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The Fray  

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The Fray are an American pop rock band from Denver, Colorado. They were formed by frontman Isaac Slade and rhythm guitarist Joe King in 2002.

There’s plenty of bands who have to abide by the old adage of good things coming to those who wait, but that was never really the case for The Fray; their debut album, “How to Save a Life”, went double platinum in their native U.S., and the title track from that record remains probably their biggest hit to date. Musically, they shot for the same kind of piano-driven pop rock territory as the likes of Coldplay and Keane had made huge success stories out of in the UK, which perhaps explains why both the album and the title track broke the top five on that side of the pond, too; in fact, internationally speaking, “How to Save a Life” - the song - can lay claim to the hugely impressive title of second best-selling song of all time in digital terms, with in excess of four million MP3s sold.

It’s probably fair to say that Slade and co haven’t exactly thrown their fervent fanbase anything in the way of a serious curveball with any of their three albums since “How to Save a Life” - 2009’s “The Fray”, 2012’s “Scars & Stories” and 2014’s “Helios” all tread similar sonic ground, but that hasn’t stopped The Fray from retaining an enviable level of popularity on both sides of the Atlantic.

Live reviews

The Fray came on stage and we all went absolutely mad. ABSOLUTEly mad (see what I did there :P) I wish I could list each song in order, but unfortunately, I don’t remember the order, it turned in to on beautifully long song with a bit of chatting in between.

At first I just absorbed everything, I was completely focused on Isaac, I had never seen a live show of theirs before and his stage persona caught me off guard, I did not expect it to be that wonderful. I was close enough to see that underneath the rockstar that he was, he was a regular man, who put his heart in to these songs and was as appreciative that we loved it as a unknown musician would be. I was close enough to see that when he sings he taps his right foot on top of his left foot. That he pulls on his clothing a lot and often needs his handkerchief to wipe his head. Sure, I sound like a stalker, but I am not, I love reading in to people’s body language and the ticks that make us unique. Whether you’re a nail biter, or something who grinds their teeth, I love noticing it. And I loved seeing this, it made him so real, so unrehearsed.

Aside from his emotions and whatnot, the man is not afraid of his fans, he sang right in front of us, touching hands all over, he walked through crowds, and appeared all the way at the general standing section, giving them a golden circle experience, even just for a few minutes.

The emotion he puts in to his performance makes it obvious that it is the same emotions he felt when writing the songs. These songs are not based on what will sell, it is genuinely based on their stories. It made me feel justified for getting emotional listening to their music.

Once I was able to look around, I was drawn in by Joe, Ben and Dave. They were so focused on their crafts it was hard to split my attention between all the amazing sights. Even the crowd was something to look at.

Naturally, as a fan, I enjoyed every single song, but as a human, a few songs stood out above others. “You Found Me” was obviously one of them, and no, of course not, it was not just me who got excited, when the intro was played, people lost their shit and sang along. But not everyone, some fans were new, some were old and some weren’t even fans when they arrived, although, I am sure they were fans when they left… “Hurricane”, “Keep on Wanting”, “Wherever this Goes” were amazing, duh. But if I keep listing, I will list everything. Go on, dare me.

What took us by surprise, was Joe taking the lead and singing “Ungodly Hour”, if it has always been sung by him, I am sorry, I did not know that, shame on me for never hearing the difference, but nonetheless, it was beautiful and perfect and I wanted to save the song in my brain and replay it for the rest of my life. I always think it’s very kind for a lead singer to allow another band member to take the lead. Also, don’t assume Isaac was just sitting around twiddling his nervous thumbs, no, he was proving to us that no human being is more talented than he is by showing off his amazing piano skills.

The next soul elevating moment was, as you all were waiting for… “How to Save a Life”, I stood there fighting back tears, thinking of Scrubs and Dr. Cox and perfect songs, and this was and still is a perfect song. I am 100% sure of it, because it was the only song that the entire stadium sang together. It was glorious.

They then closed the show with “Love Don’t Die” and it cheered us all up and we were singing and dancing and I was holding out my poster just wanting them to know how I felt. Joe walked by, looked at my poster, pointed and laughed. This was already, good enough for me. But to make it all better, Isaac stood on the stage in front of me, pointed, made the sweetest heart shape – heart gesture and mouthed things to me because the music was so loud, I think I made it out to be “Thank you, means a lot”. I then screamed at my husband like a child who just found a secret jumping caste. And last but not least, Ben came over and took a photo of me and my poster and the very next day, look what I found on The Fray’s Instagram: When they walked off stage my night was made, they liked me and my poster and made a fuss of it and I was in love, with all of them.

As usual, the audience has never had enough (thank goodness), so we shouted encore until they came back up for a few more, a few more beautiful songs, “Never Say Never” and “Be Still” which are also in my top whatever, it was wonderful. Wonderful. I can’t say it enough because there aren’t many words that mean wonderful.

When the show actually ended, I bolted out the door, ready to go home and just absorb everything and of course, rest, having been at the Grand Arena for more hours than a normal person should sleep at night. Unfortunately, I missed the meet and greet and naturally have great regret, but I was a broken woman, and to be honest, I still am. I am also suffering from a serious case of PCDS and have no idea how to cure it.

To summarise: I loved it.

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The Fray are a band that everyone should see at least once. You know their songs, you've heard them on the radio for the past 10 years. (Yes, 'How To Save A Life' is 10 years old. Crazy!) So why not go and hear them performed live? They always add a little twist to their well known songs. Performed live almost never sounds like the recorded version, which, in my opinion, is how live concerts should be! The Fray are all very talented performers and let it be known during their show.

They have slow songs. They have upbeat songs. They have rockish song. They have songs you know all the words too, even if you didn't know you knew the words.

Their current tour as of Summer 2014 is in support of their latest album, Helios. During their show, they play almost the entire album. The light show is especially impressive during certain songs (no spoilers here, but let's just say "Turn Me On" and "Give It Away" is magical.) Songs blend together beautifully, so much that you almost think its one continuous song. They always have good stories to tell about the city, or a song, or anything they happen to think worthy of telling that night. I've been to over 15 Fray shows since 2007, and no two shows are alike. I feel safe in saying some nights are better then others, but that's the beauty of live music - no two nights are the same and you never know how each night will turn out. Nothing can bring a fan closer to an artist than being at the concert, and The Fray does just that. Singer Isaac Slade will come down into the audience at least once during a show, or up to the barrier if its GA. He will interact and fans are not disappointed. You know The Fray. You've hard them on the radio. Now go see them live in person and have your own review of their performance.

