Dive into our conversation with Marella, a multi-talented artist hailing from Lake Balboa in LA
Balancing his role in the pool with his passion for music, Daniel Marella opens up about his daily routine, from the early morning swim practices to finding time to play drums and compose in his garage.
Living in the eclectic Lake Balboa neighborhood of Los Angeles, he shares what he loves about the city’s unique blend of cultures. Marella also delves into musical influences, including Green Day and The 1975, and discusses the creative process for his latest EP, “Wide Guy.”
Join us as we uncover Marella’s journey, his musical inspirations, and what’s next on his horizon.
Happy: What are you up to today?
Marella: I’m the Assistant Swim Coach here at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. I’ve been with this program for three years now – I was a lifelong swimmer and was a D1 collegiate swimmer at UC Santa Barbara.
My days start early here, usually around 5:15 AM every day! So I’ll be here running practices, attending meetings, and recruiting future athletes for our program.
Hopefully I get home to play some drums and have some down time today!
Happy: Tell us a little about where you live, what do you love about it?
Marella: I live in Los Angeles, California. More specifically, Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley.
LA has so many different pockets and so many different cultures.
It’s a city that I’ve never really experienced before. Lake Balboa is a small little town within Los Angeles, and it gives mostly a residential vibe with a beautiful park in the middle of it.
I’ve always been drawn to some semblance of suburbia. I know suburbia freaks out a lot of my friends, but I think it’s calming and not overwhelming like many places in LA.
The rent is also cheaper than most places, and my current house has a garage where I write all my music :)
Happy: Who are your biggest musical influences, and how have they shaped your sound?
Marella: I have so many, and I think this answer has changed so many times over the course of my life.
But, I think the overwhelming answer to me are two bands: Green Day and The 1975.
Green Day is my all time favorite band and Tre Cool is my all time favorite drummer.
Their discography ranges from timeless classics to deeper cuts that mean so much to so many people (including myself (songs like ‘Whatsername’ and ‘She’).
Their sound is so iconic, recognizable, and melodic. Tre definitely has shaped my drumming style and sound.
The 1975 are such a great band. The production is phenomenal, the drumming from George is simple but so unique, and has defined the Indie sound of the 2010-20s.
They really inspire me because while they do have an iconic sound, they have so many songs that bend so many genres.
Whether that’s “People”, a look into a punk rock, “I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes) gives you a look into their take on Shoegaze, and “All I Need To Hear” brings you back to the sound of the 60s with their usage of heavy tape delay on the vocals and bluesy piano chords.
They’ve really shown me that you don’t have to stick to one genre or one sound to be a successful artist.
Happy: Can you describe your typical songwriting and recording process? Do you prefer a structured or more spontaneous approach?
I always write pretty much everything by myself. Right now, it’s in my non-insulated garage at my current house.
It used to be in my room at my old apartment right after I graduated from college, and it used to be in my college bedroom in a house that I shared with 14 other guys on my swim team.
The demo songwriting is pretty spontaneous – I usually just noodle around on
my guitar and build from there. There are times where I build the song from my piano, but I feel most comfortable on the guitar (even though I am a drummer).
I always write the music first, lyrics always come last and are the hardest thing for me to write.
When I get into the studio, I like to be very, very structured. My demos are almost always fully thought out, and each part is already written out.
I like doing this so my producer, Max Bienert who has worked on all of my studio projects thus far, doesn’t have to focus on building/writing the song and can focus more on adding and supplementing his ideas.
Our workflow is very efficient and very organized. We always build from drums up, usually moving to bass, then guitars, to keys, and vocals last.
Happy: Can you elaborate on the personal stories and experiences that inspired the songs on “Wide Guy”? How did you translate these into the music?
Marella: It has always felt weird to share this creative side of my life. My whole life was involved in sports – and swimming at the highest level.
I was always around a lot of hypermasculinity growing up in the sport and at UCSB.
So I always was afraid that my musical side was ‘weird’ because it didn’t involve heavy drinking, anger, or drugs like many of the college kids at that school (not so much my teammates, but the school’s party culture in general, and college athlete culture in general).
That’s a huge generalization, albeit I think anyone reading this that played sports in college or went to UCSB would agree.
That being said, I walked through many years of my life as a walking identity crisis without even realizing it; I was always confused why I was involved in music AND in sport, while being half-Japanese and half-Irish-Italian in communities that were either very White dominated or very Asian dominated.
