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She has endured five long years marked by hard work, change and grief - yet Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong appears content. Dido's eagerly awaited new album, Safe Trip Home, is released tomorrow - only her third since her 1999 breakthrough. The good news is it's fresh, different, and reaches an emotional depth that will take you closer than ever to the 36-year-old London-based singer.
Dido says she has gained the confidence to express even more personal feelings in her music. "I feel more confident about being able to grab the first moment of a record. I feel like I can put more of myself into songs. "I also feel more vulnerable. I poured my heart into it. There was a point where I forgot about the outside world completely."
But why, after selling more than 20 million albums with No Angel and Life for Rent, did Dido take so long to produce Safe Trip Home?
There have been a few reasons, principally the death in 2006 of her 68-year-old Irish father, William Armstrong. Much of this new album is centred around themes about the power of love and the fear of being alone, and the grief also seems to have given her music extra impact.
One song in particular, Grafton Street, is a tribute to her beloved father. The track is almost six minutes long and among the best she has produced.
Co-written with Brian Eno (U2, Coldplay), Dido says the track means a lot to her.
"It's deeply personal. I didn't realise that would be so obvious at first. I love that song and I love that it's a tribute to Dad. When I hear it I can remember a little portion of our relationship." The song cleverly combines the old and the new: including a traditional Celtic feel and Dido playing a recorder. "I remember him singing us Irish songs when we were young, so there's a little bit of that in there."
Dido - named after the Queen of Carthage mentioned in Virgil's Aeneid - grew up in an unorthodox North London household filled with books but without boundaries, routines, television or visitors. (Her mother, Clare, is a somewhat eccentric poet who reportedly often acted more like a friend than a parent.) Dido has said that she and her older brother Rollo, 42 and a music producer, always tried to be "normal" - but now both see advantages to their unusual upbringing.
Certainly within this album she seems to be making an effort to set it apart from her earlier efforts. Working with Los Angeles-based producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion, Dido went to extremes to perfect the feel of her songs. "If I wanted a sound I wouldn't stop until I got it from an orchestra. I was learning a huge amount from Jon Brion. I ended up having learned so much from him that I wrote tonnes more at home."
Then there was the broom cupboard in which she spent much of her time while recording in Los Angeles.
"The broom cupboard sounded great. I so loved singing there; it was in a rental house in Los Angeles. It became my favourite place to sing. That's the beauty of being able to record anywhere," she says with a laugh. With Brion at her side, Dido set about discovering more about herself and what she could get out of her songs. "He gave me huge confidence to follow through with the way I feel about something. This was such a huge step for me on this record.
"The whole time I was having fun making music. I met all these amazing musicians and I got so inspired to play things I have never played before - like drums and the guitar."
But Dido doesn't want to be totally identified by her sad songs. She firmly believes in love. "If someone tried to write a diary of my life from my songs it would be a complete mish-mash and wrong. I absolutely believe in love. It's what makes the world go around."
The album's cover features a famous image of astronaut Bruce McCandless II during a spacewalk, with Earth in the background.
"I have loved the picture for years," she explains. "When I was a kid I always wanted to go into space. It fascinates me to see the planet as a whole like that. I can't imagine what that feels like."
Back on Earth, Dido confirms that as a part of her tour next year she'll "definitely" be coming to New Zealand - a country she says is "beautiful" and purports to "love".
Her new album also has a Kiwi twist; she is releasing a series of short films interpreting her songs, and one has been produced by Kiwi film-makers Katie Hinsen and Sally Williams.
Their video, shot around the South Island's east coast, joins other short films from Portugal, India, Brazil and Thailand.
And as Dido prepares to embark on a new touring adventure, she hints that she won't be waiting another five years between albums.
"I had a real problem choosing what I wanted on this record and what I want to save. I'm still writing and I'm on a roll."
* Safe Trip Home is released tomorrow.
