Dallas Green comes up clover

MUSICIAN Dallas Green has had the most successful year of his life, but he’s not dwelling on it. In 2013, the shy Canadian, who records as City and Colour, achieved his first top-20 American hit with the album, The Hurry and the Harm (it was number one in Canada).

Green does not view his commercial breakthrough as an artistic barometer. If he did, what would happen when the sales dried up?

“Looked at in terms of selling records, yeah, I guess it’s been a pretty big 12 months,” he says. “However, I measure success in a different way. I ask myself, ‘can I keep on doing this?’ It’s great that people are interested. At the same time, if you revel in it a little too much, that might start to affect your writing.”

Green’s music is powerfully melancholic. He sings in a trembling falsetto, heartache dripping from each intonation. But Green seems wry and upbeat — not at all the star-crossed mooch you’d expect. Is that a persona he dons as a performer? “Well, not to say that I don’t enjoy a pop tune but, for as long as I remember, whenever I tried to write a song that’s what comes out. Those emotional tones fit the way I sing, the chords I lean on. Sitting down to write a song, I have no goal in mind. It does seem that what I do has a melancholic vibe. I’m okay with that. It suits my voice. What’s to be gained fighting it?” he says.

City and the Colour is a solo project. The moniker refers to Green’s name — a city and a colour. He chose a stage identity for a multitude of reasons.

“It is nice to have something to hide behind,” he says. “I never wanted it to be about me. I want it to be about the songs. Also, if you don’t know me, when you hear ‘City and Colour,’ you have no idea what that means. It gives me the freedom to do what I like, under the City and Colour umbrella. Maybe I’ll tour on my own, maybe I’ll bring a band. I can do whatever I want. You aren’t trapped in one definition or another.”

Prior to City and Colour, Green played for ten years in the ‘post-hardcore’ trio, Alexisonfire. With their blistering, brooding guitars and wide-screen angst, they could not have been further removed from Green’s 2am ennui. Nonetheless, he regards that decade as pivotal to his career. Without Alexisonfire, there would be no City and Colour. It made him the artist he is today.

“That band is the reason the world found out about all these others songs I had written,” he says. “Kids that liked Alexisonfire encouraged me to release my own material. It was monumental. Were it not for all of that, I wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

More than that, he received a crash lesson in music-industry survival. “I learned how to sleep in a van, how to perform to no-one, how to live on five dollars a day. I learned not to take anything for granted. I spent so many years thinking my life in music couldn’t continue. Now that I am in a position where it is continuing, I understand that I should not take anything for granted,” Green says.

Like many cult artists, earning a living requires him to spend much of the year on the road. He enjoys bringing his music to people. The downside is that it leaves him with less time for composing.

“I’m not much of a road writer,” he says. “I tend to get caught up in the shows — focusing my energy into making them as good as they can be. And then I spend the next day thinking about last night’s show… how can I make tonight’s show better? I recorded my latest album last November. In the time since, I think I have written in the region of three songs. That’s okay. I’ve had far worse experiences of writer’s block. I’ll come through it, I think. Generally, I regard myself as in a very fortunate position.”

* City and Colour play the Olympia, Dublin Jan 22.