New Artist

BIOGRAPHY

A murderous girl with a spine of steel. An asteroid hurtling toward a ruminating woman. Shards of glass leading to a dark, friendly place.

Welcome to the provocative vision of singer-songwriter Anya Marina’s stunning new album Asteroid, her most assured work yet. Almost two decades into a distinctive career encompassing songs featured in Twilight: New Moon, Gossip Girl, and Grey’s Anatomy, an award-winning web series (Anya Marina: Indie-pendent Woman), seven albums, three EPs, and extensive touring with artists ranging from Jason Mraz to Spoon to superstar standup Nikki Glaser, the riveting performer / creative powerhouse is looking back, taking stock in song. Marina calls Asteroid “a coming-of-age story about a late bloomer. This record is about growing up, becoming fully who I am, and celebrating it.”

The irresistible, cinematic single “Nothing Lasts” – “the most straightforwardly autobiographical song I’ve ever written,” says Marina – sets the tone. “Nothing Lasts” unspools sweet, humorous vignettes – both spoken and sung – of a young girl starting to grasp the passage of time and, via Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and the Beatles’ White Album, the transcendence of music. Although upbeat, with an enchanting melody and tinkling barroom piano, the song artfully addresses unsettling change: “In the past few years, I’ve lost close friends, relationships have ended and started, I’ve moved, said goodbye to people and cities I loved,” says Marina, “and collectively, we’ve all undergone much sadness, watching the world go through a lot of turmoil. ‘Nothing lasts’ has been my mantra.”

Both “Nothing Lasts,” and the title track, Marina says, are “the heart of the album.” While the former is light, “Asteroid” is more shadow. In an aching, arcing melody, over finger-picked acoustic, she sings, “I have tried to fix myself / Straighten out the bumps and flatten where I’m bent / Heal the parts that needed help / I have tried to fix myself.” Marina elaborates: “The protagonist reflects on her life and all the inner work she has done, and wonders if it amounts to anything. Has any of it stuck? Am I changed at all or am I still riddled with all the foibles and shortcomings I had when I first began?”

Newly married and recently landed in Kingston, NY, Marina crafted Asteroid’s songs from a newfound, and welcome, stability. Prior to this, she says, “I didn’t really have a safe, steady vantage point.” Although rich in adventure, Marina’s journey hasn’t been an easy one: moves from San Diego to Portland to New York City, and now Kingston, accompanied by heartbreak and emotional turmoil, well-documented in song. The assertive, wise Asteroid – her first studio album since Covid lockdown – finds her feeling “free of things that were pulling me down, getting in my way.”

Marina says all the work of getting from there to here – including sobriety, meditation, and especially long walks – has paid off: “I’ve written a lot of songs on walks, even some of the first I ever wrote,” she says. “Something about the rhythm and cadence of a walking beat.”

Most of Asteroid came fast on the heels of Marina’s relocation to the Hudson Valley. What she describes as “melodies that sound like strange Disney album B-sides, or bizzarro cousins of cabaret, classical music, Bossa nova, or jazz,” arrived quickly, “like tuning into a faraway frequency on a radio dial.” These include the hypnotic waltz “Where the Darkness Is,” on which Marina pledges to – actually prefers to – connect with someone during trouble: “Where the failure starts / I’ll meet you where things fall apart / I need it.” The beautiful, Beatles-y “London Blues” also came fast. “The entire melody of the song – even the feeling of it and how it should be sung – just arrived one day, unprompted. I’m so glad I recorded it into my phone before falling asleep.”

Whereas Marina’s previous studio release Queen of the Night (2020) was recorded piecemeal over months and featured layers of synthetic sound, Asteroid came together quickly, mostly in the Woodstock, NY barn studio of producer / guitarist Kevin Salem (Rachael Yamagata, Mike Doughty), who favors a more organic, spare approach. Acoustic guitar – Marina’s onstage weapon of choice – abounds: aggressively strummed on the rocking “Waiting for a Difference,” head-bopping funky on “Gimme Sugar,” delicately picked on the lovelorn “London Blues.” Vintage Wurlitzer keyboard and a distorted drum loop are the sole accompaniment to Marina’s avenging angel vocals on the devastating “Girl Shit,” a fascinating look at how a woman builds a powerful inner life. Marina attributes the baroque, swirling harmonies of “Girl Shit” to both growing up with a jazz trumpeter father and to “listening to hundreds of hours of Elliott Smith.”

With “Sunshine or Shadow,” Marina serves up a swaggering rock and roll love song propelled by Salem’s fuzz guitar and relentless drums courtesy of Cody Rahn. By contrast, “UR Good” is all 80s dancefloor synthesizers, drum machine, and lush harmonies. Both dark and weirdly funny, “UR Good” is sung from the perspective of a deep space droid reflecting on both its own mortality and that of the deceased Earthling whose cell phone it found. The languid “Beautiful and Stoned” similarly walks a line between dire and comical.

The deft humor in much of Asteroid is no accident. Touring since 2019 with friend and former roommate, comedian Nikki Glaser, has made a big difference in Marina’s life, both personally and artistically. “Opening for Nikki has made me a better performer and songwriter,” Marina says. “I’ve learned to crystallize things better, get to the point. Playing to 2,000 comedy fans can be very daunting. It will whip you into shape fast. I love it.”

With Asteroid, Marina feels comfortable in her own skin at last, excited to begin again. “Something about these songs feels young,” she says. “I’m finally learning how to take care of myself, how to say no to certain things, how to be more involved in the recording process. I wanted to make the album of my life. And I’ve done that, hands down.”

 —Robert Burke Warren

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