Dashboard Spin Emo Into Arena Rock

Tweet

For the follow-up to 2003's A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar, Dashboard frontman Chris Carrabba flew to Jamaica to work with producer Daniel Lanois (Bob Dylan, U2).

"We'd discuss songs on a picnic table overlooking the ocean and then go out swimming," says Carrabba. Recorded mostly on breaks from touring, the new disc pumps up Dashboard's emo sound to arena-rock proportions. The single "Don't Wait" spotlights Carrabba's gorgeous tenor, incorporating layers of guitar and backing vocals for an uncharacteristically lush sound.

"I walked offstage and wrote the song," says Carrabba. "So I was really drawing on that energy." One of the singer's favorite tracks, "Heaven Here," wasn't originally intended for the album. "I make all kinds of music just for myself," says Carrabba. "Daniel got his hands on some of it, and he just flipped out and goaded me into writing lyrics. Within ten minutes it was a real song you could sink your teeth into."

Dashboard Confessional kick off a college tour this Friday. Their as-yet-untitled new album is expected to hit stores in late May.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES The 10 Best Zombie Movie Scenes
• 
  TV The Most WTF? Moments of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter