City & Colour

As I walked into the dressing room at The Electric Factory in Philly, Dallas Green was sitting on the couch writing in his journal. He apologized for the massive amount of guitar peddles next to him and moved them to the floor so I could have a seat. After deciding on the best way to hold the mic, the interview began.

Eric, Taking Over: You can introduce yourself to our readers.

Dallas Green, City & Colour: My name is Dallas Green and I play guitar and sing. I guess I am City & Colour, maybe. I’m sure you can call it that.

E: Tell us about the tour right now with Tegan and Sara.

D: We’re in Philadelphia, and this is the third day of the tour. So we’ve only been on it for a couple of days. But so far it’s very nice. And uh, yeah, I mean this is my first tour, my first actual tour in America as City & Colour. I’ve only played a few shows here and there in America, so it’s pretty exciting.

E: Now I read that you’re in Columbus [Ohio], meeting up with Death Cab for a night?

D: Yeah, I guess we’re playing some show with them, yeah.

E: How cool is that?

D: It’s pretty cool, yeah. I’ve never met those dudes or played with them, so, that’s kind of neat. I feel bad though, because we’re playing Nebraska and in one of my songs I kind of say something rude about Nebraska. It wasn’t like a shot at Nebraska. It just happened to be the one time I was in Nebraska I was having a really bad day, and the place we were at just didn’t make me feel any better about my day, so I used it in a song. You know, it’s what you do. So hopefully they didn’t put me on the show just as a clever ruse to totally beat me up when I get there. “Yeah, we’ll put him on the show and when he gets here, we’ll jump him.”

E: Nebraska is known for that.

D: Yeah, so hopefully, hopefully that doesn’t happen.

E: Is it weird touring without the full Alexisonfire band and just doing the solo stuff?

D: No, I’ve done lots of tours by myself, just not in America, so it’s cool. I’m with my friend, the guy who brought you in here is one of my best friends, so it’s just me and him driving around in a car. It’s pretty neat. And then the girls and the guys in Tegan and Sara are great people, and the Girl in a Coma girls seem to be very nice too, so, you know, it’s just like any other tour. It’s just that my other friends aren’t here. And I don’t get as sweaty.

E: So it’s just you and one other guy playing?

D: Well it’s me, just me by myself playing on stage, and he sells the t-shirts. But usually, most of the time I’ll bring a band with me just to like, you know, for more, but they just wanted me by myself, cause it’s like, there’s not a lot of room on the stage and stuff. And they didn’t want three bands. They wanted like a band, and then something different, and then a band. So I’m in the middle.

E: Where did all the people in the full band come from?

D: They’re from just other bands that I know very well. In my hometown there’s a band called Attack in Black, who are a wonderful Canadian band, and their singer and guitar player Dan, who also helped me record my last record, he plays guitar and sings. And then there was a wonderful band called Raising the Fond, from Canada, and the rhythm section from that band played with me too, but they’re all three of my really good friends.

E: On the new record, I noticed the songs have a more positive sound to them.

D: Good! That’s good of you, because not many people think that.

E: Really?

D: Although I think that.

E: Is that just the result of having a full band with you or is that something else that influenced that?

D: Well, I don’t know. I think the first record is so slow, and you can really tell that they’re sort of melancholic type songs or depressing or whatever. But the newer songs, I think there’s still some really sad lines in those songs, but I like to think there’s a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel in the new songs, you know? I guess sometimes it just seems like they’re sad songs based on the way I’m singing or something. But I didn’t really have a reason to write sad love songs on this record, so that’s why they’re more like sort of analytical, self-analytical songs, and then the ones that do deal with relationships are more like me just letting someone know how much I love them, as opposed to asking them why they don’t love me. I’m sort of saying this is how much I love you as opposed to, you know, so I guess it’s got more of like a positive spin on it.

E: Cool. What inspires you? Not so much musically, like other bands, although you can include that, but just in general as a person, in life, what inspires you?

D: I think honesty is my biggest influence. From the get go, I’ve always just wanted to make music that’s just me and hope that someone gets what I’m doing, you know? And I think that inspired me, being honest, and just seeing other music like that. I think music in general, like I just love it so much. I have such a passionate relationship with music that—I mean, there’s lots of records I could mention, but at the same time it’s just the act of it. Like I just love singing. And I just love playing guitar, and I’m inspired by that, and I’m just so happy that I get to play for the sake of people.

E: Being from Canada, you probably have a different perspective on music and things. How does the industry there compare to here?

D: Well, the industry seems to be pretty much the same everywhere. All the major labels are the major labels, and they have their way of doing things. And then there’s the independent labels who have their way of doing things. And it really, I mean, there are different things, different ways that you go about things… but I mean, one good thing about Canada is that we have tons of grant agencies from the government for bands and musicians and stuff. Like you can apply and get music videos paid for, and you can get touring paid for by the government and things like that, if you apply for it. It’s really great. That’s one thing that’s different from us than America. But like as far as the industry goes, it is pretty similar. But I think, it seems to me that America’s a little bit more—the fan base anyway seems a bit more segregated in a way. Like from my experience of touring everywhere, it seems harder for a diverse line-up of bands to tour together in America. Because it seems like, well, in my experience, it feels like the hardcore kids have a hard time mingling with the emo kids and vice versa and then the punks don’t like either of those and this and that. Whereas in Canada, pretty much everybody just likes everything. You can put different type sounding bands on a tour and everything will work out. But every time I see an ad for a tour these days down here, it’s friggin’ the same band four times in a row, and I’m like, “Why is that? Don’t you want the kids to like try and get in—that’s why we always try to bring something different, you know what I mean? Like the last time we toured Canada, it was us, and then we brought this band called Saosin, who are, I think, different from us, and then we brought Anti-Flag, who are way different than both of us.

