And the Hello and thanks for joining us for episode 2006 of sodajaker on songwriting. I'm Brian here with my old

pal Simon and joining us today is a Greek Welsh singer, songwriter and musician.

She recently dropped her fifth studio album, The Brilliant Hook-laden Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land,

and joins us a few weeks ago over Zoom from LA for a delightful chat about the record and her songwriting journey so far. We're very happy to welcome the excellent

Marina to the show.

I'm sure you'll agree, sigh, that one of the great things about doing this podcast is

Discovering Artists we haven't really investigated before. Yeah, it's a process of Discovering Artists we haven't really investigated before.

Yeah, it's a process of discovery, isn't it?

Yeah, well that's certainly the case for me with Marina's music.

I mean I was aware of her because my daughter days is a big fan,

but until we prep for this episode,

that hadn't really checked out the tunes properly

and when I did I was blown away, really.

Oh yeah, same here.

I mean, there's so much to enjoy, isn't it?

She makes this super melodic,

catchy pop music, which obviously is great in itself,

but then there's this real kind of thoughtfulness and emotional intelligence in the lyrics too, I think.

Best of both worlds?

Yeah. Our guest was born Marina Diemandus in Wales in 1985 and raised in the town of Pandit near Abigavini. Her family were not musically inclined, but her parents were certainly keen listeners, her mom enjoying artists like

Dolly Parton, Enya and George Michael, while her dad favoured classical Greek singers and Coro music.

As a youngster, Marina was a fan of pop acts such as the Spice Girls, Brittany Spears and

...