The Fray is an American rock band from Denver, Colorado, formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King.

Their debut studio album, How to Save a Life (2005) was released by Epic Records and received quadruple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), as well as platinum certification in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Its release was supported by their first hit single, "Over My Head (Cable Car)", which peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100.

The band saw their furthest success with the song's follow-up, "How to Save a Life", which peaked at number three on the chart and was also a hit in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

[4] Their third and fourth albums, Scars & Stories (2012) and Helios (2014) were both met with continued mixed reception and trailing commercial response, peaking at numbers four and eight on the Billboard 200, respectively.

The Fray's mood has been described as austere, theatrical, cinematic, poignant, and ethereal; their lyrical content is based around introspection, with themes of yearning, regret, and angst.

[9] The band members' musical lives were largely formed in Denver area churches where they helped lead worship, and in the Christian school three of them attended.

Isaac Slade and guitarist Joe King were several years ahead of drummer Ben Wysocki at Faith Christian Academy.

In the spring of 2002, former schoolmates Slade and King reconnected and began regular two-man jam sessions that led to writing songs.

[13][14] Westword, an alternative newsweekly, gave Reason EP a positive review, stating "The music is epic, no doubt, but it's played on a wholly human scale".

[18] "Over My Head (Cable Car)" was released as the first single from the album, and it soon became a Top 40 hit on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in late 2005, peaking at No. 37.

[19] The single gained airplay nationally, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the issue marked February 25, 2006.

[21] Internationally, the song was a Top 25 hit in on the national charts of Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

[23] Despite not having been originally released as a single, "How to Save a Life" entered the Hot 100 chart on the issue marked April 15, 2006.

On August 18, 2006, ABC announced that the song would be used for the main advertising promotion for the season premiere of Grey's Anatomy.

[26] "How to Save a Life" was a major hit internationally, topping the singles chart in Ireland, Spain and Canada.

The song also charted in the top five in Australia, Italy and Sweden and was the band's first hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at No.

[30] Stylus Magazine gave the album a negative review, stating, "The Fray, as a rule, are moribund, emotionally strained and uninvolving.

[14] The band also released a live cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" as a 2006 Christmas single.

[47] It is also the band's third song to sell two million digital downloads in the United States, after "Over My Head (Cable Car)" and "How to Save a Life".

Rolling Stone termed the album "nothing new",[58] while Entertainment Weekly stated, "The Fray is all blah, all the time: more minor-key melodies and more dreary tempos.

The EP contained five acoustic covers of popular Christmas carols and was recorded by Warren Huart at Blackbird Studio in Nashville.

[63] In an interview with Westword in June 2010, guitarist Dave Welsh announced that the band was working on an EP containing covers of songs by artists such as Annie Lennox, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Marley but did not give a specific release date.

[citation needed] Brendan O'Brien was hired to produce the band's third studio album, later named Scars & Stories.

During an interview with Colorado Daily, Slade explained why the band had recruited him: "Sonically, we wanted to make this record sound as close as possible to the live shows."

[71] The album's first single, "Love Don't Die", was premiered on radio stations on October 15, 2013, and on iTunes a week later.

[citation needed] A music video for the song was filmed on November 13, 2013, at Cowboy Palace Saloon in Chatsworth, California, and released on December 6, 2013.

[76] The band also continued to tour with Train into late 2015, until their final show in Las Vegas on November 7.

[83] How to Save a Life consists of a mix of mid-tempo, piano-driven pop rock tracks and power ballads.

However, by the time they began work on their debut album, the band decided against being an entirely religious group because they believed that God had called them away from the "Christian music genre and into a secular market".