E: By us you mean?

D: Alexisonfire. And I think that as open-minded musicians, we owe it to our kids to try and open their minds up too. So, I don’t know. That would be one more thing that it seems like—I wish that—that’s just in my experience though. I may be missing a whole section of music that people are like, “What are you talking about? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

E: I’ve heard there’s a different attitude towards downloading, like peer-to-peer file-sharing and all that in Canada.

D: I think depends on who you ask, really. And really—you mean like whether it’s illegal or not?

E: Yeah, like here they’re pretty tough trying to crack down on it.

D: There doesn’t seem to be any rules going on yet, in Canada. And if they are, they’re not enforced at all. And I mean that uh, it is what it is. It helps and it doesn’t help. It does if someone’s like “Oh, I’ve never really heard this band. I’m just gonna download the record and see what I think.” And then maybe they become a fan, but then they didn’t buy the record, so it’s like, you know. It’s hard to explain to people that—I get why people think music should be free, but also as a musician who creates music as their living, I also understand why you should charge for it. But I make more of a living off of touring than I do off of record sales anyway, so that’s whatever. As long as people keep coming to shows, that’s fine, that’s nice, I’m happy.

E: Tell us a little about the video for “Sleeping Sickness,” the whole interactive thing. Where did that idea come from?

D: Well the guy who directed it, Vincent, he had done one before with The Arcade Fire, where he did an online video as well. And I just thought that was a really cool idea, especially the way things are nowadays being pretty much solely internet based, you know? And especially because a lot of music video stations aren’t really playing music videos anymore. It was just a good idea, I think for—Like I know a lot of my videos, they get played in Canada, but they don’t really get played anywhere else. So I thought it was a cool idea that the kids who like my stuff, not just in America but in the UK and Australia and stuff, that they’d have something cool to do. And it makes people interested, you know, and it’s uh, I mean, let’s not beat around the bush, I mean, the attention span of kids these days is growing smaller and smaller. Right? So giving them something to do while the song is playing, I think it’s good. And I think it’s just a cool idea to have two versions.

E: The last question is a fun one. Pick one of your favorite tattoos and tell the story behind it.

D: Okay, I’ll tell the favorite story. The tattoo on my neck is an anchor, and it has a banner that says “HMS Calgary,” which was the name of the submarine that my grandfather was in when he was in the Navy in WWII. And there’s poppies around it because that was what we called him, Poppy John, before he died. And the reason I got that is because when he was in WWII his submarine sank the German sub that got closest to North American waters. It snuck past the guard, and then they had to go catch it and they sunk it before it got through. My dad still has his medal and the newspaper article from whenever that was, a very long time ago, so when he died—he died when I was young, and I didn’t really get to know him that well because he was an old surly sailor guy and smoked his cigarettes and drank his beer and stuff.

So when I decided I was gonna get my neck tattooed, I told my dad, and I didn’t tell him what I was gonna get. And he said, “I don’t want you to get your neck tattooed.” And I was like “I’m gonna.” And he was like, “Don’t do it.” And I was like, “I’m gonna.” And then I went and got this, and when I went home and showed it to him, he was like, “You got the only thing that I couldn’t be mad at you for, eh?” Cause it was his father and whatever, so you know. So that’s my favorite tattoo.

E: Did you have other tattoos at the time?

D: Oh yeah, yeah, I had like—

E: Well why not your neck?

D: Well you know, your neck, it’s right next to your face, and he was just being a parent. I think he was just being like, “Well, you know, what happens when you’re older?” He doesn’t care about them though. He likes them all. But I didn’t have my hands done yet. I think I just had my knuckles and full sleeves. But I think he was just like, “When people first make eye contact with you, they’re gonna see your neck.” I think he was just being like a parent, worried. He didn’t want people thinking poorly of me. It’s understandable. Plus I told him I would never go past my elbows.

E: Anything else you want to add?

D: Nope. I’m not really good at the adding thing. I don’t really like talking about myself, so I can’t really ever think of anything. I like answering questions though.

E: Do you want to put in a plug for anything?

D: No. I mean, if people like it, they’ll read it. So they’d have to be interested. You have to be interested to get to the end, right? By now, hopefully they’re just—if they read the whole thing then they’re already interested in it, and if not then I don’t know why they’re still reading, so you can put that maybe. I don’t know

E: I will.

D: Okay.

E: Well thanks.

D: Hey, no problem.

City & Colour’s new album Bring Me Your Love is out now on Vagrant Records. Catch Dallas on tour with Tegan and Sara through October 19, and a special thanks to Dallas, Chris, and Paul for working out the complicated parts of setting up this interview.