The Dø (France/Finland)
Folk/Indie/Pop
The first thing you should know about this band is how to pronounce their name. Just be seeing the word you may think it sounds like “doo” but rather it’s pronounced “dough”, as in the first note in the C major scale. Their band name is also derived from the first two letters (“d” and “o”) of the members names; Dan Levy and Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti.
Dan’s backstory is that he’s a French musician and composer of Jazz music and film, while Olivia of Finland notes that “English is my musical language, French is my academic language and Finnish is my intimate language.” They hooked up just a couple of years ago in 2007, while working on music for the film Empire of the Wolves, based on the novel by Jean-Christophe Grange.
Although the source of their main inspirations come from classical and Jazz music, they cross many genres including avant-garde noise, hip-hop, freak folk and rock and roll. You could say that Dan brings the jazzy, symphonic structure to the band, while Olivia brings the soft-sounding melodies.
Their first album, A Mouthful, came last year and they are one of the first French bands to hit the charts with songs only sung in English, alongside bands like Phoenix and Soko. The album is rather exciting, with all the sounds and styles they bring to each of the tracks, like drums and flutes, and Olivia’s voice has drawn comparisons to everyone from Gwen Stefani to Bjork to Duffy to The Ting Tings.
Check out The Dø at MidPoint 2009 at the Contemporary Arts Center’s Project Mill Showcase at 11:30 pm on Saturday, September 26.
Listen to ‘em on MySpace