Dido

[Serena]

Nuevo reportaje/entrevista donde Dido habla de la importancia que para ella tiene tener una vida cotidiana más allá del mundo de la música y lo que ha supuesto para ella ser madre. Además comenta cómo ella no decide "hacer un disco", sino simplemente escribe canciones y cuando estas toman forma acaba realizando un nuevo cd, un proceso que ella describe como mucho más natural.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1illaeUEQk&

[Serena]

Letra Happy New Year

wear the jewels you gave me round my neck tonight
Though I know you won’t be there
I’ll wear them in a gold chain that catches in the light
Though I know of course you won’t appear

I’ll leave the party early after a drink or two
And I’ll check my phone for calls
Though I know there will be none from you

I’ll walk home with snow falling
Deep on frozen lawns
And I’ll leave all those others celebrating
All the things that they have done

I’ll come over to your office and watch them come and go
Though I know I won’t see you there
And I’ll take a train down to the coast and sit and watch the sea
I’ll be sitting there alone

As usual, above all things I miss you every day
Without pause
Happy new year my darling
Happy new year

I’ll walk home with snow falling
Deep on frozen lawns
And I’ll leave all those others celebrating
All the things that they have done
Happy new year my darling
Happy new year
And I’ll leave, leave.

[Serena]

Remix de End of night

[Serena]

Entrevista

With hit singles like “Here With Me,” “Thank You,” and “White Flag,” Dido’s haunting, folky voice quickly became one of the signature sounds of the 2000s. But before she became an international superstar and one of the best-selling singers in the U.K., the artist formerly known as Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong began cultivating an LGBT fan base thanks to early performances in various dance clubs and collaborations with her brother Rollo’s dance act Faithless.

Working once again with her brother, Dido has returned with a new album, Girl Who Got Away, a captivating concoction of pop, electro, folk, and hip-hop swirled with ambient and dance infusions that pays tribute to her musical past, while moving her familiar sound into new territory.

As she prepares for the album’s release, available Tuesday, Dido took a moment to speak with The Advocate about why she’s happy to have an LGBT following, the evolution of dance music, and creating the soundtrack to life’s important moments.

The Advocate: From collaborating on tracks with his electronic band Faithless to cowriting songs with him on your solo album, you’ve worked closely with your brother Rollo throughout your career. What’s been the best and worst part about working with such a close family member?
Dido: The best part is the love he puts into it. I feel like surely no one else could have a producer that is as passionate about their work as he is about mine. Plus, we have such a nice time working together because there’s a lot of love that goes into the music. However, that passion means he can be very difficult sometimes. Especially when he doesn’t like a song I’ve done as well as I do and gets really adamant that he hates it.

That must make for some interesting arguments.
Oh, yes. [Laughs]

With dance music being embraced by the mainstream, some people have said that the genre has lost its edge, but as an artist who got her start singing vocals for dance tracks, do you agree?
Yes, it probably has lost its edge somewhat. I think it’s inevitable for something like that when it goes mainstream, but I personally don’t care as long as it moves me and gives me that huge emotional rush that I love to get from dance music. As an artist, it’s great music to be proud of as well. I remember times when I was singing on dance records and performing in clubs onstage and there’s no better feeling than seeing people dance while you’re singing. It doesn’t get any better than that. It’s such an immediate response and it’s quite exciting. For me, it feels like home.

When did you first realize you had a large LGBT following? 
Almost immediately. I think from starting in the clubs I realized right away. I was always very happy to have a gay following. There’s a real loyalty there, which is pretty remarkable.

Your new album, Girl Who Got Away, manages to sound fresh as well as familiar. Did you approach the project with a desire to hearken back to your classic sound?
I guess I can’t really help coming back to my classic sound. The way that I write makes it unavoidable. It’s just the way I do things, but that’s what gives it its familiarity. However, I’m always trying to make music that you can listen to a few years from now and it will still sound fresh. That’s why Rollo is so brilliant. He brings me out of the ’90s, back into the present day, and the way he layers sounds is so clever. You’ll think you’ve heard a track and then you listen to it another time and you hear a whole new set of stuff. We’re always working to keep it sounding timeless.

Will you be touring to support your new album?
Yeah, but we only just started. I’ve been doing some acoustic shows and with a couple of guys who are really fun, but very soon we plan to do some proper big shows too.

The lead single from your new album Girl Who Got Away, “No Freedom,” can easily be interpreted as commentary on the current state of marriage equality. Was that something you were aware of when you were recording the track?
It wasn’t what I was writing about, but what I love about “No Freedom” is all the different meanings that people are getting from it and attributing to it. It’s about all the different forms of love, and for me, love is everything.

Because you have such a large LGBT following, you’ve undoubtedly heard many stories about the positive affect your music has had on their lives.
Yes. I love it when people come and tell me stories about how much a song means to them. Whether it’s a wedding, starting a relationship, or even a breakup, it’s an amazing thing to be the soundtrack to someone’s important moment.

