ISSUE #33 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #33 MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A What did Stuart Price bring? If I had done it 10 years ago I’d have said, Did that affect the band dynamic? The biggest thing he added was being “OK, you’re the pro, I don’t know what I’m I want to have a band that’s big enough to a boundary-pushing guide. Pushing doing, let’s make your song.” I know my voice hold everybody’s personalities and ideas, boundaries in the studio is kind of a well enough now that I can tell whether it’s but for me, unless it’s a little album I make dangerous affair, because you can make something I would sing. with a friend, if I’m doing music it’s going to stuff that’s so off the map that you love but be with these guys. I’ve felt that for a long nobody else can relate to. Or you want to What did you learn from that? time but never really come out and said it. play it safe and end up making something Every single song, without fail, got to a point But I said that a couple of years ago, and I that sounds exactly like everything else where I felt like there was nothing there. And feel like something gelled among the four of you’ve done, and people are bored. Our third every single time, the person sitting across us, like, “OK. We’re in this together.” record was all about sounding organic: the the table would say, “I know it feels stuck perfect snare in the perfect room with the right now, but let’s give it another shot.” I What was the big catalyst? perfect mic. This record was all about the learned that these guys have a work ethic Having a pretty unsuccessful third record crazy contraptions Stuart would bring in that that I never associated with making art. I threw all of us on our heels. Compared to he found on eBay. It was the equivalent of associate art with standing in a field with a our first two records, which went platinum that in every single area. For me, I’d sing lightning rod waiting for it to strike, and they and were nominated for Grammys, the three takes instead of 30, so the vocals have associate a punch-clock. You show up at third record was a frontage road along the a real throwaway, in-the-moment energy that 9:30 with your coffee, and maybe it doesn’t Top 40 highway we had always found I’ve never had on any of our records. really start coming together until noon, but ourselves on. Those challenging moments you’re working on that factory line the whole are the ones where everybody has to go Following that lead takes trust. time. And they do it every day. I’ve never inside themselves and figure out why Well, it took a couple of weeks—but it’s treated art like that. It’s exciting to have a they’re here. All four of us had to figure out hilarious that it only took that. You make new fresh approach. how badly we want this. Do we want to music with guys for 12 years, and it’s still hard to have that. Building a rapport with

f rank W. o ckenfels 3 Stuart was relatively quick. The trust that took the longest was probably with Dave, because he and Stuart are in pretty similar spaces. They’re both pretty out-there creatively, and both are willing to take risks. So they kind of danced around each other Joe King, dDaveave Welsh, iIsaacsaac sSlade,lade, Ben Wysocki in the studio while the rest of us connected with Stuart really fast. And then, two weeks in, Dave and Stuart were best friends.

THE fray You minimized piano on the third The piano-pop rockers regroup and set out in new musical directions album. Why bring it back? Looking back, we had to detox from piano. We had established so much of a reputation After A disAppointing commerciAl the group has made. Along with the fray’s says slade, “if we’re still in this band around that instrument I think everybody reception for the fray’s third album, 2012’s trademark lush piano hooks, the songs in 10 years, looking back, this will be the needed to re-establish who are we apart Scars and Stories, the denver foursome are full of drum samples and synthesizers. record where we decided to do this on Xiao Xiao/Xinhua/Landov from a piano record. And now there’s a song found themselves wondering—after 10 years slade even worked for the first time with purpose, and do it well, and i can hear it in on the album, “Hold My Hand,” that starts and three records—if they wanted to carry outside songwriters, including ryan tedder the notes themselves.” with a good old-fashioned Fray piano hook. on. “those are the defeats that make you (Beyoncé, Kelly clarkson). “it was new I love it. It’s one of those things—you’ve got Isaac Slade onstage in Beijing, 2012 do the math and figure out whether this is territory for me,” says slade, “and it started What was the band’s goal? to leave home for a while to figure out if you something you really want to do,” says singer feeling exciting and uncomfortable from the We wanted to go stylistically to places we actually want to come back. ‘We wanted to go and pianist isaac slade. first notes we played.” had never been before, and that hasn’t You’ve talked about the After soul searching, the musicians Along the way, slade came to terms always been the case. We’re walking You worked with outside writers. loneliness of being a stylistically to places we decided it was—and they quickly set out with what he has described as the isolating a fine line between wanting to make It didn’t feel comfortable to do so until this lead singer. Has that to prove it by wrapping their latest album, feelings that can come with being a frontman, something new and exciting, but also still record, and then it did. Our manager told us changed? had never been before.’ Helios, in record time. the band worked and he and his bandmates—guitarists familiar to fans and the public. it’s a funny these are professional songwriters who do It has changed. I started with producer stuart price (madonna, the Joe King and dave Welsh and drummer thing, making art for commerce. We never this for a living, and worst-case scenario, you reaching out and talking to some other folks call it good, three records, and coast into Killers), who pushed them to broaden their Ben Wysocki—made clear their musical really started out with a goal before, and don’t use the song and you end up learning who are in my shoes—and just finding some the sunset doing corporate gigs? Or do sound. the result is an album unlike any commitment to each other and the band. we did this time. something. The best that could happen is camaraderie in that isolation has made it we want to do a second decade and see you make music you can actually sink your feel so much more tolerable and survivable. what happens? Each of us came to that teeth into, and you come up with a whole Also, to be honest, I started being vulnerable conclusion together, but separately. We record much faster than you would writing by about those feelings with the guys, which turned 30 in this band, and we decided we ‘I associate art with standing in a field with a yourself. Also, I felt like we had established was hard. Telling the people closest to you want to turn 40—but we want to do it with lightning rod waiting for it to strike.’ enough of a sound that I’m not walking into that you feel alone can be a hard thing to say, vibrancy and not as a vintage act. a room blind like a new artist, with no clout. and it can be hard for them to hear. –Eric R. Danton

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