The Dø
Encyclopedia
The Dø is a French/Finnish indie pop
band founded in Paris
in 2005. The band is Olivia Merilahti
(singer and musician) and Dan Levy (multi-instrumentalist). The duo has been backed on stage by three different drummers (Jérémie Pontier 2007-2008, José Joyette 2008-2009, Pierre Belleville since 2009). Their first studio album A Mouthful
topped the French charts in 2008, making them the first French act singing in English to reach that position.
They released their first piece under the name The Dø a few months later: a 3-track EP
including The Bridge is Broken for a contemporary dance
ballet
titled Scène d’amour by Finnish choreographer Juha-Pekka Marsalo. They kept on working for cinema
(The Passenger, awarded at the Festival d'Angers and the Festival d'Aubagne, Wild Camp, and Darling), dance
(Prologue, Perle and Cinderella by Juha-Pekka Marsalo, as well as poetry lectures by Carolyn Carlson
) and theatre
(Laure by Colette Peignot).
They used their free time to write the songs that would feature on their first album, A Mouthful
. The band's myspace
page was opened in 2007. The first four songs released online (The Bridge is Broken, At Last, On My Shoulders and Playground Hustle) quickly created a buzz that brought them to play a series of sold-out concerts in Paris
. In December 2007, they opened the festival Les Transmusicales de Rennes.
Meanwhile, they signed on the indie label Cinq/7, and the song On My Shoulders was their first single, also used in an Oxford-notepads commercial.
The band's name is derived from the first note
of the solfège
scale, and is pronounced as the English word "dough", with a long "o" sound. It is written with the letter Ø (slashed o), and the "D" often in lower-case to resemble a half note
.
and Australia
released it later that year . It was very well received by critics and the public, ranking n°1 in the French charts on the first week. It was acclaimed as an eclectic record, drawing inspiration from various genres as pop
, folk
, rock
or hip-hop
, while keeping an integrity and an original approach.
The first single from the album was On my shoulders, followed by At last and Stay (Just a little bit more). The music video
for At last was directed by Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus.
The band went on tour in Europe and Australia for over 200 shows. They spent summer 2008 playing at most of the biggest festivals in Europe (Eurockéennes de Belfort
, Paleo
, Provinssirock, Vieilles Charrues, Roskilde
, Main Square Festival
, Pukkelpop
...), flew to Australia for the V Festival
in spring 2009, and spent two weeks in America, playing from Mexico
to Canada
, NYC to Los Angeles
, in September 2009.
A Mouthful was officially released in the US in April 2010 on Six Degrees Records
, including 3 bonus tracks.
, the band released a video for the first promotional single 'Dust It Off'. Their second album entitled Both Ways Open Jaws
was released in some parts of Europe on Monday
, March 7, 2011, and in France on Wednesday
, March 9, 2011. Beginning late October and ending in mid-November, the album was released worldwide.
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
band founded in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 2005. The band is Olivia Merilahti
Olivia Merilahti
Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti is a Finnish singer and composer living in France. Her work has been compared to that of Björk, whom she cites as a major influence....
(singer and musician) and Dan Levy (multi-instrumentalist). The duo has been backed on stage by three different drummers (Jérémie Pontier 2007-2008, José Joyette 2008-2009, Pierre Belleville since 2009). Their first studio album A Mouthful
A Mouthful
A Mouthful is the debut album by French / Finnish indie rock band The Dø, released on 14 January 2008. Two singles were released from it, “On My Shoulders” and “At Last!” . The album was given its U.S...
topped the French charts in 2008, making them the first French act singing in English to reach that position.
Formation and first years (2005-2007)
Olivia Merilahti and Dan Levy met in 2005 while recording the music for a French movie Empire of the Wolves directed by Chris Nahon and produced by Gaumont.They released their first piece under the name The Dø a few months later: a 3-track EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
including The Bridge is Broken for a contemporary dance
Contemporary dance
Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...
ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
titled Scène d’amour by Finnish choreographer Juha-Pekka Marsalo. They kept on working for cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
(The Passenger, awarded at the Festival d'Angers and the Festival d'Aubagne, Wild Camp, and Darling), dance
Dance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
(Prologue, Perle and Cinderella by Juha-Pekka Marsalo, as well as poetry lectures by Carolyn Carlson
Carolyn Carlson
Carolyn Carlson is an American contemporary dance choreographer and performer. She is of Finnish descent.She is the director of the 'Centre Chorégraphique National' in Roubaix and of the 'Atelier de Paris' at 'La Cartoucherie de Vincennes' in Paris.She was awarded the title of Chevalier des Arts...
) and theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
(Laure by Colette Peignot).
They used their free time to write the songs that would feature on their first album, A Mouthful
A Mouthful
A Mouthful is the debut album by French / Finnish indie rock band The Dø, released on 14 January 2008. Two singles were released from it, “On My Shoulders” and “At Last!” . The album was given its U.S...
. The band's myspace
Myspace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page was opened in 2007. The first four songs released online (The Bridge is Broken, At Last, On My Shoulders and Playground Hustle) quickly created a buzz that brought them to play a series of sold-out concerts in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. In December 2007, they opened the festival Les Transmusicales de Rennes.
