MUSIC INTERVIEW: ANYA MARINA

The Singer Reflects on a Slow and Steady Seduction of Music & Song

By: Rosa Jurjevics

January 16, 2009

Anya Marina is no stranger to the music business. Until last year, her voice and musical selections could be heard during San Diego alternative radio station FM 94.9′s drive-time hours. Now, she is currently gearing up for an east coast, midwest, and Canadian tour as a full-time musician. Before heading out, she chatted via phone about her ever-evolving career.

Rosa Jurjevics: How did you go from actress to English major to radio DJ to musician?

Anya Marina: [Laughs] Oh, let’s see… Actress to English major was the result of really not wanting to end up in Los Angeles without a degree. A degree was always really important to me, and I went to LA initially because I was restless and really couldn’t focus on school, and I knew that I didn’t want to be in college right at that moment and didn’t want to be wasting my parents’ money and my time. I tried to go, but my heart wasn’t really in it. So I went to LA for a while and then promptly realized that “if you want to be an actor, you’re going to have to commit to it one hundred percent,” and then I realized that would mean saying goodbye to my dream of finishing school and getting a degree…which I wasn’t ready to do at that point. And then I just ended up doing radio at the end of college, for fun. I don’t know how these things happen. I had always played music, and that sort of overtook the radio thing. Everything has been very slow and steady, hence the name of my record.

RJ: That’s usually a good thing, I would think.

AM: Yeah, I’m not really one for rash decision-making. I’ve always had a knack for a few things in my life, and I’ve always pursued those things when I could, in spite of people saying, “You should focus on one thing at a time!” I’ve always felt like music and performing in general, whether it was on the radio or on stage or in theatre or in film, those things [have] always been on my plate since I was a kid. It all feels like a natural progression of things.

RJ: What made you take that first leap into singing? Do you remember when you decided to go for it, or did it just happen?

AM: I remember always being in choir and in musicals as a kid, so singing was always a part of my life, but at the same time, I always had this feeling that I wasn’t a singer or that I wasn’t very talented because I have a smaller voice, and so people were always either teasing me about it or pointing out that it was a unique voice. So it took me years before I realized it was an asset and not a liability. I think it was a friend of mine that had a band, and he said, “Would you sing for us? Because we need a singer.” It was an instrumental band, and I was completely taken aback and thought he was crazy. I said, “I don’t sing!” He said, “Yeah, you do. You were in choir in high school — you’ve certainly sung before.” So I thought, “Okay, I’ll try it,” and it was really fun. It was probably pretty horrible for a while, but then it got fun. And then songwriting was a different animal altogether. That was a really private pursuit, and then I got a boyfriend who heard some songs and encouraged me to do some coffee shop open-mic stuff, and it’s probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. But after you do it a couple of times, actually, it’s kind of fun.

RJ: This was all in San Diego?

AM: The open mics, yeah, were in San Diego. The band thing was up in San Jose, where I’m from.

RJ: What kinds of places did you do the open mics at?

AM: Java Jones in Ocean Beach. That was where I cut my teeth, certainly, and it was really just Java Jones for a year or so, and then I think I started playing at The Casbah and other places, like The Epicenter and then Lestat’s, when Lestat’s came around.

RJ: How did you launch your career? How did you make the right contacts? Were any of them radio people that you knew?

AM: Let’s see… It was a process. It was certainly not overnight. It was just a lot of getting out there and playing. One week you have five people at your show, the next week you have seven, the week after that you have ten… I mean, it was a really slow build. After I recorded my album… I think that was a really important thing — recording — having something in my hand that I could give people and say, “Listen to this, these are my songs.” So after I recorded Miss Halfway, I gave it to all my radio co-wokers, like Mike Halloran. They were like, “Great, these are pretty songs,” but nothing really came of it. It was a really slow build until eventually, I think, KCRW played me, and Halloran played me a couple of times, but it wasn’t until Alex Patsavas heard my music and put me on Grey’s Anatomy that [I got] a lot more of a following.

RJ: I read about that. That must have been crazy, watching it!

AM: Yeah, it was really fun because I was a fan of the show. It was totally weird, though, because when you’re writing a song, you’re not thinking of anything other than your own personal construct for the plot, and then to see it put over a different scene and it actually works in its own way is sort of hysterical. You’re kind of laughing, and at the same time it’s art in its own way, and so I appreciated the artistry of that too.

RJ: What fueled your switch to being a full-time musician?

AM: It just became so much work to sustain my music career and tour, and I was taking a lot of time off of work at the radio station, and it just became really apparent to me that I was going to be very, very busy this year. I was driving up to LA sometimes three times a week for stuff — just meetings and things like that — and I knew I would have to finish recording my album and then, after that, there was going to be a lot of promotion to do and then touring, and it just became painfully obvious that something had to give.

RJ: What feedback have you been getting about your decision to switch careers?

AM: People have been really supportive and positive. I still have a full inbox of 94.9 listeners saying, “We miss you, but good for you; keep kicking ass and we’re proud of you!” That’s been so nice. They’ve been super supportive and tell me to take pictures and keep blogging, and keep doing video blogs from the road and stay in touch that way, and that’s cool.

RJ: What is your weirdest fan story?

AM: Oh, I know the coolest fan story! There’s a guy that listens to 94.9 who sends me watercolors of myself. He’s never seen me or met me, but he sends me these cartoons that are done in watercolor and they’re really sophisticated, and I’m always doing something interesting in the cartoons that I’d never do in real life, like hula hooping or surfing. He has me doing all sorts of action figure-type things. I have them still. He made me playing cards. Those are fun. They’re Anya playing cards. Whenever somebody makes something, that’s really cool — something creative like that. I’ve been pretty impressed with my fans’ creativity levels. Tiki Daddy — he’s an FM 94.9 listener. He carved me a tiki once — an actual tiki head. That was pretty cool.

RJ: Do you still have it?

AM: I donated it to 94.9. It was like 50 pounds. It couldn’t be dragging it around when I moved.

RJ: Any music recommendations for the new year?

AM: Yeah, I really like this band The Heavenly States a lot. What else am I listening to? I just made a new mix the other day. I like the new Deerhunter album and Department of Eagles. I love Little Joy. I like the new Fleet Foxes record. I love the new Beyonce song! [Sings "If you liked it, you should put a ring on it!"] Oh, I love Delta Spirit.

RJ: Tell me a little bit about this upcoming tour.

AM: I’m touring with Greg Laswell and Jenny Owen Youngs for four dates, and that’ll be fun — a sort of solo, singer-songwriter tour around Boston, DC, Brooklyn, and Philly. And then I do a solo show with the band in New York City on my album release date, which is January 20th, and then I go for a few weeks with The Virgins all up and down the east coast, and then the midwest and a couple of Canadian dates — Montreal and Toronto. I’m really looking forward to seeing Toronto and Montreal. I’ve never been there before. I’ve also never been to Nashville, so we’re going there, as well as Atlanta and Athens, Georgia, so that’ll be fun.