travelblog
blogger: tina dico
profile: musician
subject: life on tour
I’ve spent the last four years travelling from big city to big city but I’m an expert on airports and hotels rather than hippest spots and hang-outs. As a touring musician I spend most of my days in cars and on planes, I arrive in a city in the afternoon, go to the venue for a sound check, have dinner, play the concert and go back to my hotel for a good sleep before moving on the next morning. So much for the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle!
This kind of travel is incredibly inspiring to me, though. I always have my guitar right next to me and being on the move – a stranger among strangers with their own lives and stories – plants many seeds for songs.
I can’t go anywhere without my laptop which also has my diary, music and photos on it. My last record was written on tour. There’s a song on there called “Sacre Coeur”. I wrote it at the beautiful church in Paris, with a view of the whole city just as the sun was setting. That was the moment when I first realised that life ‘on the road’ was going to have a price.
My love for my job as a songwriter and performer – with all the intensity and inspiration it brings – is very difficult to combine with a cosy, stable life close to friends and family. I’ve lived in Denmark and in London for the past six years, so I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like to. But thank God for email and Skype!
My New Year’s resolution was to take more photos, actually. I haven’t got many from the past four years and it’s a bit of a blur of venues, airports and hotels. This year I have been taking pictures every day and already there are 20 cities in there: Berlin, Copenhagen, London and my beautiful hometown, Århus.
What I love when I’m back in London is being able to get something healthy out of my fridge instead of eating out or grabbing a bite in an airport or petrol station. And to find my toothbrush in the same place every morning!
I live right by Portobello Road and on my days off I’ll go for long walks with music in my ears around Notting Hill or through Hyde Park down to South Kensington. Maybe I’ll even pop by the massive Natural History Museum or the Victoria & Albert museum for art and design. I’ll grab a coffee on the way, admittedly most likely at a Starbucks, and sit there for hours with my book and notebook and watch passers by.
I love that London is so edgy and diverse. It’s very different from Århus, which is beautiful and close to stunning nature but a bit ’sleepy’. On a Sunday the streets will be deserted which is something I’ve only ever seen in Scandinavia. Everything seems to have a slightly slower pace and people spend a lot more time at home.
One of my favourite Scandinavian cities outside of Denmark is Bergen. They’ve got a music venue called Hulen, built inside of a mountain – a very cool place!
I’ve got tours in the UK and Germany coming up and I always look forward to touring these two countries. I’ve met so many lovely people there already and had some fantastic experiences performing.Anything particular I look forward to? I love Edinburgh. And Union Chapel [a church turned concert hall] in London is an amazing venue, as is Quasimodo in Berlin!
Tina Dico is touring her fourth album Count to Ten through the UK and Germany in March and April, for full tour listings see www.tinadico.com
tina’s address book
Natural History Museum
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 +44 (0)20 7942 5000 www.nhm.ac.uk
Victoria & Albert museum
Cromwell Road, London, SW7, +44 (0)20 7942 2000 www.vam.ac.uk
Hulen
Olaf Ryes vei 48, Bergen +47 5533 3830 www.hulen.no
Union Chapel
Compton Terrace, London, N1 +44 (0)20 7226 1686 www.unionchapel.org.uk
Quasimodo
Kantstrasse 12a, Berlin, +49
(0)30 312 8086 www.quasimodo.de
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