Chris Carrabba explains why Dashboard Confessional covered Justin Bieber

October 10, 2017

[Photos by: Dashboard Confessional/Instagram, Justin Bieber/Instagram]

Dashboard Confessional have taken to covering Justin Bieber's “Love Yourself” in concert, after the unlikely rendition was included on their recent, suprise-release covers EP, Covered + Taped. Now, DC frontman Chris Carrabba is coming clean with his reasoning behind the unexpected song choice.

In a new interview with MTV News, emo king Carrabba contends that the 2015 Purpose tune, co-written with Ed Sheeran, was a “very brave” single for Bieber. The Dashboard leader says the pop singer's purposeful move away from “records steeped in heavy production” is what caught his attention.

“I never had really connected very deeply with [Bieber's] songs before,” says Carrabba. “That's not a reflection of his songs that he put out, that's a reflection of my taste in music… One of the things that I respond to are really threadbare songs, and when I heard 'Love Yourself,' I was just stunned.”

At a recent concert in New York City's Central Park, Dashboard Confessional mixed in the Bieber cover with their own emo staples like “Hands Down” and early-aughts fan favorites from their albums The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most and A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar.

While Carraba says new Dashboard music is on the way, he doesn't mind entertaining his fans with old tunes. “I've never quite figured out that gripe some bands have with hating their own songs,” he says, “because people like them enough that they want them to be played every night.”

As for Dashboard Confessional's version of “Love Yourself,” you can hear it on the aforementioned Covered + Taped EP, which also features covers of the 1975's “Sex,” Julien Baker's “Sprained Ankle,” and Sorority Noise's “Using.”

Who knew Carrabba's become such a Belieber?!