Mia Doi Todd Interview

by Phils

Inspired by the sound of Brazil, Mia Dio Todd has recently released her stunning album Floresta. Wicked Spins Radio got chance to catch up with Mia and get more insight into her new album.

WSR – Thank you for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?

Mia – Hi! I am a singer and songwriter from Los Angeles, California. My new album FLORESTA is coming out September 16. I’ve written most of the songs on my previous records, but this one is all covers. It’s all Brazilian songs!

WSR – Floresta is your latest album, what was it about Brazil that inspired you so much?

Mia – I love the natural landscape of Brazil, the forest, the warm ocean, the humidity. I love the music and dance! I love the Portuguese language. When I first went to Brazil, people there assumed that I was Brazilian. I found this very welcoming. In the US, people are always asking me where I’m from.

WSR – Floresta has some known and some obscure Brazilian songs on it, how did you choose which songs you sang on Floresta?

Mia – These are songs that I really love to sing. There are so many amazing Brazilian songs to choose from, I really had to just carve it down to ones that suited my voice and that fit the Fabiano, the guitarist on the album, introduced me to some of the songs. My husband collects vinyl and had the Dercio Marques album that “Segredos Vegetais” is on.

WSR – You have performed with Maurício Takara and you are both half Japanese, did this prove advantageous to you in any way?

Mia – I think that both of us being half-Japanese made me feel immediately very close to Maurício’s whole family. His parents and two brothers and he run Estudio El Rocha together. It’s really inspiring to see them all working collectively in a creative family business. Fernando is the studio engineer. Their older brother is a producer. Maurício’s mother runs the office and makes lunch, and his father works on all the gear and makes delicious espresso. Becoming friends with Maurício and his circle of musicians in Sao Paulo was essential to me feeling safe and welcome in an otherwise very intimidating and overwhelming city.

WSR – Apart from the music what was Maurício’s contribution to Floresta?

Mia – Maurício believed in the project. That went a long way when I was trying to figure out how and when we could record the album. He helped coordinate the schedule at the studio, so that we could block out some time while Fabiano was going to be in Brazil. Maurício found good vegetarian food for us in Sao Paulo also. Fabiano is vegetarian, and my family is quasi-vegetarian. Finding good food in a new place can be a challenge.

WSR – What makes you the most proud about your oriental heritage?

Mia – My cooking!

WSR – You were originally trained as a classical vocalist, how did this pave the way for you becoming the wonderful and talented musician we know and love today?

Mia – My neighbor, Hamilton Williams, gave me private vocal lessons when I was a teenager. He was an opera singer, and trained me in a classical Italian vocal method. This definitely shaped the sound of my voice and also my elocution. He was a very refined and lovely man. He passed away a few years ago. He came to some of my early shows and was proud of my development as an artist. My voice is not actually very operatic. After those years of vocal training, I started to write songs and find my own particular voice.

WSR – You spent a year in Japan studying avant-garde dance but this actually had an effect on your music as well, what was that effect and why do you feel dance effected music in the way it did?

Mia – I spent 1998 in Japan, studying dance with Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno, at the late Hijikata Tatsumi’s studio, Asbestos-kan, and with Min Tanaka at Body Weather Farm. I spoke rudimentaryJapanese at that time, but still most of my complex thought took place in English. It remained very internal and had no other outlet than in my writing. So I began to write songs that were more complex and abstract and that reflected the performance art world I was experiencing in Tokyo and Hakushu at that time. I saw many collaborations between musicians and dancers there. Milford Graves and Keiji Haino were guest artists at Body Weather Farm the year that I was there. If I had some pop notions about what music and art were, they were pretty much dispelled. It was a very creative time in Japan. That shaped my concept of what was possible. Nothing I’ve experienced since has really matched that sense of artistic freedom and possibility. While I was there, Min Tanaka and his dance company premiered Antonin Artaud’s “The Conquest of Mexico.” I was a huge fan of Artaud’s writing. Artaud never managed to see much of his work actually realized during his lifetime, so this was quite an undertaking. Many of the dancers in the company were actually Brazilian. Perhaps this initiated in me the desire for international collaboration. MiaDoiTodd_Floresta_photo1

WSR – Your music is spontaneous, sentimental, sensitive and passionate. How much of this reflects the inner you?

Mia – There is not much artifice in my music, nor in my person. My real self is pretty much totally reflected in my work. Of course, one has many layers. In my early songs, I put forward the more melancholy, vulnerable parts of myself into songs and singing. In recent years, I’ve been looking to find more joy in music.

WSR – You are extremely talented but is there any form of expression that you would like to learn?

Mia – I always want to be a better dancer.

WSR – Time for a little bit of a giggle. You are making a profile for a dating website, how do you describe yourself to the world to try attract that other half you have been looking for?
Mia – hmm, can’t answer this one.
WSR – What is the first thing you notice when you meet someone new

Mia – Their face and their mood.
WSR – What is the one thing a person can do that will make you not like them?
Mia – Be rude for no reason.
WSR – Who to you is the most beautiful person in this world but not just physical beauty?
Mia – My daughter!
WSR – Thank you so much for giving Wicked Spins Radio this interview, is there anything you would like to add?
Mia – Thank you!