Dido writes songs because she is not a good talker.

The 'White Flag' singer admits she is shy and expresses herself better through her music than she can through talking to people.

She said: ''Music has been my thing since I was a little kid. My brain just doesn't work as well with other things. If I look out of the window, I'll see it in terms of music. If I was a good talker, well, I'd talk instead. But I'm not. That's why I write songs.''

Dido, 41, is set to release her first album for five years, 'Girl Who Got Away', in March, and due to the confessional nature of her songs, she has to pretend no-one is going to hear the results of her recording sessions in order to write the tracks in the first place.

She added to the Sunday Times newspaper: ''I can't write if I think people are actually going to hear it. It would be like writing a diary, closing it and knowing that, immediately, someone is going to pick it up and read what you have written. You have to lose that. That's why, at the end of every record, I sort of disappear for a bit and shake that off.''

'Girl Who Got Away' is out on March 4.