City and Colour (Dallas Green)
Do you remember what you were doing when you were eight years old? Pretty sure I was still eating mud in the backyard and drawing on the walls (distorted concept of age). While we were all learning our times-tables and watching Cheez TV, Dallas Green was learning guitar. What about what you were doing when you were 14? While we were all obsessively writing ‘Mrs. Leonardo Dicaprio’ in elaborate hearts on our binder, Dallas Green was writing music. And the approximate 20 years definitely paid off, with City and Colour releasing its fourth album The Hurry and the Harm this June. We had the pleasure of talking to the man behind the music, and before you ask, Dallas (City) Green (Colour). So clever.
When you were younger, did you always know you wanted to be a musician?
I started playing guitar when I was eight years old, so pretty much after a few years of playing it was the only thing I was really interested in. I mean, I had other hobbies and things. But by the time I got into my teenage years I had already been playing for a pretty long time, so it grabbed a hold of me when I was young and never really let go.
Was music a large part of your life, did your parents listen to a lot of music when you were growing up?
Definitely, neither of my parents are musicians, but they were the ones who put me into guitar lessons when I was eight, because they wanted me to at least give music a shot. I think both of them wished that they had had a chance to play something when they were younger, but never really were in a situation or position to do so. As a young kid music really meant a lot to me, I was moved by music early, so as soon as I learnt how to tape songs off the radio I did and made mix tapes all the time. That’s sort of how I got myself through high school, making tapes of my favourite songs and keeping my headphones on as I walked around the halls.
How has the journey been so far, before you used to juggle time between two different bands with completely different sounds, and now you have the freedom of focusing all your time on one. Do you prefer that, to focus all your time and energy on one thing?
I definitely feel a bit more focused. I never really thought I would find myself in a position like that where not only I have this one outlet that people were appreciating it and I was able to get out all my creative ideas but I had this other one pop up. For a while it was pretty difficult to go back and forth but now, I think that’s probably why I made this record so quickly after the other one. Usually when I would finish touring with one band or one record I would come home and go into doing the other one. I would either have a handful of songs already written, or know that it was time for me to start coming up with ideas for Alexisonfire, so I found myself constantly writing when I toured with my last record and now here we are with another City and Colour record already.
Your next album The Hurry and The Harm is coming out early June, and you already have three and you’ve been around for a decade. Does that ever come as overwhelming to you?
Yeah, especially when I think how there are four Alexisonfire records and now four City and Colour records, and that’s eight records in a decade. And it’s funny because sometimes I think or always sort of talk about how hard songwriting is or how difficult it can be, but then I think, “jeez well I have been part of eight records now, that’s a lot of songs.” And that’s not even including all of the songs I didn’t like.
There seems to be a turn between the first and the second album. The first one comes off as a little bit more acoustic and the other one wasn’t so much. Why do you think that is?
The first record is really just a compilation of a lot of things I had written over the years, from when I was a teenager. I recorded it in two days and people that knew about Alexisonfire found out about these older songs that I had and that I had this other side of me, and I thought that if there was some interest, I will go and record all these songs. So that’s why it’s just me and a guitar, it’s just really all the time that I had. With the second record, I started incorporating more instruments because I had more time to prepare a record, and then the same with the third record and now with this record. As time shifted my focus to this, I have been able to more fully realise the songs, as opposed to them just being a basic acoustic idea.
Bring Me Your Love is named after a Bukowski short story. What struck you about this certain story?
It wasn’t even really the story that struck me; it was more the title of the story. I had written the song as much as I could which features the line ‘bring me your love’ in the chorus, and I had the melody written for the chorus, but I just couldn’t think of the right phrase to go there. I was on tour, and went into a bookstore, and was looking through the Bukowski section, and there happened to be a copy of that short story there and I pulled it out. I had never heard of it or read it and I just saw that phrase ‘bring me your love’ and it just immediately popped into my head with the melody and it worked, so I just thought it made sense.
Did you ever follow through with getting some of the artwork from Sometimes inked?
Ah no, I haven’t. I think probably because I don’t like getting tattooed anymore. As I get older, it hurts more and more, and I am pretty much over it.
