"I get weird songs in my head and putting pen to paper is kind of like a diuretic," Anya Marina says about why she writes songs. "If I didn't get them out, they would probably make my mind feel very bloated. And no girl likes to be bloated."
Perhaps that's why Marina's new album, Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II, feels like a skillful embodiment of that old storyteller's adage "less is more." The album is a tightly honed collection of winking pop gems and slyly sexy rock and roll that showcases this newcomer's deft melodic sensibility and wryly humorous lyrical point of view. As sassy and seductive as its title suggests, it's also keenly heartfelt, thanks to the intimacy of Marina's appealingly conversational vocal style and the personal nature of her lyrics, which Marina says chronicle a relationship. "I suppose it's about how you pick yourself up and dust yourself off after a break-up, and realize how fun it is to be on your own again--that all the negative stuff happened for a reason."
Musically, Marina and her producers Brian Karscig (guitarist for San Diego's Louis XIV, who produced 10 tracks) and Britt Daniel (of beloved indie-rock band Spoon, who produced two) keep things rocking at a dynamic clip. Many of the songs were originally built around rhythmic loops that Daniel had sent Marina to inspire her to begin writing again after a dry spell. "The record evolved from a conversation I had with Britt in a bar in Burbank, of all places," Marina says. "He was asking me about how I write and I told him I didn't feel inspired to write much of anything. I had been listening to a lot of Peaches, LCD Soundsystem, and Public Enemy, and I was thinking about how their music has this rhythmic drive to it. I told Britt I felt frustrated that I couldn't write that way." A week later, a CD of beats and drum loops that Daniel had created arrived in Marina's mail. "At the time, I didn't think what I was playing around with was going to form the seeds of my record, but those loops ended up giving birth to "Move You," "Two Left Feet," "Cut It Out," "All The Same To Me," and "High on the Ceiling," she says. "It really changed the way I wrote. I wanted the new album to feel like a more accurate expression of who I am as an artist. I wanted it to sound like something that I'd want to buy, and that meant making it something you could tap your toes to. The album's got some sexy, dirty rock and roll moments on it... a little more soul."
In 2005, Marina released Miss Halfway, which earned her a San Diego Music Award for "Best Local Recording," as well as the attention of Chop Shop Music Supervision's Alexandra Patsavas, the taste-making music supervisor for Grey's Anatomy, The O.C., Gossip Girl, and a host of other shows, as well as head of the newly formed indie label Chop Shop Records. After featuring Marina's songs on Grey's, Patsavas offered to release Slow & Steady, which Marina had planned to put out herself after giving up hope on getting a record deal. Now signed to Chop Shop, Marina's looking forward to people finally hearing Slow & Steady. "I hope people listen to it over and over and hear new things every time," she says. "There are a lot of fun little twists and weird surprises on there."
Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II is due out soon on Chop Shop Records.
(read less)"I get weird songs in my head and putting pen to paper is kind of like a diuretic," Anya Marina says about why she writes songs. "If I didn't get them out, they would probably make my mind feel very bloated. And no girl likes to be bloated."
Perhaps that's why Marina's new album, Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II, feels like a skillful embodiment of that old storyteller's adage "less is more." The album is a tightly honed collection of winking pop gems and slyly sexy rock and roll that...
(read more)
