In the Studio: Dashboard Confessional

After laboring for more than a year on 2006's Dusk and Summer, Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba wanted to keep things simple for the follow-up. "We did two songs a day, live, all the way," says Carrabba, who is working on a new album with producer and Fountains of Wayne bassist Adam Schlesinger in a New York studio. "Everything happened quickly, so there was all this fire and energy. The impulse was to follow the song gods where they lead you." They led him to tunes like the zippy, synth-driven "The Motions," a power-pop song featuring a refrain — "I'm going through the motions, but I can't remember how to feel" — inspired by touring fatigue. Elsewhere, on soaring emo anthems such as "Get Me Right," Carrabba incorporates religious imagery from his Catholic upbringing. "There's no hits in exploring that subject matter, but there's potency," he says.

The earnest Carrabba and "Stacy's Mom" songwriter Schlesinger may seem like an odd match, which is exactly the point. "I thought, 'Here's a guy who might challenge me to look at my songs differently,' " Carrabba says. "Adam is a student of a different world of musicianship than I am. He was studying the Beach Boys while I was studying Jawbreaker. It's like we speak the same language but just learned it in different countries."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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