Marina V’s magical music tour 
A performer’s journey from Moscow to Springfield and beyond
MUSIC | Tom Irwin
What separates the dreamers and schemers of the world from the believers and achievers? Some say hard work and some say circumstance, but most would think it’s a fair amount of both that make the dreams of a lifetime come true. In the case of Marina V, a singer-songwritermusician with ties to central Illinois, all that and more makes her life a happy home for realized dreams, completed fantasies and continued aspirations.
Living in Moscow as a teenager during the tumultuous 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, Marina looked for a way to escape a life that restricted her creative impulses. Circumstances landed the Russian minor immigrant in a Springfield high school where the influences of local citizens encouraged her on to a college degree and into a life of artistic work as a full-time performing musician and songwriter. Experiences during these formative years in central Illinois shaped and nurtured an inherent sense of creativity that sparked a whirlwind of activity. Her formation here allowed Marina V to eventually touch the lives of thousands of fans across the globe.
Born Marina Gennadievna Verenikina in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 3, 1982, to a nuclear physicist father and child psychologist mother, the young child showed an early inclination for music, with her mother claiming “she could sing before she talked.” In recognition of this aptitude, from age 6 to 14 Marina attended a special music school for classical lessons and piano practice after her regular daily class work. This extra training time, intense and involved, left little room for creativity or imagination, yet the young Marina felt the urge of songwriting even then. At age 10, she composed a little ditty for her piano teacher who promptly labeled it “nonsense” and swiftly returned her to Russian classical masters and folk songs of the people.
During these difficult years of extensive studies, Marina felt forced to bury her creative impulses and toe the line, while making excellent marks in school as she prepared for a professional career in the remnants of the Soviet Union. A bright light came in the form of a bootleg cassette of the Beatles (no recollection if Back in the U.S.S.R was a favorite cut), at the time still an illegal item in a country that attempted to bar all Western influences. Inspired by music of the Fab Four, Marina began secretly composing songs again, and acquired English language knowledge through the lyrics of Lennon and McCartney.
Marina V with Nick Baker performs at 8 p.m., Friday, April 19, at
Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 745 Woodside Road,
217-585-9550. All ages are welcome, with tickets $15 (adults), $5
(children under 12) available in advance at www.MarinaV.com or at the door. Sound system and instruments provided by Samuel Music.
At
15 she worked at and won an exclusive national competition for a fully
funded scholarship called Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) of the Freedom
Support Act, sponsored by then U.S. Senator Bill Bradley, that allowed a
Russian student to study in the United States. Through various means
she wound up in Springfield and attended Lanphier High School for a year
in 1995. After returning to Russia, the budding young artist felt
determined to head back to the States as soon as possible, where her
creativity and individuality could flourish. Around this time her mother
moved to Australia and the Russian school system decided not to accept
her American school credits, so Marina finished her Moscow high school,
got a job, saved her earnings and bought a one-way ticket to the United
States.
By 1996 she
returned to Springfield, her adopted American hometown, working many odd
jobs to bide the time 
and pay her way, including “selling
cheeseburgers” at the Illinois State Fair, handling the concession stand
at a flea market near the fairgrounds and working with the Junior Blues
hockey team as a merchandise attendant (she also played a fair amount
of ice hockey herself), all the while impatiently and incredibly waiting
the year and a half it took to clear international visa hurdles. From
the recommendation of Gary Wilhoit, her Lanphier history teacher and an
Illinois College alumni, she decided to attend the small, private
liberal arts college in Jacksonville, graduating summa cum laude in 2001
with a combined degree in international studies and economics-business
plus a minor in Spanish.
“I
found that being a foreign student, the state colleges actually cost
three times what they would if I lived in state, but private colleges
prices stayed the same,” Marina commented. “After I visited the IC
campus, I enrolled and received a scholarship.”
Normally
it’s a tough time emotionally for any college freshman adjusting to a
new life and independence, but multiply those difficulties for a young
girl from Moscow attempting to break into central Illinois culture with
little preparation. Marina dealt with the severe emotional concerns and
intermittent depression by doing what an artist does: she created.
During
her early days at IC she wrote songs that expressed her feelings and
began playing her first live shows. An entry into a college-sponsored
talent contest garnered her first prize for the performance of
“Leaving,” an original composition. Next came a full-capacity show at a
local coffeehouse, then shows in Springfield and other towns across the
Midwest. Inspired by her success, Marina decided to finance a CD
recording from pre-orders (not as common a thing in 1999 as it is today
with fan-supported CDs all the rage) and easily sold enough to produce Let Me Dream, her first (now out of print and collectible) recording of selfcomposed material.
“I
remember playing a show back then at college and heard later that a
girl in the audience started crying during a song of mine,” she says. “I
never in my life thought my music could move someone like that. I was
absolutely amazed.”
Right
before this productive time of creativity and promotion, Marina met
Nick Baker, a fellow musician and a Springfield native also attending
Illinois College. From Baker came the encouragement to take her music
seriously and develop it to the level needed for full-time success.
Behind all this artistic and emotional growth was the support and
dedication of Nick, who quickly became a working musician in the duo and
songwriting partner of the newly christened “Marina V.” As the two
developed musically and professionally, they also grew romantically,
eventually marrying, combining life and love as a complete package.
“He
is always there supporting me, emotionally and musically,” she says.
“He calls himself the ‘Soft Focus Guy’ because when we’re in pictures,
I’m in the front and Nick is in the background in the soft focus.
Without him there would be no Marina V. I give him the credit for being
amazing and always there.”
In
2001, the couple implemented a planned move to a major music industry
center and relocated to the Los Angeles area just a week after
graduating from Illinois College.
Since
the move to LA, things just keep getting better and better for Marina V
and life partner Nick Baker. From the early days of taking any gig
available to make some cash and get noticed, such as a Borders bookstore
tour and noisy, inattentive bars, the tune-making team always looked
ahead to better days. In the span of a little more than a decade,
they’ve accomplished a great deal of respectable work. It’s not the kind
that necessarily gets an artist to the top of the pops, but the good
stuff that gets achieved only through hard work and perseverance in
tandem with talent and ability.
The accomplishments notched
by the singing-songwriter piano player from Moscow, with invaluable aid
from the guitar-playing wordsmith from Springfield, are varied and
valid. They signed for a time with David Krebs, a big-time music
industry manager known for his work with Don McLean, Trans- Siberian
Orchestra and Aerosmith, among others. In 2005, the well-respected
producer Jack Douglas, a favorite of John Lennon, George Harrison and
Aerosmith, gave of his time and produced two tracks for the Simple Magic album.
Marina sang on the longrunning NBC daytime drama, “Days of Our Lives”
Christmas special in 2012, playing on air with cast members. Several
other songs of hers were played during the program over the last few
years.
Let’s see, what else can we add to the list?
How
about licensed airplay on, among other shows, a National Geographic
program and Oprah Winfrey’s network? Her song “Pesnya o Tebe” made it in
Direct Contact, a 2009 Danny Lerner film starring Dolph
Lundgren. In 2011, as a finalist in the international song contest
YouBloom, she and Nick performed at London’s Cobden Club during the
YouBloom concert and ceremony, receiving a handdelivered award from Sir
Bob Geldof for her song, “You Make Me Beautiful.” Back in 2009, Marina’s
own “Sunshine Guaranteed,” appeared on Tap Tap Revenge 2, a popular
iPhone game and “You Make Me Beautiful” got nominated for a Hollywood
Music Award. They also composed, arranged and produced a Pepsi jingle
played in the Ukraine and they toured extensively in Eastern Europe.
In
a not-so-public event, Marina reports that once, when playing in
London, she and Nick received a guided tour that eventually ended up on
the roof of Parliament, a venue not often visited by American singer
songwriters.
In 2010 they attracted more than $30,000 in fan support to make the record My Star and continue to add to the more than 7,000 names on the Marina V Komrades email
list and fan club. By combining all her album releases (and she keeps
an organized account) she has sold nearly 20,000 physical CDs worldwide
and thousands of downloads of individual songs and records. In the past
she performed more than 120 live shows annually, but last year reduced
the number by choice, down to a more manageable 60.
