Dido paints new sonic landscape
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Dido counts herself lucky. The British pop singer has two homes: one in Los Angeles and one in London. And by "homes," she doesn't necessarily mean houses -- she means places where she feels comfortable and creative.
"London is still home -- but I feel real love for Los Angeles," she says. "It's a city built on people having an imagination."
Sitting at the dining room table at a house in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon, Dido says that in the five years since her last album, "Life for Rent," she spent time reconnecting with family and friends -- and gaining confidence to explore new kinds of music.
That search, with the assistance of producers Jon Brion and Dido's brother, Rollo Armstrong, led to "Safe Trip Home," due November 18 from RCA. While the songwriting is classic Dido, with haunting, personal lyrics about life's bittersweet turns, the musical accompaniments are unusual, featuring everything from Swiss hand bells to strings and woodwinds.
Dido's sound has evolved on lengthy, reverb-laden tracks like "Northern Skies" and "Let's Do the Things We Normally Do," which show a Brian Eno influence. But it won't come across as jarring to a massive fan base that snapped up 4.2 million U.S. copies of 1999's "No Angel," thanks in part to Eminem's use of "Thankyou" for his smash hit "Stan." After its 2003 release, "Life for Rent" went on to sell 2.1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Dido's U.K. sales numbers are astonishing. "No Angel" is the No. 2 album of the decade so far, behind James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" (3.2 million vs. 3 million). "Life for Rent" was the top-selling U.K. album of 2003; sales stand at 2.8 million, according to the Official U.K. Charts Co.
"Safe Trip Home" is Dido's first album release since the Internet conquered the music industry. As such, RCA is developing a social networking site based on the creation of user-generated short films inspired by songs on the new album.
The site (www.youtube.com/safetriphome) encourages amateur cineastes to showcase their work and for Dido fans to respond to those videos.
"Because she is a global artist, we reached out to different directors in different parts of the world and asked them to create films based on what their concept of 'home' might be," Dido's manager Peter Leak says.
In some cases, there are literal travelogues of a hometown; others are esoteric depictions of what the filmmaker finds comforting.
As for touring of the nonvirtual kind, Dido is planning listening parties in London and L.A. before street date, but she hasn't yet committed to a full schedule of roadwork. "It's been something that has been important to her, that this record is presented to her fans first," says Aaron Borns, RCA Music Group senior VP of marketing and Dido's domestic product manager.
Inevitably she will hit the road, says London-based Nigel Hassler at Helter Skelter, who books the singer globally outside North America.
"On her last tour she played mainly prestigious open-air venues -- amphitheaters, castles and stately homes -- plus a run of arena shows," Hassler says.
Outside the United Kingdom, France is one of her strongest territories in terms of sales and touring, Hassler says, recalling a "truly magical" 2004 show at the ancient Roman amphitheater Nimes Arena in front of a sold-out crowd of 12,000. Hassler also reports "a lot of demand" from markets where Dido has yet to tour extensively, including Australia, China, South Africa and Southeast Asia.
Of course, you can take the girl out of London, but you can't take London out of the girl. "I drank an enormous amount of Guinness during the course of the album," she says. "We had a Guinness tap in the studio inside of a kegerator. It is a food group, in my opinion."
Reuters/Billboard
