Milwaukee native Stephanie Dosen has returned home ... and just in time. The singer, songwriter and accomplished musician has spent the past decade in Springfield, Missouri, where she studied music and began traveling a path that has led to the release of her debut CD, "Ghosts, Mice & Vagabonds," which comes out today.
With an expressive voice, a bag full of introspective, melodic songs and an acoustic guitar slung over her shoulder, the 20-something Dosen is ready to take the world by storm. With some of the tracks on her disc -- like the infectious and addictive "Weak" -- she just might do it.
We recently caught up with Dosen and asked her about her past, the present and what the future might hold.
OMC: When did you start playing music? Are you a trained musician?
SD: I started with a plastic Shaun Cassidy guitar from K-mart that I begged for so I could accompany myself in my chorus-only renditions of "Rhinestone Cowboy" at the age of 4. After that I think they shipped me off to music school just so I'd learn some new songs.
OMC: You've spent the past decade in Springfield, Missouri. Tell us about that. Was music a focus of your life there?
SD: The past 10 years have been a lot of pulling taffy, just overlapping my journal writing upon itself. I was studying choral music and opera just waiting to graduate so I could play my guitar. I finished all the classes in my graduate work and then started writing songs instead of writing my thesis. I now have my masters in procrastination and about 70 songs.
OMC: You had some success with a band called Virus. Did you learn a lot from that experience about the act making music and about the business of making music?
SD: Virus was a collaboration and totally different from what I'm doing now. The guys in the band would write experimental electronic music and I'd go in and put the headphones on and record vocals over the top. They were signed to a label out of California called Velocity and I came in after the fact. I leaned on them when it came to creative expression and was afraid to come out and say what I really meant in the songs or have control over the background musical aspect. Everyone kept saying "you should be doing your acoustic stuff," but I wasnt ready to do it until now. As far as the fickle beast we call the music industry, I've met her and she's not pretty. I'm trying to get past her in the hallway without getting beaten up again.
OMC: Why did you come back? Do you think Milwaukee is a good place from which you can build a career in music?
SD: I love Milwaukee. Remember that old channel 12 commercial from the '80s that said, "makes no difference where I go, you're the best hometown I know, hello Milwaukee, hello Milwaukeeeeeee, channel 12 loves you"? I swear when I was away I would run around and sing that and get all homesick. This is a beautiful city by the lake and there are plenty of places to play music here ... people come out to see it, or to drink beer. Either way, we all get along.
OMC: What has the response been among the music community in Milwaukee to your music? It seems like there's quite a big buzz building.
SD: Okay, you are making me get all hokey, but I feel like I came home to a family here ... everyone is going out of their way to help me find success. I feel like for the past year I've been trying to push a snowball across the yard for hours by myself and suddenly all at once the whole entire neighborhood came out to help. Now it's like, hot cocoa for everyone!
OMC: Tell us about the making of "Ghosts, Mice and Vagabonds." It has a very organic feel to it, almost like we're listening to the music being born. It feels very honest and simple.
SD: The record was made in a studio in the heart of an old abandoned grain mill factory in the industrial part of Springfield, right by the train tracks. It is legendarily haunted, there are tons of stories. The thing had seven floors and was so eerily huge and spooky ... we took advantage of the atmosphere in our recording process by setting up mics all over the chambers and recording late at night. You can actually hear all kinds of sounds on the tracks from random ghosts, mice and/or vagabonds mulling around the place. So, it sounds very organic and live ... the title just sort of sprang from that experience.
OMC: Is the band on the record still playing with you or do you have a Milwaukee-based band now?
SD: I am currently sans-band. I enjoy performing acoustic shows; you have a lot more freedom with the songs. If a song isn't working for a specific audience, you cut it short or rock out a bit. Every crowd is different and it's easier for me by myself to work my set around the atmosphere of the people. Making music for people is a form of communication. If you aren't reaching them you might need to alter your approach a bit, otherwise you are just up there doing it for only you. It takes a great band to be able to do that together, to create unity and understanding with a crowd of people that you don't know ... all that and also if you mess up you can cover it easier.
OMC: Do you have a favorite track, one that you enjoy performing most? Is there one with a special meaning for you?
SD: As long as I can conjure up feeling, I like to play any song. If I can't relate to the song at the time it is dead to me and it means nothing to play it. So, I think it's fun to play songs that have a universal theme that everybody digs but an esoteric mystery for me that I dig while I'm playing it.
OMC: I first heard "Weak" and was moved by its melancholic melody, the emotional quality of the lyrics, which also have some lovely imagery, and your passionate performance. Is there a story behind the song?
{INSERT_RELATED}SD: Oh, it was just a little whining and complaining about a relationship. I get mail about that song that says, "oh that's such a great break-up song" and we didn't even break up for a year after I wrote it. It gets pretty complicated to explain and everyone pulls their own ideas about the song anyway which is good. Once at a show a guy was screaming out, "Play the front porch song! Play the front porch song!" and he was singing a little bit of it. The song he was talking about had nothing to do with any front porch of any kind in any way but he saw in his mind a front porch when I said, "blue paper lanterns" so imagery is a tricky thing. I'm into how the transfer of words into pictures is different for everyone.
OMC: What musicians move you?
SD: Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls, her songwriting is phenomenal and keeps getting better every year, I saw them for the first time at Summerfest in '92. Sinead O'Connor, she has so much feeling in her voice it breaks my heart. Liz Frazier from the Cocteau Twins; this woman can write melody through herself that comes from another place where everyone wears white feathers and carries peacocks for pets. I dig anyone who can let the sub-conscious go and write: Nick Drake, Pink Floyd, The Innocence Mission, Jane Siberry, Dead Can Dance, Rufus Wainwright, Coldplay, The Sundays, Radiohead, Bjork, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, we could seriously sit here all day so I'll stop there.
OMC: What's next for you?
SD: Um ... I think I'm going to go grab a beer ... and I believe I'm in the right place for that.
You can learn more about Dosen, contact her and buy copies of "Ghosts, Mice & Vagabonds" at www.stephaniedosen.com.
Dosen performs Sat., Nov. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the Milwaukee Ale House in the Third Ward.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
