Mia Doi Todd is a Los Angeles, California native. She grew up in the Los Angeles section of Atwater Village, across the Los Angeles River from Silver Lake and Hollywood just beyond. She released her first acoustic album in 1997, the year she graduated from Yale. She then spent a year in Japan, studying the avant-garde dance form Butoh and returned to the United States to release two more acoustic albums before signing to Columbia Records in 2002. She is self-releasing ‘Cosmic Ocean Ship’, here ninth studio album. Produced by Jonathan Wilson, ‘Cosmic Ocean Ship’ was recorded in Los Angeles to analog 2 inch tape,
The Alternate Root (TAR): Your words are beautiful crafted and tender. Much of the lyrics seem to be in the first person, reflective.
Mia Doi Todd (MDT): My music has always been very personal. For me, songs originate from real stuff happening in my life, things that happen around me.
TAR: From your connection to the music, it is obvious that music is a full part of your life.
MDT: Music has provided the fabric of my life for the last fifteen years. My life has not always been a clear path. Music has provided the clearest path and has carried me through the shaky parts. I feel like I am a hard earnest liver, I live a lot and time goes by quite fast. I have other friends with family and kids. My life is unpredictable. Music, life and love have taken me in different directions,
TAR: Once you hear the call, music makes it tough to get away.
MDT: It’s true that there is nothing else that I could do. I pursued music all through my twenties. When I got to my late twenties and early thirties and I hadn’t done anything with it, it was difficult. I was touring with rock bands, opening for rock bands, all through the Bush years. I felt estranged, closed down and embittered about what I was trying to give. My experience with the business side was very challenging; I had to come around to it in my own way. I thought I would stop making music and find something more fulfilling.
TAR: That darkness is not apparent on ‘Cosmic Ocean Ship’
MDT: This record is really about my coming around and finding an innocent childhood spirit. It 
is about overcoming personal feelings and being happy in that. The world needs as much of those honest, loving influences.
TAR: Do you feel a responsibility as an artist to help bring those influences into the light?
MDT: I definitely feel the responsibility for that. I feel that responsibility to perceive things, communicate, transmit information that I receive through music, it is a spiritual path. It is not being scared; it feels like a vehicle for beauty and emotion. People are not finding what they need in church or in the traditional ways. Music is a spiritual medium; it has taken up some of the spiritual slack that exists because we have become such a secular society.
TAR: Do you see that that intention of spirit is being received by the population out there?
MDT: We are trying to turn that around. The Obama election was a spark. Overall, we are so engrained in bureaucracy and in need of a spiritual revolution. People are alienating people and hurting the planet.
TAR: And on a personal level, you are happy?
MDT: Some of the crisis that I felt five years ago is leaving and I am coming around and accepting myself, I am so much happier. I still have some rough times but life is much better.
The beauty of Mia Doi Todd’s music and words is continued on her website, where you can find out more about shows, hear music and view photos. Danny McCloskey
