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Review : The Sunday Times
20.05.09
“Allow me to propose the Do for your summer soundtrack shortlist consideration. By the way, it’s “the Do” as in “doe, a deer” — or, indeed, as in one of Homer Simpson’s annoyed grunts — and not as in “doing the do”. A Paris-based duo comprising Dan Levy and Olivia Merilahti, the Do have put together one of those pop albums that seems to obey only one rule: whatever the last track sounded like, you can be sure the next one will be totally different. It begins with Playground Hustle, which is what Missy Elliott and Timbaland must have sounded like at the age of 10 — and from there it just gets better and better. Some of it is a little bit Cardigans, some of it is more PJ Harvey, some of it is knowingly and rather charmingly cheesy — and all of it is fun.”
From The Sunday Times, May 24, 2009
“The Do: A Mouthful” by Mark Edwards - The Sunday Times
Do you still feel a connection with your own songs, playing them night after night?
Dan: “Depends on the night, on the song, on me, on Olivia. You never know why a song may work one night and the next be crap. You don’t know why… It’s a magic, like a mechanism, complex.”
Has there been a particular moment with an audience that you remember at extra special?
Dan: “We played a festival in France, to 50,000 people. A sea of that many is very impressive, and when you hear them, before you go on stage, it’s quite amazing. I wanted to cry to say the truth, but you go on stage and hear… it’s magic. It wasn’t the best gig. That was another time, because we were so intensely connected, musically.”
Can you tell me the albums that have changed your path or the outcome of your music?
Olivia: “I think there are three albums that we listen to together, that have shaped the dø,”
Dan: “Kid A, Medulla, by Björk, and The Information, by Beck.” “Medulla, especially,” Olivia rejoins.
If you could be one other person on earth, who would you be?
Dan: “Johnny Greenwood,”, unhesititantly. “I am so jealous of him, he has the time to do film scores and compose music for movies. ‘There Will Be Blood’, I didn’t know it was him! I thought the music was fucking amazing, and when the credits came, I saw it was him. And what he has acheived with Radiohead…”
Interview on
Addict Music - Addict Music
The Dø The_do_-_a_mouthful
A Mouthful is a master class in marvellous, unadulterated eclecticism. The record is a mad-sounding melange of all things beautiful – there are recorders, harmonicas, hand-claps, glockenspiels and swirling strings. There is ostentatious, borderline gypsy brass, playground chanting, mc-ing and piano. Melodies swing from sweet and bluesy on tracks like ‘Searching Gold’ to electro-tinged late 1970s nostalgia on ‘Aha’. Too much, you would think? Not for a minute. All of this put together works bloody brilliantly. This album is – my well-documented Francophile over-enthusiasm aside – a work of sprawling genius.
Olivia’s vocals are exquisite. How she manages to sound so candied on the folky ‘Tammie’, and so dark on ‘In My Box’ is a question we may never know the answer to, though partaking of multiple listens to both is surely the best way to try and find out. While you’re at it, playing ‘Travel Light’ and ‘Tammie’ on repeat definitely won’t hurt. The former is a slow-driving cracker, all gentle semi-country and strings, whilst the latter’s hand-claps, rolling drums and brass middle eight are a true treat.
Lyrics on the record are hard to categorise too, ranging from the sweet and pretty “here’s a song for lovers who don’t care if they don’t sleep…/here’s a song for lovers who won’t ever have to weep” on ‘Song for Lovers’, to the rather more cutting “he was a bore, a true chore and I still wonder why I ever wanted to see him more/ I know it is useless to complain all these years after, well” on ‘Stay (Just a Little Bit More)’. Some of them, like those on ‘Unissassi Laulelet’, are completely incomprehensible unless you’re Finnish. But a little bit of mystery never hurt anyone, and the sound is so delightful you find yourself humming along regardless of your level of linguistic incapability.
A Mouthful is a kaleidoscopic sing and dance of a record – interesting and ambitious without over-reaching, bizarre yet accessible, and stuffed full of enough sounds to keep you going for weeks. Fabulous.
Words: Jo Legg
- For Folk's sake
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Olivia: Playing piano and guitar from an early age, singing in local bands in my teens, composing for a soundtrack and meeting Dan.
Dan: Playing saxophone from an early age, composing for theatre in my teens, composing for soundtracks and meeting Olivia.
Q2 What inspired your latest single?
Olivia: It's a song about abandonment and devotion. I am quite interested in people's ability to let go of everything for one person, or for religion, or art...
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Dan: Usually, we write the core of the songs together, but then Olivia writes the lyrics on her own and I manage the arrangement. Then we polish the song together.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Olivia: Beck, Ella Fitzgerald, Bjork, PJ Harvey, Alicia Keys, Wu Tang Clan, Thelonious Monk.
Dan: Coltrane, Bela Bartok, James Brown, Frank Zappa, Radiohead
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Both: Enjoy!
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest single and for the future?
Both: We hope it gives people the emotion that will make them want to hear some more.
published february 2009 - CMU Website
Discography
1st Album : A Mouthful (01/14/08) 150 000 Units sold in France
The album is released in the UK, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia ...
Photos
Bio
Dan & Olivia are the "do" and are two of the freshest faces in view, and by being in between their influences span the scene, cause both the letter "n" and the sign "&" signify no end from old to new, and that's what the "do" love to do.
A veneration from the "now generation" with classical & jazz music as prime sources of their inspiration, they training & gaining by tonic application, within the non-boundaries of jazz improvisation, applied to rock 'n roll, to let their hopes, dreams & consciousness streams come to fruition through the root's of their influenced musical intuition.
Thus, you can hear a bit of all the genre's that you know, without having to categorize it so, because it's been minimalized to the size befitting the sound by the "do". Tech & live, they thrive on the balance between swing & serene, to instill a fil in a picturesque scene, of subtle melodies, and distant rhythms while lyrically identifying various "ain'ts and ism's" do's, don'ts, will & won'ts".
Dan call's, Olivia answers, like a groove in between dancer's. Dan plays, Olivia sways sings in stylish praise, that float with hope for the now generation to cope with "the burden on their shoulder's, and one can feel the weight, which is also double entendre, phonetically in contrast to the word "wait" but the do will let you know it's not yet too late.
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