I love The Fray music and I was so happy to have my first solo concert with them when they came to play in Houston at the House of Blues. Unfortunately, my memories tied to my first solo concert will forever be damaged. The Fray came out and played after the American Authors and that was it. They did not interact with the fans, did not talk to us, and made the concert really boring. I had seen them perform on Yahoo live before and I thought that it wasn't that it was okay, but I thought I would give it a chance because I love their music. I was disappointed in their performance. They do not perform well and do not give a great show. I have been to many concerts and that was probably one of the worst. After a concert you are suppose to be happy and on a high wanting the band or singer to keep going all night. I never felt that and I was happy to have the concert over with. If anyone is thinking of going to see The Fray live then DON'T!!!! It is a waste of money and you would be better off just listening to their music at home. As if that wasn't bad enough, they advertised that you would get a free download of their music with your purchase of a ticket. It has been over 3 months and I have yet to receive anything. I have done everything from tweeting, sending e-mails to [email protected] as told, and DMing them and nothing. So upset with them for not holding their end of it.

I saw The Fray live at the BottleRock music festival in Napa Valley earlier this year, and they were the best act the whole weekend.

With their new album Helios having been released this year, this is the perfect time to go see The Fray in person and see what all the fuss is about for yourself.

It was a hot, sunny, sweaty day, but, reinvigorated upon hearing The Fray, everybody still got into it and moved with the music. The crowd basically lost their collective minds the instant the opening notes to How to Save a Life were played, and the enthusiasm and energy carried over throughout the whole set.

The music was great, with all of the radio classics that everybody sang along with (How to Save a Life, Never Say Never, Over My Head) and their lesser-known songs all being played perfectly and with tons of passion. It was a nice change of pace from the rest of the music at the festival, since the piano helps give it all a really chill vibe even though everybody’s going crazy enjoying the show.

The lyrics to all of their songs have some real meaning too and keep you thinking long after the adrenaline from the show has come and gone.

This was my first time seeing The Fray and honestly I came to see Train and only bought the VIP package so that I could get a better seat. Even so, I was pleasantly surprised. First of all, they were very personable during the photo shot. Each of them introduced themselves and one even gave me a compliment.

Then when they came out onstage, I was struck by how gracious the lead singer was. Additionally, it was all about the music, which as a music lover, always makes me extremely happy. I also loved the fact that almost every member of the band, played more than one instrument, which implies that they are true musicians.

They closed their show out with their song, Love Don't Die and I enjoyed it tremendously. They sounded just like their album and it was a solid performance. So even though I only knew a couple of their songs prior to the show, I still enjoyed them.

The Fray was a pleasant second opener for Train, but I will be honest, I preferred the actual opener, Matt Nathanson. From song one of the set by the Fray, I had a really hard time even understanding the words of the songs. Ironically, I knew a lot of the songs so I didn't "need" the words, but it would have been nice to hear them. There was ONE song in the Fray's set where Joe King, one of the band members, took over the lead vocals, and he was AMAZING. If he had an album out today, I would buy it.

Overall, a pretty good concert, and set by The Fray, and I would probably go see them again, but the lead singer needs to open his mouth....

It was a good show. The lead singer's voice didn't sound 100% but he acknowledged it in a short and emotional monologue about embracing the fact that we all have things about ourselves that we wish were better and that it's ok to just be happy with what we've got in this world. Then they did "how to save a life". It was nice. I enjoyed the music. It was pouring rain afterwards and me and my wife walked through downtown Nashville to our car with our shoes off just enjoying the moment while getting soaking wet. Very memorable experience.

The Fray was awesome live. Isaac Slade and Joe King have such raw emotion when they sing, and it makes the songs that much more powerful. They also have fun with every song, changing the feel ever so slightly that to give it a fresh sound when heard live. It engages the audience with the comfort of something familiar and the excitement of something new all at once. It will be a concert I won't soon forget, and I cannot wait to see them the next time they tour South Florida.

THE CONCERT WAS AMAZING! We came three hours early to get a great spot and we did! The band played all of the old songs that made me fall in love with them in the first place! They had a drink on stage to celebrate a band members birthday and I caught the cup!! They were so into the music and had fun with the crowd! It was the best show I've seen by far! I had the best time of my life! I would definitely go see them again, and wish I could replay the night over and over!

The Fray is one of my all time favorite bands and hearing them live made me love them even more! Isaac is a great live singer and the band played flawlessly! I basically fell out of my seat when they stated playing "How to Save a Life". Would 10/10 go see them again!

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• New York (NYC) (22)
• Denver (22)
• Los Angeles (LA) (19)
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• Philadelphia (17)

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About The Fray

Denver-based quartet The Fray, have been working hard at doing what they love - making music and writing albums - since they formed in 2002. The more...

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Past Events

Here are the most recent UK tour dates we had listed for The Fray. Were you there?

• Sep 29 2014 London, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire The Fray
• Sep 27 2014 O2 Academy Birmingham The Fray
• Sep 26 2014 Manchester Academy The Fray
• Sep 24 2014 Glasgow, The ABC The Fray
• Mar 03 2014 London, Scala The Fray
• Jan 24 2012 London, Bush Hall The Fray
• Oct 20 2009 London, Royal Albert Hall The Fray
• May 06 2009 London, The Roundhouse The Fray
• May 05 2009 London, The Roundhouse The Fray
• May 03 2009 O2 Academy Leeds The Fray

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The Fray Tour 2024 - 2025

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About The Fray

The Fray is an American rock band from Denver, Colorado. Formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King, they achieved success with the release of their debut album, How to Save a Life in 2005.

Discography

Helios is the upcoming fourth studio album by American alternative rock band The Fray. It will be released on February 25, 2014. Track Listing Hold My Hand Love Don’t Die... Read More

Scars & Stories

Scars & Stories is the third studio album by American alternative rock band The Fray. It was released on February 7, 2012. Track Listing Heartbeat The Fighter Turn Me On... Read More

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The fray on september 1, 2023.

Chevrolet Court at the New York State Fair, Syracuse, New York

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The Fray at Tulsa State Fair 2023

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The Fray at New York State Fair 2023

• Closer to Me
• All at Once
• You Found Me
• Look After You
• Never Say Never
• Love Don't Die
• Don't You (Forget About Me)
• Over My Head (Cable Car)

The Fray at Epcot International Food & Wine Festival 2023

• How to Save a Life
• Look After You / Champagne Supernova

The Fray at The Great Midwest Rib Fest 2023

The fray at los angeles county arboretum and botanic garden, arcadia, ca, usa.