[Serena]

Letra de Loveless Hearts

I can find the good news in anything
But without you, that’s all gone
No one could have told me how much I’d miss you
And how soon the world moves on
How can they not hear me
When I say
We’re not safe anymore

Did loveless hearts build the world
Only to tear it apart
How did those gods tempt you to leave
Just when we needed you most

The sun will rise today as it did yesterday
And I’ll keep on going too
But every hour that I get through it breaks my heart
That I am losing more of you

Did loveless hearts build the world
Only to tear it apart
How did those gods tempt you to leave
Just when we needed you most

[Serena]

Letra de Day before we went to war

All the pictures on the wall
The sand lying on the floor
The bed upstairs still unmade
The dust float in the light
The people just left
All laughter and mess
Forgetting this and that
And rushing back
The front door open
The music still playing in one room
Down the hall
Towels on the floor
And then it’s quiet
Just the bees and birds
The summer haze
Of the trees
And the air
Feeds it all
Feeds it all

We can all feel it
Like a light hand on your back
Welcoming you
We can all feel it
Like a light hand on your back
Welcoming you
The day before we went to war

All the parasols and kids at play
The sea so still and calm
Blue as the cloudless sky
Just the gentle hum
Of the summer’s goings on
Broken by the sudden rush
Of two planes
Flying low and fast
Into the sun
Into the sun

We can all feel it
Like a light hand on your back
Welcoming you
We can all feel it
Like a light hand on your back
Welcoming you
The day before we went to war

[Serena]

Según informa el club de fans oficial de Brasil, parece ser que el próximo single, End of Night será lanzado el próximo 6 de Mayo.

[Serena]

Entrevista

If, like me, your first glimpse of Dido back in 2000 was as the heavily pregnant girlfriend bundled into the boot of a car by a deranged Eminem fan called Stan, then you might find it amusing that she called her first baby Stanley.

Her appearance in the video for “Stan”, and Eminem's decision to sample her single “Thank You” on the track, would set Dido on the path to becoming one of the biggest-selling UK stars in history, shifting more than 30 million albums.

At 41, after five years away from the limelight, Dido is back to promote her fourth album, quite appropriately titled (given her freedom from the trappings of fame), Girl Who Got Away. The record was finished a couple of years ago but Dido, who married British screenwriter Rohan Gavin in 2010, fell pregnant during production so delayed its release.

When we meet at the Ivy Club in London, Dido is onto her second pot of herbal tea (no wonder her skin is so dewy and her hair so shiny!) and I can't resist asking if there's a link between her two-year-old's name and the rather menacing character in the Eminem song that catalysed her success.

“No, of course there isn't,” she says, good-humouredly. “Everybody thinks there is. And I'm fine with that. It was such a nice era for me. But he's actually called Stanley for a number of other reasons.” Though she declines to reveal them.

Girl Who Got Away made its debut at No 5 in the UK album charts. It might be a relief for the singer whose 2008 album Safe Trip Home went barely noticed in comparison to the riotous success of its predecessors – probably because it was a rather downbeat collection of songs written around her father's death.

The new record is a return to form, although the combination of striking melodies underscored by electronic pop is safe territory. If it was intended to be a change of direction then it hasn't worked. But it contains enough feel-good Dido for the fans to come running back.

It was co-produced once again with her brother, Rollo Armstrong, who was behind No Angel and Life for Rent. The siblings, who had a very bohemian upbringing, (Dido having been christened Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong by their parents – “I don't know why, blame my mother!”) worked together for many years before her break-out success, and she toured with his band Faithless in the Nineties. Listening to her talk it becomes clear that family is the axis upon which her world revolves.

“I absolutely loved singing pregnant,” Dido confesses. “Usually in the vocal booth it's quite lonely. You're singing away and everyone else is the other side of the window. But I loved [Stanley] kicking away to the rhythm. It was just so nice having a little mate moving around in there with me. It felt really special.”

She tells me that, halfway through recording the album, she told everyone she worked with she wanted to do all her albums pregnant, “which was horrifying for everybody else”. The mother-son pre-natal collaboration was compounded when Stanley was born and seemed to recognise some of the music. “When he was just a few weeks old [songs from Girl Who Got Away] were the sounds that would calm him down the most. I truly believe he heard me singing them.”

Dido says she would like to have more kids and, when I ask about plans to take the new album on the road, she is reticent. “I'm really not sure if I'm going to tour yet. I've only got half a band together at the moment. But if I did go on tour Stanley would definitely come with me. It would be too weird not to. He's a pretty cool, adaptable kid and he loves playing the drums. He'd have a blast at soundcheck.”

