Dot Allison
Dot Allison is an esteemed singer-songwriter and composer who has grown up musically in the indie and dance music scene. She has written and sang with some of the greats including Hal David, Massive Attack, Paul Weller, Scott Walker, The Bad Seeds, Kevin Shields, Pete Doherty, Arab Strap and Death In Vegas.
Selected Credits
In 2021, Dot released ‘Heart-Shaped Scars’ on SA Recordings to much critical acclaim. This year also saw Dot, together with Anton Newcombe, composing the original score for the hit 6-part Alibi Channel series ‘Annika’ starring Nicola Walker.
She has contributed to several film & TV scores including ‘Black Death’, ‘Triangle’, ‘The Devil’s Double’ and ‘Henry Mind Of A Tyrant’, and wrote the song ‘Embers To Flames’ for ‘Fresh Meat’ which formed part of the storyline alongside Graham Coxon’s ‘Implodium Implodes’. In addition, her songs have been synchronised in film, TV and commercials all over the world, including ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’, ‘The 40 Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Black Dahlia’, ‘Blair Witch 2’, ‘The Chase’, and campaigns for Ray Ban and Levis.
Dot was born in Edinburgh and played piano throughout her childhood. She went on to study biochemistry and whilst a student by day, she wrote with two friends during studio ‘dead-time’ overnight. They formed a band, then called Dove, pressed their own white label of their debut song ‘Fallen’ which was snapped up by Soma Records in Glasgow and became Soma’s second label release before their signing of Daft Punk.
Now called One Dove, they were signed by Andrew Weatherall after he heard ‘Fallen’ on a Cellophane boat party he was hosting, and released their critically acclaimed album ‘Morning Dove White’. In America their song ‘White Love’ went to No. 6 in the USA dance charts. The singles ‘Fallen’, ‘White Love’ and ‘Breakdown’ all charted in the UK. ‘Morning Dove White’ was recently chosen by the Legend Don Letts as his chosen ‘crucial’ album on this BBC 6 Music Crucial Vinyl show.
Dot’s solo work includes co-writing the notable Death In Vegas’ song ‘Dirge’, which was the break out track on their Mercury Nominated, Brat Award-winning album, ‘The Contino Sessions’. She has also written songs with Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud, Paul Barry at Metrophonic, Brian Higgins & Miranda Cooper at Xenomania and Zero 7 & Sia Furler.
As a touring singer, Dot completed two world tours with Massive Attack, with 3D describing her as having a ‘voice like honey’. Dot also performed on two UK and European tours with The Babyshambles, along with Stephen Street and Graham Coxon as part of Pete Doherty’s band. Following this, Pete asked Dot to join him on a solo acoustic tour singing Carl Barat’s parts on stage with him.
Dot is known for her experimentation using the voice as an instrument and she has also had her poetry published.