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By Tyler Hayes
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Maybe you know Chris Carrabba as the singer of Dashboard Confessional because of his genre-defining song "Screaming Infidelities." Or maybe it's a more widely known Dashboard Confessional song like "Vindicated" from Spider-Man 2 or "As Lovers Go" from Shrek 2 that rings a bell. Whatever your level of fandom, Carrabba has likely graced your ears at some point.
Carrabba is continuing to produce new songs with the next Dashboard Confessional album All The Truth That I Can Tell, available on February 25, 2022. The new album is mostly acoustic, like early Dashboard albums, and has several songs that I think are instant hits like "Here's to Moving On," "Southbound and Sinking" and "Sunshine State." The songs get a full range of emotion, from quiet, reflective verses to enthusiastic and energetic choruses.
Don't sleep on the song "Sleep In." The melody is simple and repetitive, but it serves as a conveyor belt for the telling of a quick-paced love story, from inception through the present. It even provides a bit of insight into one of Carrabba's favorite things mentioned below.
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In light of his new album, I decided to check in with Carrabba about the state of his music gear and what gadgets he uses at home and on the road. Here's what the singer-songwriter is using and what kinds of products he recommends.
What does your home recording setup look like?
My home studio is Pro Tools based. My new record is centered around acoustic guitars, and I found that a mic chain that I knew I loved for recording vocals seemed to also work really well for tracking acoustic guitars.
I tracked both vocals and acoustics with my Wunder CM7 microphone through a Vintech Audio 273. These two pieces of gear really were outstanding.
Another great piece of gear was one that I used during the demo phase. I was trying to do things really quickly, to demo the songs on acoustic guitar to give the producer James Paul Wisner what I had in mind for us to work on together. I didn't want to send him lousy-sounding stuff he couldn't enjoy listening to, but I was also trying to work quickly. I was able to do both by using the Fishman Aura DI. It's more than just a simple DI [direct input]—it does microphone simulation, creating a bit of air and space and depth to your DI sound and replicates a microphone incredibly well.
I think that's a great piece of gear that would be helpful especially to people in home studios who might not have access to as many mic choices as they might like to have.
What apps do you use in the songwriting process?
If I'm in a hotel room, I often just use Voice Memo on my phone because most of my conceptual ideas are pretty broad-stroke stuff doing vocals and guitar at the same time. And then I elaborate on that instrumentation at a later date. That's just my workflow.
When touring, what are a few pieces of gear or gadgets you consider a must-have?
One thing that is always on me is the GuitarToolKit. It's an app that is a tuner and a metronome, but you can also source out chords and chord inversions through its library. I think it has a few other bells and whistles, but I largely use it for its metronome and tuner.
Another thing I use when I'm making the voice memos is the Shure MV88 microphone that fits in my guitar case and plugs straight into my phone. It comes with a little stand, and the cable plugs right into your phone or iPad. It's why the voice memos are enough for me because this really is a good enough mic that makes it sound like you went through some mic pre-setup process, but you actually just threw it up in the room.
Have you been using any iPad effects or recording apps?
I haven't been using any of these effects or recording apps, mainly because I have a studio in my house. I have in the past used Garage Band while traveling.
What was the best product you bought in 2021?
Man, am I obsessed with this Breville BDC450BSS coffee maker. It really is a day maker. I look forward to it before I go to bed, and I wake up to its glory. It's a thermal carafe coffee maker so it's never sitting on a heating element. It doesn't continually cook the coffee once it's brewed. It stays warm all day (not that I would drink it slowly enough for it to get cold anyway, ha). I think it is the best way to make drip coffee.
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