Mia Doi Todd (born June 30, 1975) is a musician from Los Angeles, Californi… Read Full Bio ↴Mia Doi Todd (born June 30, 1975) is a musician from Los Angeles, California, USA. She moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1993 to attend Yale University. Her first album, the ewe and the eye, was recorded at the Spaceshed, the recording studio/garage belonging to the LA band Further. It came out on their label, Xmas Records, in the spring of 1997, as she was graduating from college. She moved to New York City and started playing in clubs. Elliott Smith and the Palace Brothers were big influences of hers at the time. That fall, she recorded her second album, come out of your mine, which was released on The Communion Label in 1999.

She lived in Japan for most of 1998, studying first with Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno and at Asbestos-kan, and then with Min Tanaka at Body Weather Farm. She speaks rudimentary Japanese. Returning home to Los Angeles, she recorded most of her next album, zeroone, on a Power Mac G4 and started City Zen Records to release it in 2001.

Her first three albums were solo acoustic recordings. After these, she started to play with a band. They had been called Los Cincos and were renamed Syncopation. They never recorded much together, though. She signed a contract with Sony/Columbia Records, and recorded The Golden State, culling songs from her previous albums. Mitchell Froom and Yves Beauvais helped her produce it. She recorded at the Sunset Sound Factory, and the album came out in the fall of 2002 and was generally well received by critics, though one writer referred to Mia as "jaw-droppingly pretentious". For a year, she toured the US and Europe, on her own and then with Alaska! and Lou Barlow's Folk Implosion. Sony chose at this time not to renew her contract.

The title of her 2005 album Manzanita refers to the Spanish name of a round-leaved bush with smooth, red bark and tiny, bell-shaped blossoms, that grows throughout California and the Pacific Coast. She recorded up in Lake Hollywood with Rob Campanella. Many of the songs are still just voice and guitar or piano. Brent played bass as well as some guitar and piano. On drums and percussion were Hunter Crowley, Rick Menck, and Nelson Bragg. Members of Dead Meadow and Beachwood Sparks made cameo appearances, and the entire band Future Pigeon backed her on track 6. Rob engineered all the while, came up with great ideas, and played electric guitar, piano, dulcimer and mandolin. A remix album La Ninja: Amor & Other Dreams Of Manzanita was released in 2006, featuring one brand new track, Kokoro, and a cover of The Beatles' Norwegian Wood.

As of April 2007, Mia had recorded two new albums; the first, Gea, a collection of nine new songs plus an alternative version of Kokoro, and the second, Morning Music, a collection of seven untitled instrumental compositions. Exact details of when and on which label these recordings are to be released are unknown.

Independence Day
Mia Doi Todd Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

There's a battleship parked in the river
Reenacting, open doors, open arms then open fire
There are mushroom clouds and machine-gunned copters descending
In the snapcracklepop fizzle of the fireworks
As they blast into the night air breathed in
By innumerable passengers screaming
"We are Number One "

Independence Day
Our Freedom is won
To choose our own way
When to go, what's to come
But with each tie we break
There is sacrifice
How many lives will it take ?
How many loves just must die ?

There's a man I just met
He hasn't kissed me yet
He reminds me of someone else, only better
But I'm made you of wax, so easy to impress
Am I melting too fast, dripping into your lips ?
Because all my heroes have turned human this year
Slinking 'round pool-tables, sinking into unflabled stupers
Whispering into the night air or into some girl's hair
" I am Number One "

Independence Day
Our Freedom is won
To choose our own way
When to go, what's to come
But with each tie we break
There is sacrifice
How many lives will it take ?
How many loves just must die ?

There's a battleship parked in the Charles river
Shooting off fireworks that light up the world, then fall in the water
My love's next to me, head full of the next century
And wandering whether there'll be a wedding tomorrow
And the secret smoke signals in the aftermath of gunpowder
Seem the most significant indication of what's to come

Independence Day
Our Freedom is won
To choose our own way
When to go, what's to come
But with each tie we break
There is sacrifice

How many lives will it take ?
How many loves just must die ?

Overall Meaning

The song Independence Day by Mia Doi Todd is a thoughtful reflection on the meaning and cost of freedom. The lyrics paint a complex picture of independence, with images of both celebration and violence. The opening lines describe a battleship parked in the river, reenacting a battle and firing its guns. This image is juxtaposed with a snapshot of the night sky filled with fireworks, which evoke both joy and destruction. The lyrics question the true price of freedom, asking "How many lives will it take? How many loves just must die?"

The song continues with images of personal relationships and desires, such as the singer's attraction to a man she just met, and her fear of melting too fast. These individual experiences are contrasted with broader political and social themes, highlighting the complexities of independence as both a personal and collective struggle. The final verse brings the focus back to the present moment, with the singer watching fireworks with her love, contemplating the future and the unknown.

Overall, Independence Day is a deeply introspective look at the meaning of freedom and the human cost of gaining and maintaining it. Mia Doi Todd's lyrics skillfully weave together personal experience and political commentary to create a thoughtful and nuanced commentary on the concept of independence.

Line by Line Meaning

There's a battleship parked in the river
A battleship is parked in the river

Reenacting, open doors, open arms then open fire
The battleship is reenacting by opening the doors, showcasing weapons then opening fire

There are mushroom clouds and machine-gunned copters descending
There are mushroom clouds and helicopters firing machine guns that are landing

In the snapcracklepop fizzle of the fireworks
The fireworks are sounding and looking like snaps, crackles, and pops

As they blast into the night air breathed in
The fireworks are blasting into the night air that everyone breathes in

By innumerable passengers screaming
The passengers watching the fireworks are screaming

'We are Number One '
The passengers believe that they are the best

Independence Day
The day of freedom

Our Freedom is won
We have achieved our freedom

To choose our own way
We can choose our own path

When to go, what's to come
We can decide when we want to go and what to expect

But with each tie we break
Every time we break away from something/someone

There is sacrifice
There will be something that has to be given up

How many lives will it take ?
How many lives will be lost during the pursuit of freedom?

How many loves just must die ?
How many love stories will end because of this?

There's a man I just met
The artist met a man recently

He hasn't kissed me yet
The man hasn't kissed the artist yet

He reminds me of someone else, only better
The man reminds the singer of someone but he seems better

But I'm made you of wax, so easy to impress
The singer is easily impressed as she can be molded like wax

Am I melting too fast, dripping into your lips ?
Is the artist falling too fast and too hard for the man?

Because all my heroes have turned human this year
The artist's heroes became human like everyone else this year

Slinking 'round pool-tables, sinking into unflabled stupers
The heroes have been found in bars and are not doing well

Whispering into the night air or into some girl's hair
The heroes are whispering secretly into the air or into some girl's hair

' I am Number One '
The heroes are still confident even though they are going through difficult times

There's a battleship parked in the Charles river
A battleship is parked in the Charles river

Shooting off fireworks that light up the world, then fall in the water
The battleship is shooting fireworks that light up the world and fall in the water

My love's next to me, head full of the next century
The singer's lover is next to her and is thinking about the future century

And wandering whether there'll be a wedding tomorrow
The lover is unsure if there will be a wedding the next day

And the secret smoke signals in the aftermath of gunpowder
There are secret smoke signals after the fireworks

Seem the most significant indication of what's to come
The smoke signals seem to be the most significant indication of the future