//Neon Limelight Interviews: Marie Digby//

It’s been a good two years for California-native Marie Digby. 2007 found the Hollywood Records singer/songwriter becoming an internet sensation when a homemade video she made of herself singing pop diva Rihanna’s summer smash “Umbrella” blew up across the user-driven video website YouTube. The video garnered over 6 million views, and even charted at #40 on the Billboard Adult Top 40.

Digby started to incorporate the addition of original material with the cover songs she’d post to her YouTube channel. Viewers were delighted. She soon became the #7 most subscribed to musician on YouTube of all time.

Her debut album, Unfold, was released in April of 2008 to critical acclaim. Her honest songwriting and sweet voice coupled with her So-Cal good-looks made Digby an instant hit among coffee house dwellers–and, apparently, TV music scouts. Album cuts “Spell” and “Say It Again” made their way onto the CW’s Smallville and NBC’s drama ER. Her songs also made regular appearances on MTV’s The Hills.

She spent most of the summer of 2008 supporting Unfold on various tours–her biggest one to date being the opener for Gavin DeGraw’s summer tour. Neon Limelight caught up with Marié at the Richmond, VA stop on the tour where an excited Digby was just about to release Unfold in Japan.

Read our exclusive interview for more about the singer/songwriter’s adventures on the road, working on her album, what kind of girls her tour partner Gavin DeGraw likes, her near-meeting with Rihanna, and much more.

TJ: How did you land the gig on the Gavin DeGraw tour?

MD: There were a lot of people, I’m sure, vying for the spot. I think what happened was we all submitted our CDs into him and his management and they listened through them all. I think Gavin was really personally involved in picking the opener. I heard he was looking for a female opener, so I thought I had a pretty good chance, but I didn’t think I’d actually get it. There’s always some business stuff involved, but I’d like to think that he chose me. I think we’re a pretty good musical fit.

TJ: How has the road been so far?

MD: It’s been great. I’ve been out now for 13 weeks now. It’s been a long time. There were parts when I got a little bit home sick but other than that I absolutely love being out on the road. I love traveling, being in a different city everyday, getting to know the musicians and just the spontaneity and unpredictable nature of being on tour. I love that.

TJ: What has been your favorite city so far?

MD: I always love playing in Chicago. Love playing in New York City. Minneapolis always treats us well, too.

TJ: Really?

MD: Yeah.

TJ: That’s a random city!

MD: Yeah [laughs] I know right? But we’ve had some really good shows in Minneapolis. There are a lot of other interesting places. This Gavin tour we’ve been on we’ve stopped in a lot of obscure cities. I don’t wanna name any because I don’t want to offend anyone, but we’ve stopped in some really random places. But the crowd is more excited in those random cities because they don’t have as many musicians coming through all the time, so they’re grateful that you’re actually playing there. So, if I had to pick one sort of random place I’d have to say El Paso, Texas.

TJ: What was the venue like there? Was it the venue, the crowd?

MD: It was the crowd.

TJ: Any funny tour stories? I saw your random blog from the road on YouTube. The guy playing the song about hating the police on the street is so hot!

MD: Oh my God! He’s the next big thing, I’m convinced!

TJ: Someone needs to sign him.

MD: I watch that video every night before I go to bed…..and have nightmares. [laughs] But there are a lot of weirdos. No shortage of weirdos here in the countries. We’ve seen young psycho kids, older men who come to the show and think that they’re my boyfriend, lots of drunk people pounding on the bus, women who think it’s Gavin and it’s not. I don’t see anything in particular. Just meeting strange folks along the way.

TJ: How do you prepare to go on stage? Do you have a ritual?

MD: I always have to do my vocal warm-ups and I get really self-conscious about that, so I always try to find a room where people aren’t [going to interrupt] and it’s almost impossible. We always have to do the…our hands all in, what is that called? Like a cheer. It’s a random word. Like the word of the day. It’s whatever weird thing that we experienced. Whether it’s like the “I hate the police” man or like, we had this amazing cinnamon ice cream in Indianapolis, so we’ll say, [cheering] CINNAMON ICE CREAM!

TJ: You have to do this every single show?

MD: Yes!

TJ: What would be the word today?

MD: Umm, my drummer’s really sick so it would probably be Sudafed! Dayquil! [laughs]

TJ: So, we talked about the best show on the tour. What was the worst show?

MD: Worst show was in Birmingham, Alabama. My guitar was plugged in so it should make noise, right? But it didn’t. You can kind of joke around for a little bit but then it’s just awkward. You know, people are just staring at you and there’s no noise. So, it finally came on and as I getting into it finally the string popped.

TJ: Oh God!

MD: And the whole guitar was like out of tune. I had to stop the song and go look for another guitar. Then some drunk guy came on the stage and started dancing. Totally on his own. I did not invite him and I couldn’t get him off [the] stage and people were yelling at me like, “Free bird! Do the free bird!” I was like “Ugh!!” The worst! The worst ever!

TJ: That’s pretty bad.

MD: It was BAD!

TJ: Have you gotten the chance to meet Gavin?

