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and Baker for her latest disc This Is How I Found You, Miwa proclaims, "It was much more challenging this time. I definitely over worked poor Andy! It was only 4 days and we recorded like 16 hours a day! Challenge was that the songs were more complicated than Forgetful Ocean, and of course, I added a lot more instruments. Too bad that was before I learned the accordion, but the next one will definitely feature accordion."

She expresses that she is self-taught on guitar, banjo, and mandolin and took piano lessons as a child growing up in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu, a southern island of Japan. She recalls, "I had the most wonderful piano teacher who was very strict and yet very philosophical, in a way taught me how my personality relates to music. With guitar, my favorite instrument, I'm all self-taught."

Miwa made her way to America as an exchange student and eventually settled in New York City. One of her girlfriend's during this time was instrumental in helping her to settle down in America, but since her girlfriend was unable to accompany her to all her shows, Miwa carries her girlfriend with her symbolically in a porcelain cat that sits perched on a stool beside her at every show. This way Miwa's friend can be at every one of her concerts.

Recently, Miwa made new friends in Canada at the record label Addictive Records, who signed her to a distribution deal for her latest album This Is How I Found You. The stakes are much higher now and Miwa explains how she was selected for the deal. "I was a winner of the Harvest Sky Award at Indie Week 2006. One of the awards was Canadian distribution through Addictive Records."

She observes about her songwriting, "All my songs are born in my head," and she provides about the material for her previous album Forgetful Ocean, "I have a song that I finished in literally 5 minutes and I have a song that I worked on for a month. The inspirations are all over whatever I'm feeling that moment. I have a song inspired by an afternoon rain, something I wanted to say to someone but I couldn't, and sometimes I'm just lucky enough to stumble onto a song."

Miwa examines how she chose the title and the songs for This Is How I Found You. "I didn't realize until I began working on the new album that my old one (Forgetful Ocean and Other Strange Stories) was a break-up album. After getting my heart repeatedly broken, I realized I was tired and bored of writing sad songs, so I purposely began writing happy songs - or rather songs about

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