Mari?Digby, the guest on this Saturday's All Star Summer specials, has already racked up more than 5 million views on her YouTube channel. Her songs have been featured in ads and on TV shows; a new album, Breathing Underwater will be released in September. Next up: Movies.

Q: You have a new album coming out on Sep. 15. How different will it be from your last one?

A: It's quite different, phonically at least. The goal with the second album was to stay similar lyrically, but I wanted lusher production: Beats, base. So it's still singer-songwriter but with a rhythmic pop undertone.

Q: You're a celebrity on YouTube. How has that affected your career?

A: I think if not for YouTube, I might have still found a way to get my album released, but its fast-tracked everything for me. It's been incredible and it allows me to have a really close relationship to the people who listen to my music.

Q: In your early, and most popular, YouTube videos, you're sitting in your living room singing. What inspired them?

A: It wasn't out of boredom. It was a conscious decision. I had an album that was ready to go for over half a year and I was kind of worried about my label losing interest in it. So I was just creating a fan base of my own and they were an important reason I was able to get that album out. I thought maybe a few people would find my videos interesting, but I didn't think it would be this many or happen this quickly. That's the part that I'm still scratching my head about.

Q: You're music has been featured on TV shows too?

A: The one that comes to mind is The Hills. The music supervisor actually wrote to me on MySpace and said, "Hey I do the music for The Hills. I was hoping to use your acoustic version of 'Umbrella.'" I was skeptical at first. But I did end up sending it to him and he used it and it was perfectly placed. A lot of feedback was generated from its use and they've now used seven or eight of my songs.

Q: Enough TV. What are your favorite type of movies?

A: For me, the music really counts. I could see a great movie and if the music doesn't quite match, it can ruin the experience for me. Someone that takes a lot of care is Baz Luhrmann. I'm a big fan of his movies and his soundtracks. Romeo & Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rougue (2001) were big ones for me. I like darker movies too, like A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Q: What about your favorite soundtracks?

A: I love the Lurhmann ones. I think I was 13 when Romeo & Juliet came out and I still listen to the soundtrack. It had Radiohead and The Cardigans and all the popular artists of the '90s.

Q: Who are some of the worst movie musicians?

A: The ones I think of usually know they're bad. Like Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer (1998)... maybe he doesn't know he's bad.

Q: Have you thought about doing the music for a movie?

A: It's one of my biggest dreams. I'd love to score a movie. In my mind sometimes when I'm writing songs, I'll come up with a melody and know that it's not really meant to be a song, but it'd be perfect as the backdrop to a scene in a movie. I'm already getting ready for that day. I hope it comes.


Q: Do you have any of your own plans to do so?

A: Instead of doing a traditional music video, I'm playing around with the idea of doing a mini-film using all the songs from the album.

I decided to head on over to MYSPACE and send her an email one day asking her to shoot. I sent her some of my work along with fun concepts of course to give her an idea of something different we could do. Did I think she would reply back? Maybe. I mean, she¡¦s a really busy woman, so the chances of her giving up her free time to someone she hadn¡¦t met yet were very slim. More importantly, and this goes for every person¡KI had nothing to lose by asking her. So a couple weeks went by, and she replied! I was like WHAT!?! Sweet!! Surprisingly, Marie is a little camera shy, but i knew I could persuade her to do the shoot. We were able to plan the whole thing out and these are just some of the awesome shots we produced together.

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Date: Sept 22nd 2009
Time:
Location: Roxy on Sunset Boulevard