Marina Muhlfriedel - Backstage Pass & Vivabeat

Marina Muhlfriedel (also known as Marina del Rey) in conversation with David Eastaugh

As a keyboard player and vocalist, Marina was the co-founder of Vivabeat, a Los Angeles-based techno-pop band started in 1978 and active into the mid-1980s. It is best known for being discovered by and signed to its first record deal at the request of Peter Gabriel. It became the first American band on Tony Stratton Smith's British label, Charisma Records.

The band released one album for Charisma Records, Party in the War Zone, which included one of the band's most successful songs, "Man from China." The song became a Top 20 charted dance club hit in the United States, Europe, and Asia. "Man from China" also appears on the Charisma Label/Various Masterpieces album – The Sounds Album Volume 6, released in 1980.

The video of their follow-up dance club hit, "The House is Burning (but there's no one home)," was featured in the Brian De Palma movie Body Double and won an MTV award.

Since then, Vivabeat has had five albums of remastered, recently discovered, and reissued music come to light. Their most recent releases are on Liberation Hall music, after previous volumes with Rubellan Remasters and Permanent Press Records.

Before Vivabeat, Marina was a founding member and keyboard player in Backstage Pass, one of the earliest Los Angeles punk bands, which played a pivotal role in establishing the Masque, the city's most legendary punk club.

After a decade of playing in bands, Marina transitioned into the film industry, where she served as a producer on films such as "The War of the Roses" and "Throw Momma From the Train," as well as several Showtime features.

Currently, she is a writer living in Los Angeles and hosts a rock and roll storytelling show called "Our Lips Unsealed."