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• How to Save a Life ( 259 )
• Over My Head (Cable Car) ( 256 )
• You Found Me ( 234 )
• All at Once ( 206 )
• Never Say Never ( 182 )

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American Idol Ensemble Ben Monteith Banda Betamax Tyler Braden The Chainsmokers Jordan Davis A Day to Remember Tom Dice Fairlane Wyatt Flores Matt Giraud Alex Goot H_ngm_n Kalimur Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers Liam Carnell Scotty McCreery Chris Mozy Newspring Worship Simone Nicole Revel OD Rock & Roll Institute Roll It Over Sawyer Isaac Slade Stu Weinberg Taylor Swift Keith Urban Martin Weiler Wyll Simms

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1,230 people have seen The Fray live.

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Glastonbury too?

May 21, 2010

U2 taps Interpol, Kravitz, The Fray as 2010 tour openers

It's time to Get on Your Boots again.

February 20, 2010

Devo added to the 2010 Winter Olympics

Usher, Our Lady Peace, The Fray, and Nelly Furtado also set to perform!

January 27, 2010

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On This Date

April 13, 1977 : Slack Alice , Dublin , Ireland

April 13, 1987 : San Diego Sports Arena , San Diego , CA

April 13, 1992 : Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena , Los Angeles , CA

April 13, 2001 : General Motors Place , Vancouver , Canada

April 13, 2011 : Estádio do Morumbi , Sao Paulo , Brazil

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U2 Concerts with Opening Act: The Fray

The Fray has opened at 5 U2 concerts.

The Fray Website

Joe King, Isaac Slade, Dave Welsh, Ben Wysocki

The Fray formed in Denver in 2002 by schoolmates Slade and King. Their breakout single "Over My Head (Cable Car)" became a Top 10 hit in the US but it was their second single "How To Save A Life" that catapulted them to stardom. Their self-titled second album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2010. They cite U2 and The Wallflowers as their musical influences.

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Holmes Chapel, English village of Harry Styles' youth, needs fans to be tour guides

Many tourists visit sites such as a bakery where Styles once worked and a Chinese restaurant where he once dined with Taylor Swift. Tourism has been great for local businesses.

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Holmes Chapel, the English village of Harry Styles' youth, is looking for superfans to work as tour guides. The village gets a lot of tourists, Harries visiting sites like a bakery where Styles once worked and a Chinese restaurant where he once dined with Taylor Swift. The not-for-profit calling for tour guides says tourism has been great for local business, and now it wants to elevate its offerings.

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Enve Fray 2024 review: Still fast, but extra versatile

The all-new enve fray gets bigger tyres and a taller headtube, but don't call it an endurance bike.

Cyclingnews Verdict

If you consider the Enve Fray on its own then it's hard to fault. Still a race bike but just a little taller and optimised around bigger tyres. If you already put 32mm tyres and run some spacers on your race bike, make this your next purchase, but if you are comfortable on a slammed Melee, stick with it and add a gravel race bike instead.

Optimised for 35mm tyres

20mm taller headtube compared to the Melee

In-frame storage system

Race bike feel

All-road capable with room for 40mm tyres

Enve brings the colours this time

Jack of all trades, master of none

You can trust Cyclingnews Our experts spend countless hours testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Price: £5500 / €5799 / $5500

Frame: Enve Fray

Weight: 900 grams for an unpainted 56

Wheels: Enve SES 3.4

Groupset: Shimano Dura-Ace

Brakes: Shimano Dura-Ace 

Bar/stem: 40cm SES AR One-Piece

Saddle: Enve X Selle Italia Boost SLR  

I've been covering Enve products almost as long as I've been in this business. The brand has always been a beacon of premium carbon engineering but Enve has also always been an aftermarket parts supplier. At one time there wasn't a better carbon fork on the market and hand-built carbon wheels from Utah are a mainstay in the custom bike building scene. Then in 2022, Enve changed the game a bit. 

Following on the heels of the Enve Custom Road bike, the Enve Melee hit the market as a very American take on a road race bike. The Melee is distinct from European race bikes with a slightly taller headtube, more flex, and room for tyres up to 35mm and fenders. Not only did it establish Enve as a brand worth considering for the best road bikes buyers guide but it started Enve down a new path. 

Since the Melee hit the market, Enve has slowly been expanding its range. The next follow-up was the Enve MOG which offers an equally unique take as the Melee but instead of road, the focus is gravel racing. Today, Enve is expanding the brand's range again by offering something that doesn't quite fit the established categories. 

The Enve Fray is a new take on the bike you ride every day. It's not quite a race bike but it's certainly not an endurance bike. It's fast and responsive but it's optimised around a setup that better matches how most people actually build a bike. 

If you want a fast bike but a Euro racer isn't quite your jam, keep reading to see if the Americans have a vision that aligns with yours.

Design and aesthetics 

So if the Fray defies categorization and isn't a race bike, a gravel bike, or an endurance bike, what is it? The short answer is that it's a Melee with a 2cm taller headtube and room for a 40mm tyre. There is also a long answer though. 

The longer answer is that it's a bit more complicated. Some might call it an endurance bike but that assumes that it's designed for something drastically different than the Melee. Instead, it's worth considering what the vast majority of people do with a race bike and especially an expensive one. 

With a retail price of $5500 for the core parts of what a Melee is, there are not that many people who actually race it. This year you can see the frame in the pro peloton but for almost everyone else, it's a fast and fun bike to have adventures on. Those who actually race are more likely to be on something like a Cannondale CAAD13 which costs less, is responsive, and if you crash it, the frame might not crack and if it does it's a lot less expensive to fix. 

Instead, most people ride a Melee for enjoyment. Something I wrote about as I discussed Shimano Dura-Ace was how amazing it is to have access to the same thing the best athletes in the world ride even if you only take it to the hills on the weekend. With that in mind though, most people aren't willing to compromise comfort too much. Your average race bike has a stack of spacers and these days you’ll see bigger tyres too. 

Enve built a bike for exactly that use and the result is that the Enve Fray heavily overlaps with the Melee and it’s only in the optimisation where the two differ. 