During our conversation Dido comes across as natural and unpretentious. She is casually interested in everything around her. She asks almost as many questions as I do (“Oh is that shorthand? Do you have kids? What do you think?”) which is quite unusual, and endearing, in a world-conquering songstress.

She has been repeatedly compared with Adele, whose album sales (32 million) have only recently surpassed Dido's own. Would Dido like to follow suit and do a 007 tune like “Skyfall”? “Oh my god, yeah I'd love to do a Bond theme tune. If I was ever asked I would be there in a second. Adele's is brilliant. I think that'll take some beating. I love James Bond. That's the highest thing you can do, right? She's achieved everything and she's so young. Her voice is amazing.”

Speaking of her “relatively late” success, Dido says: “I worked in publishing up until I was 24 and then I started touring with Faithless and as a backing singer for a while. I didn't make No Angel until '96 and didn't release it until I was 28.”

Having found herself “in a parallel universe for a minute” trying on pregnancy bumps with Dr Dre, who directed the “Stan” music video, Dido never expected things to take off as they did. “I've had an amazing career,” she says earnestly. “I just consistently feel lucky to get to make the records I want without having someone tell me what to do.”

She talks fondly of the age “when you used to get CDs in the post” and is in awe of the availability of new musicians on YouTube. “It's much harder for artists these days. There used to be process for getting heard. Top of the Pops etc… But now you can discover anything instantly it's hard to know where to look. Although there's something nice about knowing you can just get drunk and put your whole album up online.”

Having Eminem pick her song out “completely at random” changed her life. “I got a letter from him out of the blue with a CD just saying: 'I love the track. Can I use it?' I was a proper fan but I did think for a moment: 'What's he going to have done with the song?' But it just sounded amazing.”

Dido's career thus far has been sandwiched between two very important Stanleys, the youngest of whom has “changed everything”: “I used to be really restless. I'd come back from touring and I'd want to get going again, to have more adventures... But then when I became a mum that feeling disappeared. Everything makes sense and feels right suddenly.”

'Girl Who Got Away' is out now. The single 'End Of Night' is out on 6 May

[Serena]

Entrevista NPR

Continua hablando sobre lo mucho que la gustó grabar el disco durante su embarazo: "Me encantó cantar embarazada", confiesa Dido. "Por lo general la cabina de grabación es bastante solitaria. Estás cantando y todo el mundo está al otro lado de la ventana. Pero me encantó cómo [Stanley] me daba patadas al ritmo de la canción. Fue tan agradable tener un compañero moviíéndose allí­ conmigo. Me sentí­ realmente especial ".
Dido cuenta que, a mitad de la grabación del álbum, le dijo a todos los que trabajaban con ella que querí­a hacer todos sus discos embarazada "lo que fue horrible para todos los demás".

Respecto al tema de realizar una posible gira, en esta entrevista dice algo diferente a otras anteriores, mencionando que no es seguro que vaya a realizar inminentemente una gira:  "Realmente no estoy segura de si voy a hacer una gira todaví­a. Sólo tengo media banda junta en este momento. Pero si me voy de gira Stanley sin duda alguna, vendrí­a conmigo. Serí­a muy raro que no lo hiciera. í‰l es un muy bueno, un chico adaptable y le encanta tocar la baterí­a. Tendrí­a una explosión en la prueba de sonido".

Ante la comparación que mucha gente hace de ella con Adele y la pregunta de si la gustarí­a hacer una canción para una de las pelí­culas de James Bond como ha hecho Adele, Dido responde sin duda alguna: "Oh, Dios mí­o, sí­ me gustarí­a hacer una melodí­a Bond. Si me preguntan estarí­a allí­ en un segundo. Adele es brillante. Creo que será difí­cil de superar. Amo a James Bond. Esa es la mejor cosa que puedes hacer, ¿verdad? Ha conseguido todo y ella es tan joven. Su voz es increí­ble. "

Finalmente se confirma la salida del próximo single, 'End of Night' para el próximo 6 de Mayo.

[Serena]

Sobre el marido de Dido

Para los más curiosos he aquí­ algo de información sobre el marido de Dido, el guionista Rohan Gavin. Hijo de la escritora de libros infantiles de origen indio, Jamila Gavin, actualmente esta trabajando en una serie de detectives humor negro titulada 'Knightley & Son' (Knightley e hijo).

La serie trata sobre un dúo de detectives, padre e hijo, donde Darkus, de 13 años de edad, a menudo tiene que resolver el crimen debido a la mala costumbre de su padre de caer en un ataque narcolíéptico en el momento menos oportuno. El primer libro de la nueva serie será publicado en edición de bolsillo en julio de 2013.

[Serena]

Portada End Of Night

[Serena]

Foto

[Serena]

Lyric video End of night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfWDBJ_LeP0&

[Serena]

Dido en RTL2

[Serena]

White Flag @ Perez Hilton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3zy482-_dA&