Biography
A vocalist and composer whose adult alternative style draws upon an eclectic array of global and artistic sources, Mia Doi Todd made her initial appearance via the acoustic release The Ewe and the Eye in 1997. She broadened her sonic palette across subsequent releases, among them the fifth album Manzanita from 2005, which included contributions from members of Beachwood Sparks. Three years afterward, GEA placed her alongside a compact acoustic group as she explored extended and more ambitious compositional forms. Todd later ventured into film scoring through her contributions to the 2017 screen version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her following studio effort, the reflective Music Life, surfaced in 2021.
Born in Los Angeles, Mia Doi Todd was raised in an artistic environment; her father, Michael Todd, earned recognition as a sculptor, while her mother, Kathryn Doi Todd, served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeals and supported the arts by facilitating visits from traditional Japanese dance and theater ensembles to the city. During childhood, Todd participated in theatrical productions and choral singing while pursuing classical vocal training. As a teenager, she started composing material shaped by the Beatles, Leonard Cohen, and especially Joni Mitchell; her focus sharpened after relocating eastward for Yale University, where indie rock captured her interest.
In 1997, Further, the Los Angeles collective, offered Todd access to their studio for capturing her compositions. The outcome was her debut, The Ewe and the Eye, a minimalist collection limited to vocals and acoustic guitar that appeared on the group's Xmas Records imprint just as she finished her academic work. She relocated to New York City and cut her second album, Come Out of Your Mine, for Communion Records. Following time in Japan devoted to Ankoku Butoh dance study, she came back to the United States and produced a third album, 2001's Zeroone, an array of more complex pieces issued on her own City Zen Records.
Sony's Columbia Jazz division soon noticed her work and offered a contract. On her fourth album, The Golden State, she revisited numerous tracks from the initial three releases, now featuring broader arrangements shaped by Mitchell Froom and Yves Beauvais. Shortly after its release, Sony closed the Columbia Jazz division, yet Todd pressed forward with fresh explorations on 2005's Manzanita, issued by Plug Research and incorporating playing from Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow, and Future Pigeon. Several Manzanita pieces received new treatments on the 2006 remix collection La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams of Manzanita, which added four original songs.
Todd revived City Zen for her eighth album, GEA, in 2008. She returned in 2011 with Cosmic Ocean Ship, a sequence of songs drawn from spiritual and geographic travels over the prior two years. In that period she also danced and choreographed with Body Weather Laboratory, the Los Angeles Butoh ensemble, when not engaged in music.
She resurfaced in 2014 with Floresta. The set of favored Brazilian songs was tracked over ten days at Estúdio el Rocha in São Paulo by an entirely local ensemble and released on City Zen that September. Back in Los Angeles she recorded the English-language follow-up, a sequence of covers of material by Neil Young, Sandy Denny, Townes Van Zandt, and others. Her studio group featured Money Mark, John Herndon, Dustin Bowlin, and spouse Jesse Peterson, who also produced. Songbook appeared via Virtual Label in 2016, while Music for a Midsummer Night's Dream, the soundtrack to the Rachael Leigh Cook film, followed on City Zen in 2018. Todd's subsequent release, Music Life, offered a deeply inward collection alive with subtle textures and themes spanning motherhood and mortality. Issued in early 2021, it welcomed guests including Brazil's Fabiano do Nascimento and Philadelphia's Laraaji. A remixed edition titled Ten Views of Music Life emerged that August.
Born in Los Angeles, Mia Doi Todd was raised in an artistic environment; her father, Michael Todd, earned recognition as a sculptor, while her mother, Kathryn Doi Todd, served as an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeals and supported the arts by facilitating visits from traditional Japanese dance and theater ensembles to the city. During childhood, Todd participated in theatrical productions and choral singing while pursuing classical vocal training. As a teenager, she started composing material shaped by the Beatles, Leonard Cohen, and especially Joni Mitchell; her focus sharpened after relocating eastward for Yale University, where indie rock captured her interest.
In 1997, Further, the Los Angeles collective, offered Todd access to their studio for capturing her compositions. The outcome was her debut, The Ewe and the Eye, a minimalist collection limited to vocals and acoustic guitar that appeared on the group's Xmas Records imprint just as she finished her academic work. She relocated to New York City and cut her second album, Come Out of Your Mine, for Communion Records. Following time in Japan devoted to Ankoku Butoh dance study, she came back to the United States and produced a third album, 2001's Zeroone, an array of more complex pieces issued on her own City Zen Records.
Sony's Columbia Jazz division soon noticed her work and offered a contract. On her fourth album, The Golden State, she revisited numerous tracks from the initial three releases, now featuring broader arrangements shaped by Mitchell Froom and Yves Beauvais. Shortly after its release, Sony closed the Columbia Jazz division, yet Todd pressed forward with fresh explorations on 2005's Manzanita, issued by Plug Research and incorporating playing from Beachwood Sparks, Dead Meadow, and Future Pigeon. Several Manzanita pieces received new treatments on the 2006 remix collection La Ninja: Amor and Other Dreams of Manzanita, which added four original songs.
Todd revived City Zen for her eighth album, GEA, in 2008. She returned in 2011 with Cosmic Ocean Ship, a sequence of songs drawn from spiritual and geographic travels over the prior two years. In that period she also danced and choreographed with Body Weather Laboratory, the Los Angeles Butoh ensemble, when not engaged in music.
She resurfaced in 2014 with Floresta. The set of favored Brazilian songs was tracked over ten days at Estúdio el Rocha in São Paulo by an entirely local ensemble and released on City Zen that September. Back in Los Angeles she recorded the English-language follow-up, a sequence of covers of material by Neil Young, Sandy Denny, Townes Van Zandt, and others. Her studio group featured Money Mark, John Herndon, Dustin Bowlin, and spouse Jesse Peterson, who also produced. Songbook appeared via Virtual Label in 2016, while Music for a Midsummer Night's Dream, the soundtrack to the Rachael Leigh Cook film, followed on City Zen in 2018. Todd's subsequent release, Music Life, offered a deeply inward collection alive with subtle textures and themes spanning motherhood and mortality. Issued in early 2021, it welcomed guests including Brazil's Fabiano do Nascimento and Philadelphia's Laraaji. A remixed edition titled Ten Views of Music Life emerged that August.
Albums
Singles
