![\"M-33-THE-FRAY\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/M-33-THE-FRAY.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nAfter a disappointing commercial reception for the Fray\u2019s third album, 2012\u2019s Scars and Stories<\/i>, the Denver foursome found themselves wondering\u2014after 10 years and three records\u2014if they wanted to carry on. \u201cThose are the defeats that make you do the math and figure out whether this is something you really want to do,\u201d says singer and pianist Isaac Slade.<\/p>\n
After soul searching, the musicians decided it was\u2014and they quickly set out to prove it by wrapping their latest album, Helios<\/i>, in record time. The band worked with producer Stuart Price (Madonna, the Killers), who pushed them to broaden their sound. The result is an album unlike any the group has made. Along with the Fray\u2019s trademark lush piano hooks, the songs are full of drum samples and synthesizers. Slade even worked for the first time with outside songwriters, including Ryan Tedder (Beyonc\u00e9, Kelly Clarkson). \u201cIt was new territory for me,\u201d says Slade, \u201cand it started feeling exciting and uncomfortable from the first notes we played.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along the way, Slade came to terms with what he has described as the isolating feelings that can come with being a frontman, and he and his bandmates\u2014guitarists Joe King and Dave Welsh and drummer Ben Wysocki\u2014made clear their musical commitment to each other and the band.\u00a0Says Slade, \u201cIf we\u2019re still in this band in 10 years, looking back, this will be the record where we decided to do this on purpose, and do it well, and I can hear it in\u00a0the notes themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What was the band\u2019s goal?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
We wanted to go stylistically to places we had never been before, and that hasn\u2019t always been the case. We\u2019re walking a fine line between wanting to make something new and exciting, but also still familiar to fans and the public. It\u2019s a funny thing, making art for commerce. We never really started out with a goal before, and\u00a0we did this time.<\/p>\n
What did Stuart Price bring?<\/b><\/p>\n
The biggest thing he added was being a boundary-pushing guide. Pushing boundaries in the studio is kind of a dangerous affair, because you can make stuff that\u2019s so off the map that you love but nobody else can relate to. Or you want to play it safe and end up making something that sounds exactly like everything else you\u2019ve done, and people are bored. Our third record was all about sounding organic: the perfect snare in the perfect room with the perfect mic. This record was all about the crazy contraptions Stuart would bring in that he found on eBay. It was the equivalent of that in every single area. For me, I\u2019d sing three takes instead of 30, so the vocals have a real throwaway, in-the-moment energy that I\u2019ve never had on any of our records.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Following that lead takes trust.<\/b><\/p>\n
Well, it took a couple of weeks\u2014but it\u2019s hilarious that it only took that. You make music with guys for 12 years, and it\u2019s still hard to have that. Building a rapport with Stuart was relatively quick. The trust that took the longest was probably with Dave, because he and Stuart are in pretty similar spaces. They\u2019re both pretty out-there creatively, and both are willing to take risks. So they kind of danced around each other in the studio while the rest of us connected with Stuart really fast. And then, two weeks in, Dave and Stuart were best friends.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You minimized piano on the third album. Why bring it back?<\/b><\/p>\n
Looking back, we had to detox from piano. We had established so much of a reputation around that instrument I think everybody needed to re-establish who are we apart from a piano record. And now there\u2019s a song on the album, \u201cHold My Hand,\u201d that starts with a good old-fashioned Fray piano hook. I love it. It\u2019s one of those things\u2014you\u2019ve got to leave home for a while to figure out if you actually want to come back.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You worked with outside writers.<\/b><\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t feel comfortable to do so until this record, and then it did. Our manager told us these are professional songwriters who do this for a living, and worst-case scenario, you don\u2019t use the song and you end up learning something. The best that could happen is you make music you can actually sink your teeth into, and you come up with a whole record much faster than you would writing by yourself. Also, I felt like we had established enough of a sound that I\u2019m not walking into a room blind like a new artist, with no clout. If I had done it 10 years ago I\u2019d have said, \u201cOK, you\u2019re the pro, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing, let\u2019s make your song.\u201d I know my voice well enough now that I can tell whether it\u2019s something I would sing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What did you learn from that?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
Every single song, without fail, got to a point where I felt like there was nothing there. And every single time, the person sitting across the table would say, \u201cI know it feels stuck right now, but let\u2019s give it another shot.\u201d I learned that these guys have a work ethic that I never associated with making art. I associate art with standing in a field with a lightning rod waiting for it to strike, and they associate a punch-clock. You show up at 9:30 with your coffee, and maybe it doesn\u2019t really start coming together until noon, but you\u2019re working on that factory line the whole time. And they do it every day. I\u2019ve never treated art like that. It\u2019s exciting to have a new fresh approach.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve talked about the loneliness of being a lead singer. Has that changed?<\/b><\/p>\n
It has changed. I started reaching out and talking to some other folks who are in my shoes\u2014and just finding some camaraderie in that isolation has made it feel so much more tolerable and survivable. Also, to be honest, I started being vulnerable about those feelings with the guys, which was hard. Telling the people closest to you that you feel alone can be a hard thing to say, and it can be hard for them to hear.<\/p>\n
Did that affect the band dynamic?<\/b><\/p>\n
I want to have a band that\u2019s big enough to hold everybody\u2019s personalities and ideas, but for me, unless it\u2019s a little album I make with a friend, if I\u2019m doing music it\u2019s going to be with these guys. I\u2019ve felt that for a long time but never really come out and said it. But I said that a couple of years ago, and I feel like something gelled among the four of us, like, \u201cOK. We\u2019re in this together.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
What was the big catalyst?<\/b><\/p>\n
Having a pretty unsuccessful third record threw all of us on our heels. Compared to our first two records, which went platinum and were nominated for Grammys, the third record was a frontage road along the\u00a0Top 40 highway we had always found ourselves on. Those challenging moments are the ones where everybody has to go inside themselves and figure out why they\u2019re here. All four of us had to figure out how badly we want this. Do we want to call it good, three records, and coast into the sunset doing corporate gigs? Or do we want to do a second decade and see what happens? Each of us came to that conclusion together, but separately. We turned 30 in this band, and we decided we want to turn 40\u2014but we want to do it with vibrancy and not as a vintage act.<\/p>\n
\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n
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THE FRAY The piano-pop rockers regroup and set out in new musical directions\u00a0 After a disappointing commercial reception for the Fray\u2019s third album, 2012\u2019s Scars and Stories, the Denver foursome found themselves wondering\u2014after 10 years and three records\u2014if they wanted to carry on. \u201cThose are the defeats that make you do the math and figure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7401,3158],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12362,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360\/revisions\/12362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}