City And Colour
Dallas Green on war, loneliness, the weight of words, and the horror of seeing his name on a T-shirt…
Dallas Green does not deal in bubblegum. Ducking out from his noisier day-job with Canadian hardcore mob Alexisonfire, Green’s sixth album under the banner of City And Colour is an intense shoegaze dreamscape, at times sounding like My Bloody Valentine with a spoonful of sugar. It all implies that this is a songwriter who’ll burst if he doesn’t get these thoughts off his chest.
The album is called A Pill For Loneliness. Can you actually get one of those? No, but they’re working on it. I was watching the news and I saw that scientists are trying to create a pill for loneliness because they believe it’ll be a worse epidemic than obesity. We live in this world where everybody talks about how connected we are, but studies have proven we’re living in the loneliest time in history. That’s very sad. But I feel like I’m lucky. For me, music has always been that [pill].
What themes are you writing about? [First single] Astronaut is almost a statement to my family, like, ‘I’m sorry, but this is who I am’. This thing I’ve always wanted to do – to make music and sing songs to people – it also takes me away from the people in my life who are closest to me. That first line is something I’ve said to them over the years: ‘Give me one more year of doing this and then I’ll be around’. But the thing is, I can’t necessarily stop doing it.
How about The War Years? That’s more of a general observation on how divided we seem to be as human beings. Y’know, all these right-wing people are coming back into prominence and trying to make things ‘the way it used to be’. That song could just be about a relationship, about two people, you versus me. Or it could be more general. I started touring in 2001, right after 9/11. There’s been a war going on ever since.
You have said that these songs are “dark” and “beautiful”? I write about things that are weighing on me. When I’m having a wonderful time, I don’t write about that. I write down negative thoughts, so I can hopefully get those out of my head. With the subject matter of this record, I wanted to try to make the musical side as beautiful as we could. So we wrapped it in this dreamy soundscape kind of vibe, to sorta juxtapose the heaviness and the weight of the words.
“When I’m having a wonderful time, I don’t write about that.”
What’s the appeal of trading as City And Colour, instead of Dallas Green? I think it was because I could never stomach the idea of a T-shirt that said ‘Dallas Green’ on it. I needed to find something to hide underneath. My favourite rock’n’roll pseudonyms? Howlin’ Wolf is right up there. Even Bob Dylan is pretty good. Robert Zimmerman might not have been so popular.
What’s the most flattering thing someone’s told you about your music? I’ve been lucky enough to have some beautiful moments with people. A lot of sad moments, too. Whenever someone tells me they’ve played my songs at a funeral, that’s always an interesting feeling. You feel so sad for the person, but you also feel humble in a way. Once you’ve had a conversation like that, no bad review, or good review, or number one, or not number one – none of that can truly affect you.
A Pill For Loneliness is out October 4 on Still Records/Dine Alone Records.