The Melee can fit up to a 35mm tyre but it's actually designed for a 28mm. The Fray can instead take up to a 40mm but it's designed with a 35mm in mind. Enough to take on most "light gravel" as well as whatever terrible pavement, or chipseal, your winding country roads actually use. 

The Fray also has a taller headtube. A taller headtube and no spacers is often one of the biggest advantages to going for a custom bike. The Fray makes that possible with a production bike. If you run a bunch of spacers, you can now run a few fewer and you'll have the same fit. 

Then from there, Enve expanded on the details that matter to non-racers. Like the MOG there's in-frame storage. It's got the same patented and over-engineered anti-rattle system as the MOG and you still get the two neoprene bags that keep things organised and rattle-free inside the frame. There's also braze-on mounts for a bento box on the top tube plus a third bottle on the downtube. 

Pulling from the racier side of the equation, the Fray is aero-optimised in the same way that the Melee is. Although aerodynamics take an average 3.3 watt hit, that mostly comes from the taller headtube. Like other Enve frames, routing is all through the bars into the headtube and there's no exposed cables. 

The frame weight is pretty close to the Melee too. The Fray hits the scales at 900 grams for an unpainted 56 and it's likely much of that comes from the taller headtube as well. The Melee in the same size is only 50 grams lighter. 

Enve has been adding colour options to all the bikes since they launched but for the first time, the Fray is actually launching with choices. As before, you can't purchase a built bike from Enve. Instead you'll work with an Enve retail partner who will source a chassis in your choice of Salt, Ash, or Venom. Better known as off-white, not quite black, or sparkly colour shifting green-esque. 

With that choice made, you can then pick the chassis in sizes 47-60 with four fork rakes to match the frame size. Bottom bracket is a T47 standard and, as introduced with the Melee, there is a fit calculator tool to help ease size choice. The full chassis will also include frame, fork, headset, handlebar, stem, and the same D-shaped aero seatpost as the Melee. The price also matches other Enve bikes at £5500 / €5799 / $5500 for the complete chassis. 

Largely that means the particular build I spent time with isn't that important. Although some retailers will offer complete builds, I would call the Enve sales model semi-custom and you are always able to get the exact sizes you need. To make that even easier, there are more available Enve accessories today than in years past. The Fray can include a two piece bar and stem with either a positive or negative rise and a G-series, SES AR, SES Aero Road, or Compact Road handlebar. There is also the choice of a one-piece SES AR bar and stem system and all the options work with a K-Edge outfront mount. There are seatpost options in 3 lengths and zero or 20mm offset. When it comes to the drivetrain, "the Fray is designed for use with ROAD cranksets designed with a 43.5 and larger chainline" but you can choose 1x up to 55-tooth or 2x as small as SRAM 46/33. Shimano GRX 48/31 is not compatible nor is SRAM T-Type but the hanger is a SRAM UDH solution.

For the sake of understanding my experience, I was on a bike with Shimano Dura-Ace. The gearing was 11-34 with a 50/34 crank and I had Enve SES 3.4 wheels fitted with the brand new Enve 35mm tyres. The handlebar on my test bike was the one-piece AR bar wrapped with Enve bar tape and the saddle under me was the ENVE x Selle Italia SLR Boost Superflow. Rounding out the build was the Enve C.I.M bottle cage that is designed for gravel but also the only one I've found that stays silent with Bivo bottles. I brought my own Garmin Rally CX200 pedals and put a Garmin 1040 Solar on the excellent K-Edge outfront mount. 

Performance

As I got on the Fray, the first thing I started doing was attempting to categorise the bike. What is the Fray and who is it for? Initially I was under the impression that it was an endurance bike and I spent an entire ride trying to decide if performance endurance was a category anyone was looking for. Given the premium price of the Fray that didn't seem to fit. 

The problem I was having is that the Fray isn't for me. When I get a new bike I cut the steerer tube as far as I can and put the stem on without any spacers. Most weeks I do at least one 6-7 hour ride and more than half the time it's on a race bike with 28mm tyres. I also carry everything in my jersey pockets and don't use bags on my bikes. I recognize that's more and more unusual today but it works for me and it means the Fray makes little sense. 

What's more typical in 2024 is the way a good friend sets up his Enve Melee. Often we are riding together and while mine has a slammed stem with 28s, his has 35mm of spacers and he's running 32mm tyres. It's nice that the Melee works just as well with my setup as his but if he were to buy a bike today I would absolutely recommend he look at the Fray. The ride feels almost exactly the same but he would have a smaller spacer stack and geometry optimised for the tyres he's already running. 

With that in mind, I find it relevant to ask what you give up by choosing the Fray instead of the Melee? That's what I really focused on during a week of riding in the coastal hills of central California. What I found is, very little. 

I did have a bit of trouble getting comfortable in my preferred performance position. The taller headtube means a shorter reach and I like to be stretched out with my hands on the tops of the controls. Adding 2cm felt too tall and a bit cramped initially but, even for me, that's a position I use sparingly. Generally, it's for flat and straight TT-type riding where I seem to excel these days. 

When the road turned up, that feeling disappeared. Holding the controls behind the tops and climbing on luxury gravel with occasional spikes up to 17% gradients, the Fray felt like the Melee. It had all the flex and playful snap I appreciate in that bike and as we transitioned to broken pavement and equally steep descents it again felt like the Melee. 

Later in the day, I found myself in a second group that formed as we fell off the front wheels on yet another big climb. We'd already burned a lot of matches so we chatted and covered miles without too much urgency. The Fray felt ideal and when I responded to a friendly attack on the next hill - just to be clear by responded I mean I triumphed thank you very much - the Fray was just as ideal. 

The Fray isn't an endurance bike and it's not a gravel bike. The Fray is a road race bike that's built to better match how modern road cyclists actually use their bikes. It's fast and playful, like all Enve bikes, but it's also a little taller and comfortable running bigger tyres to transition on and off paved roads.  

Enve marketing calls the Fray sales model a chassis but that's only half the story. Yes, it includes the bars, stem, and seatpost but that's mostly an acknowledgement that it makes no sense to sell modern bikes as a frameset alone. The days of buying a frame then adding a fork, and touchpoints are quickly eroding. Most brands with highly integrated designs embrace a similar model. Technically you can still use bars and stems from other brands but I doubt many people will do that. The only real difference is that Enve doesn't set full bike build price points.