MD: Oh yes. Yeah. You know when you travel with someone for a month, you’re bound to, at some point, cross paths. It’s always randomly because he’s pretty busy.

I saw him last night at about 2:30 or 3 in the morning. All of our buses were following eachother from….where were we yesterday? [long pause] I can’t even remember. That’s pretty sad. Anyway! We had a long drive from–oh! We were in Atlanta! We drove from Atlanta to Richmond and it was a long drive. All of the buses were in a roll and we stopped at a truck stop at like 2:30 or 3 in the morning. I got off, then Gavin happened to be in there too. We were kinda like roaming around in our pajamas. He bought candy bars and I bought a drink and we were just like, “Hi. Nice to see you. Alright!” So lots of random encounters.

TJ: So, he hasn’t been able to give you any advice or anything about the business?

MD: No. I could take some. I could use it. But no. No words of wisdom.

TJ: So, Gavin’s pretty cute.

MD: He’s very cute!

TJ: Any sparks?

MD: Wait, did you just say he farts?

TJ: No!!!!!!! Any sparks!!

MD: He sparks?

TJ: No!!! Any sparks between you two?

MD: OH!! I was like, “That is not a word I know.” “He sparks.” What!? [laughs]

TJ: [laughs]

MD: Naaah! I don’t think so. I don’t think I’m his type. I know what his type is and it’s not me.

TJ: Care to spill? Dish!

MD: Umm, everything that I am [he likes] the opposite.

TJ: Really??

MD: Mmmhmm.

TJ: And that’s all?

MD: Yes. Well, I see a lot and I can tell what kind of girl he goes after and it’s pretty particular. But girls will have to figure it out themselves. He does have a type, though.

TJ: OK. We won’t pry, we won’t pry.

MD: [laughs] OK!

TJ: So, let’s talk about this freakin’ album that’s so amazing!

MD: Thank you!

TJ: We love it. It’s already out in the states but it’s coming out in Japan. How excited are you to have it come out in Japan? I know you’re half Japanese.

MD: Yeah! I’m so excited! It was always a goal of mine to be an artist that could crossover between the states and Japan because Japan is sort of like my second home. I just really hope that the people over there like the album and that it does well ’cause my grandma’s really old. She’s like 90-years-old and it’s been her wish to see me take off in music and she can hear all the stories about what’s happening here, but it’s just not the same as if she sees it on her TV in her little kitchen. So, I really hope it does well.

TJ: For some reason your songs seem to land on a lot of TV shows. I heard “Spell” on Smallville and “Say It Again” on ER. How do these things come about? Do you know at all?

MD: It’s definitely a definite process. There’s two ways it can happen. One is sometimes music supervisors–it’s their sole job to put music to film or TV–will contact me directly on Myspace or YouTube and say, “Hey, I like your stuff. I wanna put it in my show,” and that’s how it happens like ["Umbrella" being featured on] The Hills. Or my record label, they also have a film and TV rep and it’s his job to get placement, so that’s how I got Smallville. He did his job and they said “We like the song” and we said “Cool” and that’s how it happened.

TJ: It seems like a lot of people were searching everywhere for “Spell” after that episode of Smallville. There were a lot of comments on YouTube like, “I finally found it!”

MD: I know! I realized people who watch Smallville are like really listening to the music–they’re like heartfelt fans and the music kind of speaks to them and it works in the scene well, then they’re all over the internet trying to find who that is.

TJ: So, my absolute favorite song on the album is “Miss Invisible.”

MD: Awww!

TJ: The best! It made me freakin’ cry when I saw your YouTube performance of it. A lot of people can relate to it. Tell us the story behind it.

MD: Totally autobiographical. It’s about me when I was 13 in junior high school. I just hated life. I hated school. I didn’t have any friends and I absolutely hated lunchtime and break because it became obvious to everyone that I didn’t have anyone to hang out with. So, the song is about how I found a place where I could eat where people wouldn’t notice I was by myself but I could still watch everyone and that was under the bleachers on the football field.

I was tormented for the way that I looked. Just like materialistic things, things I couldn’t change. It was really hurtful and that’s how the song came about. I injected the boy at the end under the bleachers but there was no boy under the bleachers but what I was trying to say by that is it was partially my fault for just being “woe is me” and “I’m a loser” instead of realizing I’m not the only one. There are plenty of other people that feel that way and I should have sought them out.

TJ: That’s so sad.

MD: I’m alright now. I hug myself a lot.

TJ: All of that went on in junior high school, so when did you actually get comfortable in your own skin?

MD: I would say I was never really comfortable in my own skin until I was about 19 and dropped out of college. It was the first big decision that I made for myself. I wasn’t thinking about what my parents would think, what my friends would think, it was just what I wanted to do. I sort of left everything behind and put everything I had into music and from that point on I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been.

TJ: How did your parents feel when you left school?

MD: They didn’t throw me a party, that’s for sure. [laughs] I’m the oldest of three girls and they always expected me to set the example and I’m sure they were a little disappointed that, in their eyes, I was throwing away a golden opportunity but for me [school] was always going to be there and my window with music was closing really quickly and felt like I had to put everything I had into it or else I would lose that opportunity.

