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5 years ago she was one of the most successful female artists in the world. Selling around 25 million copies of her first 2 albums ‘No Angel’ and ‘Life For Rent. Then it all seemed to go quiet for Dido…until now!

The lady with the longest name in music (Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong) is back with a new album ‘Safe Trip Home’ and a new single ‘Don’t Believe In Love.’

We tracked her down to find out where she’s been, what she’s up to now and whether she’s still in touch with Eminem…

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you, what have you been up to?

I’ve just been making music and experimenting with new things. I just got on a bit of a roll with it and time just seems to have gone quite quickly! I’m not someone who will ever make records for the sake of making records. I write songs and they build up into albums.

The last 2 albums were hugely popular. Do you feel a pressure to live up to their success?

It actually feels really nice as I actually feel like I have the freedom to make the music that I want to make which is great. It’s definitely a shock to the system to be out of the studio though.

Tell us about the first single from the album, ‘Don’t Believe In Love’

It’s been interpreted in all sorts of different ways. For me it’s a really positive song to say that the world is a better place with love…but I’m getting some brilliantly crazy interpretations of it!

But it is called don’t believe in love…

I know! I probably should have put the ‘if’ in the title; the ‘if’ is probably the key word!

So should people believe in love?

Absolutely…well, if they want to!

Can we expect big changes from the new album?

There’s definitely a change. One of things I really wanted to do was create some different sounds. With this album I felt like I managed to respect everything I love about electronic music but actually doing everything with real instruments. So it’s definitely different but the heart of what I do is the same, which is that I write songs about things that move me in some way. I’ve put my all into it.

You’re working with your brother Rollo again. Why is working with him so productive for you?

I love working with Rollo, I feel like he’s the other half of my brain that’s sort of missing!

Any other collaborations on the album?

I got to work with Brian Eno which was amazing and I’ve done a song with Citizen Cope who is one of my favourite artists. We had a great time doing that. We went to New York and wrote this song called ‘Burning Love’ together and I was just a complete fan of his so I probably freaked him out a bit, but it was just so nice to be singing with him!

It could be said you played a part in paving the way for the Brit pack of female artists currently doing so well. What do you think of Adele, Duffy, Estelle etc?

I just think they’re all so cool. I love Adele, I think chasing pavements is really beautiful. I love her voice and I think she’s a great songwriter. She’s just doing her thing and I think she’s cool. I love Estelle actually as well. They’re all just great, self assured, brilliant artists.

‘Thank You’ was famously sampled on ‘Stan’. Eminem is currently making his musical comeback after a long break. Do you think you would ever collaborate again?

I don’t know but I’m excited to hear another record from him. I hope he does it soon.

Are you still in contact?

Well, we were never like emailing each other! We got on great but no, we were never pen pals.

You’ve got a track ‘Look no further’ up for free download from your website at the moment. What was the reason behind that?

I think as an artist you just want people to be able to hear what you’ve done. Sometimes you don’t want to have wait until the record comes out.

Is that something that you’re thinking of doing for the whole album?

I may well do. I don’t know. I would if I had my choice!

• WRITTEN BY
  CAITLIN COWDRY
  

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