With that in mind, it makes sense to look around at other frameset price points and that puts Enve perfectly in line with the competition. Specialized S-Works, Cannondale Hi-Mod, Look, and Cervélo frames all cost about the same with only minor differences depending on the inclusion of the bars and stem or not. There are outliers like the Colnago C-Series or the Cannondale Lab71 but, generally speaking, this is a premium bike and it's priced as such. 

It is nice though that you don't have to deal with predetermined builds and corporate purchase agreements. When I reviewed the Cannondale SuperSix Evo Hi-Mod I found it frustrating that there wasn't a power meter included and getting certain colours was dependent on choosing a specific spec. Enve avoids all that by selling a frame and letting you build it up and that's always my preference. 

The bigger question about the Fray in particular might be if you are getting better value because of a greater range of uses. You'll have to decide if that's true but I don't think so. Yes you can put a 35mm on the Fray and take it off-road but you can do that on a Melee also. The Fray isn't about adding capabilities compared to the Melee, it's about providing choices to match how people are actually using bikes. 

During my time exploring the capabilities of the Enve Fray, the brand took an evening to give a press briefing covering the details of the new bike. During that presentation, Jake Pantone, VP of Product and Brand, talked about using his Melee for the legendary Enve lunch rides (total smashfests) and grabbing the Fray for the weekend ride. I don't think that makes much sense for most people though. 

What makes the Melee unique among race bikes is that it's a little taller with room for bigger tyres, fender mounts, and with a bit more flex than is normal. The Melee is already an American take on a race bike that's perfect for going fast one day and riding from sunrise to sunset the next. The Cannondale SuperSix Evo is also a bit like that. If you own, or could own, either of those bikes and you are comfortable slamming the stems and running 28mm tyres, then the Fray isn't for you. The Fray is for anyone that wants a bike like that but instead wants to run bigger tyres, use a few spacers, and maybe add some storage to the frame. Admittedly that is a lot of people. 

The Fray makes sense either as an only bike or within a stable of different bikes for different riding experiences. I also own a Look 795 Blade RS and that bike consistently surprises me with how much stiffer, lower, and longer it is than the Melee. The Look is a much harder bike to spend all day on. The front end is so low that sitting up is a laughable concept and it would make a perfect companion to the Enve Fray. If you don't work for Enve, grab a more traditional European race bike for short and fast rides, an Enve Fray for fast long-distance riding, and a gravel race bike like the Enve MOG or Time ADHX 45 for off-road adventures. 

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Josh hails from the Pacific Northwest of the United States but would prefer riding through the desert than the rain. He will happily talk for hours about the minutiae of cycling tech but also has an understanding that most people just want things to work. He is a road cyclist at heart and doesn't care much if those roads are paved, dirt, or digital. Although he rarely races, if you ask him to ride from sunrise to sunset the answer will be yes. Height: 5'9" Weight: 140 lb. Rides: Salsa Warbird, Cannondale CAAD9, Enve Melee, Look 795 Blade RS, Priority Continuum Onyx

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Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is embarking on his first tour of Europe

MADRID — Capitalizing on an impressive moment in Spanish-language music, Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is embarking on his first tour of Europe.

“Even Don Quixote didn’t get as far as urban Spanish-speaking music is getting today in the world. You can go everywhere and you will find music that was written in Spanish,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “I’m happy to see that (Spanish) opens doors to places that I never thought that we could get before.”

His award-winning latest album, “Tinta y tiempo” (“Ink and time”), earned him four of his 13 Latin Grammy Awards, part of a haul that includes an Oscar.

On his tour Drexler will perform live for the first time “Derrumbe,” a song about the loss of love that he rescued from his notes. The song was included in the 2021 TV show “Todo va a estar bien”.

The European tour will be more intimate than the shows of recent years, with voice, guitar and an open repertoire — a “first date” with an audience that Drexler expects will be seeing him for the first time.

“I have always looked West,” he said, with performances in the United States, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. “I have so much work in that part of the world that I didn’t look East enough.”

He looks forward to seeing some European cities for the first time and visiting others such as Paris and Berlin after many years. The tour will take him to Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden, among other countries.

After the tour ends in mid-June, he will return to the leather armchair in his studio in Madrid to sit with a guitar and a blank piece of paper and “try to get lucky.”

But as his repertoire grows, songwriting becomes more complicated because “the more you release, the more space that occupies in your brain,” Drexler said.

“Once you’ve written 200 or 300 songs, each and every new song has to open a little space,” he said.

Resorting to artificial intelligence is not an option, at least for now. He tested ChatGPT and, although the result “was perfectly written, from a syntactic, orthographic point of view,” it lacked poetry.

“I like biographies and I like songwriters, and I like to get to know the personality of a person. And I like the mistakes that guide you through unexpected places. So, I still prefer songs written by human beings,” he said.

Drexler also enjoys collaborations in the creative process, such as the ones with C.Tangana , Rubén Blades , or Noga Erez in his previous album.

“It’s a relief for me, it relieves me from myself,” he said. “My worst enemy when it comes to writing is my past, my obsessions, the way I work. It’s what I am. And I’m happy to show it, but at the same time, it’s a big, big burden.”

In collaborating, there are no restrictions in the kind of music or the generations that listen.

“I don’t think that the music we did in the past was the (good) music, like most of my generation,” Drexler said. “(I’m) more interested in the music that my 12-year-old daughter listens to than the one that my generation used to listen to. So I try to be open to different things.”

This story has been updated to correct the number of Latin Grammys Drexler won for the album Tinta y tiempo” (“Ink and time”) and removes a reference to the song “Derrumbe” being new.

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European cities hope jet-setting Taylor Swift fans will splash the cash for Eras tour

The superstar arrives in Europe next month – and Swifties, tourist boards and venues are already preparing

T im Brown, 44, and his wife, Marcella, 34, may not consider themselves bona fide “Swifties”, but when it was announced last June that Taylor Swift would be visiting their corner of the globe this summer they could not resist joining the scramble for a pair of tickets.

A post-pandemic appetite for live music events has fuelled huge worldwide interest in the American singer-songwriter’s Eras tour, which surpassed in $1bn sales in November to become the highest-grossing series of concerts in history.

The pop culture event of the summer will arrive in Europe next month, kicking off in Paris on 9 May and wrapping up in London on 20 August with 49 dates in between in Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Austria, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The unique nature of the tour’s ticketing system, which was tweaked after a number of hitches last year, means there will be a mass movement of travelling fans who will not only be Swiftie in affiliation but swift-like in their willingness to travel across the continent.

