Dallas Green is pinching himself that he’s spending pretty much all of May playing around Australia under his solo alter-ego, City and Colour. Having emerged from the ashes of Canadian punksters, Alexisonfire, C & C are one of the main drawcards of this year’s Groovin’ The Moo Festival and will be doing a series of sideshows as well. And as Music Feeds discovered in this Q+A – we probably won’t see them swimming at the beach during their downtime…
MF: Are you stoked to be coming to Australia for Groovin’ The Moo and your own shows in May?
DG: I’m really excited. I can’t believe how long I’m going to be in Australia ¬ a month! I’m used to like 2 weeks. It’s no secret that Australia is one of my favourite places to tour.
MF: Do you have many fond memories of Australia? Any crazy incidents when you¹ve toured here in the past?
DG: Well, one time there was this incident with Chris Steele and our manager Joel. It involved Bondi Beach, some other bands and a crazy sudden storm.
They were playing in the waves and ended up needing to be rescued by lifeguards and it turns out it was filmed for Bondi Beach Rescue. So that was pretty awesome.
MF: You¹re going to be playing to heaps of regional audiences on the GTM tour; do you prefer those types of shows as opposed to playing to punters at shows in the big cities?
DG: I haven¹t played any regional shows in Australia before so we’ll see, but they’ll be very different I assume. One is a festival and the sideshows are theatre shows. I expect the theatre shows will be quieter. Ha!
MF: Are there any other acts on the GTM lineup that you¹re keen to check out from side of stage?
DG: I’m excited to see Kimbra. I’ve heard great things about her. I’m actually more interested in checking out the local acts. It’s a really cool concept for the festival to be mixing international and local acts like they’ve done.
MF: What can we expect from the shows? Have you got a few surprises up your sleeve?
DG: Not too many surprises from me. I’m pretty straightforward. This trip out though, I have someone different playing guitar with me. Dan Romano couldn’t make the trip, so I have my friend Afie playing guitar at the Groovin the Moo stops and for my own shows; he’ll also be opening under the name Bahamas. He’s really great. If you haven’t heard of him, you should check him out. Does that count as a surprise?
MF: You¹ve been touring your new record Little Hell for almost 12 months now; are you happy with the reaction it has been getting?
DG: It’s been so great to tour this album. This is the first album I’ve toured where I’ve focused just on City and Colour. I’ve really been able to just focus on one band and it feels great.
MF: The album was recorded and mixed entirely on tape. Why did you decide to go down that path?
DG: I wanted to try something different ¬ even though it isn’t a new concept, it’s different than what I’ve ever done. I recorded Bring Me Your Love in the same studio. It’s an old church converted into an open-space studio. The sound in there is exactly what I wanted for Little Hell, and I thought tape would help bring that out. There is also something to be said about hearing little mistakes and not having everything be computer-perfect on a record. I like that I can hear the studio in the recording.
MF: How different do you believe Little Hell is from the first two City and Colour albums?
DG: Every album is a little different than the one before. I’m always writing and trying to improve on the way I sing or play guitar, so if I made the same record more than once, I don’t think I would consider that I have grown or excelled. I write from personal experiences, so stuff changes over time and you move on to new thoughts and experiences. Those mold what I write about too.
MF: When you¹re not doing your thing as City and Colour, you play in Alexisonfire. How different is it going from being the frontman of your own project to thrashing it out in a hardcore band?
DG: Not anymore. We’re no longer together.
MF: And finally, what are your plans for the rest of 2012?
DG: When I get back home, I have some American tour dates and then the summer is filled with festivals and one-off shows with Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, and Avett Brothers, so that will be fun. And then I’ll just take some time to write. It’s time to start working on the next record.
