Oh Fray can you see

Growing up in the God-fearing American midwest, The Fray knew nothing of the devil's music.
"I remember bringing home an MC Hammer tape when I was in high school - my mom was pretty freaked out," recalls drummer Ben Wysocki. "She confiscated it and gave me an album by a Christian rapper instead. It was mostly about the bible."
Ten years, and two million album sales later, the Colorado foursome are still working God out of their system. Early on, The Fray, whose emotive piano pop brings to mind a saintlier, more saccharine Keane, operated in the hermetically sealed milieu of Christian rock.
Realising there are only so many ways of proclaiming your admiration for Jesus, Isaac Slade, the band's fantastically monikered songwriter, eventually turned to grittier subject matter. Breakout hit 'How To Save A Life', which has achieved Stateside ubiquity since making the Gray's Anatomy soundtrack, recounts Slade's time working with drug addicts in Denver.
"In our late teens, some of us did volunteer work with local youth outreach programmes," says Wysocki. "There was this one kid there who got pretty mixed up with crack. Isaac helped him work through that. He gave his time and he gave his love. That kid is doing good now. He's off drugs and he's making something of himself. So the song has a pretty inspiring message."
Having lived without rock music for most of their lives, The Fray are nowadays madly gorging themselves: "Nirvana, the Sex Pistols - we would never have been allowed listen to that stuff as kids."
Not that The Fray really owe anything to punk or grunge. Rather, they build on the choir-boy anthemia of bands such as Counting Crows, and especially U2: "Oh yeah, man - U2. For us, they are the ultimate band, because they're so sincere in what they say but they've still got credibility. That's a difficult tightrope to walk. We do think of them as paving the way for The Fray."
Currently trekking around the UK in support of guilty pleasure drum-beaters The Feeling, The Fray are getting acquainted all over again with life on the bottom rung.
"It's exactly what we need because it means we don't slide into the comfort zone," says Wysocki. "After playing your own shows for so long and getting all of that attention, it's good to get a reality check. Its a reminder not to get above yourself."
As to the stereotypical depiction of mid-westerners as bible-toting Bush acolytes, well, admits Wysocki, there's a degree deal of truth in that. Not that he's personally coming clean about his political affiliations.
"Y'know, it's a pretty conservative part of the world. Then again, not everyone is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. You'd be surprised. Some of us have a pretty wild streak!"