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Anya Marina > S

Anya Marina (born September 23, 1976) is a singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. Her music has primarily gained notice after being on a variety of television sitcoms and has been featured on prime time dramas the ABC television drama Grey's Anatomy as well as CBS's How I Met Your Mother, MTV's The Real World, ABC's Castle, Showtime's United States of Tara, CW's Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural and has a song featured on t ... he Twilight "New Moon" soundtrack. After graduating in 1997, Anya worked at radio station XHRM-FM in San Diego. She was first hired by Mike Halloran, initially at another studio, Y107 in Los Angeles before they both moved to Premium Radio in San Diego's North San Diego County, California. After leaving KSOQ both disc jockeys worked at FM 94/9. In San Diego Marina played her first open mic night and began to write her own songs. She developed a live show that included anecdotes and frank stories told between songs, and continued working as a DJ on the radio in San Diego while playing around town and, later, touring. Her recorded debut was a five-song EP called Exercises in Racketeering, which eventually led to a full-length album, Miss Halfway, which was released January 25, 2005. Anya subsequently opened for Jason Mraz, Juliana Hatfield and Rhett Miller among others. She was named one of the "Best Unsigned" acts by the San Diego CityBeat. The songs on Miss Halfway talk about her upbringing and ex-boyfriends. The album was produced by Scott Russo, the frontman for rockers Unwritten Law, and Peter King from The Surfers. The record eventually earned a San Diego Music Award for Best Recording. The title track also landed on Grey's Anatomy and was featured as the fifth song on the second Grey's Anatomy (soundtrack) disc along with The Fray, KT Tunstall, Gomez and Snow Patrol. On January 20, 2009, Marina released her second album, Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II. The album was produced by Brian Karscig from Louis XIV and Britt Daniel from Spoon. The music video for the album's first single, "Move You", was directed by Scott Coffey. On June 8, 2009 the video for "All The Same To Me", directed by Josh Forbes, premiered exclusively on Spinner.com. Anya Marina performed songs from Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II at BETA Records TV studios in Hollywood, California. A video was posted of a personal interview and her small intimate performance of "All The Same To Me" directed by Eric MacIver and produced by Chris Honetschlaeger. In the summer of 2009, Anya was nominated for 3 San Diego Music Awards: Artist of the Year, Album of the Year (Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II), and Song of the Year ("Move You"). On September 10, 2009, "Move You" won the award for Song of the Year, beating out fellow nominees including Jack Tempchin and Jason Mraz. Her song "Satellite Heart" was featured on the Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack. "Satellite Heart" was released October 8, 2009, with the video (directed by Scott Coffey), released on November 3, 2009. Later that same month, she performed the song at multiple venues on the nationwide 'New Moon Talent Tour'. Marina co-hosted the live MySpace broadcast of the New Moon premiere. Anya was highlighted in an article by CNN.com as an artist poised on the edge of breakout success due to her involvement in the soundtrack. Marina's cover of "Whatever You Like", originally by rapper T.I., was featured on the November 9, 2009 episode of Gossip Girl, "They Shoot Humphreys, Don't They?". Marina has toured with Jason Mraz, Chris Isaak, Greg Laswell, Eric Hutchinson, The Virgins, Emiliana Torrini, Paolo Nutini, and Joshua Radin. See more [+]