By By Elyssa A. Goldstein
When Dave Welsh teamed up with former band-mates Ben Wysocki and Isaac Slade in 2002, he had no idea how drastically his life was going to change over the next three years. Slade had recently run into an old school friend, Joe King, in a music store. The two began jamming and decided to form a band that same day, with Slade recruiting Wysocki and Welsh a few days later.
“I’ve been around music for quite awhile. We had a piano in my home. My dad was very into music, but I was always the kid who would fall asleep in concerts. I played the piano and the tenor sax in elementary school. I’ve been playing the guitar for about ten years now,” Welsh said in a phone interview with The Chronicle.
With Welsh on guitar, Wysocki on drums, King on guitar and background vocals, and Slade on piano and lead vocals, The Fray began their musical journey. The band released the Reason EP in the summer of 2003 to extremely favorable reviews. When a music scout for Epic Records googled “new bands in Denver” one afternoon, The Fray’s name appeared thanks to a Westword Magazine poll crowning them the “best new band” of the year.
The demo version of “Over My Head (Cable Car)” quickly dominated the Denver airwaves-becoming KTCL’s top 30 most played song of 2004 in just four months. The band was soon signed to Epic Records and released their debut album, How to Save a Life, in September, with a new version of “Over My Head (Cable Car)” as the album’s first single.
“[‘Over My Head (Cable Car)’] was written by Isaac about his tense relationship with his brother. Most of our songs are written by Isaac and Joe and about the personal experiences they have had and how it’s inspired them,” comments Welsh.
“As far as the electric guitar, I am greatly influenced by Pearl Jam. Lately; however, I’ve been really into the acoustic guitar. I really like alt-country acts like Wilco and Ryan Adams,” notes Welsh. “We all come from different backgrounds and musical influences. Isaac’s really into jazz. I like the Jayhawks. We’re really diverse and we all make [our own musical] choices.”
The Fray has been compared to everything from Coldplay, Blue Merle, U2, Train and The Counting Crows to Five for Fighting. “At first we didn’t want to be compared [to Coldplay] but that was really all we were listening to. So we strayed away from that for a while, but soon came back to that [sound] as a basic model after a comparison to Maroon 5, because [that’s not what we wanted],” Welsh details.
After success on tour with Weezer, The Fray joined Ben Folds on his fall tour, making stops in some of the most famous venues around the world, including Radio Music City Hall in New York City. “We have had a good response from the audience, and Ben is really just a normal, cool guy,” remarks Welsh.
Dave Welsh and his band-mates are excited about their success and eager to expand their horizons. “We hope to have our own headlining tour soon, and we also want to hole up for four to six weeks and [work on] material for a new record.”
When asked what advice he would give to aspiring young musicians, Welsh is quick to respond. “It doesn’t necessarily matter the genre or style [that you play] right now, because somebody’s going to like it. You need to focus on the authenticity. You need to make your music real, just like we try to do.”