City and Colour
August 13th, 2008 - Written by sophie
When I got to the small changing room at Theatre St-Denis in Montreal, I was quite nervous knowing I was about to meet a singer and songwriter I admire very much. After a few minutes of waiting and pacing around, Dallas Green entered and introduced himself, humble and simple, just like his songs. We spoke of his inspirations, his personal life, struggles and his evolution from his first album ‘Sometimes’ to his latest release, ‘Bring Me Your Love’, for which he was touring, back in June 2008. We also discussed his dual life shared between his other band Alexisonfire and his solo project.
CONFRONT: How are you?
Dallas: I’m ok, I’m tired.
CONFRONT: Yeah you look like it a bit, been travelling a lot?
Dallas: Yeah kind of, we had a few days off so I flew home for a couple of days but, I flew in this morning, my flight was at 9, but I didn’t get much sleep last night so…
CONFRONT: Oh… Alright…
Dallas: I’m going to have a nap after soundcheck.
(both laugh)
CONFRONT: Sure! So, you’ve come a long way since ‘Sometimes’ right…
Dallas: Yeah…
CONFRONT: But it wasn’t really your debut album, because it was more like stuff you had since you were a kid and people asked you to put it out…
Dallas: Yeah…
CONFRONT: So, how is the writing process any different now that you had less time and…
Dallas: Well, I’m more of an adult now obviously and I think that I’ve evolved as a songwriter you know. Like you said, the first record was like a handful of the songs that I wrote as a kid that I thought might be good enough to put them out and then maybe people would like them you know, because there’s a whole ton of songs that I had written that I just didn’t want to put out.
CONFRONT: Really…
Dallas: I was really, already passed those ones as opposed to being kind of passed the ones that I put out on the record. So I think now, you know, a lot of those songs I had written when I was seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old and now I’m almost twenty-eight years old so, I think that now…
CONFRONT: It’s more stuff that you wanted to share.
Dallas: Yeah I mean, I did want to share that stuff but I just, when it was released it wasn’t where my head was at. Whereas the new record, all the songs were written in the last couple of years so it’s more who I am as a person now.
CONFRONT: How was the experience with Gordon Downie?
Dallas: It was great! He’s a great guy.
CONFRONT: You guys had fun?
Dallas: Yeah, I mean he’s um…
CONFRONT: How did it start I mean…
Dallas: I just called him!
CONFRONT: Just like that…
Dallas: Yeah! I asked him if he’d do it and he said yes. That’s it!
CONFRONT: That’s sweet!
Dallas: Yeah, he’s just a really really nice guy and he’s one of the few that…
(His Blackberry started vibrating on the table and he was staring at it while talking and trying to form his sentence but it kept on vibrating so he was talking to the Blackberry)
Dallas: Stop it!
(laughing)
Dallas: He’s one of the few people in music that… STOP! IT!
(laughing)
CONFRONT: Talk to it. (laughing)
Dallas answers the call and tells the person that he is doing an interview and will call back.
Dallas: Always calls! (laughing) Anyways, he’s like one of those people that doesn’t have to be nice because of who he is, you know what I mean?
CONFRONT: Yeah!
Dallas: He’s earned the right to just be, “a dick”, you know what I mean?
CONFRONT: Yeah, yeah totally! And he’s not…
Dallas: Yeah, he’s been doing records over twenty years, he doesn’t have to say yes when kids call and say: “Hey you wanna sing with me?”…
CONFRONT: And he said yes.
Dallas: Yeah, he was just really nice about it and he’s a really nice guy and it’s really nice to call him my friend.
CONFRONT: Well that was a great idea because it’s a really good song!
Dallas: Thank you.
CONFRONT: City and Colour exposes more your vulnerable side and I think it also gets to people’s vulnerable side. Is that what you’re trying to accomplish or?
Dallas: Well, with Alexisonfire, I don’t think I could ever like write a super personal song and ask the guys to play it and ask the guys to sing about it with me, you know. Because of the dynamic that we have and the way we have three singers and we write the songs together. It’s the same with Wade, when Wade put out his solo record, his songs are all about personal things, like he wrote a song about his grandfather passing away, things like that that he just, not that we would have a problem singing about stuff like that, but the way we have Alexis is we have this sort of routine with the way we write our songs. So and I’m always writing songs you know and whenever I try to write by myself it always ends up being about myself you know. It always ends up being about a problem or something that’s bothering me or something that I’m struggling about. So that’s why I kind of, it’s nice to sort of have both.
