The Fray Really Know What We Were Doing
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DECEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM DECEMBER 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Q&A out for tacos one night in L.A. Most of the you do another?” And that’s the one we How has success affected you? record was done, and we were like, “It’s a lot used on the record. I have wrestled with a lot of loneliness in louder.” Part of it is Brendan O’Brien, who’s a this band, especially as we’ve gotten more guitar god. Brendan turned the pianos down Which gave you trouble? successful. I guess it’s a cliché, the lonely a lot. But Dave and I discovered a dialogue “Turn Me On.” It was a rocker, we were lead singer in the band, but it’s hard explaining on this record. Normally we’re both going trying to be Foo Fighters. Everybody in the to people how isolating it is. I’ve spent the all the time—I’ll sing something and he’ll band jokes that we’re going to “soft-rock past seven years running away from that, but play something. On this record we’re going [the listeners’] faces off.” But this song was this time I’ve accepted it. I’m the singer, I’m back and forth. It’s almost like having another about passion, it was aggressive and fast the leader of this band, and y’all can like it singer, it’s really cool. I don’t know how much and I was trying to be [Foos singer] or you can screw yourselves. was Brendan and how much was us sitting Dave Grohl. It was not working for obvious down and listening to each other. But I think reasons: I am not Dave Grohl. We had to What changed your attitude? for the rest of our lives there’s that trust in take three weeks off from recording to open It was on this trip I took to Africa [in October each other that we can rely on. for U2, and played at a Denver stadium 2010]. I was in Rwanda, sitting with the where we’d grown up seeing football games president of this devastated country. I asked How do Brendan and Timbaland [Invesco Field]. We tried the song, and it ran him, “How do you handle the loneliness in compare as producers? through us like prune juice. It was terrible. the spotlight?” It was a long six or seven They’re opposites. (laughs) But Brendan We tried it a few more times and it never seconds while he pondered whether to and Timbaland both had a common motif in the pace at which they work. There’s a momentum they try to capture. It keeps everything moving, but also never gives you a chance to doubt yourself. If you’re 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’re a very second-guessing band. IsaacIsaac Slade,Slade, Joe King, Ben Wysocki,Wysocki, Dave WelshWelsh Danny Clinch Why? 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’t THE FRAY really know what we were doing. The journey to success was tough—and they have the scars to prove it How did your church roots affect you? There are a couple of specific things we’ve “ThIS IS THE FIRST TIME WE GOT TO was at an all-time low, until the members he received from Rwandan President learned from music in church. Every song make the record we wanted to,” declares gathered at a Las Vegas studio to record Paul Kagame. has to be of substance. Every single thing Isaac Slade of the Fray’s third album, Scars a track for—of all things—the lighthearted you sing has to matter—and that means the & Stories. The group went through plenty compilation album Muppets: The Green Where did you get the album title? lyric, the melody, tempo. It taught us songs to reach that point. Formed by singer and Album. “Tensions were high,” Slade says. It’s actually a B-side for the record that didn’t are not for us, they’re for everyone in the pianist Slade, guitarists Dave Welsh and “We went into the studio and got drunk make the cut. It was a little five-verse folk song room. If you keep it for yourself, it becomes Slade and touring bassist Joe King and drummer Ben Wysocki in the in the control room trying to sing ‘Mahna that I wrote about my four ex-girlfriends and an inward feedback loop. Also, those songs Jeremy McCoy on The Tonight early-2000s church-music scene in Denver, Mahna’ like Tom Waits. We realized we still the woman who became my wife. It became were very simple and singable by the 9-year- Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank Show With Conan O’Brien, 2009 the Fray found its secular breakthrough with love being in a band together.” a map of where I have been, where I am and olds and the 69-year-olds who were sitting 2005’s double-platinum How to Save a Life. The rejuvenated Fray proceeded to where I’m going. I don’t think I’ve ever written next to each other in church. worked. So we went back to A self-titled follow-up topped the album contribute a track to the tribute Listen to a song like that before. It was this catalog of the studio with Brendan and ‘I think there’s now charts in 2009, and the group collaborated Me: Buddy Holly (“Take Your Time”) and what we’ve been through. More importantly, Which new song came easiest? slowed it way down like a a trust in each other that same year with hip-hop producer to record Scars with producer Brendan they’re not wounds—they’ve healed, which “Be Still.” It’s the last song on the record, just Marvin Gaye song. Timbaland on his Shock Value II album. O’Brien, who provided a more muscular is a healthy thing. me and the piano. I was up late talking on that we can rely on.’ But it wasn’t for nothing that this band sound in part by de-emphasizing Slade’s the phone to my little brother while he was How about the cover for gave itself a name that suggests acrimony— signature piano. Slade spoke with us Why the more rock-oriented sound? going through some personal stuff. I woke the Buddy Holly tribute? answer. Then he talked for 30 minutes internal dissent has been part of the Fray’s about his group’s tumultuous journey, We love how it came out, but we didn’t intend up the next morning, pulled out a guitar and It led to us doing a covers EP that’s straight about leadership, the pedestal and chemistry all along. By the fall of 2010 unity as well as the surprisingly helpful advice it. We didn’t realize it until Dave and I went started writing this song as I was playing. I going to come out in a couple of the spotlight, and how no one asks you to came up with the whole first verse, chorus months. We did Annie Lennox’s “Why,” come down from it—in fact, they usually ask and melody right there—and that never, ever Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” you to stay up there. It helped me understand happens. I’m usually like a woman in labor and “Maps” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And how to deal with it. Strangely, I felt a certain ‘We learned from making music in church that every with songs. I sang the song for the first then we went down to Nashville to do a comfort from this African president telling song has to be of substance.’ time on tape as a first take. The guys in the version of “Boulder to Birmingham” with me it’s OK to feel alone. control room were like, “Great, why don’t Emmylou Harris. –Eric R. Danton 28 29 M mag 16.indd 28 1/12/12 7:47:56 AM M mag 16.indd 29 1/12/12 7:48:29 AM.