In expectation of intense demand, Ticketmaster introduced a pre-registration system that rewarded some early applicants with access codes to the ticket sale proper, via staggered windows for each city.

Notionally designed to prioritise genuine fans over “scalpers” – people who buy and resell tickets for a quick profit – the pre-sales system also meant many fans registered for tickets in multiple destinations across Europe to increase their chances.

Tim and Marcella, who live in Norwich, registered not just for the nearest concerts – in London and Liverpool – but also in Amsterdam and Lisbon. The pair got lucky with a pair of €91 tickets in the Portuguese capital and have turned the trip into a weekend break. “I used to live in Lisbon so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone,” Tim said. “We booked ourselves flights and four nights’ accommodation the same day.” They are far from alone.

Katie Soo, the chief business officer of DICE, a rival ticketing company, said: “The excitement and uncertainty inherent in the ticket-purchasing process might have inadvertently incentivised fans to apply for tickets in multiple cities, thereby increasing the likelihood of travelling across Europe to attend the concerts.”

Hotel prices

Several European cities have already reported a sharp rise in demand for hotel and short-term rental accommodation over the summer, when the Swift hurricane will arrive. In Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cardiff, rooms at the Travelodge chain around Swift’s June dates have been sold out since August 2023, a month after tickets for the shows went on sale.

In Paris, where fans anticipate Swift to debut an updated version of the Eras show with songs from the new Tortured Poets Department album, 80% of hotels and apartments listed on Booking.com are already full up. In Warsaw on 2 August, only 9% of hotels listed on the same site are still available.

Not all of the 18 cities covered by the Eras tour are obvious tourism destinations. From 17-19 July, Swift will play three concerts at the 65,000-capacity home ground of the football club Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen in Ruhr valley, western Germany. The city’s less-than-familiar name prompted one US chatshow host to quip that “the place might not even exist”.

Yet even in Germany’s rust belt the influx of Swift fans is temporarily transforming the hotel market: any two-bedroom apartments that remain available are going for €800-2,000 a night, with cheaper accommodation available only in surrounding cities that are just as off the usual tourist track as Gelsenkirchen, such as Essen, Bochum or Herne.

Cities with stricter rules on allowing Airbnb-style holiday lets and a more limited stock of short-term rental apartments are reporting a particularly marked increase in rates during Swift’s visit, with about 30% year-on-year spikes in rental rates in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Milan, according to AirDNA, a data analytics company specialising in the short-term rentals market.

Of all the tour’s European stops, Vienna is experiencing the most notable impact on its rental market, with booking rates for the nights of Swift’s concerts recorded in February 44% higher than at the same point the previous year. By the end of March the number of nights booked in the Austrian capital for the length of Swift’s stay in the second week of August had risen by 430% compared with the same period in 2023.

When Luke Tilden’s wife, Tatjana, suggested last summer that the couple buy their 13- and 15-year-old daughters, Lena and Maya, tickets to a Taylor Swift gig for Christmas, the 53-year-old Briton initially waved it off. “There’s no chance in hell we’d get a ticket without paying through our noses, I thought,” said Tilden, who works as an interpreter at the European parliament in Brussels.

But after pre-registering for tickets in London, Paris and Munich, the Tildens got unexpectedly lucky for four tickets in southern Germany and have turned the concert visit into a mini-holiday: “We’ll visit the in-laws in Bavaria, enjoy the countryside, do a bit of hiking.”

The hope in cities across Europe is that this will be replicated on a massive scale, with fans’ excitement translating into generous spending sprees on food, shopping and leisure. In Stockholm, for example, where authorities are expecting 159,000 visitors to arrive from 135 countries in mid-May, the chamber of commerce has forecast a spending boost of €50m. “We hope the whole town will buzz from the Eras tour,” said Tomas Andersson, a spokesperson for the Swedish capital’s tourism board.

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Whether fans will necessarily act like ordinary tourists, however, is up for debate. “Pop-culture tourists do not necessarily care about traditional buildings and authentic restaurants,” said Maria Lexhagen, a professor at the European Tourism Research Institute, Mid Sweden University.

“Joining up with other fan communities is stronger motivation, as is the idea that they might get closer to the stars themselves. Many of them will map out where Swift is spending her time in the city – they will seek out seemingly marginal but meaningful places like back alleys or coffee shops.” Venues may be hoping for a repeat of Sydney in February, when Swift swept into an unassuming Italian restaurant in the suburbs and sent its name into global media headlines.

In Stockholm the tourism board said it was expecting bookshops and secondhand clothes stores, rather than museums and royal palaces, to attract most of the arriving visitors. Some venues are being proactive: one restaurant within walking distance of the multipurpose Friends Arena in the Solna municipality is putting on a “Taylor Swift brunch experience” with a karaoke stage; the waterfront nightclub Debaser is hosting a pre-concert party on 16 May, an all-ages all-day party with a Swift-themed quiz on 19 May and an afterparty the day after.

Environment

As the Swift circus rolls across the continent, the transport infrastructure of urban centres will also be put to the test. Around the tour’s three-night stop in Dublin at the end of June, Irish Rail has announced additional late-night services to Cork and Limerick to meet an expected increase in demand. Extra tram and bus services are likely to be announced nearer the time.

Unlike rail operators, most airlines do not have capacity to charter additional flights. Due to yield management – airlines adjusting prices based on expected demand – a scramble for airborne journeys into cities that host the Eras tour is more likely to result in more expensive tickets rather than additional flights.

Officials at Lisbon airport said no additional flights had been chartered around Swift’s concerts on 24 and 25 May but that demand would probably be reflected in slightly higher load factors. A spokesperson for Amsterdam Schiphol said general aviation slots could be requested at short notice but nothing out of the ordinary had been logged so far.

Calculating the environmental impact of the tour with any certainty was difficult, experts said. “We can expect that some Swift fans will travel a long way to see one, if not several, shows across Europe”, said Stefan Gössling, a professor of tourism at Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden. “But measuring the environmental impact of these trips is extremely difficult – it would involve a lot of guesswork.”

This did not mean the carbon footprint was negligible. “Every flight taken by a person adds to demand and hence influences supply considerations,” Gössling said. “The greater the demand, the more aircrafts are in service.”

The pop star’s carbon footprint is easier to estimate. Swift owns two jets by the French manufacturer Dassault, whose journeys are trackable. During the 2023 leg of the Eras tour, Swift’s planes spent 166 hours crisscrossing the US in about 75 individual journeys, though it is possible they were used by people other than the singer.