CONFRONT: Great. Now that you’ve put out your second album, has all the writing helped you through life? And do you have any stories where you know that it has helped other people, through your songs?
Dallas: Yeah. Well definitely it’s like a cathartic process for me because, like I said, kind of like a journal or a diary, whenever I’m feeling bummed or whatever, that’s when I write a song you know. Or that’s when I write my lyrics; I’m always writing melodies and guitar parts except that whenever it comes to lyrics, it’s sort of always drawing from things that are maybe not good or… I don’t know why, I think it’s just, when I’m happy I don’t feel like writing lyrics, you know what I mean? So yeah, I guess that’s why it has helped me you know because… In the same way, same reason why I listen to music because, whenever I’m feeling sad, whenever I listen to a sad song, it makes me feel better for some reason.
CONFRONT: I know! It always does that!
Dallas: Well I guess it’s the whole sort of relating. Knowing that someone else maybe has been upset about the same thing or saying words that maybe don’t mean the same thing to you but, you can relate to what they’re saying. I’ve had many experiences where people have said that the songs I’ve written had helped them through tough times and things and it’s great!
CONFRONT: Makes you feel better too!
Dallas: Yeah! It’s kind of what I’ve always wanted. I’ve kind of just wanted to make people feel the way I feel whenever I hear a good song you know.
CONFRONT: Well it’s working. (laughing)
Dallas: And I know it’s not for everyone and I know it’s not going to be for everyone and I don’t expect everyone to get it or listen to it. Because if people think that, people are morons if they think that “Oh I’m going to be the biggest band in the world”, you know, it’s never going to happen anymore, it’s too many people playing music so all I can hope for as a singer or songwriter, is to write something and hope that somebody gets it.
CONFRONT: Likes it, yes definitely. Going through some of your lyrics on ‘Sometimes’ and the new album, it seems like you’re very scared of loss and the idea of loss. It’s a very common fear but, how does your music help you through it?
Dallas: Well I think with the first record, a lot of the songs were sort of relationship based, whether it would be relationships that were just crumbling while I was in high school or when Alexis just started touring or relationships with my family as well and people that were close to me that were completely thrown into a turmoil when we started touring so much you know. Because I was really, I’m really close with my family and close with my friends from home. And when all of a sudden I started leaving for months on end it was like, you know, crazy, to all of a sudden get thrown into that you know. So I think that’s what the first record is mostly about, but then this record, I’ve sort of come to terms with all of that now. You know I’ve been touring for six, seven years and I don’t really need to write about that. And also I don’t really need to write about girls breaking my heart because no one has done that in a while, because I’ve been in a relationship for quite some time. So… And I’m not going to write a love song just for the sake of it you know what I mean? Like a fake love song or a fake heartbreak song. Because it’s pretty easy to write things like that. But yeah, and then this time I think getting older, I started looking at myself and look at getting older and death and life, things like that and just analyzing. It made me analyse myself as a person as opposed to analysing what other people have done to me or how other people have reacted. It’s more me analyzing myself and how I deal situations and things like that.
CONFRONT: “Missing” is a song that was written to the memory of someone that was really close to you. What other song on ‘Bring Me Your Love’ can you say was written about a really personal experience or event in your life?
Dallas: Well, “The Girl” is obviously written about my girlfriend.
CONFRONT: Really, it’s a very beautiful song.
Dallas: Thanks.
CONFRONT: More guys need to write songs like that!
Dallas: Well I didn’t wanna write, like I said I wasn’t going to write any relationship songs because I didn’t need to. And like I said, I don’t like writing happy songs, I don’t know if I can. Because even that song is kind of like…
CONFRONT: Sort of happy but… yeah…
Dallas: Even my happy songs I have to make them sound sad. But that was just like, I listen to a lot of old soul music and stuff and I was listening to The Beach Boys a lot and I was thinking about how, you know guys back then sort of with actually no problems were able to just tell people, they would sing to that they loved them without being called emo or sappy or all the crap that is going on these days. So I kind of just wanted to write a love song for my girlfriend because that’s how I feel about her, you know?
CONFRONT: Yeah! Makes total sense!
Dallas: And I don’t really care if somebody’s like “Oh it’s sappy or cheesy…” I kind of knew right away when I wrote that song that people were going to say “Oh this is cheesy”, but really I don’t care because that’s for her.
CONFRONT: Exactly, you like or not I don’t care!
Dallas: Yeah! So that’s what that’s about. I think that’s probably the most personal song on the record. Unless you look at it from the way the other songs that are written about myself, those are pretty personal I guess, talking about my problems, things like that.
