were dropped by Island, and Hansard spiralled into depression. He took off for the US and spent a number of weeks in New York mulling over his future. He says that a random meeting with a homeless man changed his outlook on life. The two became friends and swapped gifts - Hansard gave him an acorn and the homeless man offered up a billiard ball, one which the singer still treasures.

He returned from New York full of eagerness and it wasn't long before the Frames were back recording. Their 1995 album Fitzcarraldowas originally released independently, but ZTT Records soon wanted to snap it up and so once again the Frames were under the umbrella of a record label.

Fitzcarraldo contained 'Revelate', which remains probably the Frames' most famous song, and earned them a new legion of fans. While their support base was growing, 'artistic differences' soon emerged with ZTT and, following the release of Dance The Devil in 1999, band and label split.

Hansard himself says that he was never really comfortable with being signed to a record label. There is more than a touch of the 'tortured artist' about the Frames frontman, who has spoken of the conflict between the product a musician wants to create and the product a record label wants to sell.

In 2001, freed from the constraints of commercialism, Hansard and the Frames finally recorded the album that they had always wanted to. Released on their own label, For The Birds received very positive reviews and preceded a string of follow-ups - The Breadcrumb Trail in 2002, Set List in 2003, Burn The Maps in 2004, and The Cost in 2006.

And yet, they're still not famous. Signed to Island Records on the same day as the Cranberries, Hansard has seen a succession of Irish acts overtake the Frames, none more so than Damien Rice. When Rice was embarking on his solo career, the Frames offered him the chance to play support at their concerts - last year, as Rice conquered the US, he repaid the favour by asking the Frames to warm up his crowds.

Having tasted fame as Outspan Foster, however, Hansard is happy enough to remain somewhat out of the limelight. He has always rejected the notion that established musicians should keep a distance from their public. Indeed, it was Hansard's over-eagerness to mingle with the masses that almost pushed him over the edge.

Up until two years ago, he had almost permanent residence at the bar in Whelan's, the famous Dublin music venue. In a recent interview with the Sunday Tribune, he admitted that socialising in Dublin music circles had pushed him close to alcoholism. This came to a head on Christmas day 2004, when he woke up at 4pm in a B&B on George's Street. At that point, he realised that a change of scenery wouldn't do him any harm, and so he left Ireland for the Czech Republic, where he has lived for over two years now.

While commercial success has remained limited, Hansard seems to be a man finally at peace, both with his music and with his life. And, as a consequence, he is comfortable too with Outspan, so much so that he is willing to again risk unwanted acting celebrity to play the struggling guitarist once more for the cameras.

And so his career has come full circle.

Glen Hansard: Grafton Street busker, actor/musician.

C.V.

Name: Glen Hansard
Age: 36
Born: Ballymun, Dublin
Job: Singer and guitarist with the Frames; occasional actor In the news: Sixteen years after finding fame as Outspan Foster in The Commitments, Hansard's new film, Once, has just captured the World Cinema Audience Award at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival