Posted by Adam Gonshor on May 1st, 2006

It’s that all too familiar storyline. An actor appears in several movies or television shows and then uses their fame to become a musician.

That would appear to be the case with Marla Sokoloff, who has appeared on Full House, The Practice, Desperate Housewives and soon A Day in the Life.

However, there’s a huge difference between Sokoloff and the likes of Hilary Duff, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Foxx: they are the complete opposites.

“The most frustrating thing for me now as a singer is that people have pinpointed me as an actress who suddenly woke up one day and decided that I wanted to sing,” she says, speaking to andPOP from her home in Los Angeles.

At the age of five, she started taking voice lessons. Guitar lessons and musical theatre followed shortly after. But a career in music at such a young age didn’t look promising.

“At the time, the only options were playing the local county fair,” she says. “Now with American Idol and younger recording artists that have come out, there is more of an opportunity.”

She wanted the musical theatre experience to turn into a career in the music business. Talent agents had other plans for her.

An agent saw her perform in a play and said she should move to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

So Sokoloff and her mother left San Francisco and relocated to L.A., a move that may not have helped her music career blossom at the time, but one that helped her become a very successful actress.

One of her very first roles was playing Gia, Stephanie’s best friend on Full House, one of the most popular shows at the time, especially for people her age.

“I was in seventh grade, and getting a part in Full House was huge,” she recalls. “I remember going to the audition and thinking, ‘If I get this job, I will be the coolest person ever.’ And I wound up getting the job and it opened so many doors for me.”

To this day, in fact, people recognize her more for her role on Full House than any other show.

“It’s always Full House, always. It’s amazing to me because I’m 25 now and I was 12 or 13 when I did that. How do I still look 12? And I’ve done so many other things since then. Come on people!”

Coincidently, Gia was part of a rock band (“but we played Ace of Base songs which was not so cool”). Not so coincidently, one of her next roles was playing a musician in a show, and along with that contract came a deal with Maverick Records. The show didn’t make it to air, and the deal with Maverick fell apart two years later, but the deal left her with a taste of the music business ? a small taste, but one that she wouldn’t forget.

After that, Sokoloff added many projects to her resume: Party of Five; Whatever it Takes; Dude, Where’s My Car; Sugar & Spice; Friends; The Practice; Desperate Housewives; and about two dozen others.

Last year, she tried to get a record deal again. She performed at the SXSW music fest and received some interest from major labels. But unwilling to tour because of an intense acting schedule in L.A., Sokoloff had a hard time finding the perfect deal.

So she decided to release an album independently. “Grateful” was released in February, and available through her web site (marlasmusic.com) or through Amazon.

“I had all of these songs that I worked on for so many years and I just thought that I’m not going to wait for someone else to put this out and possibly fuck it up. I wanted to do it my own way and be able to get it out there and not have anybody tell me what I can or cannot do,” she says.

But going the indie route has its drawbacks.

Whereas a major label has a plethora of people working on all the different aspects of an album ? publicity, marketing, etc. ? Sokoloff does almost everything herself. Sokoloff mails CDs, answers emails, designed her web site, takes care of artwork and hired her best friend to do publicity.

“Getting the amount of people to hear it,” she says, is another setback to not having major label support. “If I was on a major label, it would be way different than the small distribution I have right now.”

As her own boss, Sokoloff was able to include any song she wanted, and chose to tackle some very personal topics.

“When I was writing the record, I went through a terrible breakup with a guy of five years, so a lot of the songs are based on that. There’s also a tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating side to the record that I think I have in my normal life. It seems to be something I didn?t realize was coming through but now that people are hearing it, that seems to be a good theme on the record,” she explains.

So are you a big fan of Marla Sokoloff and can’t wait until she hits a venue in your town? Sorry, you’ll have to keep waiting, or visit Los Angeles.

“I play in L.A. all the time. As far as getting on the road, I have no plans of that right now. I want to,” she says, but she has acting commitments she can’t just leave behind. “Acting kind of pays my bills more than music does.”

Another aspect of music that she pursues more of as a hobby than for money is designing guitar straps. Sokoloff started the side project when she was not acting for a few months and continues designing the straps to this day. Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne and Lisa Loeb all own a strap from her Kiss My Axe line.

In March of this year, she decided to donate 20 percent of the sales to WeSpark, a cancer support centre.

“Cancer has been something unfortunately in my life,” she says. “My mom’s best friend is kicking ass in her battle with breast cancer and she’s in stage three. Both of my grandmas had cancer. And I recently lost a friend to cancer- the woman who owns WeSpark. She’s a woman named Wendie Sperber. She’s a fantastic person who started this cancer centre as a support center for friends and family of cancer patients and people who are struggling with the disease. I wanted to do something for her because she had done so much for everybody else. She was amazing.”

Next up for Sokoloff is the sitcom A Day in the Life, with Josh Cooke and Wendie Malick. It’s a single-camera comedy in real time, with Sokoloff playing a newlywed.

“I really hope it gets picked up because it’s such a funny show,” she says. “The first half hour of the pilot is me waking up on my wedding day.”

And that was a look at Marla Sokoloff: the singer, turned actress, turned singer again.

For more information on Marla Sokoloff, and to order her CD, Grateful, visit marlasmusic.com

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