Soft tones: Dido returns with her fouth studio album. Photo: Guy Aroch Source: Supplied
SHE was the voice of the noughties, but now UK chart-topper Dido is back with a new album and ready to take on the next stage of her life - motherhood.
It has been four years since we've heard the singer's warm voice on Safe Trip Home, her third studio album. While critics have already dubbed the new effort, Girl Who Got Away, a comeback, Dido doesn't agree.
"I've heard a lot of people saying that because it makes it sound more exciting, but it didn't feel that way to me," she says.
"I just kept doing what I'm doing so it just made me laugh."
The bubbly songwriter does, however, accept that the newest effort harks back to her debut album, which sold more than 20 million copies.
"It was the excitement of working again," she says of the comparison and why Girl Who Got Away felt like No Angel. "There was a freshness and confidence with this one and I think having a kid makes it a whole new world."
Her son Stanley, now 18 months, is the apple of her eye and Dido is quick to point out the effect he had on the new album. "I'd written a lot of the album before Stanley came along," she says.
"But I loved having him kicking around (inside me) if it was a song that he liked.
"It's amazing and it makes it so very extra special for me.
"He's so sweet and he knows it's me when he hears me on the radio - he stops what he's doing and just stares at the radio and points. I love that he can enjoy it, too."
Dido says it was a godsend that the majority of the album was completed before Stanley was born.
"Yeah, it might not have turned up - we might have been waiting 'til 2015," she says.
"I'd probably only just be getting in the studio now. I don't think I wanted to wait any longer.
"As soon as I started singing and doing gigs again I realised just how much I really enjoy doing this."
It's a good thing we aren't waiting any longer because Girl Who Got Away is a timely reminder that Dido is a powerful presence in the soul and pop realm, teaming up with the who's who of music production, including Greg Kurstin, her brother Rollo Armstrong, Rick Nowels and the revered Brian Eno.
Dido says that collaborating is one of the joys of making music and she also teams up with man of the moment, US rapper Kendrick Lamar, on Let Us Move On.
It's safe to say last time she collaborated with an up-and-coming rapper, it worked out very well - that was her hugely successful effort with Eminem, Stan.
That was 14 years ago - a scary thought for many, including Dido.
Now, however, the 41- year-old is constantly reminded of that era with her son Stanley. It seems to be an assumption made by many that Dido named him after the mega-hit.
"Actually, Stanley was always my favourite name and coincidentally my husband's as well - so we wouldn't want him to be called anything else," she says.
"But you know what? People can think that and I don't mind because it was such a great period of my life. It's a nice association."
* HEAR Girl That Got Away - out now.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét