Stereoboard Speak To The Fray About ‘Scars & Stories’, Touring & UK Visit This Autumn (Interview)
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Written by Ryan Tinslay
The Denver-born ‘How To Save a Life’ piano-rock band recently released their hotly anticipated third studio album and I managed to catch up with Isaac and Joe to discuss the record and the band’s plans for the near future.
You guys have been pretty busy recently with a whole string of shows and obviously the release of the new album. How is the band feeling now you finally have your 3rd studio album out?
Is the album out over here (UK) today? Wow we’re talking to you on the big day! The shows have been very fresh, they’ve been good. We played over here recently at the Bush Hall. That was great, but no one knew the songs, only a couple of the new songs. It will be good once people start to attach them to the record.
Can you tell us a little bit about the new album and how it differs from previous releases?
Yeah, I think we tried really hard on this one. That could be a bad thing, you know, if we fail we’re going to fail miserably, but if it works I think it’s going to work really well. We got a lot of input from this knew producer named Brendan O’Brien who we worked with. He’s got this obsession with momentum; he doesn’t let you think long enough to question yourself or really wonder if it’s good or not. It ended up having a lot of that kind of recklessness.
You mentioned the show London that you played. How do UK shows differ from shows in the US?
There was a grand piano in the back corner, of the venue. Joe suggested that I go out during the set and play a couple of songs in the back. So I went back there and everybody thought I was like drunk or something! There I was, just wondering all the way through the crowd to the back and then busted open the grand piano and started playing ‘How To Save a Life’ and everybody started singing along. It felt really cool! It was great, it was really confirming that there’s fans here that dig our music and get to play it for them.
You’re back on tour in the US from April for a run of 18 shows. What sort of things have you got in store for these shows?
What we’ve done in our last shows is like a massive production with large scales screens and videos and things have dropped out of the sky and all kind of crazy stuff, which was fun because we had loads of bells and whistle and you know, we were playing large sheds and big summer night shows. And this run is some of our favourite theatres and just beautiful buildings that are designed for amazing shows and we are just trying to simplify everything on stage and just make the power and the image of just us on stage playing our music and in kind of the mindset that shows should be able to be held together by just music and the people on stage and not the distractions of little things flying all over the place. So, it’s real simple and surprisingly some of our friends who are more forward in their artistic nature have loved the look of the stage and they’re just like wow its powerful and simple and it’s strong. For us it’s nice to just scale it back and make the music the central piece and show the personalities on stage.
The first glimpse of ‘Scars and Stories’ was seen in the release of ‘Heartbeat’. Already with 4.2 million views on YouTube you must be pretty happy with its reception?
Has it? Yeah that’s great I like that. I’m going to have to go and tell my mum that! It’s great! Actually, we always wait to see which song raises its hand as the first single.
For the album you chose Brendan O’Brien to produce it. How was the experience of working with him?
He was perfect for what we needed, we needed someone that wouldn’t let us over think things and just like Isaac was saying, just get in there and do what we’re supposed to do and capture it and move on and not explore with different tones, even though that’s important. But you can kind of get lost in that process. One side of it is the initial idea is the best so don’t ever change it and the other argument to the same idea is that the initial inspiration is beauty and if you change that you’re just going away from what was natural and beautiful. Brendan is a lot like that, he’s like whatever that first thing is and if it sounds amazing and if it sounds beautiful then don’t change it.
'Scars and Stories' debuted at number 4 on the Billboard Top 200. Do you feel that your style and genre of music is better received in the US than in the UK?
Well thanks to Adele, I think that music now is kind of; songs actually are what people resonate. She’s not just this like pop diva needing all this crazy stuff on stage. It’s just her singing these songs which are powerful and it’s just nice and refreshing to see that on top of the charts and if we are up there with it then great, because we are like a “push the button” band with computers on stage. And it’s just not what we do. I mean there are bands or groups who do that well and you hear that a lot nowadays but for us, we are just trying to write the best songs we can write.
I noticed that you went to Rwanda in search of inspiration for the album. How was the experience?
It was good man! Joe had this idea to spend some of our time travelling while we wrote the record and we went to New Orleans and New York City and LA and we went to South Africa as well as Rwanda. It was great! I connected with the culture in New Orleans and the expression of the folk in New Orleans and the food and the pride that they have of their city and the pride they have in the community and it really inspired me.
You must be used to being on the road by now, but is there any luxuries that are missed?
Well I’m sort of in the mind set that your favourite thing must be mobile so you can take them with you, so I got this pair of slippers that my wife gave me, and I’ve been dragging them all over the world. Hot or cold I put those damn slippers on first thing in the morning!
As a fan, if you could go and see any band tonight, who would it be and why?
Well Radiohead have started to tour in the US and when I get back from this trip I’m going to go see them in Denver. I’m very excited about that show. They master the two-drummer thing on this record, the drummer from Portishead is playing with them live and I’ve heard it’s incredible.
Album releases in the spring often implies further touring or festivals in the summer. Is this the case?
Well we will be touring the US in the summer, but we will be back in the UK in the autumn, about September or October.
What does the future hold for The Fray?
We have a couple of singles we are lining up right now, but we let people handle that stuff for us and we just write songs and play shows and the shows definitely have this brand new energy and enthusiasm to them. I’m really stoked to be able to play this record all over the world.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
What we’ve done in our last shows is like a massive production with large scales screens and videos and things have dropped out of the sky and all kind of crazy stuff, which was fun because we had loads of bells and whistle and you know, we were playing large sheds and big summer night shows. And this run is some of our favourite theatres and just beautiful buildings that are designed for amazing shows and we are just trying to simplify everything on stage and just make the power and the image of just us on stage playing our music and in kind of the mindset that shows should be able to be held together by just music and the people on stage and not the distractions of little things flying all over the place. So, it’s real simple and surprisingly some of our friends who are more forward in their artistic nature have loved the look of the stage and they’re just like wow its powerful and simple and it’s strong. For us it’s nice to just scale it back and make the music the central piece and show the personalities on stage.
