Dashboard expands appeal to everyman
Emo frontman lands major label success
By ALAN SCULLEY
Get Out

Up to now, Chris Carrabba, the man behind the music of Dashboard Confessional, has been known mainly for one thing — his ability to write soul-baring, emotionally devastating songs about heartbreak.

This ability has formed a rare bond between Carrabba and his audience. At most shows, fans are known to sing every word to his songs with so much passion and volume that it practically drowns out Carrabba’s own performances.

But the “king of pain,” as Carrabba was dubbed by Rolling Stone in a feature story in July 2002, has broadened his focus on the current Dashboard Confessional CD, “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar.”

Yes, there are still a few moments of searing heartache on the CD, but Carrabba has also broadened his subject matter and most notably even wrote some cheerful love songs. For instance, “Hands Down,” finds Carrabba caught full flush in the bliss of young love. “As Lovers Go” is another upbeat love song as Carrabba singing the praises of an ideal love match.

“I think it’s been accepted by my audiences as something positive, a good change,” Carrabba said. “You know, nobody’s that singularly focused. So in a sense it’s the most human record.”

The rise of Carrabba and Dashboard Confessional to mainstream success has been one of rock’s big stories of the past year.

Early in 2000, Carrabba, who up to then had been teaching in his home town of Boca Raton, Fla., released his first Dashboard Confessional CD, “Swiss Army Romance,” on a small independent label called Fiddler Records. Fans immediately responded to his emotional, acoustic-based performances, and Carrabba was signed to the larger independent label, Vagrant Records.

The next Dashboard Confessional CD, “The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most,” was released in April 2001, and it quietly sold more than 200,000 copies by word of mouth before the song “Screaming Infidelities,” began getting major radio and video play. Before year’s end, Dashboard Confessional became the first non-million-selling act to record an “MTV Unplugged” special. A CD culled from that performance was released last fall.

Now “A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar” has been released through a partnership between Vagrant and major label Interscope Records, a move that has given the group stronger promotional support. And a new version of the CD is being released this month, with a bonus DVD added to the package. The DVD captures Dashboard Confessional’s recent MTV “Album Covers” performance, during which the band covered all of the songs from the 1992 R.E.M. CD “Automatic For The People.”