Aztec Camera

This one-man band arrived on the heels of punk. Roddy Frame had started writing songs at 15. He formed Aztec Camera a year later as a vehicle for his highly individual style of folky pop. Initially signed to the Glasgow independent label Postcard, Aztec Camera soon moved to the much higher profile English indie Rough Trade. A flurry of attention in Great Britain piqued Sire's interest. Before the release of High Land, Hard Rain, however, the group's original bassist Campbell Owens and drummer Dave Mulholland departed. Aztec Camera has since consisted of Frame with various backup musicians.

Frame's songs never charted well in the U.S., but his penchant for hook-drenched melodies and clever wordplay made him a critic’s darling. Aztec Camera's debut fared better in Britain, with modest hits including “Oblivious” and “Walk Out to Winter.” The second album, produced by Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler, offered more of the same. Frame fell out of critical favor with 1987’s Love, an ill-conceived attempt to marry his singer/songwriter pop with Philadelphia soul. Despite that, the album achieved platinum status internationally and in Europe spun off four hit singles, including “Somewhere in My Heart.”

He reclaimed his critical reputation with Stray. On 1993’s Dreamland, Frame collaborated on two songs with Ryuichi Sakamoto. In 1995 four albums were released under the Aztec Camera banner, most of them live recordings, but also including Frestonia, a collection of new studio tracks that continued Frame’s exploration of classic pop. Nothing else was heard from Frame until 1998, when his first official solo album, North Star, was released in England.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)