On His New Bromance, Global Domination And Being A Mizzy C

We immediately notice that for once, the reserved, stoic blues rocker has his signature hat on the table, rather than on his head. His hair is slicked back and he no longer dons glasses, his colourful ink covering every inch of skin, a sign of many stories and many passions.

Having once been known as the enigmatic singer in Canadian hardcore band Alexisonfire, Green has now been reborn as a blues-rock mainstay, having spent ten years and four albums evolving into such. Green speaks slowly, pausing for seconds at a time so he's sure he has the right words to convey his thoughts. Though he seems reserved, he's patient and open about his insecurities — particularly when we mention he seems more confident on If I Should Go Before You.

"I didn't realise I was going to... for lack of a better word, fall in love with all of them."

"I have a problem with confidence, but I think with every record I'm trying to be better and explore more of myself as a musician. So I think you can just listen to the first City & Colour record and listen to now — my voice is just completely different. I was a 24-year-old kid and now I'm a 35-year-old man, it's just different."

For one, he wrote it with a whole band in mind, having discovered a kindred friendship and strong musical affinity with his new touring musicians. As a result, the album is packed with full, lush arrangements, miles away from 2005's debut Sometimes.

"After I made The Hurry And The Harm, I got a new group of guys to come out on the road with me. Obviously when I hired them all, I knew they were all competent musicians, they were all good players, and that was my first priority. I didn't realise I was going to... for lack of a better word, fall in love with all of them and create a really special friendship as well as a musical relationship.

"They are the reason I wrote all of these songs. It made perfect sense to make it with them. We had built up that trust with one another."

Green admits that he fell into a trap after making the stripped-back Sometimes. Green had never deliberately wanted to be a solo artist.

"To be completely honest, the first City & Colour record was solo because I didn't have anyone to play on it ... I didn't realise it was going to become a thing, that that's what people thought of when they thought of City & Colour. I never wanted to be that way. I love being in a band.

"I love the drums, I love the pedal steel guitar, I love bass. It wasn't a conscious decision, you know, [he puts on an excitable voice] 'I'm gonna make a full band record!' It was just like, [says matter-of-factly] 'I'm gonna make a full band record.'"

When The Music asks whether he realised If I Should Go Before You sounded more optimistic, rather than the weightiness of Little Hell and The Hurry And The Harm, Green smiles and informs us we're not alone in this thinking.

"I did an interview with a friend of mine from Toronto and the first thing he said to me, he talked about how angry The Hurry And The Harm was. Songs like Golden State and Commentators, even the title track... I didn't really think about that when I was making this new one and then I was like, 'Yeah, wow, fuck, you're right, I was pretty bummed out.' This record obviously still has sombre moments in it but it does have a different... a bit more jovial sound... and I think that had to do with the guys and how I feel playing music with them."

"When you're doing something that you love so much.... and it doesn't go well... it literally breaks your heart."

It would be naive to suggest that Green is the only songwriter who uses music cathartically, but Green openly discusses a genuine inability to express his emotions, particularly to his wife. We laugh momentarily about Green telling Sydney the other night that he was "happy in his unhappiness", but as we talk about the self-deprecating and harsh voice Green writes in, the mood gets a little heavier.

"Oh, no, I was completely serious! [laughs] I guess it's just in my nature to be that way. I try not to be that way... but Mizzy C actually stands for Miserable Cunt. That song is just about how I'd like to try to... just not be one so often. I just celebrate the negative in things, you know?

"The problem with that is, so much good happens in my life and I just miss it... because I'm too worried about what went wrong as opposed to everything that went right. I try not to be that way but it's hard to snap out of that when you've been that way your whole life.

"Singing about wishing I wasn't miserable and unhappy, is a way for me to not be. There is no such thing as perfection... but you can try to be. For me, it is about me trying to find something in myself that I feel good about."

He pauses for several moments, so long that we wonder whether we said something wrong. Finally, he continues.

"It's difficult when you're doing something that you love... but it's also your job. What happens is, you lose all of the wonderful things that got you there in the first place because of the repetition and monotony, it can sort of creep in. When you're doing something that you love so much.... and it doesn't go well... it literally breaks your heart. I love playing and writing songs so fucking much, that's almost the problem there. I'm just so emotionally attached to it, when it's great, it's unbelievable. There's a line in a you+me song, 'The highs are so high/That the lows are killing me' — and that's this. You can go onstage and play in front of 20,000 people and have this wonderful moment, then the next day you go on stage in front of 20,000 people and your voice cracks, or your string breaks, and you wanna fucking... jump into a lake."

It's clear he doesn't want us to commiserate, but he's just casually invited us into the darkest corners of his mind. He continues cheerfully about sneaking a peek at Joe Bonamassa's "crazy rare" guitars at Bluesfest and what he thinks of people second-guessing Kendrick Lamar on the bill.

"He's very blues. I think people have to realise that everything is the blues. Everything came from the blues. It's just interpreted different ways but if you can't see that Kendrick Lamar is a blues artist, who just happens to be rapping, then you don't know what you're talking about."

Alas, at least Green does. He admits that he could've directed the you+me project with Pink [Alecia Moore] to more successful waters, but sailed elsewhere instead.

"After I did that thing with Alecia, I was arguably at the peak of my popularity... If I was smart, I probably should've tried to go in and use that to ask a super-producers or hire a team of writers to write me some hits... but instead I went the other way and made a record with my band and produced it myself. That's what I wanna do, I don't have goals of global domination. I just wanna write a song and sing it for somebody."