Photo: Courtesy of Parker Fitzgerald
We developed a total fan girl crush on Anya Marina when she covered rapper T.I.’s “Whatever You Like” on season three of Gossip Girl. If you didn’t catch that episode, you’ve probably heard the songstress’ soft, childlike voice on other hit shows, including Grey’s Anatomy, 90210, and How I Met Your Mother—not to mention her big screen debut on The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack. In addition to making the rounds on TV shows, the Michigan-born singer-songwriter has also toured with acts like Jason Mraz, Spoon, The Virgins, and, most recently, Nikka Costa at NYC’s Highline Ballroom. We caught up with Anya while she was out promoting her new album, Felony Flats (released in March) and chatted with her about producing her own music, life on the road with Jason Mraz, and whether she’s Team Edward or Team Jacob.
ELLEgirl (EG): How were you discovered? Anya Marina
(AM): I guess I was discovered by Alexandra Patsavas at Chop Shop Records when I was a DJ in San Diego and I was part-timing as a musician. I had recorded my own album, Miss Halfway, and she heard the title track from that and put it in a show that she was music supervising called Grey’s Anatomy, and that was my big break if you will.
EG: You used to act. Do you incorporate acting bits into your onstage performances?
AM: I think I can’t really help my somewhat entertainer personality—it comes out during shows, so there’s certainly an element of that. But I don’t think about it, I just like to connect with the crowd and get whatever is in my head out—it’s very therapeutic to connect with people that way. I don’t do a standard music show where you just play songs and say “good night.” I like to also talk to people. It’s not an elevated rock show either, it’s a little more casual. I think once I had Shaun Cassidy come up and sang a song with me. Just a couple weeks ago, I grabbed a person onstage with me who was one of my seatmates on a flight and made him tell me half the stories he told me onstage. Sometimes some stories get told about my mom, she’s Russian, so there’s all that, but it’s really whatever went on that week or whatever things are bothering me. I tend to overshare.
EG: Your song, “Satellite Heart” was featured on the The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack. Why do you think the song and its lyrics worked so well in the movie?
AM: I think that the director, Chris Weitz, thought that it really spoke to the Bella character. I wrote it for her in mind, I got to see the movie before it came out. I just felt really moved by that character’s sense of really feeling lost and spun out without her soulmate, and I think that is such a romantic idea to have a soulmate and someone that you really feel lost without…I wanted to write a song that spoke to that real romantic Shakespearean love where you feel lost without someone.
EG: Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob? AM: I have to be Team Edward, it’s so obvious. I don’t know, it seems like it would be a person without arms if she wasn’t with him.
EG: You’re probably sick of hearing this, but your sound is quite different from T.I.’s. Why did you decide to cover “Whatever You Like”?
AM: I loved the melody of that song and I thought it was really catchy obviously. I heard it in a club and everybody was singing. It has sort of childhood lyrics…it’s such a sort of nursery rhyme-y childlike refrain so that called back to me. I think I was seduced by the melody right away, and of course the lyrics. I really wanted to showcase the lyrics and I think that comes across [in the song].
EG: What was it like touring with Jason Mraz? AM: I love touring with Jason, not only because he and I go way back and are friends from San Diego days but also because he has a wonderful woman named Tricia Huffman who was his “joyologist”—she would lead us in yoga every day and prepare these amazing raw vegan meals. I felt really high on life because we were eating this really fresh organic amazing food and playing music and it was amazing to really take care of ourselves and play music, so it was just a lot of fun. And we had a lot of dance parties on the bus.
EG: You live in Portland, which is known for its trendy hipster style. Did it influence how you dress?
AM: It’s influenced me in that I don’t wear as much makeup as I used to. There’s not really such an emphasis on covering up or looks as much. I think it’s a very natural sort of place, and obviously everybody’s interested in organic this and that, so I think it’s really influencing in that way. I don’t wear makeup a lot of times.
EG: You produced your new record, Felony Flats, all by yourself. What were the struggles you faced?
AM: The biggest struggle I faced was just doubting I could do it, and once I got over that, it was really fun. And I had a great engineer that helped me out, Gregg Williams, and if it wasn’t for him, I couldn’t have gotten a lot of the sounds that I needed to get, and he had so many great ideas too. It was really fun. It was really empowering to know that I could do something that was completely out of my wheelhouse.
EG: A lot of your first album, Miss Halfway, talked about your ex’s. What does Felony Flats focus on? Has your sound changed?
AM: [The sound is] not totally far off. In fact, I just listened to Miss Halfway a few days ago, and even though it sounds a lot different, a lot of the spirit is the same—there’s still the same themes that pop up here and there. Felony Flats is much more tough and confident, and as a sound, I’ve definitely graduated to a place where I don’t think I’ll look back on this record and cringe.
EG: Do you cringe when you listen to your first record?
AM: I really didn’t know how to arrange songs that well yet and everything sounds so sweet sometimes to me, but when you really listen to the lyrics, the edges are still very much there. It’s still got a lot of snark and pain and yearning and honesty, so I’m really proud of that. Even though something can sound really pretty, that doesn’t mean that it lacks heart. A lot of [Felony Flats] is just believing in yourself, like that song “Believe Me I Believe”…moving, transitioning—I was moving from L.A. to Portland—saying goodbye to old relationships, there are a lot of subtle things. You kind of have to listen to it and figure it out for yourself. For me, it’s mostly that transition and really digging deep and getting over hurdles and growing up.
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