The Fray: 'We're not Coldplay II'

The Fray have the biggest-selling download album ever. But they tell David Sinclair they're still feeling a bit, well, yellow...

It has been impossible to avoid "How to Save a Life" by The Fray. With its twinkling piano part and cleverly undulating melody line, the single has been all over the radio and hasn't budged from the Top 20 for the last four months. Meanwhile, the debut album of the same name has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide (becoming the biggest-selling digital album ever in the process), propelling the four-man group from Denver, Colorado into the spotlight.

Success came comparatively quickly for the group in America, where their brand of high-quality, arena-grade, indie-rock struck a chord with an audience steeped in the traditions of bands like Counting Crows and Maroon 5. And success has now followed on smoothly in Britain, although not, by and large with the critics, who have dubbed them an American copy of Coldplay (or "Coldfray").

"I don't take offence," King says, "because Coldplay are a great band, and they're the architects of bringing the piano back into the forefront of rock. I don't want to be told we're just trying to be like Coldplay, because we're not. But I guess we're more like Coldplay than like the Scissor Sisters. It's not bad company to be among."

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