Professional Sound - June 2018 | Page 30

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.