Dio is the independent singer/songwriter of the new, up and coming, band DioTribe, combining the genres of Gothic Pop and Rock. With her music, Dio hopes to ignite possibility in people, encouraging them to follow their own creative instincts, rather than catering to the demands and expectations of others; and, most importantly, to follow their passions.

You just shot your first music video, can you tell us a little about that?

Yeah it was a lot of fun, we started shooting in August and we hi-jacked a few rooftops to shoot it. We had this really amazing dancer come and board, Matt Owen, and the videographer Chris Pye also did a really good job and Dave Thompson directed it and also produced the song. It was an amazing experience, it was my first video so it was really cool to see everything come together from behind the scenes.

Lyric wise, what was the inspiration for “Please Don’t Fall In Love”, can you tell us a little about the writing process?

It was really cool because I sat down with this guitarist who I’d never met before and he just jammed on a few chords. I had the lyrics roughly set for the song already and then the melody just kind of came out in one shot, so it was really cool that doesn’t happen too often for me. As for the lyrics it was just a situation where I was really really close friends with a guy and then things got kind of hairy because he became interested in me. I didn’t feel like I could measure up to that and I just wanted to continue being friends and so it pained me because it pained him. I didn’t want that to happen and I didn’t want things to sever but ultimately that is what happened. That’s really what that song touches on, its not me singing from a cocky stand point of “oh, don’t fall in love with me, I won’t be into you” or whatever, it’s more from a painful stand point of 'I don’t want to lose you and this is happening but please don’t let it'.

Is this a song that’s going to be on your upcoming album?

No, that’s going to be separate from the EP that I’m doing in Vancouver in July. I released it as a single, the EP is going to go in a bit of a different direction, musically. We’re going to have more time to sit down and really get creative, finding different sounds and just creating a different space.

 

Tell us a little bit more about your plans for the EP?

I’ll be going to Vancouver in July to work with Dave Thompson. I’ll be crowd funding to raise money for that. We’ll record, probably five to six songs together and send it off to mixing and tour it.

 

When did DioTribe come into evolution, when did you start this project?

My solo project started about two years ago but I only named it DioTribe recently. It used to be called the Dio Project but everyone wanted to say Dio as in Ronnie James Dio so I had to find a play on words to get people to pronounce it like diatribe, which means ' a rant'. I also like the idea of having the tribe in there, to represent community.

 

You’re originally from Montreal, but you moved down here for music. Do you find there’s a lot of differences between the two scenes?

Toronto has a much bigger music scene, there’s way more people in bands and doing solo projects and stuff like that but I think Montreal has a bigger electronic and metal scene.

You’ve traveled down to the states to work with some pretty big co-writers

Yeah, it was really amazing, a year and a bit ago I traveled down to L.A on a writing trip and I worked with Matthew Gerrard. He wrote music for a High School Musical, he also co-wrote break away with Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne. Working with him was incredible, we recorded a song together and he just instantly knew which were the right vocal takes and his studio was also quite gorgeous. He’s such a great guy. I also got to work with Justin Gray who just recently wrote Mariah Carey’s single from her upcoming album. We wrote a really aggressive pop/electronic song together, which turned out really well. It was a really great experience to work with people of that caliber, who really know what’s good when they hear it.

 

Aside from the EP, any other big plans for the summer?

Aside from that we’re going to be putting together a party for my new group called Art Connect, which is a group that brings community among artists, and anyone who wants to make a positive difference and help the community in different ways. It's in support of Sketch, a community group that helps artists living on the margins with their art. So I’ll be doing that and just writing insane amounts, as much as possible before I get to Vancouver. 

I’m just at a stage where I’m really excited about my music career and I’m throwing everything up in the air and taking a chance and I would love for people to feel that they can do that too and not be bogged down by fear.