“When
I first started, I played every gig I could for experience, but now I
feel I can choose more of where I play and do more quality shows,” she
says. “I could never play a loud bar again. I care about my music and it
just breaks my heart to play when nobody is listening. I would rather
stay home than play a gig that upsets me.”
Album
titles often tell much about an artist’s progression, and with Marina V
the list reads like a positive advancement toward fulfillment and
completion. Her first record was aptly titled Let Me Dream (1999), and then came Lift (2001), as the couple moved to LA. Out in southern California, Something of My Own (2003) and Simple Magic (2005), were the next telling titles of happenings in the life of Marina V. The next records, Marina V: Live at SoundMoves (2006) and a Russian Bootleg (2007) show a bit of a holding pattern as the artists struggled to get a strong foothold in the business. Then with Modern Fairytale (2008), My Star (2011) and the latest, Inner Superhero (2013), with a Small Collection of Interesting Songs included during 2011, the songwriting team achieved a striking maturity of creativity with inspired songs of hope and discovery.
“In
songwriting, it really is my release. I try to get myself from down to
up. It inspires me to go beyond no hope,” she says. “We write pretty
much about 99 percent of the songs together, except for the ones I do in
Russian. I always come up with the music and then Nick adds to every
song in some way, sometimes the last three words, sometimes half the
lyrics.”
Along with
the developing song-composing partnership, the couple experienced growth
in producing sounds and arranging the music on each successive
recording. On the most recent effort, Inner Superhero, Nick picks up the ukelele as Marina stretches herself to new heights in non-instrumental ways.
“This
is the first time I’ve sang without playing the piano part as well on
every song. With our great producers, who are fabulous musicians too, on
some songs they replayed my piano parts and left me to sing,” she says.
“It’s amazing and kinda fun too, to realize that Nick and I wrote the
songs and these guys make it sound so good that I can just sing what I
want and it’s done and sounds great. I just go with the flow with what
works for the album and I’m really happy with the way it sounds.”
In
other innovative work on the new record, Marina asked several
supporters and friends to add claps and vocals to the songs “Light Up
the Dark” and “Say Hello” by sending prerecorded parts through email.
The effect adds a friendly and warm feeling to the songs, especially on
“Say Hello,” where “a handful of people who meant a lot to me” are
singing on the song and “a lot of my good friends are there and our
voices sound really cool together.” Central Illinois singersongwriter
Eva Hunter, an early supporter of Marina V, as well as me and my son
John, are among the lucky ones who are on the cut.
Besides
the music, there’s a lot more behind the scenes keeping the Marina V
machine chugging along. Like most independent artists, one part is the
creative idealist, but the businessperson side keeps the gigs coming,
the fans informed and the bills paid. She spends a good deal of her day
on the computer following leads and doing the work necessary to keep the
ball rolling, updating her MarinaV. com website continually and
promoting herself through other social networking devices.
“My
one wish would be only that music wasn’t related to money, but I know
it is,” she revealed. “It’s so rarely just about the purity of the
music. I do need to make money from music, but I just wish it weren’t
that way.”
What does Marina V see in her future and where would she like to be in five, ten years down the road?
“I
don’t have a specific plan. I’m really, really happy with my life now. I
say that every time, but it’s true,” she exclaims. “I try to do
different things that are exciting to me and hopefully some of them or
one of them or all of them will lead to bigger and better things. I want
to do more – more collaborations, more cool venues, more listeners.
That’s the dream.”
And
dreaming is good, but working the dream to reality is wonderful and
continually reaching to find the power behind it all is sublime.
“I
cannot imagine my life without music in it. Some people have religion, I
have music,” Marina muses. “Lots of people, including singers and
artists, can identify with the idea that music can save you when you’re
down, that it lifts your spirits. Music is spiritual. Music is my
salvation.”
Contact Tom Irwin at [email protected].
