Hello Dido, did you have a good Christmas?Hi there, happy new year to everyone! I had a great Christmas with my family. Very relaxing. A lot of snow, a lot of cake. All good.You said in the last interview that you've been working in the countryside - do you think the surroundings of a studio can have an impact on the sounds you make in it?Well there's a few sound effects that I could maybe do without. A lot of birds and cows and low flying air force planes... I'm not sure whether it has an effect or not. So much of what I write and produce is so internal that often it doesn't matter where I am. Most of the time I'm in a room with no windows when I write anyway. I do find it inspiring to go for an amazing walk in the country every morning though before we start work though. Makes me feel really lucky to be alive.When you're writing new songs, do you listen back to your first three albums for inspiration?Not very often. I do listen to them for fun occasionally, sometimes when I'm driving as they all bring back such amazing memories. Each record was borne out of such a specific era of my life, it's great to take myself back there.What do you tend to eat and/or drink during an average day's recording?Cereal. It's easy and quick and if I'm really focused on something I don't want to bother cooking anything. I could eat breakfast for every meal quite happily.Who makes the best tea, you or Rollo?Definitely me. :-) I think he might even agree.
Good news! No Angel has been nominated for the Best British Album of 30 Years at this year's BRIT Awards
Did you deliberately decide to make this album hark back to your electronic roots, or did it just turn out that way?As with everything I've done, it just turned out that way. I'm not good at planning these things out or thinking too far ahead. I never have been. Part of it is I just make the music I want to listen to at that particular time and the other part is that I'd put a new logic program on my computer last year and was really enjoying playing with it at home and the record just grew out of that and all the inspiring sounds I could find or create. The difference now to before is that making the last album taught me so much about playing and arranging and engineering and production etc.. That I can really enjoy just being self sufficient and making records wherever I am on my own. It feels really good to get lost completely in my own world and create a new sound that way. Then on top of that, when I do get into a studio with Rollo or Sister Bliss it just feels amazing to have their extra inspiration and input at that point and watch the tracks transform. I'm having a lot of fun making this record.When you're in this stage of the process, do you find yourself thinking about nothing else but recording? Or are you good at leaving it behind when you shut the studio door?I'm not great at leaving it behind properly if I'm in a proper studio situation and I've always got songs and ideas going round in my head at all times. It's how I see the world around me I suppose. But I have good periods of time when I don't think too much about it as there's so many other things I like doing or learning about and people I want to see. I also get my best ideas when I just forget about it all for a minute and let my brain relax!Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and written lyrics?I've dreamt a few lyrics and I've learnt that you have to write them down. I always think I'll remember them in the morning and never do.Finally, what was your favourite book of 2009?My favourite by far of last year was BROOKLYN by Colm Toibin. Really moving and engaging. I was gutted to finish it as I wanted to stay in that world for longer.
Voting is now open for the Best British Album of 30 Years Award which No Angel has been nominated for at this year's Brits
We're very pleased to announce that a brand new Dido song, Everything To Lose, will feature in the upcoming movie, Sex And The City 2, which is released at the end of May 2010. The track will also be available on the film's soundtrack album.We gave Dido a shout to find out a bit more about the new song:Did you write Everything To Lose specifically for the movie?A rough demo of 'everything to lose' was on a cd I gave to someone with a few demos of songs from the new album. The people doing the film heard it and loved it and so we had to suddenly finish it up in a couple of days last week to get it into the film in time. It's so exciting for me that people will be hearing it this quickly after I've done it and when it's still so fresh for me.When/where did you record it?Rollo, Sister Bliss and I all did our bits at home. I recorded my parts in the kitchen. It's a very easy and fun way to work and is how I've been making my new record so far. It challenges me more when I've only got myself to rely on when I'm recording on my own and I've been able to really go with my own instincts and experiment before anyone hears anything. I finished it off with my brother in the English countryside (hoping not too much bird and cow noise on there!).Are you pleased with it?I really am. It's a song that puts us all in a good mood. It's a true love song really, even though it's talking about that fear you can get when you actually really love someone and have finally got something real to lose. I love the sound of it and I've been having so much fun with working with Rollo and Sister Bliss on this album so far. I'm enjoying getting back to my electronic roots so much. Very happy! Hope you all like it too.
