Marela grew up in Seattle and studied music technology while attending college in Olympia, Washington.[2] She independently released two albums before signing with Jagjaguwar Records, who issued All Around Us in 2015.[3][4][5][6][7] Alex Somers produced the album.[8]
Her fourth album, Call It Love, was released in August 2017.[9] Following the release of this album, Marela was dropped by Jagjaguwar, and she took time off from active performance as a solo artist while a student in the MFA program at Mills College.[1] In April 2020, Marela's father, who lived in Peru, died, and due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, she was unable to visit his home country for more than a year; these experiences influenced the content of her fifth album, You Are a Wave, which was released in September 2022.[1]
