Still
Fighting
Dashboard Confessional Returns to the Road
By Andrew King
30 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND
Joel Livesey
FOH Engineer
PS: First off, tell us a bit about
your relationship and history
with the Dashboard camp. How
did it come to be that you’d be
out mixing the We Fight Tour?
JL: Dashboard Confessional
came to me via a good friend
and mentor of mine who referred
me. I had previously been touring
with Brand New, who I credit for
introducing me to the scene and
connecting me to a new genre of
music I hadn’t previously worked
on. DC’s tour manager, Jack Funk,
called me and I think we both in-
stantly knew it was going to work
out. So much of it is about the
people and who you work with
everyday and how you inspire
each other.
PS: Give us a very general
overview of your approach to
mixing for this tour. Specifi-
cally, did the band have much
direction in terms of the type
of mix or experience they were
looking to deliver, or was that
left largely to you?
JL: My approach to mixing this
tour was that I wanted to make
the solo acoustic performances as
intimate and emotional as possible
for Chris [Carrabba, frontman,] and
for the audience. Then, when the
band kicked in with the new mate-
F
ans were elated when Dashboard
Confessional released their seventh
studio album, Crooked Shadows, in
February 2018, and understandably
so. It had been nearly nine years
since the band’s preceding LP, 2009’s
After the Ending, had dropped, and to say the
emotive alt-rockers’ fan base is “dedicated”
would be an understatement.
The band’s hooky, shout-along choruses
and heart-on-sleeve lyrics have been resonat-
ing with music lovers since frontman Chris
Carrabba made a significant impact on the bur-
geoning emotional rock scene with 2000’s The
Swiss Army Romance. Over subsequent albums,
what began as a relatively bare-bones sound of
layered, open-tuned acoustic guitars and pas-
sionate but vulnerable vocals grew into a more
lush, full-band sound like that heard on the
band’s two biggest singles, “Vindicated” from
the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack, and “Hands Down”
from A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar.
With a deep catalogue of favourites for a
devout fanbase and a brand new collection of
nine songs that straddle the line of authenticity
and accessibility, Dashboard Confessional hit
the road in the first half of 2018 on the We Fight
Tour. Beginning in Houston, TX in late March
and running through mid-May, the tour hit me-
dium-sized clubs and halls throughout the U.S.
and Canada.
FOH engineer Joel Livesey – also an accom-
plished studio engineer – was tying into house
systems throughout the trek, and subsequently
put together his touring package to be able to
deliver consistent, quality results from show-to-
show, regardless of the rig in front of him.
We caught up with Livesey and monitor
engineer Jamison Butcher amidst the tour to
chat about their respective packages and col-
laborations with a unique artist boasting a rela-
tively long career and ever-evoling sound.
rial, I wanted it to sound huge and as full as
it does on the album.
I used analog summing and analog
outboard gear to give my groups a raw
and exciting feel and combined that with
+DSP and VST plug-in effects to tie it back
in with the more modern sounds of the
album. When we do preproduction for the
tour, it’s mostly about getting tones dialed
in and making sure the source is as good
as it can be before it gets mixed by either
of us. We run a full multitrack record and
virtual soundcheck system so the band can
listen to mixes or come out and hear how
it’s sounding in the house, at which point
the mixes are pretty well dialed in and it’s
all about flavour and effect. The multitracks
also allow us to make delay and mic place-
ment corrections so that what we are get-
ting is as in-phase as it can be.