Lawrence.com

For many musicians, touring is but one aspect of a larger job. For Chris Carrabba, the road is a way of life. The singer/songwriter/guitarist � and mastermind behind indie band Dashboard Confessional � just wrapped up a gig in Chicago and currently is en route to Seattle, where his band will begin a two-week tour with The Weakerthans. Following those dates, Carrabba will spend the rest of the summer playing on various tours with shows lined up well into September.

"I'm missing home right now," Carrabba says phoning from the tiny van he and the group call home most of the year.

It would be difficult to accuse the 20-something Carrabba of taking the easy path to success. Though DC plays music that might be better suited for the folkster coffeehouse circuit, Carrabba generally opts to place his band before some of the most demanding audiences in the country: punk rockers. At first glance, Carrabba's highly charged, mostly acoustic ballads � dubbed "sadcore" by fans and critics alike � seem wholly out of context in punk's tiny clubs and off-the-map house parties. Fortunately, with an increasing reputation as one of indie rock's true journeymen, Carrabba doesn't get heckled much these days.

"At first kids were like, 'Why are you on the bill?'" Carrabba recalls. "To their credit, they'd listen and maybe buy the record to see why I'm on the bill. Then they get it. I think the word is out now. At this point, kids are coming to see me as well as the bands I'm on the bill with. So they know what they're getting. It's not like, 'What is this kid doing, there's no distortion?' But every tour is a new challenge."

Unchallenging to Carrabba is managing the overwhelming emotions found in the acidic odes to pain he wrenches out night after night. "You're not alone and you're not discreet/You make sure I know who's taking you home," he swoons on "Screaming Infidelities," ever-willing to set his personal life to music. Ironically, it is in the epicenter of this turmoil that Carrabba finds solace and healing.

"Sometime the subject matter gets a little trying to traipse over and over again," he admits. "But at the same time it's like therapy."

Inspiration, improvisation

What began as a side project � Carrabba fronted both Further Seems Forever and The Vacant Andies before founding DC � has now evolved into a full-time job. And then some. Not only do Carrabba and company tour the country like modern-day Lewis and Clarks, they also put out recordings at an astonishing pace.

Dashboard Confessional's full-length debut � last winter's "Swiss Army Romance" � was followed by "Drowning," a three-song EP released in February, and a second album, "The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most," in March. Interestingly, each release was issued under different record labels, though Carrabba currently is signed to Vagrant Records (Face To Face, The Get Up Kids).

The three CD releases offer a potent dose of Carrabba's unique world view, but "Places" is the band's most varied effort to date. Hushed, intimate solo tracks like "This Brilliant Dance" and "The Best Deceptions" sit alongside group numbers like "Again I Go Unnoticed" and "The Good Fight," where Carrabba capably is backed by bassist Dan Bonebrake and drummer Mike Marsh. "The Best Deceptions" is a soaring breakup song, where Carrabba's voice reaches for heaven and hell, often within the same breath. "Places" was pounded out during a "week of 18-hour" days, according to Carrabba who penned one song on the spot, improvising both music and lyrics in a single take.

"I just got inspired right there in the booth," Carrabba says. "That was kind of fun; that was a first for me. I've written under the gun before but not like that. It was a whole song in one sitting, right there while I happened to be in the studio."

Typically, Carrabba's keeping the rest of the story to himself, refusing to reveal even the name of the "instant" song. One might guess it's "This Bitter Pill," a searing ode to heartbreak with Carrabba practically primal screaming as the number closes.

"I'm not telling," the songwriter says coyly. "But I will say it's not that one."

Florida flavor

Dashboard Confessional hails from Boca Raton, located near the southernmost tip of the Florida peninsula. The cultural diversity, unique climate and faraway locale has helped create an ever-expanding music scene that allows for everything from death metal to disco.

"It rules," Carrabba enthuses, listing Seville, Glassheater, New Found Glory and The Anchormen as peer groups he admires. "There's a hell of a lot going on there. Every scene is different, but in South Florida we're really geographically isolated. The kids are so passionate and so hand-on with their bands. They work really hard to make their friends from out-of-state listen to our bands. I have fans who bought 20 copies of my record when it came out so they could mail them to their friends in Maryland and Texas and Long Island and Seattle."

As for the larger music scene, Carrabba can't imagine Dashboard Confessional catching on in a big way � and he's perfectly content to keep it like that.

"I have no idea," Carrabba says when asked if DC would ever sign with a major label. "We're pretty comfortable in our little punk rock scene, and anything bigger than that I don't know. I'm really not super-familiar with what's going on outside the punk rock world."

Now that the punk rock world can be seen on MTV about as often as "The Real World," is a purist like Carrabba put off by the commercialized version of what was once the world's most uncommercial music?

"No, I think it's great," he says. "I don't take a big stand against it like some of my peers may. Some kid in the Midwest who's never been exposed to some underground band � they never get to hear Dag Nasty because they never would, but they get to hear Blink 182 on the radio and they get all fired up by the energy � that's great, good for them. They got saved from listening to country music."