For the past decade, Frances Quinlan has built a reputation as an expertly narrative songwriter and a peerless singer in the indie-rock world with her band, Hop Along. Frances Quinlan was raised North New Jersey and Quakertown, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, and was an active reader in her youth. She began songwriting as a teenager with her brother, Andrew, who introduced her 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. She used digital audio workstation software to record Songs of the Sea, an EP that introduced her to Long Island. She credits the suburbs' DIY punk community with affirming her confidence and place in the industry.Quinlan recorded her first solo album, Freshman Year, under the name Hop Along, Queen Ansleis, in 2005, between her freshman and sophomore years. She distributed the album on burned CDs. After graduation, another brother, Mark, joined her on drums as she 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. She lived in Philadelphia in the mid-2010s, where she wrote the lyrics of the band's next album, Bark Your Head Off Dog. Her upcoming album, Likewise, is her first solo album released under her own name. She recorded the album with a bandmate from Hop Along and felt that the recording experience opened her instrumentation palate beyond the guitar and made her a more adventurous collaborator, adding strings, autoharp, and synthesizers.She also created the album's cover art. The album is set for release by Saddle Creek Records on January 31, 2020.