TJ: “Better Off Alone” is another one of my favorites. It’s written in this really interesting point of view. You don’t really see a lot of girls admitting they’re bringing the guy down in relationships. What’s the story behind that?

MD: Actually, you see, I meant…in my head I was trying to come up with any excuse to sort of break up with someone because I was realizing that us being together was holding eachother down and the other person in the relationship wanted to stick it out and I was looking for any excuse to break it off and break it clean. I don’t literally mean that I’m a loser, I just mean that we’re not doing anything for eachother.

TJ: So, we like absolutely freakin’ love Rihanna at Neon Limelight.

MD: Me too!

TJ: You have by far one of the best covers of “Umbrella” we’ve seen, and there’s a lot of them out there.

MD: I do!?

TJ: Yes, definitely!

MD: Wow! Thank you! Wow!

TJ: Between yours and Mandy Moore’s, they’re the best two.

MD: Wow. Thank you!

TJ: Have you ever gotten to meet her? Do you think she knows about your cover?

MD: I think she knows, but I’ve never met her. I’ve been like probably within inches of her because we were at some like Grammy party or something together at some point–but I didn’t even see her. Someone was like, “Did you know that Rihanna was standing behind you like this whole time?” and I was like, “No!” But to be honest, I would never approach her because I don’t know what she feels about the song. I don’t know if she’s flattered, or if she’s pissed off. I don’t know what she thinks. [laughs] I hope she’s flattered. I didn’t mean anything by it. I did that thing so casually in my home. I didn’t think it would lead to the YouTube video explosion and controversy. Definitely did not have that in the plans, but people liked it for some reason.

TJ: Because it’s awesome! You don’t have to be modest!

MD: I think it’s alright. I seriously went back to watch the video the other day because I thought [the views] would have capped off at three or four million but it just keeps on going. I’m like “What is it that people like so much about the video? It’s not much to it!” It’s still a mystery to me. I don’t know what it is.

TJ: Another song I think you’d be awesome doing is “Take A Bow.” Have you ever thought of doing that one?

MD: You know what, it would be so wrong for me to do another Rihanna song.

TJ: It’s just for fun!

MD: I know! But she’s going to be like, “Really, seriously? Another one?”

TJ: Taylor Swift does it all the time!

MD: Really? But she’s cute. She can get away with it. She can do anything she wants! [laughs] I even felt bad doing a Chris Brown song.

TJ: How do you pick the songs that you cover?

MD: If I like them. It has to have a good melody and if I like it. That’s about it! And I have to make it sound different. If it sounds exactly the same then there’s no point. It’s always easier to remake an R&B song because they have good melodies and there’s a lot of singing. Rap is hard because it’s just talking–

TJ: Would you do a rap song?

MD: It would have to have like a really long hook. You know when there are rap songs like “rap, rap, rap, hook, rap, rap, rap, hook.” I’d have to do the hook over and over. [laughs] I don’t know how that would work out.

TJ: You mention really quickly the YouTube controversy. What’s the deal with that? A lot of people thought you were unsigned and I guess they were offended or thought you lied to them when they found out you weren’t?

MD: No, I don’t think anyone was, really. I think it was just the newspaper making that up because I never got any emails from anyone saying, “You know what, I thought you were unsigned and I liked you because I thought unsigned, but now that I know you aren’t I don’t like you anymore.” I never got one email like that, so I think it was just the Wall Street Journal looking for a piece where they could say, “Hey look! We’re all being duped by big bad companies! Look it, here’s an example!” Maybe we are, but I’m definitely not part of that story. My story is the story of many musicians which is I was signed to a major, beautiful, glitzy, major label and I had this great album that I was so proud of but it wasn’t going to get put out. What do I do? So, I decided to do the videos. But that, to them, was not the interesting story. The interesting story was, “Look at this girl causing a commotion. She’s manipulating us all. The record label sat her down at a big meeting and said ‘Hey, you’re gonna be a YouTube star. Just put up these videos and sing these songs and it’s gonna explode.’” Like, what? You think that could actually work? It’s all bizarre. But I’m really grateful it happened because without that I think a lot of the interviews I’ve had after that wouldn’t have come. It kind of made me a big deal when I wasn’t a big deal. So, it’s ok.

TJ: So, let’s have a little fun. What are the top five songs on heavy rotation in your mp3 player?

MD: Hmm. There’s a lot of old stuff. I’m trying to think of something new. Oh, who has that song like “I’m so hood!” I love that one.

TJ: DJ Khaled and a thousand other rappers?

MD: Yes! I like that one. I’ve been listening to A Perfect Circle again. I bought OK Computer by Radiohead again the other day. I listen to a lot of old stuff! I guess a lot of the new stuff isn’t really catching my attention. I tried to throw a new one in there but the only one I could think of is “I’m So Hood” which really relates to my lifestyle, you know? [laughs]

TJ: Since you’re such a big YouTube star, what’s your favorite YouTube video?

MD: There’s a guy who made an original song called “I’m Addicted to Youtube” and he did this video using his stuffed animals in the room he has. It’s amazing.

________________

Find out more about Marie at her official myspace page

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