Pink’s surprise music coupling
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Dynamic duo … Pink and Dallas Green will release their You+Me record in October. Picture: Vevo
Source: YouTube
THE story behind the surprising music coupling of Alecia Moore and Dallas Green, has the ingredients of a classic joke.
An Australian assistant plays a Canadian troubadour’s record to her American superstar boss.
The punchline is they end up making beautiful music together as You + Me.
Those million plus Australians who checked out the fabulous flying singing machine of the Funhouse and The Truth About Love tours in recent years are acutely aware that Alecia Moore is Pink.
And the tens of thousands who have snapped up tickets for Green’s regular visits here are in love with his City And Colour alter ego. Many also enjoyed his work with popular post-hardcore rockers Alexisonfire before they called it a day.
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The troubadour and the pop star … You+Me shows a different musical side of Dallas Green and Alecia Moore. Picture: Vevo
Source: Supplied
So it was destined that an Australian would bring them together, considering how much time and energy each artist has invested in their fans here.
“I love him. My ex-Australian assistant knew him and played me his music and I just fell in love, I fell in love. And then we met and became really good friends. He’s funny and so smart,” Pink told me during her Australian tour last year when she discovered we were both City and Colour fans.
After hearing his 2008 record Bring Me Your Love, Pink reached out to Green to open her shows in the UK in 2010.
She returned the favour by guesting at the opening concert of his American tour in 2011.
Pink showed up to the Orpheum in Los Angeles to duet with him on What Makes A Man.
“We came up with idea three hours ago. Via email. So if we blow it, just pretend it didn’t happen,” he told the audience.
Writing and singing together … came easily to Pink and Dallas. Picture: Vevo
Source: YouTube
They didn’t blow it, their voices seamlessly meshing in harmony, with Green effusive in his praise when he later posted a video of the performance on his website.
“Best moment of my life. This is from the first day of the US tour in LA at the Orpheum Theatre. Pink was awesome enough to grace the stage beside me. Blew me away,” he wrote.
Pink then booked him again for three American concerts last year.
It was during those shows that Green discovered just how much she loves his music.
Pink used his tunes as a calming soundtrack during the birth of her and Carey Hart’s daughter Willow.
“I got to meet Willow finally during those shows in America,” Green said.
“During the show, Pink would ask for a round of applause for City and Colour and told the crowd ‘that was what I was listening to when Willow came into the world’.
“She would say that every night in front of 15,000 people or more, it was nuts. I’ll take that!”
City and Colour … shows in Australia have sold out. Picture: Cameron Richardson
Source: News Limited
The pair crisscrossed each other during their respective concert runs in Australia last year, frustratingly unable to orchestrate a moment when they could share a stage.
The tours wrapped and Pink invited Green to Los Angeles in March to see if creative sparks would fly between the pair.
“I thought I’d come over to your house, play guitar and see if we could something
but you were like, ‘Oh I got a studio rented just in case,” Green revealed when the pair spoke about the origins of You + Me during a recent video shoot.
While their previous vocal interactions had hinted at some chemistry, Pink insists that singing perfectly in harmony isn’t as easy as it sounds. If the tones don’t match naturally, it can be difficult to get right even if her bluesy growl would seem an easy fit with his rich tones.
“He has the most angelic voice I have ever heard in my life and I thought ‘Huh, maybe one day if I get good enough he would sing with me,” she says with cheeky self-deprecation.
“It’s hard to harmonise with other people, it’s hard to sound cohesive, to have the same levels and the same aggression and the same tone.
“You can collaborate with other people but to actually marry your voices? We were both taken aback by how well our voices did.”
Pink and Dallas … hang out with the crew while shooting videos. Picture: Vevo
Source: YouTube
Green was equally gobsmacked by how easily their voices entwined.
“My friend said people spend their whole lives trying to sound that good together,” he said before adding with a laugh, “So f … k you guys!”
The meant-to-be signs just kept coming on the first day of their experiment.
Pink suggested they drop off his guitar at the studio she had booked and then head out for dinner.
Instead, they ended up staying at the studio, writing and recording their first collaboration From A Closet In Norway (Oslo Blues) and beginning another song called Gently.
In just six days, they finished nine original compositions and has also recorded a cover of Sade’s No Ordinary Love. Pink shares a manager with the legendary British soul singer.
“Dallas had never written a song with another person, he usually writes by himself, and I only write with other people,” she explained.
Green added: “It doesn’t sound like you featuring me or me featuring you, it sounds like us. Don’t you think so?”
Their debut album rose ave. is released on October 10 and the obvious question every Australian fan has for Pink and City and Colour is will they tour?
Hot act … Pink played to more than half a million Australians on The truth About Love tour. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
Pink joked that after the acrobatic spectaculars of the Funhouse and Truth About Love tours that she wanted to scale back for her next run of shows.
“A full, sit down on a stool, barefoot in jeans, acoustic show. And 15 people are going to show up. And I can play my one guitar song with my one piano song,” she joked.
Of course they are in good company when it comes to solo artists who prove to be a successful duo with June Carter and Johnny Cash, Jay Z and Beyonce, John Lennon and Yoko One, She and Him (M Ward and Zooey Deschanel), Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Once) among the popular pairs.
