About The Fray

Isaac Slade and Joe King both attended school at the Faith Christian Academy, Denver . In 2002, three years after leaving school they met by chance in a music shop. This meeting led to several into-the-early-hours jam sessions, which in turn led to them forming a band. Ben Wysocki, also from Faith Christian, and Dave Welsh (on guitar) joined them completing the band's lineup.

During the early years, the band released two EPs "Movement", and "Reason" which contained their hit song "Cable Car".

The Fray garnered an early following through impressive area gigs and the support of local radio, which led to a listener-driven campaign to get the band a record contract. With strong word-of-mouth, the band won "Best New Band" honors from Denver 's Westword magazine and got substantial airplay on two of Denver 's top rock stations - the demo version of "Over My Head (Cable Car)" became KTCL's top 30 most played song of 2004 in just 4 months.

The group’s debut album How to Save a Life was released in fall of 2005. To support the album, the band went on their first nationwide tour, supporting Weezer. The following year the band were headlining their own tour. Two singles from the album were released - Over My Head, and How to Save a Life both of which became smash hits in the charts.

The title track, "How To Save A Life," was inspired by Slade's experience as a mentor to a crack addicted teen. "I was a sheltered suburban kid when I met this guy. He was a recovering addict, coming out of a really tough teenage life. Thankfully, he was on his way out of that life, so he was able to really look back with some objectivity. The song is more of a memoir about his slow motion descent and all the relationships he lost along the way." Destined to be one of the band's greatest hits, Slade isn't worried about getting tired of performing the song: "It is the easiest one for me to sing every night. I constantly get emails from people who relate to it."

In 2009 The Fray released their second album, self-titled The Fray.  The album consists of songs such as “You Found Me” which delivers great drum lines, solid singing and easy to listen to lyrics and went on to chart success on both sides of the Atlantic.    “You Found Me” begins quietly. Slade is at his piano, contemplating a soul lost and found. And like the band’s rise in recent years, the song evolves from something intimate into something huge, a haunting guitar-and-drum opus, with Slade’s anguished singing making for an unshakeable experience. And that’s just one track.

On “Absolute,” Slade pushes his voice into new territory, exploring the upper register of his range. The pretty “Never Say Never” boasts a chugging momentum that suggests it’ll have a welcome home on the stage, where the group honed its chops over the past three years. The Fray even brought untested songs to the hometown stage early in 2008 at Denver ’s Bluebird Theater, taking note of audience reaction before returning to studio work.

“We’ve tried really hard to get back to who we are and what we do,” Wysocki says. “And that’s pretty much friends making music.”