The Fray Shares Inspiration for "Heartbeat"

The Fray are apparently still kicking around the music industry with their new music video for "Heartbeat," the first single off of the American Piano-Rock band's upcoming third album, "Scars And Stories," finds us revisiting familiar The Fray tearjerker territory. Though it's cleverly hidden beneath the sweeping sounds of orchestral drums and rock guitars, "Heartbeat" is driven by a gorgeous piano melody. Lead vocalist Isaac Slade's voice is in top form, and he demonstrates his massive range while singing about the best way to love someone.
It's been a tough couple of years for The Fray die-hards. The Colorado foursome hasn't put out a new record since the alt-rock troupe matured into deeper emotional territory on their Grammy-nominated 2009 self-titled sophomore album. Despite some obvious similarities to past works, "Heartbeat" is serious kind of heavy lyric with a big, upbeat energy and he capitalized on that energy with a bit more rock-driven, a catchy chorus, a nice mixture of Slade's melodic falsetto and quirky lower range, and a driving beat to back up the power chords.
Slade penned the song with guitarist Joe King. It was inspired by the singer's experiences whilst traveling in Africa about the awful carnage and the remarkable way in which the survivors are recovering. He explained: "That song came out of a period of my life when I was trying hard to be open to whatever came my way. I traveled through South Africa and Rwanda with a buddy, and at first it was really hard to stay open in the face of so much pain and heartache. But then I ended up meeting so many cool and inspiring people, and all these ideas for lyrics and melodies just started rushing in."
Shot on the beach at Los Angeles, the Justin Francis-directed beach themed video features the boys in the band ride out to the water and carry their gear down to the shore during a care-free night on the beach and performing bonfire-side for a crowd of crunchy-chic ladies and dudes while scary-huge waves crash in the background. The original concept was to shoot the clip with a sunny beach look but when a fog rolled in, it looked like the filming would have to be aborted for the day. Francis says he aimed to capture the spirit of a group of people "enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime evening together."