Miwa Gemini

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
The best myths have a dark twist. A journeying hero isn’t just full of aimless wanderlust; something fearsome is biting at her heels. She may charge ahead, but she peers around the corners, too. Miwa Gemini’s music feels like this kind of story, calling to mind those old, non-Disneyfied fairytales where people don’t always live happily ever after. Her rootsy, western-tinged songs don’t forget to take a glimpse at darkness. Miwa recently chatted with JezebelMusic.com about the storytellers she loves, about her own journey into the music world, and about a porcelain cat named Sasha who’s been along for the ride until recently. You can see Miwa perform at Jezebel Music’s Monthly Feature Show with The Lisps, No Eye Contact, and Teletextile at Public Assembly this Thursday.

JM.com: Okay, I guess I’ll just start with some basic bio stuff. When did you start playing music and who were your early influences?

Miwa: I began with piano when I was three. I seem to remember The Carpenters were playing a lot in my house.

JM.com: You also play guitar and have picked up banjo, mandolin, and accordion, right? Instrument of choice?

Miwa: Last year I got autoharp for birthday and ukulele for Christmas which I’m tuning right now. I always go back to my guitar though for writing.

JM.com: When and how did you start writing songs?

Miwa: I think I was always making up songs in my head. But it wasn’t till I picked up my dad’s old acoustic guitar that I started writing my own songs just when I was fourteen. Fifteen? Something like that.

JM.com: I hear you’ve always only written songs in English, though it’s your second language – I read that you were even using the Japanese-English dictionary early on, right? What was the allure of writing in English?

Miwa: English just sounded so much cooler than Japanese! But I think I realize that Japanese is very rigid language though it’s beautiful. For instance you have to use different “I” depending on your age, gender and to whom you are talking to when you speak Japanese. Now I find that a bit constricting.

JM.com: Oh wow, I didn’t think about that. Do you think that, when listening to Japanese music, the specifics would make it harder to apply the lyrics to your own situation? You know, the way a listener might say, “Whoa, this song completely describes MY life!” (Which is often easiest for me to say, I guess, with the most generic of American pop songs!)

Miwa: I’m not sure that’s the case - but it’s been a while since I listen to any of them. I can’t say I fully understood a lot of music I listened to when I was a kid. You just like the songs because it sounds fun or cool, then later on you realize “Wait that song is about cheating on your wife?” I don’t think I appreciated Bob Dylan until I began to grasp his words. I used find his music really boring, ha.

JM.com: Speaking of Bob Dylan, you seem very focused on telling stories with your music, and I noticed that on the “Story” page of your website, you include not only a press release-style bio of your musical career, but also a sort of lyrical life story, then three other, seemingly unrelated, stories or myths. It all ended up reminding me of – and please forgive me if you didn’t like the movie – I’m Not There, the Bob Dylan movie where all the different myths are meant create a fuller picture of the artist. Do you think it’s important for an artist to have a legend or myth surrounding them, or do they just need to be a good storyteller themselves?

Miwa: That’s an interesting question. Unfortunately I haven’t seen the movie yet though we had it for a while. For me the beauty of music is storytelling I think. When your reality is so prosaic (like no giants or wicked witch) you just have to imagine your co-worker is a wicked witch and the big guy that works at your local butcher really is a kind and shy giant. Or at least that’s how I amuse myself. But I do like good stories. Tom Waits supposed to be born in the taxicab on the Golden Gate Bridge. Not sure it’s true but it’s good one!

JM.com: Ooh I never knew that, but it is a great one! People often compare you to Tom Waits, and Bjork and Nina Simone and Jenny Lewis, Patsy Cline, Cat Power, Yoko Ono, even Siouxsie Sioux - where do you see the strongest similarities, and who are your biggest musical influences? (Not necessarily from the aforementioned list.)

Miwa: I’ll be very happy to be somewhere between Tom Waits and Dolly Parton, O. Henry and Agatha Christie, Erik Satie and Edith Piaf, and as for influence, not sure where to begin.

JM.com: I’m stuck on this fairytale/myth aspect of your music. Do you have any other favorite literary influences?

Miwa: Andersen, Chas Adams, Edward Gorey, Lewis Carroll. You would laugh, I just finished reading L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables! I read when I was little in Japanese. It’s nice to re-read in its original language.

JM.com: No, that’s great! Your songs and bio seem to paint you as quite the troubadour. I was wondering if you’re mostly trying to convey a sense of adventure and curiosity, or are you really always itching to hit the road?

Miwa: Both. I love traveling, but alas sometime I have to stay in Brooklyn, so like my favorite heroine Anne (at least for now) I have to make up my adventure.

JM.com: So if you were able to hit the road with just a bindle and your guitar, what would you take in your bindle?

Miwa: Chocolate for when I get hungry, lavender oil for insect bites, my porcelain cat Sasha for good luck, red wine for when I get thirsty and O. Henry for a good company when I get lonely.

JM.com: Oh yeah, Sasha. So you always perform with Sasha, your porcelain cat, onstage?

Miwa: Yeah but she retired this year after almost losing her head. It was a sad day for me.

JM.com: Oh no! What happened?

Miwa: Her head came off after a show like Marie Antoinette in guillotine! She’s cured somewhat with instant glue but she doesn’t want to travel with me anymore.

JM.com: Understandable. So, back to some of the basics I missed –you came to New York to study photography at NYU, correct? When was that, and when did you make the transition to music?

Miwa: I think I always wanted to be a musician but didn’t have a guts to face it. I thought to myself, “it must be easier to become a photographer than a rock star!”Turns out it is just as difficult to become a photographer, so I decided to face my tune (no pun intended) and attend to my first true love.

JM.com: Hey, quick visual-art related question: did you do the images on your website? I love them.

Miwa: Yes I did! Thank you.

JM.com: Okay, last one: Do you do New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have one for 2010?

Miwa: I got this fortune off a Chinese fortune cookie the day after New Year’s Day. It said “we create our fate every day we live,” so I’m going to play music everyday. I’m really excited to be creating my fate everyday that way!

interview by Erin Sheehy
photos by Jeremy Sachs-Michaels www.jeremysachsmichaels.com