ALBUM REVIEW: Mia Doi Todd - Human Experience.
Release Date
17 April 2026
Duration
41 minutes
Styles
Contemporary folk , Ambient, Dream pop, Psychedelic folk, Minimalist singer-songwriter
Record Label
City Zen Records
My new album, Human Experience, chronicles our family life on the island of Maui for the last few years. It was produced by Micah Nelson, Willie Nelson’s youngest son, who grew up on Maui. Micah and I have many friends in common and had planned out our recording session over a couple phone meetings, but we had never met until he arrived at our house on the day after Thanksgiving to start our week long recording session. Micah is such a wonderful human being and a brilliant musician. We had a blast recording my songs. It came very naturally. My longtime percussionist and friend, Andres Renteria, came to play percussion. Aroyn Day from Micah’s band Particle Kid, came to play bass. Micah’s wife Alex took this cover photo while documenting the event, and my friend Grace Oh cooked for us. It was magic. The day we finished, a huge full moon came out and blessed us with a moonbow.
A couple months later, we finished up the album, mixing with Mario Caldato Jr. in northeast Los Angeles, my home town. We have guest appearances from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson on strings, Gabe Noel on bass, my husband Jesse Peterson on keys and whistles and our daughter Ynez on backup vocals. The final track, “Kaupakalua,” my homage to the Hawaiian mele honoring a place, brings together two of Maui’s most beloved musicians, George Kahumoku Jr. and Geri Valdriz. I hope this album brings some peace and joy to your household, even if you are under duress in these trying times. Put it on repeat, and it could brighten up your day! /album/human-experience
“Loco Moco” a song from my new album coming out this Friday!!! I just finished packing up all my stuffff, leaving sweet Maui, moving back to Cali today.
My new album HUMAN EXPERIENCE comes out next week!!!! We are having an album release show and party on Saturday April 18 at 2220 Arts + Archives in LA, presented by KCRW. Ticket link in bio…
