The Fray

It's been four years since the Fray's double-platinum release How to Save a Life. After reaching hit spots on charts in countries as far reaching as Ireland, Sweden, the UK and Australia, the Denver piano rock outfit's long-awaited second record is out now and titled, simply and succinctly, The Fray.  

"The name came out of, to be honest, some amount of procrastination," drummer Ben Wysocki says. "The idea of a self-titled really hit a nerve for us because, in a lot of ways, this record is as much of an introduction to us as our first record was. If the first record is your introduction to somebody, then this record is when you actually sit down and have coffee with them. Also, Peter Gabriel self-titled his first four records, so it was only fair."

The success of How to Save a Life made pressure inevitable when the band went back into the studio. "It turned out, in some ways, to be a good thing," Wysocki says. "We set the bar pretty high for ourselves as far as level of professionalism and quality. It pushed us, but at the end of the day we really had to make the best music that we could make and trust that was enough. We think we did a pretty good job at that. From that came a more mature and more honest collection of songs."

Lyrically, the songs on the new album are reflective and autobiographical. "The album is best listened to in headphones," Wysocki says. He explains that the single, ‘You Found Me', is about "a healthy amount of doubt. I think it came out of observations of people wondering whether there's a God in charge, or a big man upstairs."

The Fray have always been publicly open about their faith. "Religion and pop music intersect in huge ways for us," Wysocki says. "We're not out to preach anything, but faith is a huge part of our identity, our upbringing and where we come from. Pop music and pop culture is something that the church has traditionally been really afraid to embrace. But there's no difference between your love of God and your love for a really good melody."

One of pop culture's giants, and the man behind many a catchy melody, is Kanye West, whom the Fray have covered. "We're huge Kanye fans," Wysocki says. "We played a radio show in the UK and every artist who plays this show is asked to cover a current, top 40 song. So we thought we'd give Kanye's ‘Heartless' a whirl. A lot of people heard it and liked it, so we started playing it at shows and put it up on iTunes. That's our feeble attempt of a bunch of white boys busting out a hip-hop song."

The Fray play at the Big Top, Luna Park on Tue 30 Mar