According to data available through the open-access aviation tracker ADS-B exchange, Swift’s jets caused carbon emissions of about 2,830 tonnes of CO 2 equivalent over the course of the US Eras tour – about 1,700 times the annual contribution of an average person.

A spokesperson for Swift told US media last year that in advance of the tour’s start in March 2023, the pop star bought more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel. Carbon offset credits are tradable certificates that allow purchasers to compensate for emissions by investing in environmental projects that claim to reduce carbon emissions, though recent studies have questioned the efficacy of these schemes.

Additional reporting by Ajit Niranjan

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International Edition

Already planning to see the next solar eclipse in 2026? What travelers need to know.

Umbraphiles feeling the post-eclipse blues should start checking the expiration date on their passports.

The next total solar eclipse is set to happen on Aug. 12, 2026, over Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia and a small part of Portugal, according to NASA . 

In North America, only a partial eclipse will be visible, so if April’s event made you an eclipse chaser and you want to see totality, you’ll need to head overseas.

Here’s what you’ll need to know before packing your bags:

Do you need a passport or visa for the best destination?

The path of totality for the 2026 eclipse mostly goes through places Americans can travel visa-free with their passport, so long as they’re planning to stay for less than 90 days.

Spain, Portugal, Iceland and Greenland all allow visa-free tourist travel for U.S. passport holders.

Spain, Portugal and Iceland are also members of the Schengen Area, which allows for visa-free travel in much of Europe, meaning if you decide to make a multi-country trip out of your eclipse adventure, you won’t need to clear customs if you’re coming from much of the rest of Europe, either.

One major change for travelers to Europe from the U.S., however, is that electronic preauthorization will become a requirement beginning in mid-2025. The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) requirement will apply to all four open countries in the path of totality. 

Depending on the state of the Ukraine war, travel to Russia may or may not be an option for most Americans by 2026, so it’s unclear what the paperwork requirements will be by then.

Is it better to see it from the beach?

Beaches can be a great place to see the eclipse because there are few natural obstacles blocking observers’ views of the sky. The 2026 path of totality passes over beaches on Spain’s northern and southeastern coasts, as well as over islands in the Mediterranean Sea including Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza. The eclipse will also pass over coastal areas in Greenland and Iceland, according to the National Solar Observatory . 

Cruising Altitude: What it was like to see the eclipse from a plane

Will there be eclipse cruises or flights?

Almost certainly, although most operators have not announced specific plans yet. 

Cruise lines will also offer more viewing opportunities. Princess Cruises “has created a bespoke itinerary aboard Sky Princess to position the ship near Spain on that date,” according to a spokesperson for the line. The cruise will open for bookings on Princess’s website on May 23.

Cunard Line has sailings on its Queen Mary 2 , Queen Victoria and Queen Anne vessels that will put passengers in prime spots to watch .

'The ship can move': Why you should watch next solar eclipses from a cruise ship

Holland America Line is also planning multiple sailings around the event, though details are still to be announced. “Guests have reacted positively to our 2024 eclipse cruises and with the next full eclipse in 2026 we plan to have three sailings in Europe that will align with the path of the eclipse,” Paul Grigsby, the line's vice president of Deployment & Itinerary Planning, previously told USA TODAY in an email.

The Masters 2024: Matthieu Pavon in the spotlight ahead of realising Augusta dream

By Mathieu Wood

Golf reaches a wider audience when The Masters arrives, placing players at the front of the sports agenda. Even with his remarkable rise to prominence in recent months, Matthieu Pavon knows this is no ordinary week.

Having won his maiden DP World Tour title in Madrid in his 185th appearance last October, Pavon went on to secure dual membership status with the PGA TOUR, birdieing the final four holes at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai to cap a fine finish to the campaign.

He has since become the first French winner on the PGA TOUR since 1907 with his victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. “No words”, he said with a beaming smile in his immediate post-round interview after birdieing the final hole to win at Torrey Pines, California.

Pavon is now a member of the world’s golfing elite. After reaching a career-high in the Official World Golf Ranking, the French star has the keys to fulfil all his goals as he looks ahead to his first appearance at Augusta National.

“It [The Masters] is the week I have dreamt about for so many years,” he told the DP World Tour.

“It is the Major that I want to win the most. It is also the history of the Green Jacket, and it looks pretty on some of the winners’ shoulders!"

🏆 DP World Tour win 🪪 PGA TOUR dual membership 🏆 PGA TOUR win All in three months. The journey was long. Bravo @matthieupavon 👏 https://t.co/AOcNz8Zsjy — DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) January 28, 2024

A week on from his first practice round at the famed Georgia venue, in the company of Major winner Shane Lowry , the excitement for World Number 25 Pavon is clear to see. And so it should be.

It's a long way from when he was struggling to make an impression as an amateur, and then when he first set out as a professional in 2013.

“I am at the spot that I dreamt about for so many years," he added.

"Yes, of course, it took me 10-11 years to get there but it is all about the journey and the process. It doesn’t matter to me if it comes to me in four or 11. It was just a matter of time.

"I feel really prepared after those 11 long years to get to this spot and now I am ready to stay there."

I am at the spot that I dreamt about for so many years

In what can be a solitary sport, travelling the world away from family, Pavon is thrilled at the prospect of sharing his long-awaited Masters debut with those who mean the most to him.

His mother, Beatrice, is a golf instructor while his father, Michel, won France’s top-tier division in football with Bordeaux during a 15-year playing career before moving into coaching. Both are on site in Georgia along to support their son, along with Matthieu's brothers.

"My mum and dad went to the Masters in 2009, 15 years ago," he said. "It will be nice to share some time with them.

"I know that they really liked it and they dreamt that I could get there and play one day. I am bringing all my family.

"There is a fellow Frenchman who is coming too, Adrien Saddier (fellow DP World Tour member). He wanted to come and see the practice rounds so he will be with me until Wednesday. I think it is going to be a lot of fun."

During his parents' visit to Augusta National, his mum buried a coin on the grounds as a good luck charm with the hope her son would one day play at the famed Georgia venue.

While, Pavon has no intention of specifically looking for the coin, he does intend to do something similar for his two-year-old son.

"I think it's part of the story, and it's only better that that coin maybe stays here forever," he said.

"The only thing we're going to do now is probably I'm going to get a coin myself, bury it somewhere for maybe wishing that my son one day will come as a player over here."