It was always in the back of my mind in middle school and high school, but I didn’t really realize it until college and during my (current) post college life.
And it’s taken me until now to actually express these feelings through my art.
Wide Guy is a collection of stories in my life. ‘Silver Lake’ is my commentary about how I fit in (or don’t) in Los Angeles and in the music circles in general as a half-Asian man.
‘I Think She’s In Love With Me’ is a song written with a very close friend of mine about growing up as a kid on the modern internet with a crush, and the mystery of those feelings.
‘A Dress For The Summer’ is sort of like a thank you to my current partner while commenting on previous relationships.
I think thank you’s can be really vulnerable – expressing gratitude is vulnerable. Vulnerability isn’t really a value in sports.
‘Salem’ is about one of my very turbulent relationships growing up, and we purposely stripped back the instrumentation and production to let the lyrics ring out – something we haven’t deliberately done to this point.
‘Where’s My Home’ is probably the most honest song I’ve written, sort of encapsulates the whole EP in one song.
Happy: What role did production play in shaping the unique sonic worlds of each track on the EP? Were there any specific techniques or influences you drew from?
Marella:My producer is Max Bienert. We also happen to be very, very close friends.
That allows us to have a non-BS approach to production. I let him take a lot of that responsibility, but also tell him point blank if I don’t like something.
He does the same with my songwriting and different parts and melodies within these songs.
This EP was all about evoking some sort of nostalgia. So we took a ton of influence from the sounds of the 2000s and earlier.
‘Silver Lake’ opens up with tape-hiss and a cassette recording of the chorus, and includes very tight prominent harmonies in the chorus like you’d hear in a 2000s pop-punk song mixed by Chris Lorge-Alge.
We deliberately included a lot of surf elements in ‘I Think She’s In Love With Me’, ranging from the chord information, and verbed out melodic guitars that you’d hear in early Alvvays records or in Spacey Janes’ records (I think they’re the king of this genre right now).
It was really important to me to make sure ‘A Dress For The Summer’ was a dark mix and was a darker production, because I think the vibe of the song is more closely aligned to Joy Division or early R.E.M.
‘Salem’ nods to a number of production styles, but I think Max and I really were drawn to Bon Iver’s production style as well as George Daniel’s production style of The 1975 on their folk-adjacent songs.
Lastly, it was important to me to record ‘Where’s My Home’ by myself on cassette.
That song is the closest thing I’ve written that reminds me of early Liz Phair before her major label deal when she was recording on cassettes and 4-track-DATs, or early Beabadoobee before her rise to fame.
Happy: Are there any artists or producers you’d like to collaborate with in the future? Who inspires you?
Marella: I’m really happy working with Max right now. I think in a dream world fantasy I’d love to work Butch Vig or George Daniel in production land.
There aren’t any artists that come to mind immediately that are realistic.
However, my friends are my biggest inspiration. Specifically Molly Kirschenbaum from the band Goblynne who I play drums for.
The guys from The Gromble, especially Spencer Askin. Both have been role models for me and great friends throughout this musical journey, and also happen to be two of the most talented people I know.
Happy: What are your favourite albums of all time, and why? How have they influenced your own music?
Marella: Another tough question!! Dookie – Green Day. A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships – The 1975. Boys Like Girls – Boys Like Girls. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory – Oasis.
Country – Medium Build. I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time to Time – Moose Blood. Ocean Avenue – Yellowcard.
A real wide range. There are a couple common themes between the two. One being they were a huge part of very defining times in my life.
But they all have their own, unique, and iconic sound. I strive to be like that. You just put on a song from their record and everybody instantly knows who that is.
Happy: What’s next for you?
Marella: We’re starting our season here at Pepperdine really quickly. It’s time for me to turn on my athletic brain.
All the while enjoying the (American) football season and the Fall here in California.
I’ll pick up studio and live drum gigs from time to time. Maybe a Marella gig if one comes into my lap.
The next project is in the works. The demos are all done. I just need to decide what I want to do with them.
And who I want to be. And how to share that part of me with everyone.
Happy: Lastly, what makes you happy?
Marella: Family. Friends. Food. Community. Swimming. Music. Playing live. Drums. Music theory conversations. Listening. My girlfriend. Her dog Delilah. My parent’s cats. Early mornings. Cold beer on a cold day. Tomato Soup. Just to name a few :-)
Thanks guys <3
