Anya Marina Shows Her Spirit Leading Up to 'Felony Flats'

When singer-songwriter Anya Marina reworked 'Whatever You Like' into a brooding lullaby, more than a few jaws dropped. So with a new full-length on the way, might we see the songbird tackle another rap anthem? According to the former radio DJ, it's not in the cards -- not until she finds something as irresistible as T.I.'s bad-boy rhymes.

"I haven't really been listening to a lot of stuff on the radio or out in the clubs, so I don't know what else I'd do," Marina tells Spinner. "But, we'll see once I go on this tour, maybe I'll be inspired to cover another song. But I don't know if I could really follow that one up."

And while we can't help but fantasize how Lil Wayne or Kanye might sound once re-spun by Marina, it's the original material featured on her upcoming long-player, tentatively titled 'Felony Flats,' which really has us thinking.

Watch Anya Marina Perform T.I.'s 'Whatever You Like'
"I knew I wanted my record to be something that indicated how far I'd grown, so it's a little more eerie and spooky," says Marina, whose last album, 'Slow and Steady Seduction: Phase II,' dropped in 2009.

"I wanted it to be playful but also articulate the somber place I was in," she confesses. "I kind of went through a little bit of a dark phase, so I really want that to be on the record. It scared me a bit to go there, and so I thought it was a good direction."

To ready her fans for the emotional ride that is 'Felony Flats,' Marina first put together a "little palette cleanser" by way of her 'Spirit School' EP.

"I had written so many songs and I knew I wasn't going to put 30 songs on one record, so I just started to put them into piles," says the California native. "I had all these fun songs written with a bunch of samples and loops that were just more dancey, and I was like, 'Let's just put those on an EP that will be fun and something for the fans until the record comes out.'"

That's not to say that the EP was merely an afterthought, though. Thanks to the support of the Dandy Warhols' Courtney Taylor-Taylor and Telekinesis' Michael Lerner, the disc is much more than an appetizer.

Listen to Anya Marina's 'Whatsit' Off of 'Spirit School'
"I had just seen 'Dig!' again, and I think I woke up with this melody in my head and thought, 'You have to get this to the Dandy Warhols, you've got to share this with Courtney,'" says Marina, who became "fast friends" with Taylor-Taylor after interviewing him on the radio years ago.

"I had him sing the part that was in my dream, which is that whole "Aah, aah/Whatsit gonna be?", that was the part I kept imagining throngs of Dandy Warhols fans would be singing."

Marina admits rather sheepishly that Lerner came into the fold thanks to, of all things, Twitter.

"We have a mutual friend, [Death Cab for Cutie guitarist] Chris Walla, and I was researching all of Chris' work so I was listening to all his bands and then I heard Telekinesis -- which he produced -- and thought, 'Oh, my God. This band is saving my life!' Then I posted something on Twitter and then we started emailing back and forth, and he's become like my little brother."

For those still sore about the lack of creative covers from Marina as of late, her Telekinesis Twitter courtship should offer some comfort. Who knows, maybe the singer is a tweet away from connecting with some hip-hop guru and trying their repertoire on for size.