Biography
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Born
7 May 1986 (age 37)
Frances Quinlan (born Christine Frances Quinlan on 7 May 1986) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and visual artist best known for fronting Philadelphia indie rock band Hop Along.
Quinlan was raised North New Jersey and Quakertown, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, and was an active reader in their youth. They began songwriting as a teenager with their brother, Andrew, who introduced them to women musicians including Ani DiFranco, Fiona Apple, and Lauryn Hill. In the mid-2000s, Quinlan began a solo acoustic project in college at Maryland Institute College of Art. They used digital audio workstation software to record Songs of the Sea, an EP that introduced them to Long Island. They credit the suburbs' DIY punk community with affirming their confidence and place in the industry.
Quinlan recorded their first solo album, Freshman Year, under the name Hop Along, Queen Ansleis, in 2005, between their freshman and sophomore years. They distributed the album on burned CDs. After graduation, another brother, Mark, joined them on drums as they continued the project, which was renamed Hop Along. Quinlan is a guitarist and lead singer in the indie rock band. Hop Along's 2015 studio album Painted Shut was widely praised by critics for its "immediacy and emotional depth", led by Quinlan's voice. They lived in Philadelphia in the mid-2010s, where they wrote the lyrics of the band's next album, Bark Your Head Off Dog.
Likewise, their first eponymous solo album, was recorded with Hop Along bandmate Joe Reinhart and expands beyond the indie guitar sound adding strings, autoharp, and synthesizers. Quinlan also created the album's cover art. The album was released by Saddle Creek Records on January 31, 2020.
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