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Dashboard Confessional is really a former alternative rocker named Chris Carrabba, who began an edgy but acoustic one-man band as a reaction to his louder beginnings.

These days, Carrabba has formed a band and heaped on the layers of sound again, which has translated into mainstream success. With the release of his fourth studio album, Dusk and Summer (Counting Crows' Adam Duritz has a role on the new record), he continues to mine the big, dense sounds that he began exploring on his Vindicated single and 2003's A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar (No. 2 on Billboard).

The more complex sounds, he says on the phone from a tour stop, are another reaction to the acoustic box he found himself in.

The singer, guitarist and keyboardist has become the sage to a youthful following who are inspired by his personal, often troubled lyrics that are paired with anthemic riffs and poetic power ballads.

Dashboard Confessional plays Sunday at Plaza of Nations and it's a safe bet that the majority in the crowd will be singing along to almost every word. Live shows are where Carrabba flourishes, and the band generates the most excitement.

It's not all hair gel and cool T-shirts, being the poster boy for cathartic, rallying anthems (more commonly referred to as "emo"). Carrabba, who is 31 and from Boca Raton, Fla., and who once taught kids for a living, has had to come to terms with his far-reaching influence.

"I have some experience with this, because I used to be a teacher," says Carrabba, who searches for the right words in the way you'd expect for a heartfelt lyricist. "It's a little easier for me to know how to behave. I'm just a man who messes up, who does great things sometimes, bad things other times -- nobody is perfect here."

He pauses and thinks about his own role models. "I remember what it felt like when I found out Michael Jordan was gambling. I felt crushed. But who cares? Does it really affect my life? No.

"You can't expect perfection from yourself or you go crazy. But people reach out to me, and I feel like I'm not here to give answers but I'm not going to turn away from them asking questions or looking to me for some sort of guidance, either.

"I'm not going to tell them I have it, because I'm not like a cult leader," he adds. "I had to find a comfortable place there a long time ago because of the nature of the songs I write -- because I write snapshots of parts of who I am, and they will be taken like gospel."

Carrabba worked with famous Canadian producer and songwriter Daniel Lanois on his new release, but when Lanois left the project, he turned to Don Gilmore (Pearl Jam, Linkin Park) to finish up. As it turned out, he wrote even more songs than planned with Gilmore as producer, and the album turned out very different from the one that he and Lanois had envisioned. Carrabba utilized his skills in diplomacy to make the transition between two established producers without leaving any hurt feelings.

"I would be remiss to say that [Lanois] wouldn't wish that more of his songs than Don's songs got on the record, but he's been around the block, so he knows the songs are there, and they are not going to remain in hiding," says Carrabba, referring to the potential for the Lanois songs to be used on a future project. "I regard his reaction as magnanimous. I had to go to both producers and say, 'How do we work out the credits now?' And Dan said, 'Say it's produced by Don Gilmore.'