The Fray Is On A Roll
The Fray has been on quite a ride for the past few years, and it's still going strong.
Taking time from their national tour, the Denver-based band stopped by The Early Show on Tuesday for the Summer Concert Series to play a few of their songs. b>Saturday Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez presented them with their plaque for selling 3 million copies of their CD "How To Save A Life."
But the Fray's members never thought they would enjoy this kind of success. The quartet is comprised of vocalist/pianist Isaac Slade, Joe King on guitar and backing vocals, Ben Wysocki on drums and Dave Welsh on guitar. Slade and King went to school together and Welsh and Wysocki were King's former bandmates. They were all dreaming of a career making music.
"We wanted to quit our day jobs," Slade told Rodriguez. "I was working at the coffee shop and Joe was working at the auto body place. We had pretty small goals. … It took a long time to get here. We took a lot of shows, with 10 people, 20 people — 50 people was great — and growing from there and taking those steps."
The band certainly did begin small. They chose their name from a suggestion bowl at a graduation party for one of Slade's brothers. Now they say they owe their success to a grassroots movement and a huge allegiance of fans from MySpace. They were also aided by winning "Best New Band" honors from Denver's Westword magazine and then having their music played on a local radio station.
"Joe had the idea to send in that song we just played to the radio station. They were like rock," Slade said. "I said 'Don't send it in. They're not going to like it, we're not as hard as Nickelback.' They put it on Sunday night at 9:05. We had to listen from my mom's minivan because we didn't have reception."
TV has also helped rocket the Fray to fame. The band's music has been featured not only in "Grey's Anatomy" but also "The O.C.," "One Tree Hill," and "Cold Case." "How To Save A Life" was also used in the Adam Sandler movie "Reign Over Me." Slade says being played on television shows helps the band reach people who are not necessarily seeking out their music on the Internet.
Perhaps the secret to the band's success is that their songs resonate with so many people. The title track off their album, "How to Save a Life" was written after Slade met a 17-year-old boy who had just left rehab for drugs and alcohol. They formed a friendship, and the boy's hardships had a deep effect on Slade.
"I came from kind of like a sheltered home background in suburbia," he said. "It was a shock to see the story up close and hear how much damage it had done and how much work it was taking for him to get out of it. There's no easy answer to it."