Like Moby's 1999 album Play, Dido's 1999 album No Angel ( Arista ) is finally getting the commercial attention it deserved. The atmospheric debut disc by Faithless mastermind Rollo's sister went overlooked while pneumatic teens ( female and male ) and metal rappers polluted the airwaves. However, justice is being served. "Here With Me," the album's opening track is utilized as the theme to a popular WB television show, increasing Dido's exposure a la Paula Cole. Additionally, the controversial Eminem included a Dido song on his mega-selling new album, introducing her to an unlikely new audience. If you haven't already listened to Dido's angelic vocals, it's not too late. She is currently on tour.
Gregg Shapiro: Before people got to know you as a solo artist, they came to know you as a member of your brother Rollo's band Faithless. Would you say that you have a good, healthy working relationship with your brother?
Dido: It's good. I don't know whether it's healthy ( laughs ) . I mean, we get on really well. But I think that the working relationship's been through a lot of changes. Power changes. When I started I was very much in his shadow. Now, I very much know what I want. It's probably healthier now than it was. It's probably more real now.
GS: Speaking
Dido
of your work with Faithless, you sing on the track "Don't Leave," in which there is a reference to Joni Mitchell. I was wondering if you were a fan of her work.
D: I'm a big fan of hers. Yes, I think she's great. I only really started discovering her stuff more recently. I listened to so much classical music as a kid that I sort of missed out on a whole lot. I bought one of her albums recently and I just think her voice is beautiful and I love her song-writing.
GS: Your song "Here With Me," from your album No Angel ( Arista ) , has become known as the theme song to the television series Roswell. Are you an avid fan of the show?
D: I'm not an avid fan just because I've only watched it a couple of times. I'm always working when it's on. I'm doing a show or something. What I've seen of it, I think it's a really good show. I don't watch a whole lot of TV. I've sat through it and enjoyed it. The acting's really good and I think it's a cool little story.
GS: "Here With Me" is also covered by Sarah Brightman on her new album La Luna. Have you heard her version?
D: No. I only found out about this a week ago. I just read it somewhere, and was like, "Oh, my God, I didn't know that." She never asked or anything. She doesn't have to. But it was a complete surprise to me. I just heard a clip of it on Amazon ( .com ) . I haven't heard the whole thing.
GS: It's actually quite beautiful.
D: Oh, good. It's lovely that people like the song enough to recreate it themselves.... There's a Mexican band who've done very, very well with a Spanish cover of "Thank You." "Gracias," I suppose ( laughs ) . They've sold hundreds of thousands of copies of it. It's a sweet and lovely version of it.
GS: Do you perform any cover versions of songs when you perform live?
D: No. I used to. The only ones I've ever done have been Police songs. They're probably my favorite band from when I was growing up. On this tour, I'm not going to do any. You've got to really love a song and think, "I feel like covering that," rather than thinking, "I feel like doing a cover version, what should I do?"
GS: Do you think that you might include a cover of a Police song on your next album?
D: No. I don't think I'll do a cover version on my next album. Maybe one day I'll put cover versions on my albums, but right now I'm sticking to writing my own songs.
GS: Have you begun writing for your next album?
D: Yes. I perform about three of them ( in concert ) . I've written quite a few.
GS: "Take My Hand," the dance-oriented bonus track, comes closest to the work you did with Faithless. Why was that song added?
D: The funny thing is that it is the first ( solo ) track that I ever did. That's the sort of music that everyone assumed I'd be making. I was like, "I like it, but I don't want to make a whole album of it. I'm going to do what I want to do and all you people can just sit back and comment." ... Then I went off and made the album and did it my way. But I still love "Take My Hand." I think it's a great track. It doesn't really fit in the whole context of the album. I'm a great believer in "an album is an album." It's got to run from beginning to end. It's got to be a journey. "Take My Hand" didn't really fit into that, but I liked it as a piece of music, so I just tacked it on to the end.
GS: Some albums take longer to catch on than others. Jewel's Pieces Of You is a perfect example. Right now the slow-brewing stateside successes of your disc and Moby's Play seem to be the best examples of that phenomenon. Are you enjoying all of the radio play and attention that you are getting, almost a year after the album was released?
D: Yes, because I'm totally ready for it now. I've been here for like 15 months, plugging, plugging, plugging away. It's very satisfying now that it's actually beginning to have an effect. It's like a massive delayed reaction ( laughs ) . There were time when I was here and sitting in a hotel thinking, "What am I doing? Is this helping." People were like, "We promise you, when people get this, they're going to really get this." I've always thought that, but it was taking so long. Now, I'm just love the fact that things are beginning to fall into place. I think it's brilliant. I'm ready for it. I've got my confidence now and I feel good about it. Whereas last year, maybe if it had all happened quite suddenly, I'd have been a bit freaked out.
GS: Because of your work with Faithless, and the appeal that such dance-oriented music has to many members of the gay male community, do you worry that your association with vehemently anti-gay rapper Eminem ( who incorporated your song "Thank You" into his song "Stan" ) will effect your appeal to that sector of your fan base?
D: Is he really vehemently anti-gay though? He says stuff and then he takes it back and then he says stuff and then he takes it back. I've only ever heard him say stuff in his music, and I think it's every artist's right to say what they'd like in their music. They don't necessarily believe it. I don't always write songs about things that have happened to me or that I necessarily believe in. I don't worry too much because I don't see him as vehemently anti-gay. I see him as exploiting anyone in any situation for his entertainment.
GS: It's just that because there is a wave of anti-gay violence occurring right now, to have someone who has a pulpit and an outlet like Eminem has, to stand up and say what he's saying to his young and impressionable fan-base ... the record doesn't say, "Oh, by the way, I'm kidding." I think people are taking it at face value.
D: Yes, there are a lot of things about Eminem ... I'm not Eminem's keeper, but I hope that people wouldn't think that what Eminem says I believe either. That would be weird and fucked up. That would be as narrow as the other side of this argument; that I believe everything on Eminem's album when I've had nothing to do with it. Apart from being involved with the track "Stan," which I think is brilliant. It's a really good track and I think even people who don't like Eminem will like it. So, I don't feel that by being on the track "Stan" that I am in someway standing there agreeing with every single thing Eminem says on his records. But, by the same token, I will say that I think that he's an entertainer and when we start censoring entertainment we have a little bit of a problem.