We thought you might like to see the full lyrics to Dido's new song, Everything To Lose, which she's just emailed over to us:EVERYTHING TO LOSEI used to be so fearless, so limitless and freeHappy on my own and nothing really bothered meI had desires to see the world, jump out of planes and flyI loved to be alive, but I was not afraid to dieI loved to be alive but I was not afraid to die…I used to be so sure of things and self containedI could carry on with no need to explainIt didn’t matter if I ever made it homeCould go too fast, drink all night and dance aloneI loved to be alive but I was not afraid to dieI loved to be alive but I was not afraid to dieSince I met you, I’ve got everything to loseSince I met you, I’ve got everything to loseI used to be so thoughtless so easy and freeCould walk away, not think ahead and had no plans to keepNo hand to hold no one to bring down with meI wouldn’t see the worst and it only hurts meI loved to be alive but I was not afraid to dieSince I met you, I’ve got everything to loseSince I met you I’ve got everything to lose
The brand new Faithless album is released this week, and has two tracks featuring Dido's vocals - they are Feelin Good (which you can hear in full below) and North Star.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YquiHDsH4Mk&
Following this week's amazing news that If I Rise has been nominated for the Best Song Oscar, we gave Dido a shout to find out a bit more about collaborating with A.R. Rahman, being on the 127 Hours soundtrack and plans for album #4.Hi Dido, congratulations on the Oscar nomination. Where were you when you found out about it?I was in a restaurant and a friend texted me. I nearly fell off my chair.Presumably you're pretty pleased?I'm so pleased. It's a proper honour and getting to work with someone as brilliant as A.R. Rahman on a Danny Boyle movie is a bit of a dream come true anyway. Way back when, the 'Trainspotting' soundtrack was probably one of the musical moments that influenced me the most. I actually wrote 'Here With Me' which was my first song over a track on there. Danny Boyle has always done incredible music in his films I think, and I'm a huge A.R. Rahman fan anyway. A.R. Rahman’s whole soundtrack to this film is beautiful and I’m properly proud to be a part of it.Have you spoken to A.R. Rahman since the nomination was announced?I have, I spoke to him yesterday. What a lovely guy. Very inspiring.Of course, this is just one of six awards that 127 Hours is up for. Did you expect it to do so well when you became involved? To be honest I'd only read the book when I first got involved. I was working with A.R on something else anyway and he mentioned that he was working on a soundtrack. He told me the story of the film and I realised I actually already had Aron Ralston's book at home because it had interested me. I went home, read the book properly which was very moving and very inspiring, and then went back in and did the track. A.R. explained where in the film the track would be and it felt like the 'no lyrics' lyrics in the verses were the right thing to do as it wouldn't interfere with what was going on in the scene too much. I didn't think too much more of it other than that it was a great experience to work with A.R. and a beautiful piece of music. I didn't actually see the film for the first time until recently when everything was finished.And what did you think of the film?I was blown away by it. As I'd read the book I was pretty intrigued as to how Danny Boyle was going to get round the fact that it's one guy stuck in a rock for the whole film. He did it absolutely brilliantly. I was so drawn in from the word go, really moved and riveted and actually found it pretty exhilarating and inspiring by the end. The way it was shot just draws you right in and I felt a bit like I was cutting my own arm off at the pivotal scene. I hope I'd be able to have the human strength to do the same thing in the same situation! My hiking holiday in Utah wasn't nearly as exciting though... This is a great start to 2011 for you. Is it looking like you'll finish the new album this year too?The new album should be finished soon. Very excited about it. We've had a lot of fun doing it. I've done a lot of stuff with Rollo here in the UK and then I spent some time in California over the summer and wrote a load of songs there with a different flavour that I love. Driving round California is about the most inspiring thing for me I think. I got to work with some great people there too - Jeff Bhasker, Greg Kurstin, Rick Nowels again. Happy days.Would you like to work with A.R. Rahman again?I'd absolutely love to. We have done another track and I just need to finish the lyrics on that and we'll get that finished and I'd love to do more with him. He's an amazing human being to be around and incredibly talented and I learnt a lot from the short time we already spent together. His melodies are absolutely beautiful. I realised I'd never actually sung another person's melody as one of my songs and he writes melodies I could never write but I just love singing. Especially when you get more of the Indian scale in there. It's not dissimilar to Irish music and so it really resonates with me and moves me.Do you have any other collaborations lined up?I certainly do. Too early to say for sure as I don't want to jinx things but there are things going on hopefully!Finally, if you win, where do you think you'd put the statuette?Where everyone can see it. :-) It would be pretty unbelievable to win an Oscar.
British pop singer Dido became a mother few months ago, but she has successflly hidden it from a public eye untill now. British tabloid Daily Mail revealed that the singer gave birth to a son and named him Stanley. It's a bizzare name choice, because that's the name of a character from her duet with Eminem who kills his girlfriend and unborn child and then commits suicide after he fails to receive a reply from his idol.This is her first child, born in a marriage with a writer Rohan Gavin.Congrats to parrents!The singer will celebrate her 40th birthday tomorrow, on Dec 25th, while she announced her fourth album to be released next year.
El 25 de diciembre es una fecha muy especial. La navidad está llena de regalos, de comida y de festejos. Para la cantante británica Dido, una afortunada, todo ello llega multiplicado por tres. Y es que, según infoma Daily Mail, Dido nació un 25 de diciembre hace cuarenta años. Tanto le ha gustado verse colmada de regalos en un sólo día, juntando los recibidos por su fiesta de cumpleaños con los de debajo del árbol, que ha decidido que íéste es el mejor presente que puede hacerle a su primer hijo. Así, Dido, que estaba embarazada del que es su primer bebíé, ha dado a luz a su hijo íéste mismo día, el día de navidad y el de su propio cumpleaños. í‰ste ha sido el mejor regalo que Dido haya podido recibir jamás en este día y ahora Stanley celebrará y compartirá con su madre este mágico día de navidad. Su marido, Rohan Gavin no ha dado a basto con los regalos, además, aunque puede que sea simple casualidad, Rohan aún no se ha pronunciado sobre el hecho de que su hijo se llame igual que la canción que su mujer, Dido, protagonizó con el rapero Eminem en el año 2000 y que la lanzó al estrellato internacional.
