Driving in a car on the way to rehearsal with Alexisonfire bandmate/guitarist Wade MacNeil, Canadian singer/guitarist Dallas Green is talking about his folk-inspired solo project, City and Colour [ tickets ]. The group allows Green to channel his softer, acoustic self while Alexisonfire focuses on arena-rock anthems.

"Sometimes it gets weird and tricky, but sometimes you just have to work around it," Green said during an interview with LiveDaily about balancing both projects. "It allows me to get rid of any tendencies I have toward writing softer songs out of my mind. So when I pick up my electric guitar, I can focus on playing a loud kind of thing that I really like about [Alexisonfire], as opposed to trying to slide in acoustic ideas in order to show how diverse we can be. I can focus on big rock songs, which is what we like to do in Alexis."

Alexisonfire will play Warped Tour '09, and Green opened his first US headlining jaunt with City and Colour earlier this month.

"It should be interesting," said Green about the tour. "I've never done my own [tour]. I just toured a couple months ago with [fellow Canadians] Tegan and Sara where I opened for them. That was pretty cool. It'll be neat to go play some shows to see if anybody shows up. It'll be fun, I think.

"I'm bringing a band with me. I do half the set with myself, and half the set with the band. We rework a bunch of the old songs and it makes them more full with band. It's just fun. You'll probably hear a lot of bad jokes," he added with a laugh.

Occasionally, he said, he will do Alexisonfire songs acoustically, "just to give people a different version of it.

"I like to talk a lot, too, so there's a lot of that--especially with the guys who come with me. We tend to start telling inside jokes and we forget that the crowd doesn't know anything that we're talking about. It's fun for us."

The short tour, which winds up Jan. 28 in Los Angeles, CA, is in support of City and Colour's latest album, "Bring Me Your Love," a project that was trying for Green.

"I think I have a tough time in general writing," Green said. "Not just for that record. I'm always second-guessing myself and things like that. I'm always wondering if it's good enough, you know? I've always been like that. Some people find it quite easy. I find it difficult."

The first song, "Forgive Me," opens with footsteps on a wood floor, a whirling fan and the sounds of Green picking up his acoustic guitar. It was recorded in his church turned recording studio. Appearing on the album's current single, "Sleeping Sickness," as a special guest is The Tragically Hip singer Gordon Downie, a longtime friend of Green's whom he met a few years ago at the Juno Awards, Canada's version of the Grammys.

"It was great," Green said about working with Downie. "He's a very, very nice man. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met. It was cool to have him sing on the record. He came down and did it. It was nice to have him there. It's nice to call him my friend."