{"id":5080,"date":"2012-02-29T01:54:08","date_gmt":"2012-02-29T08:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=5080"},"modified":"2012-02-29T01:56:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T08:56:00","slug":"the-fray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/02\/the-fray\/","title":{"rendered":"THE FRAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"THE FRAY<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The journey to success was tough\u2014and they have the scars to prove it<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis is the first time we got to make the record we wanted to,\u201d declares Isaac Slade of the Fray\u2019s third album, Scars & Stories<\/em>. The group went through plenty to reach that point. Formed by singer and pianist Slade, guitarists Dave Welsh and Joe King and drummer Ben Wysocki in the early-2000s church-music scene in Denver, the Fray found its secular breakthrough with 2005\u2019s double-platinum How to Save a Life<\/em>. A self-titled follow-up topped the album charts in 2009, and the group collaborated that same year with hip-hop producer Timbaland on his Shock Value II<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t for nothing that this band gave itself a name that suggests acrimony\u2014internal dissent has been part of the Fray\u2019s chemistry all along. By the fall of 2010 unity was at an all-time low, until the members gathered at a Las Vegas studio to record a track for\u2014of all things\u2014the lighthearted compilation album Muppets: The Green Album<\/em>. \u201cTensions were high,\u201d Slade says. \u201cWe went into the studio and got drunk in the control room trying to sing \u2018Mahna Mahna\u2019 like Tom Waits. We realized we still love being in a band together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rejuvenated Fray proceeded to contribute a track to the tribute Listen to Me: Buddy Holly<\/em> (\u201cTake Your Time\u201d) and to record Scars<\/em> with producer Brendan O\u2019Brien, who provided a more muscular sound in part by de-emphasizing Slade\u2019s signature piano. Slade spoke with us\u00a0about his group\u2019s tumultuous journey, as well as the surprisingly helpful advice\u00a0he received from Rwandan President\u00a0Paul Kagame.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Where did you get the album title?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually a B-side for the record that didn\u2019t make the cut. It was a little five-verse folk song that I wrote about my four ex-girlfriends and the woman who became my wife. It became a map of where I have been, where I am and where I\u2019m going. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever written a song like that before. It was this catalog of what we\u2019ve been through. More importantly, they\u2019re not wounds\u2014they\u2019ve healed, which is a healthy thing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why the more rock-oriented sound?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We love how it came out, but we didn\u2019t intend it. We didn\u2019t realize it until Dave and I went out for tacos one night in L.A. Most of the record was done, and we were like, \u201cIt\u2019s a lot louder<\/em>.\u201d Part of it is Brendan O\u2019Brien, who\u2019s a guitar god. Brendan turned the pianos down a lot. But Dave and I discovered a dialogue on this record. Normally we\u2019re both going all the time\u2014I\u2019ll sing something and he\u2019ll play something. On this record we\u2019re going back and forth. It\u2019s almost like having another singer, it\u2019s really cool. I don\u2019t know how much was Brendan and how much was us sitting down and listening to each other. But I think for the rest of our lives there\u2019s that trust in each other that we can rely on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do Brendan and Timbaland compare as producers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They\u2019re opposites. (laughs<\/em>) But Brendan and Timbaland both had a common motif in the pace at which they work. There\u2019s a momentum they try to capture. It keeps everything moving, but also never gives you a chance to doubt yourself. If you\u2019re hauling ass down the road on the median, you only have time to check the map a couple of times and pray to God you get there instead of second-guessing every turn. Typically we\u2019re a very second-guessing band.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had a bit of an identity crisis. We got very big very fast, had these quiet songs we had to figure out how to play live, and we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did your church roots affect you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a couple of specific things we\u2019ve learned from music in church. Every song has to be of substance. Every single thing you sing has to matter\u2014and that means the lyric, the melody, tempo. It taught us songs are not for us, they\u2019re for everyone in the room. If you keep it for yourself, it becomes an inward feedback loop. Also, those songs were very simple and singable by the 9-year-olds and the 69-year-olds who were sitting next to each other in church.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which new song came easiest?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBe Still.\u201d It\u2019s the last song on the record, just me and the piano. I was up late talking on the phone to my little brother while he was going through some personal stuff. I woke up the next morning, pulled out a guitar and started writing this song as I was playing. I came up with the whole first verse, chorus and melody right there\u2014and that never, ever happens. I\u2019m usually like a woman in labor with songs. I sang the song for the first time on tape as a first take. The guys in the control room were like, \u201cGreat, why don\u2019t you do another?\u201d And that\u2019s the one we<\/p>\n

used on the record.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Which gave you trouble?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTurn Me On.\u201d It was a rocker, we were\u00a0trying to be Foo Fighters. Everybody in the band jokes that we\u2019re going to \u201csoft-rock\u00a0[the listeners\u2019] faces off.\u201d But this song was about passion, it was aggressive and fast\u00a0and I was trying to be [Foos singer]\u00a0Dave Grohl. It was not working for obvious reasons: I am not Dave Grohl. We had to take three weeks off from recording to open for U2, and played at a Denver stadium where we\u2019d grown up seeing football games [Invesco Field]. We tried the song, and it ran through us like prune juice. It was terrible. We tried it a few more times and it never\u00a0worked. So we went back to the studio with Brendan and slowed it way down like a\u00a0Marvin Gaye song.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How about the cover for the Buddy Holly tribute?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It led to us doing a covers EP that\u2019s going to come out in a couple of months. We did Annie Lennox\u2019s \u201cWhy,\u201d\u00a0Bruce Springsteen\u2019s \u201cStreets of Philadelphia\u201d and \u201cMaps\u201d by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And then we went down to Nashville to do a version of \u201cBoulder to Birmingham\u201d with\u00a0Emmylou Harris.<\/p>\n

How has success affected you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have wrestled with a lot of loneliness in this band, especially as we\u2019ve gotten more successful. I guess it\u2019s a clich\u00e9, the lonely lead singer in the band, but it\u2019s hard explaining to people how isolating it is. I\u2019ve spent the past seven years running away from that, but this time I\u2019ve accepted it. I\u2019m the singer, I\u2019m the leader of this band, and y\u2019all can like it or you can screw yourselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What changed your attitude?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was on this trip I took to Africa [in October 2010]. I was in Rwanda, sitting with the president of this devastated country. I asked him, \u201cHow do you handle the loneliness in the spotlight?\u201d It was a long six or seven seconds while he pondered whether to answer. Then he talked for 30 minutes straight about leadership, the pedestal and the spotlight, and how no one asks you to come down from it\u2014in fact, they usually ask you to stay up there. It helped me understand how to deal with it. Strangely, I felt a certain comfort from this African president telling me it\u2019s OK to feel alone.<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE FRAY The journey to success was tough\u2014and they have the scars to prove it \u201cThis is the first time we got to make the record we wanted to,\u201d declares Isaac Slade of the Fray\u2019s third album, Scars & Stories. The group went through plenty to reach that point. Formed by singer and pianist Slade, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[3032,970,3158],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5080"}],"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=5080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5083,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5080\/revisions\/5083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}