CONFRONT: A lot of your City and Colour fans discovered Alexisonfire through you and vice-versa. How do you balance the two? Like touring, recording, writing for both at the same time?
Dallas: Well, the thing for the writing is that I wrote ‘Bring Me Your Love’ pretty much on tour with Alexis. It just kind of happened. Every time I would just pick up a guitar, these are the songs that came out of me you know. It’s weird too, even now or even back a couple months ago, every time I tried to sort of write with Alexis or for Alexis, I couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t there you know. It was like this was in my mind. And I think a lot of it had to do with this tour, I was just stressed about the tour. But now as I went home for those two days and last night I was just sitting at my house playing my guitar and so excited about writing new Alexis songs. It’s the way my mind splits in half all of a sudden. I need to get one part of my brain out before I can work on the other.
CONFRONT: Yeah. And Wade is on tour with you now.
Dallas: And Wade is on tour with me now. We’ve been showing each other some riffs and I actually called Jordan today, our drummer, and said “I’m home next week so let’s get together and work on some stuff because…”
CONFRONT: So you’re touring with Alexis and writing for City and Colour and vice-versa.
Dallas: I think so yeah! Well the thing is when you tour, like when we tour with Alexis, it’s like we’re usually on tour with a bunch of loud bands and you play loud music and with, you know, us being such music fans we listen to tons of different things and the last thing I want to do when I’m on tour with Alexis is, in my spare time, play or try and think about playing loud music. It doesn’t work. All I want to do is sit in the back of the bus and play some guitar quietly you know. It’s like Jim from At the Drive-In and Sparta who is in Sleepercar, who is also playing [opening for City and Colour during the tour], like he said, his record kind of came about just after touring for so long playing rock music, he just got home and wanted to play a quiet song. And that’s kind of what happened with ‘Bring Me Your Love’, I didn’t ever plan on putting out another solo record so quickly. But we finished the tour with Alexis for ‘Crisis’ and I had like fifteen songs! So I said “Jeez, I’m not going to get past this unless I put them out” you know? So I guess it’s sort of like settling into this, one thing is here one thing is there kind of thing.
CONFRONT: Yeah, it balances out.
Dallas: Yeah!
CONFRONT: On your radio interview with Matt in Calgary, you said that your favorite song of the moment on the album was “What Makes a Man”. Is it still that right now?
Dallas: I think so. It’s either that or “As Much as I Ever Could”, the last song, those two are like tied for my favourites.
CONFRONT: Great. You also told him that your mom’s favorite song was “Like Knives”.
Dallas: Yeah!
CONFRONT: Why?
Dallas: I don’t know! She just always liked that one.
CONFRONT: Really?
Dallas: Yeah, I remember recording it and she was just like: “That’s my favorite!”
(laughing)
Dallas: I think she has newer favourites now. She likes the demo version better, which no one has ever heard but, I think I’m going to re-release ‘Bring Me Your Love’ with all of the demos I did for it. Because I recorded all the songs, almost ninety percent of the songs on my computer, just like singing on my computer. So they’re pretty raw, but it’s cool, I think it would be cool to hear how they started.
CONFRONT: It would be cool to hear that!
Dallas: But it’s funny because I give all my demos to my friends and my mom and my dad and stuff like that and when I actually make the record then obviously the songs change from what they were. But my parents and all my friends are like falling in love with the demo version, so then they’re like: “I don’t like the album version as much”. But I’m like: “Yeah, but you can’t do that to me!” Because it’s never going to be the same. But yeah, my mom liked the demo version of “Waiting” way better and I remember when I brought her to the studio to show my parents the record, she was like: “Well I don’t like that as much!” and then I was like: “Ma!”
(laughing)
Dallas: “I just finished the record and you’re going to tell me you don’t like it? Like come on!”
CONFRONT: (laughing) Yeah like: “Please! I’ve been working on this!”
Dallas: Yeah! So, I don’t know why “Like Knives” was her favourite, I think she just dug it you know.
CONFRONT: So her new favourite would be “Waiting”?
Dallas: I don’t know I think her new favourite is “As Much as I Ever Could”, I think it’s her gem off the new record.
CONFRONT: I love that song. What artist has inspired you the most in the writing process of ‘Bring Me Your Love’?
