It’s not easy being BLUE
“It’s easy to dismiss my music as sad, and that’s fine,” says Green
Dallas Green isn’t a perpetually sad guy dead set on making melancholic music.
As he settles in for a round of press for a recently released album titled A Pill for Loneliness, his sixth under the moniker,
City and Colour, he’ll be the first to say he digs party music.
“I love all types of music,” Green, 39, says.
“I just don’t write party songs. Whenever I feel restless, I write about it.
“It’s easy to dismiss my music as sad, and that’s fine. But it’s because whenever I’m happy or when I’m out at the bar with my friends, I don’t feel like writing a song about that.”
Green, an original member of the post-hardcore group Alexisonfire, is now in his 14th year with City and Colour, which began as his solo acoustic side-project following the release of 2005’s Sometimes. All five of his solo albums have gone platinum or gold in Canada.
With the St. Catharines-born singer-songwriter about to kick off a North American tour, Green spoke about staying restless, the resurgence of Alexisonfire and why Neil Young has always been a guiding light.
Q There’s a real restlessness to this record. This is your sixth album — does that restlessness ever go away?
A No (laughs). But thing is, whenever I feel restless, I write about it . ... That’s always the way I’ve tried to write. You listen to a song like Warriors on the new record, and it’s about a relationship between two people, how nowadays two human beings just can’t seem to get along. It just seems like we’re dividing more and more because we’re finding these pockets and groups that think just like us. Instead of constructive conversations about why we might disagree, everyone is just in their own little group.
I don’t know if that’s a good recipe.
Q Where did the album’s name come from?
A A few months ago I was watching the news and I saw a segment about how scientists are trying to create a pill for loneliness because loneliness has become an epidemic. I remember thinking, ‘Isn’t that perfect. We live in a world where everyone always talks about how connected we all are, and yet here we are in 2019. Human beings are the loneliest they’ve ever been. Isn’t that the perfect example of how the internet makes you think everything is perfect, when really it’s the opposite? I just thought a lot of what the songs were about, and it just made sense.
Q I first talked to you a little over a decade ago at Massey Hall, and at that time it seemed like the peak. But we’ve seen you grow into something even bigger. Why do you think that happened?
A I really don’t understand it, to be honest, Mark. I’m surprised when I step out onstage and see all those people there to hear me sing. I wish I could give you an answer as to why it worked.
I don’t know. All I know is that I never changed my approach since before I talked to you at Massey Hall and after that. I write the way I write and I go out every night and try to sing better than the day before, and that’s literally all I do. You can ask the people who’ve known me since I was 15. That stuff never crosses my mind because I just don’t care about it. I don’t mean that in a bad way — music has allowed me to have a wonderful career, and it’s the thing I always wanted to do. But growing up, all I wanted to do was write music on my own and sing and perform it as best I could. I’ve always said that success to me was always the ability to continue doing it. That’s all I ever wanted. So I’m just thankful that I get the opportunity to write my thoughts down and go and sing them for people.
Q Going back to the beginning, did you have models that you looked to as a guide map for the type of career you wanted to have?
A I think early on when I started to dig into Neil Young, I was able to see how he was able to — and is still able to — do what he wants to do when he wants to do it. He loses people along the
Everyone always talks about how connected we all are, and yet here we are in 2019. Human beings are the loneliest they’ve ever been.
way, then people come back. If he wants to do a solo acoustic tour, he does it. If he wants to bring Crazy Horse back, he does it. If he wants to form a band with Willie Nelson’s son, he’ll do that too. That, to me, is a person that likes lots of different styles of music and that’s the kind of person who likes the freedom of not being told what to do and is willing to live with the consequences of making their own decisions — good or bad. That’s the model I looked to when I was younger, and I still look to that as the benchmark. People can say to me, ‘What’s with Alexisonfire?’ and it’s as simple as, ‘I like them and it’s what I want to do.’
Q Alexisonfire returned this summer and played two massive shows at Budweiser Stage in Toronto as well as a headlining slot at Ottawa Bluesfest. The appetite for that band has never gone away. What does that mean to you?
A Obviously, it’s a wonderful feeling for all of us to feel that love. But it was great to see how half that crowd were young people who didn’t get to see us before we broke up. That’s something we didn’t think about when we came back to play these shows. We just assumed that the people who were into it and who were still digging heavy music would come, but then seeing kids that we maybe 12 or 13 years old when we broke up 10 years ago, that was super cool for us. It was the jolt of energy we were all hoping for. We couldn’t be more grateful that we still get to play with one another and have a response to it.
Q Last question. We’re shipping you to a desert island and you can take five records with you. What are you packing?
A Sade, Love Deluxe. Alice in Chains, Dirt. Neil Young, Harvest. Jeff Buckley, Grace. Quicksand, Slip.