The members of Denver-based band The Fray are some of the most laid back guys in the music business, despite having a huge single, “Over My Head (Cable Car),” and touring with major names like Weezer and Ben Folds Five.

How do they stay so grounded? Simple, they say. They got married.

The band was formed in 2002 by Isaac Slade (vocals, piano) and Joe King (guitar, vocals). Two other members, who were former bandmates of Slade’s and high school friends, Ben Wysocki (drums) and Dave Welsh (guitar), joined later. The Fray won Best New Band honors from Denver’s Westwood Magazine and then got a deal with Epic Records in 2004. They released their debut full-length album, “How to Save a Life,” last September.

They played shows around Denver and an editor from a local paper kept coming to the shows and later approached the band. That’s when the momentum started, and after sending out some demos, Epic Records came to them, asking them to sign a deal.

“It felt weird to have it validated like that,” says Slade, speaking to andPOP while in Toronto recently. “That same editor from the local Denver paper sat me down after and said, ‘Keep writing, whatever you do, just keep writing.’”

“‘Cable Car’ wasn’t something we ever expected to be anything. It was simple; we didn’t spend a lot of time on it. It just kind of came to us,” Wysocki says. “It was kind of an afterthought song. It was recorded so quickly and we put the song together so quickly, it wasn’t painstakingly long.”

The process of putting together their first album was a quick task.

“There are some songs in there that were written years before hitting the studio,” says Slade. “There’s some pretty old songs in there, as well as songs that were finished hours prior to recording them. We were only in the studio for maybe about a month and a half.”

“There wasn’t a lot of music, just everything that we had done as a band so far,” adds Wysocki. “It was quite a task to decide what was stronger.”

Slade has received high praises for his lyrics and his inspiration comes from great musicians or bands he looks up to, like the Counting Crows and Tori Amos. He looks to bands where the singer could be an author with lyrics and story telling. But he doesn’t get all his inspirations from famous singer-songwriters. His mom helped him out a bit too ? whether he liked it or not.

“My mom had this annoying habit of always sitting me down and would get me to talk about my day. Tell me what happened, tell me what you did, all that. She would make us sort out our emotions verbally all the time; it was just exhausting. I think that’s one of things that has helped me interpret my life to digest my feelings out it into verbal expression,” he explains. “I tend to take life very seriously and each experience that you have can come through. I’m not the guy to write happy, poppy songs, maybe one or two, and the rest of them are pretty serious.”

He writes so much but cuts a lot too, and jokes that he could write a book.

“Every song I would put out would have pages and pages or lyrics,” he laughs. “We only have three minutes and half of the stuff is repeated.”

But an author one day, he might be.

“I’ve always wanted to be an author and write a book,” he says enthusiastically. “I have so much stuff written. I’d love to (write a book) some day.”

Slade learned how to play the piano after a year of voice trouble when he was 11. He damaged his voice while in Toronto for a music camp during the summer. Reluctantly, Slade picked up playing the piano.

“Everyone knew me as the singer,” Slade says. “That’s what I did, who I was. So it was hard to for a year because I damaged it while in Toronto singing with younger people and then older crowds. My voice was changing at that time too.”

These days Slade grooms his emotional, achingly beautiful, voice with the help of an opera singing vocal coach.

“It’s amazing how many artists are out there who can’t really sing,” he says.

It pays off on The Fray’s first single, “Over My Head (Cable Car),” and the title track, “How To Save A Life.” Slade’s vocals fill the music perfectly in tune with the gentleness of the piano and guitars. One can’t help but listen to each word, and also feel the emotion in his voice, the ache, the sadness, the beautiful tone.

In “How To Save A Life,” Slade tackles the experience of being a mentor to a crack-addicted teen. “Where did I go wrong/I lost a friend/Somewhere along in the bitterness/And I would have stayed up all with you all night/Had I known how to save a life,” Slade sings with heartbreaking, haunting emotion.

Let’s not forget the first track on the CD, “She Is,” and the haunting “Hundred,” which features Slade and just his piano. Each track offers effortless laid back music, with inspirational lyrics.

After getting a deal and touring extensively, these guys have managed to keep themselves firmly planted on the ground thanks to their significant others.

“Having them on the other side of things is really important to keeping us grounded,” explains Slade.

Three of the four member are married. Welsh, is set to get married with his fianc? in the near future.

“You make so many relationships in this business that aren’t real, but to have family to go back to that are permanent brings you back to reality I think,” says Wysocki.

King has two kids that help keep him grounded as well. But the rest of the guys will probably wait a few years before starting to expand their families.

“It’s funny because usually reporters are egging us on about the girls and stuff,” says Slade. “And it’s just backwards to think that we would be better to have a different girl every night. You have no connection, no background, you don’t know the girl, you can’t remember her name the next day. And they think that would be better than having one hot woman to come home to every time.”

The wives join the guys on the road when they can, but Wysocki explains that some are in school, or have other jobs.

“You know they have other stuff going on, but when they can join us, it’s very important,” he explains.

But they aren’t all laid back; they like top have fun while on the road, especially with the bands they are touring with. You might call them pranksters.

“Once we filled up the water bottle on stage with vodka,” reminisces Slade.

They weren’t intimidated to prank Weezer. They showed up on stage singing bits of the “Beverly Hills” hit with no shirts on.

“No one knew who we were or remembered us from the opening act,” laughs Wysocki. “They weren’t listening anyway, or didn’t care. They probably thought we were just back-up dancers.”

Musicians they will always be, well, at least Wysocki anyway, who claims he couldn’t do anything else.

“If this opportunity didn’t come along, I’d probably be playing music somewhere else,” he jokes. “Music’s the only thing that attracted me. I tried out for sports when I was younger, but that didn’t work out very well.”

As for the others, they may have dabbled in real estate, the restaurant business, or films.

“I really want to make movies,” says Slade. “Joe has always been interested in real estate. Dave is an amazing chef. He has restaurant reviews on the website.”

Welsh keeps the gang well fed while on the road, taking them to new restaurants.

“He always wants to go out to fancy restaurants and expensive restaurants,” says Slade. “I used to go out with him all the time then I realized I was spending like sixty bucks a meal!

“We try to walk into a fast food place and he’s like ‘No, no.’ He’s an extreme guy, he either goes out, or he just stays home and makes a sandwich.”

So what did the guys do during their stay in Toronto? Well, you can’t get more laid back than going to Chapters, where Wysocki stopped by after seeing a movie.

“I actually went to a place called ‘Eggspectations’ on Yonge, loved it, really enjoyed that,” he raves.

“I got lost in the market (Kensington Market) on Spadina,” says Slade. “All these hippy stores, vintage clothes, I got this shirt there,” he says proudly displaying his find.

And after a few more jokes, “Eggspectations” raves, and promises to return to Toronto, the interview that seemed more like catching up with friends ended.

“We like Canada a lot,” says Slade. “People here are just nicer, seem happier, and smile more. We will come back soon hopefully.”

By that time, they will surely have a few more singles to their name off their debut album.






Related Stories: