![]() ![]() TODD: And I think I started a whole movement to use that space in that way, and it carried on after I had graduated. Yeah, I used to do concerts in Dwight Chapel at Yale. Vivid memory of sitting on the floor of a chapel and you playing music on a guitar and this just really beautiful, quiet, meditative moment. SHAPIRO: Mia Doi Todd, I don't know if you're aware of this, but you and I were in college at the same time. (SOUNDBITE OF MIA DOI TODD SONG, "SUNDAY AFTERNOON") And so that phrase, it pertains to a lot of different things. And it was another take what you can carry moment where, you know, people were looting stores. TODD: And that take what you can carry - and then when the sort of unrest started to develop in LA again this year and there was looting, it reminded me of the the riots that we'd had in LA when I was in high school. So there's going to be a lot of migration in the future. TODD: So that message of - pertaining to the Japanese American internment camps actually has a wider range because there'll be so much displacement with the state of the environment. And it was really another take-what-you-can-carry kind of situation. I wrote the song, actually, right after there were some big fires in Malibu. TODD: (Singing) By order of the president, so-called president of the United States, to hell with the environment, environment. So I wrote a song called "Take What You Can Carry" about the internment camps, and this amazing dub musician Scientist did the mix on it. Reggae's, like, traditionally a kind of protest music. There was some legislation in California that recognized the California legislature's part in that unfortunate thing that happened, so I wrote a reggae song. TODD: (Singing) Look at sister Mary with a baby in each arm, another in her belly. My mother and all of our family was interned during World War II in the Japanese American internment camps, and it had a big impact on our family, of course. SHAPIRO: I understand it connects with your own family's experience. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY") SHAPIRO: You also released a new track called "Take What You Can Carry." So it's ventured away from just purely romance. I think my worldview is full of pink glasses, you know? You have a lot of romance in my music, though my new album deals with more motherhood and, like, a maternal love. SHAPIRO: When he talked about your music, he described it as romantic. TODD: (Singing) Maybe we should spend some time together under the sun. And he likes to break through feelings of awkwardness with just, like, a raspberry to make you laugh. And just being around him, you get this great aura. We've actually got to make music together, and he's such an enlightened being. I've spent a lot of time with him, and it's been so wonderful. SHAPIRO: You know, in more than a dozen episodes of Play It Forward, I have never heard someone deliver quite so strange a message as that, like, rasberry from Laraaji (laughter). Thanks so much for having me on the show. SHAPIRO: And Mia Doi Todd is with us now from Los Angeles. TODD: (Singing) J'aime, j'aime, j'aime, j'aime. LARAAJI: And I'd say that her sweet, silky, soft, patient, kind energy has transformed my experience of California. ![]() SHAPIRO: (Laughter) Is that a code? Is she going to know what that means? SHAPIRO: Well, we're going to go to Mia Doi Todd next, and so what would you like to say to her? TODD: (Singing) The night brings us home. And one of the songs that sticks out very clearly when I think about her is "My Baby lives In Paris." LARAAJI: So I got to know her work - soft, gentle. Last week New Age pioneer Laraaji explained why he's thankful for the singer-songwriter Mia Doi Todd. We're back with another episode of Play It Forward, where musicians tell us about their work and the music that inspires them. MIA DOI TODD: (Singing) My baby lives in Paris. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY BABY LIVES IN PARIS") ![]()
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