Raised in Detroit with a father who was on the Motown label (Eddie Guzman of Rare Earth), and a mother who is a painter/interior designer, Marissa had quite the artistic upbringing. Having her dad constantly on the road touring with the band was difficult, but the excitement that goes along with a father who is a well-known musician deeply inspired her. Especially as a little girl while at concerts with thousands of screaming fans, the members of Rare Earth would call their kids on stage to help them sing their biggest hit, “I Just Want To Celebrate,” and Marissa knew then that she wanted to pursue singing.
With a strong passion for writing, Marissa majored in Journalism and landed her first job in advertising, devoting her life to Ford Motor Company. With such a demanding career, she had little time for her true passion: music, but in her free time she still managed to develop a huge appreciation for Detroit’s infamous underground electronic music, and started writing vocal tracks over instrumental house songs. She became friends with the legendary Detroit techno pioneer, Derrick May, who convinced her to start her own label to get her music out there, which she did in 2007. Marissa's mom, Barbara named it Juicy Lucy Records.
During this time, she ended up signing one of her most popular songs, "Get Yourself Together," to Italian label, Soulstar, which was a collaboration with Demarkus Lewis, and it went to number 17 in the DJ Mag charts. Marissa later released “Energy Flows” on Juicy Lucy, a collaboration with Ethan White & JKriv of Tortured Soul, which was also quite a success.
Since the struggling economy in Michigan forced Marissa to find better job opportunities, she ended up moving to San Francisco to work in the booming dot com industry. Living in a city that totally fosters creativity, San Francisco definitely inspired Marissa because it showed her how many artists can survive doing what they love. In 2009, she decided to quit her job in marketing to work on her first album.
Marissa has since started to produce and arrange her own songs, and truly feels she is starting to come alive musically. 100 percent of her album will be her own compositions, and the songs will range anywhere from Downtempo to Electro Pop, to Ragtime to House, and beyond. Marissa said she didn’t want to pigeonhole herself by only writing one style of music "because then you only appeal to one type of audience...why not expand your demographic and appeal to the masses!” Especially since she has so many different influences of music, having a variety of songs makes total sense.
Since she feels so strongly about the importance of using music as a platform to help those less fortunate, she really connected with the idea behind NextAid, “using the beats of our generation to provide hope for the next.” In 2007, Marissa met Lauren Segal (co-founder and director of NextAid), and since then she has worked closely as a devoted volunteer. When deciding to donate 50% of her album sales to NextAid, Marissa said “it’s a win win situation…I can help these girls in Africa, hopefully save some lives, educate people, spread awareness through music and make a positive impact, all while getting exposure as a new artist.”
The first single from Marissa's album, "Time To Go," dropped February 2011, with some incredible remixes by Black Coffee, Demarkus Lewis and Rithma. And after being available for only 9 days, Black Coffee's remix went straight to #1!
Marissa's album Joy Road was just released on 11/11/11, so please purchase your copy here: http://www.traxsource.com/index.php?act=show&fc=tpage&cr=titles&cv=122731 <3
