Interview: Dashboard Confessional
on February 19th, 2012It’s been a few years since we’ve heard new material from Dashboard Confessional. Since the 2009 release of ‘Alter The Ending‘ the band hasn’t done too much touring, but main-man Chris Carrabba has been kept busy celebrating the ten year anniversary of the popular ‘The Swiss Army Romance‘ album by heading out on tour alone playing the album. Now he is headed to Australia for Soundwave and a couple of sold out Sidewaves this month. Sean Degan recently caught up with Chris to suss out what we can expect on this tour, and more. Expand this post to take a read.
Hey Chris, thankyou for taking the time out to chat to me.
No problems man.
What’s been happening with Dashboard Confessional since the release of ‘Alter The Ending’?
Well after ‘Alter The Ending’ was released we basically only did one tour for it. There were a lot of complications going into the making of that record. It kind of just stopped after my sister was in a terrible accident. That kind of just stopped me in my tracks, which is a difficult thing because I work on momentum. That was a tricky thing for me to adjust to. But besides that what I’ve been doing is I did a 10 year anniversary tour in the states for my first record ‘The Swiss Army Romance’. I did a limited number of shows in small rooms. The idea was for me to go out by myself like I did many years ago with no band and with only an acoustic guitar and nothing fancy. That turned into something kind of glorious for me. There was this huge connection with the fans. So much to the point that for over the past year that is all I’ve done! I couldn’t ignore it. There has just been something incredible happening for me up there on stage. So that’s what I’ve been doing. As a band we’re only starting to get together and think about what the future holds for us. I know what the future holds for me irrespective of what happens with the band. I know that I will never stop playing by myself. After proving to people that Dashboard Confessional was not “A Band” I then spent 8 years convincing everyone that it was a band. So I couldn’t play any shows by myself because it diluted that promise that I sort of made to my band mates. I didn’t actually make a promise but I felt like I made it. Now I think there is room for both and I think it’s important for me to do both.
You mentioned those anniversary shows for ‘The Swiss Army Romance’, are there any plans for any other anniversary shows for albums like ‘The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most’ or ‘A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar’?
I don’t think so. I don’t think it would be honourable, I guess, to just keep trotting out these 10 year commemorative runs. I could see doing a show or 2 with the line up of ‘The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most’ with the members who recorded with that album. Even just for a personal or nostalgic thing. But for a professional nostalgic thing I think it’s dangerous territory. But I know Jimmy Eat World did some crazy shows where they played each record in a succession of nights. I thought it was a killer idea. So I can see ourselves somehow doing that but that would be a very very limited thing. Cause with doing solo shows now I carry all my songs with me. I did a couple of Further Seems Forever reunion shows and that was a great kind of nostalgia. With Dashboard I play most songs somewhere in the world to somebody. But with Further Seems Forever I don’t play those songs. We might have a BBQ every other weekend but we don’t play the songs. So the ‘Further’ shows were really nostalgic and such a beautiful thing and I can see myself doing that in another 10 years again.
I have a couple of friends who’d murder me if I didn’t ask this. Is there any word on what is happening with Further Seems Forever?
Oh yes. Yes! We must, we have to. We had so much fun doing those last shows. We wrote one song just for that tour. It came together so easily. We do not write fast. I can tell you that much. But we have a handful of songs here. With my experience it takes a lot longer than required if you want 10 songs, to have 10 songs. You need 40 songs to get to 10 perfect songs and we have built up this impossibly high standard now so every time we go to write a song we immediately reject it. But with that being said I think we’ll definitely be doing something. 100%. I just don’t know how we’re going to do it. I think an EP would be wonderful or a couple of EP’s would be wonderful. But a full length would be extraordinary and I would love it. But I can only hope for it though.
And what about on the Dashboard Confessional front when can we expect a new album?
