For nearly 20 years, Dashboard Confessional’s music has tugged at the heartstrings of millions of fans around the world. After a brief hiatus, they released their first full-length album since 2009, Crooked Shadows, on Feb. 9.
Currently touring across North America, they are scheduled to play at the Bronson Centre in Ottawa on March 7. Lead singer and main songwriter Chris Carrabba caught up with the Charlatan, to talk about going back to the studio and being back on the road with his old band.
The Charlatan (TC): Can you fill us in on what you’ve been up to for the last little while?
Chris Carrabba (CC): We took a hiatus, all of us did our side projects. I did my band Further Seems Forever again and started a band called Twin Forks and toured a lot with that, and then we came back and started playing shows as Dashboard about three or four years ago, but felt it would be dangerous territory to force a record. So, we just waited until the songs sort of kind of came naturally.
TC: So, at what point did you feel that you were ready?
CC: That’s a little hard to pinpoint because I would write when I’m not on the road, and I’m always on the road. A couple years ago, I started piecing, started writing.
TC: Can you tell us a bit about the process behind making Crooked Shadows?
CC: Very immediate, very organic. We did the record in my basement, so, I would write a song, and then I would walk, almost immediately after finishing it, I would walk into the next room and record it . . . I wanted it to capture the full commitment the song has when it’s brand new.
TC: How would you compare this new album versus some of the older Dashboard Confessional stuff?
CC: In spirit, I think it’s closer to the first three records up to A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar, maybe half Dusk and Summer.
TC: How would you describe the response to [the new songs] so far?
CC: It’s overwhelming. I couldn’t have hoped for a better response.
TC: What are you looking forward to about this big tour?
CC: You know what I like so much, is that when you have new music, you have elements in the new music, sonic elements, that you then apply to the older songs, and the older songs have brand new life again. They’re really reinvigorated. So, I’m really excited to see how the whole show is shaped by the sonic pallet we’re choosing now.
TC: You’re going to a bunch of cities that a bunch of big bands like to skip over, including Ottawa. Why is it that you guys are making sure to go to these cities that sometimes get skipped by other bands?
CC: Because I grew up in one of those cities. I grew up in a city that was kind of geographically isolated, and we didn’t get the cool shows, and I was jealous. So, that’s why we’re doing that.
TC: What are you looking forward to about having [The Elwins] open up for you?
CC: We’ve been friends for a couple years, and I really love their music, I really love them as people, so I’m really excited to just spend time with them.
TC: What sort of things in your life did you use to inspire some of your most meaningful songs?
CC: It’s hard to answer that concisely because it’s so broad. My own life experiences? I have experiences I was helping friends go through, and my own experience of being maybe romantic or non-romantic, but I sort of intentionally maybe cast them all as relationship-based, even though they may not have been, but I liked the motif of that.
TC: If you had to think of any one of your older songs that has really stood out as being one of the most meaningful, is there one that you’d pick?
CC: I think “Hands Down” was a success in me really grabbing a snapshot of a moment. I’m proud of that.
TC: You’ve said that that song is about the “best day of your life?”
CC: Yeah, well, it was at that point.
TC: Is there another day you’d consider the best day of your life now?
CC: There’s countless ones, but they’re all sort of measured against that one.
TC: That song seems to be a song that lots of fans relate to. Why do you think that is?
CC: I really don’t know. I’m careful not to try to decode that . . . I don’t want to demystify it. I’ll get it all wrong if I do that.
TC: “We Fight,” your lead-off single, what’s that song supposed to be about?
CC: It’s about two things at once. It’s about the music scene that I grew up in that was very inclusive, rescued me, at least, from a life that I maybe would have ended up a different person had I gone down that road, and it was accepting of all ethnicities, and religions or non-religions, and genders and ethos. It was just a very inclusive place where the outcasts became valued. And conversely, it’s a very reactionary song to the awful political climate in the United States.
TC: How would you compare a song like “We Fight” versus any of the more personal, individual, emotional songs from your earlier stuff?
CC: Well, to me, it’s personal and emotional, so to me, it’s very similar. I could see how the listener would hear it differently, but I hear it as part of the whole.
TC: When you refer to the music scene you were in at the time, are you referring to the emo/punk/alternative scene?
CC: I’m not sure we knew to call it any of those things, but we just called it “the Scene.” But yes, that’s what I’m referring to.
TC: What would you say is the state of the genre now?
CC: I think it’s in a great place for creativity. I noticed there’s these incredible bands that are drawing on some of the same influences I was drawing on very early on. Bands like Sorority Noise are harkening back to bands like Sunny Day Real Estate . . . I think it’s a really exciting time where people have gone beyond that last generation of our scene, where it was carbon copied, and now it’s fueled by real heart and conviction.
TC: Where do you see the genre going right now?
CC: I think it’s a special time because it’s always been a genre that pulled from influences that were very broad, and that’s being embraced more than ever. There’s people that are in the same scene drawing from classic rock, from indie rock, from hip-hop, and putting it all into one thing . . . That’s how people ingest music now, so of course that’s how they’re influenced.
TC: You’ve collaborated with some of these younger stars, like Nothing, nowhere and Neck Deep. What’s it like to be included with their music, as well?
CC: I step in when asked if I’m a fan of the band and the people. So, it’s an honour, but also something fun to do, to be quite honest.
TC: What’s next for you and Dashboard Confessional?
CC: This tour will stretch on for quite some time. We have an EP in the works, we have another record that we’re already thinking about . . . It seems like the options are exciting right now.
TC: Anything else you want to add? Anything we haven’t covered?
CC: I just want to say, it’s good to be back.
Photo provided
