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.