The funny thing is I don’t plan for records anymore. I didn’t in the old days and I did so well. I did ‘The Swiss Army Romance’ over two nights in an apartment closet with a microphone in it. I made ‘The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most’ which seemed like this extravagant thing in 3 days. And then time got longer as we got bigger. I mean ‘A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar’ took 3 weeks, which to us seemed like gluttonous. It was like… “We could’ve made 4 Records in this time”. And then you cut to a couple of years later where both ‘Dusk and Summer’ and ‘Alter The Ending’… not ‘The Shade of the Poison Trees’ that was 10 days from writing to recording, but the other two took incredibly long and I think it was because I let some people have some say in the expectation of the timeline and where we should be with songs at such and such date and I said after the last one, I won’t do that again. So I try not to say we’ll have a record this year, even if I have the 10 songs here on my iPod you know. I just think that I am lucky enough to be able to do this with my fan base and I reckon I’d be foolish to want it any other way.
You’ll be doing your side shows acoustically. Is the reasoning behind that because of the success and feelings you got during the 10 year anniversary tour?
That’s a little bit twofold. That’s the reason I asked if they would allow me to do it. But upon closer inspection I realised that every place I’ve gone in the world, with the exception of Australia and South East Asia I’ve gone there by myself first and experienced it without a net on my own. And I realised by the time I finally got an opportunity to come to Australia, which is just so impossibly far away from where I live that I still don’t believe I get the chance to go there to play music, I’ve been there with my band both times. So it was an experience I had that I savour but I feel like I missed out on something. But now I get to do it.
You’ll have your set set list on the night of your sideshows but will you be doing crowd requests?
Yeah, I don’t use set lists anymore. I kind of write down a list of songs I can remember but for the last year and a half I’ve had a rule. If I’ve played a song, any song, within the last year even if I’ve only played it once and even if that once wasn’t even in front of anybody, if someone calls it out in the audience and I think it fits the moment I never say no. Not even out of fear of crashing and burning cause I won’t remember it. That is such an exhilarating thing. That’s the one thing I won’t like about Soundwave. I will only have 30 minutes where I will have to stick to what I would assume might be what people would call out. Usually with my solo shows I play until they kick me off the stage.
Well that is awesome. If at your Sydney sideshow you see some big hairy dude calling out ‘Several Ways To Die Trying’ you’ll know who’s doing it.
Well now, I haven’t played that in about three years. But I’m going to play that tonight. I’m going to give myself an order to play that tonight so I will definitely know that song when you call it out.
I know that just in my circle of friends there a lot of people who would love to shake your hand and tell you how much your music means to them. How important is face time with fans to you?
At various times I’ve been invested in social media. But it always feels like ‘Media’ and I kind of hate it. But I’ve always loved the social aspect of gathering at a show. It’s my favourite thing in the world to do, to be at a show and to watch a band I love and to mingle with my friends outside afterwards. So I would love to hang out with anyone who loves to do that after my show.
Well unfortunately we’ve run out of time but I just want to say that it was a huge honour talking to you and on my birthday of all days. And I amongst a lot of others am very keen to see you hear at the end of this month.
Well, Happy Birthday, Sean. And hopefully we’ll get to catch up after the show so we can finish of the questions you had or even just to say hi.
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DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL – ‘Alter The Ending‘
Available now on CD for $9.99 with free postage.
Also available, ‘So Impossible’ EP, ‘The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most’, ‘Unplugged’, ‘The Swiss Army Romance’ and ‘The Shade Of Poison Trees’.
Order any of the above online [Here] with free postage
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Catch Dashboard Confessional playing Soundwave Festival nationally. [See Timetables]
FEBRUARY
25th – RNA Showgrounds, Brisbane [AA] SOLD OUT
26th – Showgrounds, Sydney [AA] SOLD OUT
MARCH
2nd – Showgrounds, Melbourne [AA] SOLD OUT
3rd – Bonython Park, Adelaide [AA]
5th – Claremont Showgrounds, Perth [AA]
—> Full details at www.soundwavefestival.com
Also playing Sidewaves with JACK’S MANNEQUIN and RELIENT K
FEBRUARY
27th – Manning Bar, Sydney [18+] SOLD OUT
29th – Prince Of Wales, Melbourne [18+] SOLD OUT
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