City and Colour singer-songwriter Dallas Green.
Camera IconCity and Colour singer-songwriter Dallas Green. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Dallas goes the distance

Tyler BrownEastern Reporter

Having toured the country 14 times already, he returns to our shores this month to tour City and Colour’s fifth studio album If I Should Go Before You, which debuted at number 5 on the ARIA album chart.

“As I get older, I tend to want to go where people seem to be listening,” Green said.

“Since the very first time I ever went to Australia, people seem to listen and continue to be interested in the music I’ve been making and I’ve always felt an obligation to come and show my appreciation for that.

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“I’ve always heard how some people or some bands will only go to Australia once or maybe skip it and, to me, that’s never made any sense. I know it’s far away but it really only takes a day to get there and you think about how many days you’ve spent in your life doing absolutely nothing.

“I’m totally fine sitting on a plane for a day to get to the other side of the world and play my guitar and sing.”

Green added there was something special about making the long trip to Perth.

“Being from where I’m from, which is St Catharines, Ontario, Canada, Perth is literally the farthest place I can go from where I grew up in the world,” he said.

“It’s on the completely other side of the world so that’s a really interesting feeling.

“I remember the first time we went there and I stood in the Indian Ocean for the first time.

“You get a sense of how small you are; I like moments like that.

“To be able to go all the way over there still and play my music, that’s just an opportunity I look forward to.”

Green will play Red Hill Auditorium on March 30, touring with the same band as when he last visited in 2013 and the same band he recorded If I Should Go Before You with something new for City and Colour.

“It’s interesting because for the entire history of the project, every time I tour it’s a different group of people,” he said.

“It was a revolving door of people and trying to figure out new versions of songs and teach people songs.

“It was nice to start this tour with the same group of people who already had experience with the old material, but we had our own versions of these new songs already that we could work from because we recorded them together so that was nice.

“We’re playing new songs but there’s a good mix of the old stuff as well and I still play a bunch of songs just by myself.

“I try as hard as I can every night to sing as best as I possibly can and not too many bells and whistles, just trying to be good.

“I think that’s what most people hopefully expect from me and I think that’s what I can expect from myself.”

THE ESSENTIALS

What: City and Colour

Support: Little May

When: March 30

Where: Red Hill Auditorium

Tickets: www.oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545