INTERVIEW: Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba

Dashboard Confessional played Page Auditorium last night (see the review here). Before the show, frontman, core member and Banana Republic sales rep Chris Carrabba took some time to talk to me about the musical project that has defined his past decade and his basketball preferences.

Andrew Hibbard: So before we talk about music, I want to ask you a question. I've been reading your Twitter and need to know something. Are you a Duke fan?

Chris Carrabba: I'm a lifelong Duke fan. I'm a double Duke fan when they play Villanova?

AH: To music. You've been performing as Dashboard Confessional for almost 10 years now. You've gone from being a solo act to performing with a full band. Tell me about the changes and the future of the band.

CC: Well, you know, I think it's cyclical. I've gone around it a few times, playing by myself a few times, then one or two or eight, then going back to myself. I think that's the reason I've stayed interested in it, because I'm in other bands too. I always find myself doing Dashboard instead because I think this is the--there's the least boundaries within this band. Plus I love relationship I've been kind of fortunate to have with my audience. It's personal and unique. So I've got to say that's why I've stayed interested, because you can only play the same songs up there in front of people. Every year I put a record out, but you're still basically playing the same songs for years. And it's the genuine heart that those kids bring with them, and the fact that they care--seem to care--as much as I care about it--maybe more, strangely sometimes. That's what makes me able to do it for as long as I've done it. And maybe, hopefully be able to do it for many more years.

AH: Do you ever get sick of those old songs?

CC: No, I don't really get sick of those old songs. I wouldn't dare listen to those old records. I don't sick of playing those songs. Actually, I say that tongue-in-cheek. We haven't played in like, three months. Don't print this--just kidding. We don't practice really. We just show up and say, 'You remember these songs?' 'Maybe as well as you.' 'Well, let's give it our best effort.' I'm half-kidding. The point is, the closest, like, I get, like, to really, like, getting intensive about how we're going to do the show--if it's been three months--maybe I'll make a mix of the songs. I try always to find the live recordings. I didn't have too many, so I find myself listening to those old records. I was young. My budget was meager. I think I'll look back with fondness in a couple more years at this sort of sophomoric nature of the records. I still like the songs. Maybe I'll do the records again in a few years.

AH: The relationship you have with your fans is a defining part of Dashboard. Are you nervous before each show?

CC: No, I"m not. I probably should be. The relationship I have with my audience is remarkable nonjudgmental. I think that's also why, as I said before, there are so few boundaries for this band because they have allowed us to be who we are at that time. So when I was just playing the guitar on a chair, everyone wanted that one thing. When I wanted something different, they gave me a length of rope and said go for it. And it wasn't like, go for it, don't hang yourself. It was like, go for it, let's see where it goes. That isn't to see I don't ever get nervous about how I'm perceived, because I do. But not because I think I'll have spurned an audience that cared about me. You just never know when it's going to run out. The thing you've got--the thing I've got anyway to give--you never know when it's going to run out. I get nervous about that, but never that the fans are going to turn on me. Because I don't see that happening.

AH: So what have you been working on over the past three months during your break?

CC: Yeah. You know what, I started a record a year ago and we recorded like 22 songs. Meant to have it out in September/October of last year. And then right before I was to deliver the record, I realized, what I thought was really good and what I still think is really good wasn't quite where I wanted to go. Which is a tough one, because you've got this quality thing that I know people would embrace and I have a hunch would have been fairly successful. But it just wasn't what was going to keep us interested in playing for another two years those songs. So we took kind of a back seat. And so what I've been doing the last three months is writing and recording. We've recorded, I don't know, four more, and we have another four that we're going to start recording on April 14. And if this isn't done by then, God only knows. That'll be that. The passion reaches diminishes returns at a certain point, and I see that on the horizon. But it was nice to take a little time off and sit back. You k now when I do the demos, often times I play all the instruments and it's very isolated. I send all the demos out to my bandmates and they work out all their things on their own. Only recently have they gotten any recording rigs of their own where they send me back their ideas. I usually don't hear it until we play together. I live in Florida, and Mike [Marsh] lives in Nashville, and John [Lefler] lives in Texas, and Scott [Schoenbeck] lives in Milwaukee, so we don't like jam. So I like forward to taking these songs forward and playing them together. We sort of worked at sound check today with this one song that I really think is a beautiful song, a really exciting song, and we really played it badly. Really bad. But that was fun. It was like, 'Oh man, we stink.' It was really bad.

AH: Any chance we'll hear it tonight?

CC: Yeah. That's definitely the way I want to send it up. 'This is the worst we'll ever play it, so let's play it right away.' I don't think we'll play that one. We've thought about one or two new songs. We might. We get a little impatient. We always release our songs a little beforehand. I released a song called "Even Now" because I just got tired of waiting around, so we just put it on MySpace. I was like, 'What can I do here? Well, this is like a love song. I'll do it on Valentine's Day.' I might play that song tonight. We'll see if I know it.

AH: So on the break, were just writing the whole time or were you seeing shows, being engaged in the music community?

CC: A little of both. I think like anyone else, you go through your periods of disinterest. There's a lot of great bands in Florida right now. I mean, I went to see a show last week, and I thought it was great. And I went home and wrote a song. That's what going to shows does for me. They sort of go hand-in-hand. You go get inspired by watching someone play with passion and it sort of ignites your own passion.

AH: Who'd you see last week?

CC: There's a singer/songwriter named Ryan Alexander. Young kid. Awesome. So good. Really good.

AH: What do you hope an audience gets from one of your shows.

CC: Our only goal is that they leave as satisfied from the experience as we do. These audiences are like part of the band. Whether or not they sing along, they just sort of bring an energy to it. I don't get to hopeful about where it will go because I like that mystery. That's always the X factor. We'll play our songs as well as we can. But what was great last night won't be what was great tonight no matter what because it's a different group of people in the room doing their own thing.