Dallas: In ‘Bring Me Your Love’ I definitely think Bob Dylan, over the last couple of years I really got into him, I read a couple of his books. I think it’s impossible now at some point in your life not to be influenced by him, if you’re a true music fan, he’s just done so much for music. And another singer and songwriter named Townes Van Zandt. I really like… “Waiting” is actually like, he has a song called “Waiting Around to Die” and I kind of wrote “Waiting”, I wanted to write a more positive spin on his song, because his song I kind of negative, “Waiting Around to Die”, which, and a lot of people look at my song “Waiting” and think it’s negative but, if you read into the lyrics and you read into it, it is really positive when you think about it.
CONFRONT: I think it’s more a message of hope!
Dallas: That’s what it is! Of course it’s rapped in the sadness and… tortilla but…
(laughing)
Dallas: So I really got into him lately or back then and obviously Neil Young, just always always creeping in there…
CONFRONT: You were compared to him, how do you feel about that?
Dallas: Oh I don’t listen to that stuff I mean, I think it’s just another one of those things that somebody wants to say just to, you know… You know what I mean!
(laughing)
Dallas: I mean that’s great, but I would never do it myself, I would never say…
CONFRONT: I’m Neil Young!
Dallas: Yeah, or I’m the next Neil Young. Because really I don’t believe in like the next this or the next that, you know, like I said in an interview once when somebody said that I said: “Well, I really don’t think of myself that way and I really don’t think that there will be another me!” I don’t think that there will be the next me, but I totally believe that there will be people better than I am, but I am me and I think that that’s it, you know, I sort of carve my own path.
CONFRONT: That’s good! You were also asked what song you were most proud of and you were mumbling that you weren’t so proud of yourself?
Dallas: No I’m never really proud of anything, especially after a little period of time. I think it just has to do with me with always wanting to do better? I always want to get better so, I definitely pick and criticize myself a little too hard I think but…
CONFRONT: Even though after all this success that you’re having now?
Dallas: No that doesn’t matter, I mean, it doesn’t matter how many people buy the records or how many shows. At the end of the day, it’s still me by myself in my head, wondering if whether or not what I’ve done is good or whether or not I could’ve done better, you know? So, I mean it’s great and I really appreciate that people have allowed me to sort of, make music my life, but I… I read an interview with somebody and I can’t remember who it was for some reason, because I should, because I’m going to quote them, but they said that “if you’re not cringing at the past, then you’re not evolving”.
CONFRONT: Oh for sure!
Dallas: If you look back and think that what you have done is great, then you’ll get stuck there and you won’t ever try to do better than that you know. Because if you get stuck on that one hit wonder and you think: “Oh I got one hit single” or whatever… So I just want to write better songs, always.
CONFRONT: Good… So who else do you see yourself working with in the future?
Dallas: I don’t know! I mean, Gordon, it was just like, I just heard this song and I just heard his voice there you know. I think that it’ll just come, it’ll just have to be that point. I mean if you ask me, I’d probably take into consideration, I’d have the anchoring to go where Alicia Keys is playing, give her my CD and go: “Hey! Wanna sing together?” Of course I don’t know how I would get passed her huge security guard but I would probably just be like…
CONFRONT: (in a shy tone, pretending to give out a CD)) “Here…”
Dallas: Yeah! So I think it just all comes out to what I hear in my head as far as like wanting to work with people and then just…
CONFRONT: So there isn’t anybody you’ve been dying to work with?
Dallas: No, I don’t really think like that. There are some people with whom I would love to sing a song but… I would love to sing with Niko Case, she’s great. I would love to sing with Leslie, I’d like that, I think that would be nice yeah. But not even just putting out a song just sing with them.
CONFRONT: Like live on stage or…
Dallas: Or just even in a room!
CONFRONT: Just like that. Awesome! Thank you!
Our photographer, Gemma, had one last question for Dallas.
CONFRONT: Your song “Against The Grain”, what brought you to write a song like that?
Dallas: Well that was like, I always write songs about myself you know. And we were on tour in Europe and we were about to go to Germany and we had to cancel because our drummer’s grandfather had passed away so… That’s like the one thing that brings you home, is the death in the family, that kind of thing that… We never cancel shows but when that happens it’s like “Ok we’re going”. So that happened and then there was like a couple of other intances where I knew other people that had lost people close to them like that and I kind of wanted to write a song for people as opposed to writing a song for myself. A song that people could listen to when they’re having a bad day or some things are going wrong… Yeah, it was like my crack, I was writing an empowering song for people.
CONFRONT: For the people… Well awesome! Thank you!
Dallas: Hey no problem!
For more information on City and Colour, Dallas Green or Alexisonfire visit:
www.myspace.com/dallasgreen
www.myspace.com/alexisonfire
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