00:03Hi, I'm Chris Carraba from Dashboard Confessional and I'm sitting backstage at Wembley Arena.
00:19I think I've learned about music my whole life because my mother's a musician.
00:24She's a fabulous pianist and a singer.
00:30We were pretty broke, so we made all kinds of fun for ourselves that didn't involve having money.
00:39And when I was about 15, my uncle had his daughters cleaning out the basement of his house and one
00:49of their friends was over.
00:50The friend, when she saw the guitar, said to my cousin, you know, you need to talk your father into
00:54giving this to Chris because I bet you he could learn to play this.
00:58They had a sit down with my uncle. They managed to convince him I should have this guitar.
01:01I don't even know where this guitar came from. He doesn't even know where this guitar came from.
01:04Nobody had ever played guitar in our family.
01:07But they'd given it to me and I kind of took to it immediately. It seemed to just make sense
01:13to me.
01:16I had no idea you were supposed to learn other people's songs.
01:20You know, I kind of gleaned off of people how they were playing chords.
01:23I'd already sounded them out. From knowing what chords sounded like when my mother played piano, I'd already sounded them
01:28out on the guitar.
01:30And I found it easy, actually, to put these things together. I'm sure it didn't sound graceful or anything like
01:37that, but just the rudiments of it I found sort of very natural.
01:45The first song that I wrote was a country song. It was certainly a comedic song. That was my whole
01:53endeavor was to try to make my stepbrother laugh.
01:56As a clowny kind of kid, I was always going for a laugh. And I got the laugh. But I
02:03was more amazed that I'd completed a song. And no one else was impressed by that. They loved the joke.
02:13You know, the inspiration for songwriting, even after all these hundreds of songs that I've written, is amazingly fresh all
02:22the time. I don't know how it is. It's a mystery to me.
02:25You can play a G chord a hundred times and it never leads to anything else. And then one day
02:29you pick up a guitar and play a G chord and there's a song in it.
02:34I've often got myself in trouble when I thought I figured out how I write songs. It suddenly dries up
02:39the well immediately.
02:43Songwriting for me has always supplanted whatever I had planned for that moment. I've always thought, well, I'm going to
02:51meet with my friends.
02:53I'm walking out the door and something pops in my head. And I just sit down. I'll just sit for
02:57a minute and see if something happens.
02:58Hours later, they'll have to ring them and say, you know. And I started a song and they always know
03:03that I probably won't show up anyway.
03:05Because I've probably gotten into some trouble with songwriting. So...
03:12Music is this weird amalgam of some kind of crazy elixir that heals all wounds. And it's this strange thing
03:20that unifies everybody all at once. But at the same time, speaks only to you alone.
03:28And it's also just plain and simply a means to an escape for me. Unescape isn't in that. It takes
03:37away whatever else is on hand. It replaces it with something better.
03:43You know, it's a funny thing if you're a real hungry kid like I am. It's the passion that feeds
03:51you, not the reaction to your passion that feeds you.
03:54I'm foolishly arrogant about my own desires when it comes to music. And I always know that I'm right.
04:06These songs, this music that I made and that I make is not designed for mass consumption. So...
04:13I always knew that people, there'd be dissenters in the ranks. And that's fine. That's preferable to me, as a
04:21matter of fact.
04:24I am proud that I've connected with so many people. And that my music has provided some means for many
04:32people to connect with each other.
04:35For me, that's a potent thing to give to the world. But I almost can't take credit for it because,
04:41you know, you're just kind of a vessel at the time.
04:46I got lucky when I got a song. So, I'm a bit surprised. It's a bit of a happy surprise
04:52that I don't have to go to work every day
04:57and to ensure that I'll be able to go off and do music because it's become my job.
05:04Once I leave this very room, I'm going to pick up a guitar and I hope...
05:13I hope I get something out of that, as I do every day when I pick up a guitar.
05:18You know this, I won't let me down yesterday.
05:26I do everything, I don't believe so.
05:27And I hope it's been successful as well.
05:27This is a great story since I'm from Coffee with theubby button,
05:27It broke my Instagram and says it's always over,
05:27the way looks around for you, who cares about how we'll make blood flow.
05:27And then it goes over!
05:28So, thanks to Bisguac, I do everything you can find out!
05:30You
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