"I don't know if he wants to play golf. It doesn't matter. But maybe I wish that. It would be fun if in the next 20, 30 years my son gets here as a player. That would be an awesome story."

“He writes the history of male French golf!” The French announce call for @MatthieuPavon ’s first TOUR win is electric. @CanalPlusGolf | @AdrienToubiana pic.twitter.com/wY3KqvpYHz — PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 28, 2024

L'Équipe – the French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport – dedicated a section of its weekend supplement on Saturday to Pavon, just days ahead of the first men's Major of the season.

The last golfer to be on the front cover of the L'Équipe magazine was Céline Boutier last September, two months on from her maiden Major Championship victory on home soil at The Evian Championship.

While he is not a Major winner yet, Pavon will be hoping to generate more headlines this week after his history-making exploits so far this year.

Just like Boutier, Pavon's career has reached new heights in recent times after years of perseverance and playing out of the spotlight. No longer.

He will be a headline draw on home soil later this year when the FedEx Open de France heads to Le Golf National. Before that, he is set to represent his country in a home Olympic Games this summer at the 2018 Ryder Cup venue.

Pavon has made four previous Major starts in his career, with his best a tie for 25th in the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

So, what has the 31-year-old learned from his past experience of playing in what are the biggest weeks in golf?

"These tournaments are special," he replied. "They are supposed to be the toughest all year.

"It’s really about how you manage yourself. How mentally you can be prepared to to that event and also how good your attitude can be.

"The key in mind is to be super positive and patient during weeks like this."

Recognising history, with Fuzzy Zoeller the last rookie to win the Masters in 1979, Pavon is aware of the challenge he faces, having enjoyed some pre-tournament practice at Augusta National early last week.

"The more you play it, the better you get over there," added Pavon, who cites Tiger Woods' memorable chip-in during the final round in 2005 as his first Masters memory.

"It is really tricky around the greens. There are lots of elevations. The greens are fast, so there are spots you can’t be and some others that you better find.

"It is all about course management and being very precise with your iron play."

Now, the notion that Augusta National is a course that suits drawers of the golf ball is often remarked.

As a result, for a player who typically works the ball from left-to-right instead, Pavon has been honing in on ensuring he is best equipped to summon both shapes on call with the support of his coach Jamie Gough, who works with several leading golfers, including fellow Masters participant Ryan Fox.

"I am a fader of the ball, but I think Jack Nicklaus was too and he won a couple of Masters! he said with a smile.

"It’s all about getting a couple reps playing some draw shots. I have worked on it over the years with my coach Jamie and I know how to draw the ball but practicing a few extra draw shots on the range could help for sure.

"Jamie is pretty big to me. We have changed my swing over the years. I wanted to get rid of the left side of the golf course, so we had to make a few technical changes.

"Jamie is super nice, he always finds some super simple exercises that you can repeat every day and makes me better all the time and this is what we did together."

All his hard work has led him to this. Amid all the pre-event attention, Pavon is intent on ensuring he doesn't get caught up in the excitement and focuses on the values that have enabled him to take recent big steps forward in his career development.

"I am trying to treat this tournament the same way I prepare for every other. I think that is key," he said.

"If you put too much expectation or too much pressure on yourself on those big tournaments that is when you get caught a little bit uneven."

The Masters 2024: Ryo Hisatsune relishing Augusta sights and sounds as Major debut nears

By Corey Yoshimura Regardless of nationality, economic status, or where you currently live in the world today, odds are when classic anthems such as Queen’s Bohemiem Rhapsody, Michael Jackson’s We Are the World, or the Beatles’ Hey Jude comes on the radio, you’ll naturally stop and hum along with the

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Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is embarking on his first tour of Europe

Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is embarking on his first tour of Europe, describing it as being like a “first date.” (April 12)

Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler poses during an interview with The Associated Press in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

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Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler attends an interview with The Associated Press in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, April 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

MADRID (AP) — Capitalizing on an impressive moment in Spanish-language music, Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler is embarking on his first tour of Europe.

“Even Don Quixote didn’t get as far as urban Spanish-speaking music is getting today in the world. You can go everywhere and you will find music that was written in Spanish,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “I’m happy to see that (Spanish) opens doors to places that I never thought that we could get before.”

His award-winning latest album, “Tinta y tiempo” (“Ink and time”), earned him four of his 13 Latin Grammy Awards, part of a haul that includes an Oscar.

On his tour Drexler will perform live for the first time “Derrumbe,” a song about the loss of love that he rescued from his notes. The song was included in the 2021 TV show “Todo va a estar bien”.

The European tour will be more intimate than the shows of recent years, with voice, guitar and an open repertoire — a “first date” with an audience that Drexler expects will be seeing him for the first time.

“I have always looked West,” he said, with performances in the United States, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere. “I have so much work in that part of the world that I didn’t look East enough.”

He looks forward to seeing some European cities for the first time and visiting others such as Paris and Berlin after many years. The tour will take him to Denmark, Ireland, Italy and Sweden, among other countries.

After the tour ends in mid-June, he will return to the leather armchair in his studio in Madrid to sit with a guitar and a blank piece of paper and “try to get lucky.”

But as his repertoire grows, songwriting becomes more complicated because “the more you release, the more space that occupies in your brain,” Drexler said.

“Once you’ve written 200 or 300 songs, each and every new song has to open a little space,” he said.

Resorting to artificial intelligence is not an option, at least for now. He tested ChatGPT and, although the result “was perfectly written, from a syntactic, orthographic point of view,” it lacked poetry.

“I like biographies and I like songwriters, and I like to get to know the personality of a person. And I like the mistakes that guide you through unexpected places. So, I still prefer songs written by human beings,” he said.

Drexler also enjoys collaborations in the creative process, such as the ones with C.Tangana , Rubén Blades , or Noga Erez in his previous album.

“It’s a relief for me, it relieves me from myself,” he said. “My worst enemy when it comes to writing is my past, my obsessions, the way I work. It’s what I am. And I’m happy to show it, but at the same time, it’s a big, big burden.”

In collaborating, there are no restrictions in the kind of music or the generations that listen.

“I don’t think that the music we did in the past was the (good) music, like most of my generation,” Drexler said. “(I’m) more interested in the music that my 12-year-old daughter listens to than the one that my generation used to listen to. So I try to be open to different things.”

This story has been updated to correct the number of Latin Grammys Drexler won for the album Tinta y tiempo” (“Ink and time”) and removes a reference to the song “Derrumbe” being new.