Bring Me Your Love featured you collaborating with a whole bunch of other artists. With City and Colour being a solo project, do you enjoy collaborating with people?
It’s nicer. I write the songs all myself and it’s interesting and fun to have other people come in and interpret my ideas. With the new record, having all these other musicians on it, it’s just cool cause I write a bassline and I have a good idea of what I would like it to sound like, but then you have a bass player come in and take my idea and sort of excel it to the next level. It’s really cool. It’s the same with a drum part or a keyboard part.
Who do you have with you on The Hurry and The Harm?
Jack Lawrence played bass on the record. He is probably most known for being in The Greenhorns or The Raconteurs with Jack White. I have two different drummers, Matt Chamberlain and James Gadson. Both have drummed on so many different records, Matt Chamberlain has drummed on Pearl Jam and Fiona Apple, the list goes on and on. James Gadson played drums for Ray Charles and Bill Withers, people like that. Lots of different people played on The Hurry and The Harm and it’s cool to get their interpretation of my ideas, it’s really nice to hear.
Would you compare The Hurry and The Harm to Little Hells, or do you think that your albums are separate entities?
I think that while they’re all different, they are not that different from each other. I think that if you listen to all of them, that obviously sonically they’re different because they’re different moments of my life and I wasn’t really necessarily trying to recreate or repeat myself but I think that they all sound like me. I read a comment about a song where someone said, “all his songs sound the same,” and I thought, “well that’s okay, they sound like me.” I don’t think my songs sound the same but if you listen to a song and say, “that sounds like City and Colour,’ I like that. I don’t want you to listen to a City and Colour song and say, “Oh that sounds like Radiohead,” or, “oh that sounds like Neill Young, or “that sounds like Metallica,” If you can say that sounds like me, than that’s cool. I’ll take it.
You once said the best sort of music is sad music, what are some of your favourite bands or songs in that sort of vein?
I just like melancholic sounding music, I have always approached song writing that way, and I think my voice suits that more dulcet style of singing. As far as really sad songs, I don’t know, I don’t think I just like sad music, it just makes more sense to me when I hear it. Other than Elliot Smith songs, I don’t necessarily know. Some songs are pretty open book and you can tell. But a lot of people would actually consider my music sad and I don’t particularly think it is. There are some songs that I deal with a bit of a heavier subject matter but I think at the end of the day there is always some sort of light at the end of the tunnel.
What are your favourite places to tour?
My favourite tour is Australia actually.
Really? Any particular city?
I really like Melbourne, because it reminds me a lot of Vancouver in Canada. But I like it all. I have been to Australia nine times so I have seen a lot of it and I kind of feel like it’s my second home in a way. There is something about Canadians and Australians and I feel they have this kinship. I don’t know if that’s just something I feel because I have been there so many times but I really enjoy it.
What abut the craziest gig you have ever played at?
Probably the craziest shows I have ever played at was at Adelaide, when Alexisonfire came to Australia. We played at this place called the Enigma Bar which is this little club. It was the first time we had ever been there and the farthest we have ever travelled to play a show and it was just crazy, just absolutely crazy and I will never forget it. It was one of my favourite shows I have ever played.
What about the craziest gig you have ever been to as an audience member?
I don’t think I have ever been to a show that has been crazier than any of the craziest Alexisonfire shows. I grew up going to heavy metal shows and stuff like that but some of the shows we played at were absolutely mental.
Any particular songs on The Hurry and The Harm that strike a deep cord with you?
I would say that I think all of them really, because they all mean a lot to me. When I write songs I don’t just write songs for the sake of writing songs. I don’t just write so I have something to put out, I write songs because I am feeling it, because it makes sense to me at the time. So, right now, all of the songs. I am very proud of it, I’m excited for people to hear it.
What’s with deal with you and California? (The Golden State)
It’s just not for me. It’s not really a dis, everybody sings about California and how wonderful the place is and how they wish they could be there, and I thought I would just sort of sing a song about the opposite.
The Hurry and The Harm releases everywhere June 4.
