Miwa Gemini

with Ham 1 & The Mattoid

Saturday, November 4 @ Flicker Theatre & Bar

originally published November 1, 2006

Singer, guitarist and pianist Miwa grew up in Fukuoka, on one of Japan’s southernmost islands, listening to American country, gospel, jazz and blues of the '30s, '40s and '50s - the same music that today influences her dark and quirky country-leaning songs - dreaming of the day she would move to the States. She got her chance her senior year of high school, when she applied to a foreign exchange program. “They asked me where I’d like to go, city or country. I said city, thinking San Francisco or Seattle. Instead, I ended up in Columbus, Ohio!” She laughs, shivering at the memory of her first winter in the Midwest.

After high school, she made it to dreamed-of New York City, studying graphic design at NYU (she designs the artwork for her albums), which eventually led to a career in photography. An assistantship with renowned photographer Joyce Tenneson brought Miwa to Savannah, and awakened her to a zeal for the South (besides Savannah and Athens, Miwa claims a strong fondness for Memphis and New Orleans).

Throughout college, Miwa - now going by the moniker Miwa Gemini - pursued her passion for music. She began studying piano at age three and has since taken up guitar, mandolin and banjo - conscious all the while that “being a musician is not a practical way of making a living,” but it is what she loves. She finds her old-timey, moody sound hard to describe, but affirms that at its backbone exists strong storytelling. Her favorite description of her music is “Patsy Cline meets the Cramps.” She spent part of last February recording her latest tentatively titled This Is How I Found You with Athens’ own Andy Baker, whom she met via Savannah College of Art & Design grad Brian Lackey, the former drummer of Savannah band Bughummer.

With winter arriving, snowbird Miwa is heading down South for a mini-tour, bringing with her the recent album Forgetful Ocean and Other Strange Stories and stopping at Flicker to play a set with The Mattoid and Athens’ Ham1. The show gets going around 8:30 p.m.

Deirdre Sayre