Back in March at South By Southwest, our Joshua got to sit down in a downtown Austin coffeeshop and chat up the lovely and uber-talented Anya Marina, whose become a Popwreckoning favorite since the very first listen of A Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II (still one of our most listened to albums!).
Joshua, PopWreckoning: I know you wanted a fun interview, but I have to ask you at least two musical questions.
Anya Marina: No problem. OK.
PW: So I think we should go with the fact that you’re a Hotel Café kid. How do you feel that the Hotel Café has enhanced music and how it has advanced the careers with the tight knit family that is the Hotel Café kids.
AM: They’ve given us a venue to play in that is not only a wonderful listening room, but a place that feels like home, where you can go almost anytime and think of ideas. There’s a real collaborative feeling and that is really unique. You don’t find that in other places.
There was a place in San Diego like that, too, at one point called Java Joe’s and people like Jewel came up there, and Jason Mraz and Faith Hill and myself. I just found that in Los Angeles at the Hotel Café. So it is nice when you meet people that are cut from the same cloth and you have like a living room of sorts to hang out in and work out ideas.
PW: We are really big on pushing the Hotel Café people and we’ve heard from Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin and Rachael Yamagata. There’s Meiko, and all we have heard from them is the way you guys take care of each other and the way you interact with each other. It’s become more than just a music venue it has become a family in a way like that the rat pack was where you guys all have each others’ backs and you help each other out on each others’ tours.
AM: Yeah. I feel more like a satellite in regard to that actual group. They’re all fantastic and talented, but I don’t know them all that well. I lived in San Diego for ten years. I was like a commuter student at the university of Hotel Café, you know what I mean? So I’m really tight with [Greg] Laswell and Molly Jenkins and Jim Bianco.
PW: I love Jim.
AM: Yeah, he’s great. When I say really tight, I’ve seen the guy once in the last six months. We just saw each other in the alley behind The Parrish the other day. High five I got to go. I would be sort of a poser if I said yeah we all have each others’ backs. I don’t know those guys all that well. I think they certainly do.
I never really felt a part of any group. Whether in high school or at Java Joe’s. I always made a point not to play too many shows with the same people. Not because I’m not a fan, but because I never wanted to become sort of associated with ‘oh, she’s the Java Joe’s girl’ or ’she’s the Hotel Café girl.’ I’m trying to find a …reluctantly even, keep a toe dipped in there.
I love all those guys, but I think it is important to play a lot of different venues and play with different folks. For me personally, I like a bill that’s varied. I don’t like all the bands to sound the same.
PW: I can absolutely respect that. I think that’s great you aren’t pigeonholed.
PW: So I really only had one more about music.
AM: OK.
PW: Because you told me you wanted a fun interview and I wanted to respect that.
AM: This is actually fun.
PW: Is it? OK. I’m excited. I’ve had a good time hanging out with you this weekend.
AM: Me too. I saw you in Lawrence.
PW: Yes. And I didn’t get to talk to you as much there as I wanted to. It was kind of rushed, but here it has been kind of mellow and calm. You said that you never tried to wedge yourself into a box. How has, and this isn’t just you, I ask this of a lot of people, how has your individuality been supported by the label that you find yourself on?
AM: Absolutely. There have only been a few instances where they really challenged me on something and I’ve had some out there ideas both artistically and musically. They really have said go with it. I got to pick my favorite video director who was essentially a filmmaker, not a music video director, Scott Coffee. I was such a fan of his, who did a movie. They said go for it. I got to pick my number one choice for a photographer, Autumn de Wilde, who is phenomenal.
PW: We love her.
AM: She’s great. They could have easily said go with somebody more commercial to do your video and your packaging and your photos, but they didn’t. They’ve constantly helped me to get where I want to get and get who I want. Like work with the people that I’m dreaming of working with.
They told me at the beginning: make a dream list. Give it to us. It is our job to make all those things happen. I swear to god I keep checking things off. Simone Ruby did my packaging for my CD and she’s so great. She did The Reminder for Feist. She’s just like really amazing, incredible artist, totally not commercial. They went with that, too. So it has been fun working with them.
PW: It’s been definitely noticeable. One of my favorite things about your music and all of what you just said and just even hanging out with you this weekend, you can absolutely tell that you’re a complete individual. You’re not just pegged…kegged…cogged? Pegged.
AM: Cogged.
PW: Cogged in the marketing field. I get surrounded by… being a journalist… there’s a lot of artists that I’m around where you know that they’re just there to sell records and you can tell that you’re having a good time and doing what you love. It makes it a lot easier to be around you. You’re a lot of fun.
AM: Aw! You’re going to make me cry. And I’m sleep-deprived. I’m very sleep-deprived at the drop of a hat.
PW: Me too. Which is where the cogged/pegged thing came from.
AM: We were drinking from a keg last night. That’s why.
PW: What did you think of Tinted Windows?
AM: I’ve never seen Hanson perform so that was a treat. I’m a huge fan of Fountains of Wayne and James Iha is of course a legend. I believe that he has peroxide blonde hair, so…
PW: Yeah, right? And it looked gray in the light.
AM: Those guys are rock stars. The drummer from Cheap Trick! I’m spacing on his name right now. [Ed. Note: Bun E. Carlos] But it was a lot of fun. Great sort of radio songs on there. I’m speaking from a DJ history stand point. I thought it was cool. It didn’t blow me away.
PW: I wasn’t completely sold, but I thought they were a lot better than I expected them to be. I expected it to be a train wreck.
AM: Really?
PW: Yeah.
AM: Musically they sounded great. I kept saying to my friend, I want them to look at each other more.
PW: Yes, there was no interaction. I noticed that.
AM: It felt a little antiseptic.
PW: It was very impersonal. I noticed that.
AM: Perhaps they were nervous. They said they were nervous I think at one point. So, let’s see them a couple months from now.
PW: I’m excited they’re an actual project instead of a one time thing. Like they’re making an album and they’re going to go on tour. I’m excited about that. It was also fun to hear Taylor [Hanson] say “fuck,”which really surprised me.
AM: Yeah, he did. Did he say it or sing it?
PW: No he said it.
AM: I feel like he sang shit.
PW: Did he? That’s crazy.
AM: I don’t know. It could have been something else.
PW: Hanson gone wild.
PW: I’m going to ask you something like, if you could be one flavor of icecream, what flavor would you be?
AM: Nooo. OK, shit. I’ve dug my own grave.
PW: You did dig your own grave.
AM: I think I would be Joshua mint chip.
PW: That’s a good one. That’s the greatest answer I’ve ever received in an interview ever. Let’s end with that because I can’t top that off.
AM: That’s really great. I like it.
Anya Marina: website | myspace | A Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II review | @ tin angel | @ Chop Shop showcase, SXSW 2009
Photos: Jessica McGinley
Help Popwreckoning by Bookmarking us on Delicious
