Dallas Michael John Albert Green (born September 29, 1980) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who records under the name City and Colour. He is also known for his contributions as a singer, rhythm guitarist, songwriter, and co-founder of the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire. In 2005, he debuted his first full-length album, Sometimes, which achieved platinum certification in 2006. City and Colour began performing in small intimate venues between Alexisonfire tours. The name City and Colour comes from his own name: Dallas, a city, and Green, a colour. His reasoning for the name was that he felt uneasy "putting the album out under the name Dallas Green".
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Early life
Green was born on September 29, 1980, in St. Catharines, Ontario. Green was named after Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Green. Green has stated that he had gone without a name at first; his mother was considering naming him Graham-Todd Green, but his father had bet on the Phillies during the 1980 World Series that October and, after the team won, his parents decided on the name Dallas after the Phillies' manager. Green started playing piano at the age of 8 and writing music since he was around the age of 14. The first album that he bought with his own money was Alice in Chains' Dirt (1992). He bought it on his 12th birthday, on September 29, 1992. Green said that if people want to get to the bottom of why he makes music the way that he does, it is because of Alice in Chains.
Career
Early work
Before joining Alexisonfire, Green was in a band called Helicon Blue, producing several songs before breaking up. The three piece band also featured Marcel Lanteigne on bass and vocal, and Nicholas Osczypko on drums. The band recorded a self-titled release on their own, subsequently recording a second EP with Greg Below from Distort Entertainment. A collection of nine Helicon Blue tracks were released by Dine Alone Records in 2016 as a part of their 10-year anniversary celebrations.
Alexisonfire
Dallas began playing with Alexisonfire in late 2001. They released four albums (Alexisonfire, Watch Out!, Crisis, and Old Crows / Young Cardinals) and two EPs before disbanding in 2011 due to Dallas' decision to focus on his work in City and Colour full-time.
Dallas came up with the name of the band from an episode on Discovery Channel. This specific episode was about contortionism. In this show there was a segment on a stripper who added contortionism into her show, as well as lactating and breathing fire. The woman's stage name was Alexis Fire, and the segment was called Alexisonfire. He thought that this would be a cool name for a band, and that is where it all started.
In 2003, Dallas appeared (along with Alexisonfire vocalist George Pettit) on Jude the Obscure's album "The Coldest Winter", doing additional vocals on 3 songs. He contributed vocals to Neverending White Lights' collaborative album Act 1: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies, released in 2005, on the song "The Grace". Green provided additional vocals on the track "INRihab" with Every Time I Die as well as on the track "Black Albino Bones" with Fucked Up on their second full-length album, The Chemistry of Common Life.
City and Colour
Green began releasing City and Colour songs on the internet for fans to download. Green said that he had been writing material for it as early as when he was 16 years old. Eventually, he compiled and rewrote several of these songs to make his first album, Sometimes. The full-length debut was released on November 1, 2005, to a good reception, described by one reviewer as "dynamically gentle and vulnerable". The cover art was designed by Scott McEwan, in a tattoo-esque style; Green "still may decide to have some of them inked at a later point in time".
Green indicated that his view that the "best music for [him] is sad music", influenced the type of songs he created. He stated he helped Kelsey Brown with the playing of guitar. He also said that he "love[s] music to sort of escape to" and the idea of sad music that people could identify with. Green said of the album that, "a lot of those songs are written on some of the experiences I've been through and stuff and that's just how I deal with it. I just write songs when I'm bummed out and I feel happier." Sometimes won the 2007 Juno award for Alternative Album of the Year.
Bring Me Your Love is Green's second full-length album. It was released on February 12, 2008, and features a wide array of instruments not used on his previous recordings (such as harmonica, banjo, drums and lap steel) giving it a more folk-influenced sound. The album also features collaborations with other musicians, such as Canadian musician Gordon Downie of The Tragically Hip on the track "Sleeping Sickness", and additional instrumentals done by Matt Sullivan and the members of Attack in Black. The lead single, "Waiting...", peaked at No. 32 on the Canadian Hot 100. The album is named after a short story by Charles Bukowski. It is also a line sung in the closing track, "As Much As I Ever Could." Green has stated that he saw Bukowski's book in a book store while on tour and adopted the title for his new album. On September 26, 2008, City and Colour embarked on their first American tour, in support of Bring Me Your Love. On the tour, the band supported Tegan and Sara along with Girl in a Coma. This tour was followed by a headlining tour of the US in January 2009, with support from William Elliott Whitmore. In October 2008, Dine Alone Records announced a special 2-disc limited edition of Bring Me Your Love to be released on December 2, 2008. Only 6,000 copies were available; 5,000 in North America and 1,000 in Australia.
In January 2010, City and Colour embarked on an additional US headlining tour, again supporting Bring Me Your Love, with supporting act Lissie, and an additional UK tour in June 2010, supporting P!nk, along with Butch Walker, along with a few headlining dates. On these tours, Green has performed two new songs by the titles of "Silver and Gold" and "Oh Sister", as well as a couple of never-played-before covers - "Murderer", originally by Low, and "Grinnin' In Your Face", originally by Son House. In an interview with Alter the Press, Green has revealed that he has written a bunch of new songs and he just needs to record them for his next record, hinting on a possible early 2011 release date for his third studio album. He said that there are 15 songs that he really likes and he expects around 10 to appear on his next album. On September 2, 2010, it was announced on MTV News Canada that Green had been in the studio with Polaris Prize nominee Shad working on a remix of a Shad song as well as an original song to be released as a 12" vinyl single. Dallas was quoted as saying "I've always wanted to be the Mary J. Blige to somebody's Method Man". The remix is to Shad's song "Listen" from his latest album TSOL, and the new song that Green co-wrote is titled "Live Forever". On September 30, 2010, it was announced that Green planned to start recording his third studio album in January 2011, after demoing 14 songs. "There are a lot of musically unusual songs." Green has said about the record, "There's a lot more piano on these songs, keyboards and stuff. And there are a couple of songs almost I would say a bit rockin', if that makes any sense, not in a heavy metal kind of way, but just a little bit more upbeat than what you're used to hearing from me." On November 9, 2010, Green announced via Twitter that he would be releasing a new single on iTunes called "At the Bird's Foot" which will be on a compilation album called Gasoline Rainbows, which also features new songs by such artists as Damien Rice and Amy Kuney. The song was written by Green in response to the oil spill in the Gulf. All proceeds from the album will go directly to Global Green USA. "At the Bird's Foot" was first made available for 48-hour streaming on the Gasoline Rainbows Myspace page on November 23, 2010, and features Amanda Zelina of the band The Coppertone on vocals. In an interview with Reverb Magazine's Sean Frazer, Green spilled news of an upcoming 2011 album release, saying "Hopefully I am going to start recording in January so I'm hoping that there will be another album by next Summer/Spring."
You+Me
On September 8, 2014, Green announced a collaboration with Pink. The duo, performing under the name You+Me, released an album titled Rose Ave. on October 14. The album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and at number four on the Billboard 200. In an interview from June 2021, Green stated that he had recently written "almost a whole new record" for You+Me.
Personal life
In 2008, Green married Canadian television host Leah Miller in a private ceremony at their home on New Year's Eve.
Green is a supporter of the Toronto Raptors NBA team and the Toronto Blue Jays MLB team.
Discography
Filmography
Awards and nominations
2015 SOCAN Awards
National Achievement Award
Juno Awards
City and Colour has been nominated for twelve Juno Awards and won three.