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Getting Sidelined with Singer Marina Chello
by Troy Rogers
 The
online worlds of MySpace and Youtube are quickly
becoming viable avenues to get noticed if you're
a singer looking to show the world your talent.
For singer, songwriter Marina Chello, it was a
proactive approach to showcasing her music to
producers on her MySpace page that caught the
eye of executives at Crazy Joint and Bad Boy Records.
However, when it comes to musical back story,
the Uzbekistan born Marina Chello was exposed
to songs in many different languages before learning
English from singers like Mariah Carey, Whitney
Houston, and Celine Dion. After formal studies
in music, Marina began to write her own songs
and put her vocal talents next to her pen to create
her own unique style and sound.
Currently preparing to release her debut album, What's Done Is Done, on Crazy Joint/Bad Boy, a heartache-heavy hybrid of next-level pop and R&B, Marina's first single "Sideline" has already found its way into a variety of Top 40 rotations across the country.
As "Sideline" continues to climb the charts, we caught up with the rising Marina Chello for an exclusive one-on-one to learn more about how she approaches songwriting, what fans can expect from her full-length album, What's Done is Done, her early influences, and how Marina Chello is handling the success of "Sideline" and her current climb up the Top 40.
THE DEADBOLT: How did you get involved with Bad Boy?
MARINA CHELLO: I actually signed to
Crazy Joint/Bad Boy through meeting Harve Pierre
who is the chairman of Crazy Joint and the president
of Bad Boy Records through MySpace. I got myself
a page and I posted up some music and put up
pictures and I started reaching out to a few
people in the industry and he happened to get
back to me and we scheduled a meeting. A few
weeks later, he signed me to Crazy Joint. Soon
after that the Bad Boy deal followed for distribution.
THE DEADBOLT: So what's Diddy like?
 CHELLO:
He's awesome. I've met him many times in the
studio and just around the offices and stuff,
or like around events, and he's great. His positive
energy just exudes out of him and it was just
great. My very first meeting with him, of course
I was star-struck and very nervous, but he's
so humble and very welcoming. It was great.
THE DEADBOLT: How do you tackle the process of songwriting?
CHELLO: It's different. I read a lot of poetry that I turn into songs. If I hear a great track that is very inspiring, I write to the music. I start off with humming a melody and then I record that. Then on top of that I try to write words for it. But a lot of my songs I turned into poems and formatted them into the songs.
THE DEADBOLT: How many languages can you speak?
CHELLO: Only two. I speak in English and Russian. But I've had a lot of experience singing in many other languages. Ever since I was a little kid, my dad exposed me to a lot of international music. So I sang in Italian. I sang in Spanish. I sang in French. I sang in Turkish. I sang in Greek.
THE DEADBOLT: That's incredible. For future albums, are you planning on signing in foreign languages?
CHELLO: I hope so, yeah. Definitely. I mean, I'm always singing in other languages and I'm always listening to all kinds of music. But eventually I would love to do an album with just songs around the world, definitely. That would be a blessing.
THE DEADBOLT: "Sideline" and "What's Done is Done" are great tracks. What can fans expect from the rest of the album?
 CHELLO:
The rest of the album will be very emotional
music, just stuff that goes straight to the
heart. It's very relationship heavy. They'll
just be really heartfelt songs, like big power
ballads and a lot of mid-tempos. But mainly
it'll just be music that, just like "Sideline"
and "What's Done is Done," it'll talk about
real stuff, real feelings. You know, stuff that
people can relate to, that people went through,
a love that they are searching for, a love lost,
a love that they have. But basically it'll be
a very emotional album.
THE DEADBOLT: Since you were exposed to singing in several different languages as a child, what were your musical influences?
CHELLO: In my house, my dad exposed me to a lot of rock and roll bands. He was a rock singer himself, so i used to listen to a lot of '60s, '70s, and '80s rock music. I listened to a lot of Russian stuff back home and a lot of Italian singers like Andrea Bocelli. I listened to Frediana Celentano and Julio Iglesias. I listened to Fabian a lot. I listened to The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, just stuff that he exposed me to, and a lot of Russian music like Sophia Tatu.
THE DEADBOLT: Since being discovered on MySpace, how has the online world helped your career?
CHELLO: It's definitely helped. I get to keep in touch with fans that loved the single, "Sideline" It's up on my MySpace page. It's up on iTunes, the video is up. It's a great thrill for me to reach out to people. I get e-mails all of the time from fans that are writing me letters, like, "This is happening to me. This is what I'm going through. Your song is helping me." That is so beautiful to me and such a blessing to reach out to people online. I could sit by my computer and totally be in control of that and really be the one to speak to them. So it's great, I love it. It got my start with the label, Crazy Joint, so it's really great.
 THE
DEADBOLT: Now that you've tasted a bit of
fame, is it everything you expected or is it
still too early to tell?
CHELLO: [laughs] It's too early to tell.
It's definitely too early to tell. Right now
I'm just working to try to perfect the album.
I write more and I try to sing live more and
rehearse. I haven't really felt that yet, because
it's mostly working and working the sidelines
and going on the radio and all of that other
stuff. So hopefully sometime I'll be able to
answer that question for you [laughs].
THE DEADBOLT: Can we expect to see you touring more in the near future?
CHELLO: I hope so, yes. We actually went on a few mini-radio promos, runs, and tours where we wanted to really get moving on "Sideline," which is my single on the radio. So we went on tours to the west coast and the east coast and we're probably going to schedule more to get "Sideline" out there so people can hear and fall in love with it the way we did the first time we heard it. But yeah, sooner or later. You know, I love singing live and I will definitely have shows coming up, yeah.
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