Meanwhile, they signed on the indie label Cinq/7, and the song On My Shoulders was their first single, also used in an Oxford-notepads commercial.
The band's name is derived from the first note
C (musical note)
C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solfège scale. Its enharmonic is B.-Middle C:Middle C is designated C4 in scientific pitch notation because of the note's position as the fourth C key on a standard 88-key piano keyboard...
of the solfège
Solfege
In music, solfège is a pedagogical solmization technique for the teaching of sight-singing in which each note of the score is sung to a special syllable, called a solfège syllable...
scale, and is pronounced as the English word "dough", with a long "o" sound. It is written with the letter Ø (slashed o), and the "D" often in lower-case to resemble a half note
Half note
In music, a half note or minim is a note played for half the duration of a whole note and twice the duration of a quarter note...
.
A Mouthful (2008-2010)
A Mouthful was released in France in January 2008. The rest of EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
released it later that year . It was very well received by critics and the public, ranking n°1 in the French charts on the first week. It was acclaimed as an eclectic record, drawing inspiration from various genres as pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
or hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, while keeping an integrity and an original approach.
The first single from the album was On my shoulders, followed by At last and Stay (Just a little bit more). The music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for At last was directed by Belgian choreographer Wim Vandekeybus.
The band went on tour in Europe and Australia for over 200 shows. They spent summer 2008 playing at most of the biggest festivals in Europe (Eurockéennes de Belfort
Eurockéennes
The Eurockéennes de Belfort is one of France's largest rock music festivals. The Eurockéennes, a play on words involving the words rock and européennes , is a festival based in a nature reserve in Malsaucy near Belfort...
, Paleo
Paléo Festival
The Paléo Festival de Nyon, usually just called Paléo, started in a small way in 1976 as the Nyon Folk Festival. It was differently located, near the Lake Geneva and had only two stages. But today it is the second biggest open-air music festival in mainland Europe, after the Sziget Festival. Today...
, Provinssirock, Vieilles Charrues, Roskilde
Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe . It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer...
, Main Square Festival
Main Square Festival
The Main Square Festival is a music festival located in Arras, France. The festival takes place in early July.Until 2010 the Festival was held on the Grande Place in Arras...
, Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop is an annual music festival which takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium in mid-to-late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—between a dual carriageway called Kempische Steenweg—in the village of Kiewit, approximately 7 km north of Hasselt...
...), flew to Australia for the V Festival
V Festival (Australia)
The Australian V Festival was an Australian music festival, and a spin-off of the British V Festival. Like all V Festivals, the event was primarily sponsored by Virgin Mobile. In Australia the event was also sponsored by airline Virgin Blue. The V Festival was televised exclusively in Australia by...
in spring 2009, and spent two weeks in America, playing from Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, NYC to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, in September 2009.
A Mouthful was officially released in the US in April 2010 on Six Degrees Records
Six Degrees Records
Six Degrees Records is an independent record label noted for its catalog of recordings from international musicians and vocalists. It has been described by the journalist and producer Derek Beres as "one of the most groundbreaking labels of the past decade."...
, including 3 bonus tracks.
Both Ways Open Jaws (2011)
In December 2010December 2010
December 2010 was the twelfth month of that year. It began on a Wednesday and ended after 31 days on a Friday.-Portal:Current events:This is an archived version of Wikipedia's Current events Portal from December 2010....
, the band released a video for the first promotional single 'Dust It Off'. Their second album entitled Both Ways Open Jaws
Both Ways Open Jaws
Both Ways Open Jaws is the second album by French/Finnish indie rock duo The Dø, released 9 March 2011 in France and in late October 2011 and mid November 2011 worldwide.- Reception :...
was released in some parts of Europe on Monday
Monday
Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to international standard ISO 8601 it is the first day of the work week. According to the Islamic and Hebrew calendars, Sunday is the first day of the week...
, March 7, 2011, and in France on Wednesday
Wednesday
Wednesday is a day of the week in the Gregorian calendar. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. This day is between Tuesday and Thursday...
, March 9, 2011. Beginning late October and ending in mid-November, the album was released worldwide.
Albums
- 2005: Empire of the Wolves / Soundtrack
- A MouthfulA MouthfulA Mouthful is the debut album by French / Finnish indie rock band The Dø, released on 14 January 2008. Two singles were released from it, “On My Shoulders” and “At Last!” . The album was given its U.S...
(2008) - A MouthfulA MouthfulA Mouthful is the debut album by French / Finnish indie rock band The Dø, released on 14 January 2008. Two singles were released from it, “On My Shoulders” and “At Last!” . The album was given its U.S...
[U.S. Release] (2010) - Dust It Off - EP (2010)
- Both Ways Open JawsBoth Ways Open JawsBoth Ways Open Jaws is the second album by French/Finnish indie rock duo The Dø, released 9 March 2011 in France and in late October 2011 and mid November 2011 worldwide.- Reception :...
(2011) - Both Ways Open Jaws Extended (2011)