SPILL FEATURE: WE ARE ALL CHILDREN OF REFERENCE – A CONVERSATION WITH ALEXISONFIRE’S DALLAS GREEN

WE ARE ALL CHILDREN OF REFERENCE

A CONVERSATION WITH ALEXISONFIRE’S DALLAS GREEN

On November 7, Alexisonfire returned with their first studio release since 2022’s Otherness. Copies of Old Masters Vol. 1 collects four songs, originally by The Tragically Hip, Rusty, Doughboys, and Shallow North Dakota, reimagined by Alexisonfire as they shine a light on Canadian rock and metal from the ‘90s who continue to remain an influential force on the band. Speaking on Copies of Old Masters Vol. 1 is guitarist and co-lead vocalist, Dallas Green.

In a way, the idea for Copies of Old Masters Vol. 1 goes back to 2009. “The name of it, we’ve been kicking around for a long time. Like around Old Crows/Young Cardinals, I remember saying something about the idea about making a cover EP and calling it ‘Copies of Old Masters.’ Being in a band, there are a lot of ideas like that being kicked around and just stop there.” Green reflects. This particular idea emerged as a means of returning to the studio without having the pressure of making the follow up to Otherness. As Green tells me, “We had toured so much following the release of Otherness, I had toured a bunch with City and Colour and I think we were all feeling the urge to be creative together again, but we weren’t necessarily ready to start making new music.” Since 2022, Alexisonfire has operated at an impressive clip with the band taking inspiration from The Tragically Hip in their decision to turn their attention to an EP of covers, “The idea to focus on Canadian rock from the ‘90s stemmed from us, a few summers ago, adding “Fully Completely” by The Tragically Hip, into our set. We were just jazzed on playing that song live.” As this live cover took on a life of its own, Green adds, “It was like ‘hey we should record this version cause its cool and fun’ and it just snowballed into ‘let’s book some time in the studio and record a bunch of Canadian rock songs.’”

From there, the band assembled to determine which songs they would cover. “It started with The Hip cover we had already been doing. There are so many bands from that era that are so important to me. Growing up in Canada in the early ‘90s, you didn’t have access to a lot. What we had was Much Music.” He continues, “There was a Canadian content rule. In order for Much Music to get funding, they had to play a certain amount of Canadian music so there became this system where the Canadian government and Much Music would create these grants to help bands make music videos. You ended up seeing all these Canadian bands because they would get played on Much Music, and that’s what happened to us in the early 2000s.”

COPIES OF OLD MASTERS: VOLUME 1 ALBUM REVIEW

Green describes Copies of Old Masters Vol. 1 as “a love letter to this genre of music that we all grew up with and sort of paved the way for a bunch of kids in a small town in Canada to start a band.” Citing the influence these bands have had, and continue to have on Green and Alexisonfire, he adds, “So there were all these bands that we remembered fondly and wanted to pay homage to these bands that we grew up listening to. You have bands like Doughboys and Shallow North Dakota that I think are very influential punk bands that may or may not have gotten the respect and audience that they should have back then… As much as everybody tries to create your own thing, make your mark with your own style, we are all children of reference.”

Following a “real quick and easy” recording session over a weekend in Toronto last year, Green reflects on the process of making Copies of Old Masters Vol. 1. Remembering Shallow North Dakota’s “Cuz,” he states “it was so fun to learn it because when we were figuring our version of it, it was just like we were making an Alexis song. All the weird time signature changes and the part after part after part, it reminded us of what we were trying to do when younger making our first record.” Reflecting on The Tragically Hip’s “Fully Completely,” Green continues, “There was no hesitation doing The Hip song. Gord was my friend and we collaborated together. I feel like I have a good relationship with The Hip guys as well. Since Gord has passed away, I’ve been singing a lot of hip songs in my set just because you realise that he’s not here to sing them anymore and somebody’s got to do it…. It’s just such a cool song already. The thing about the hip, as popular as they became, their song structures are pretty interesting. It’s not like they were a pop band. They were just a great fucking rock band.”

“When we were making this EP, it was to get us back into the studio… We’ve never been in a better place as friends and as a band.” Green exclaims. As excited as he is for Copies of Old Masters Vol. 1, Alexisonfire is already looking ahead to their next project, their sixth full-length album. “We’ve got enough songs for a record. We’ve just sort of written more songs than maybe we ever have before ever going into a studio. That’s just a testament to how exciting the process has been. I can’t stop writing ideas for us.” With the band deep into the demoing process, they are setting their sights on recording the new record soon. As Green puts it, “We’re very excited. I think we feel very strongly about the collection of songs, now we’re just excited about bringing them to life.”

Listen to the full, unabridged conversation with Dallas Green, including more insight behind Copies Of Old Masters Vol. 1, his relationship with Gord Downie, the state of the next Alexisonfire studio album, and his desert island records on episode 52 of Beats By Ger on Spotify and YouTube.

Artist Links

Main Photo Credit: Vanessa Heins | Background Photo Credit: Mercedes Chircop