{"id":3156,"date":"2011-08-08T23:09:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T06:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3156"},"modified":"2011-08-08T23:09:07","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T06:09:07","slug":"sara-bareilles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/sara-bareilles\/","title":{"rendered":"SARA BAREILLES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sara<\/h1>\n

SARA BAREILLES<\/h1>\n

Finding the keys to confidence and beating the sophomore jinx<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sara Bareilles doesn\u2019t like\u00a0being told what to do\u2014but it does seem to inspire some of her best work. The singer-songwriter\u2019s 2007 breakthrough hit, \u201cLove Song,\u201d from her Grammy-nominated debut album, Little Voice<\/em>, is a clever rebuke to a record exec\u2019s alleged appeal for a more marketable hit. \u201cKing of Anything,\u201d the first single from her second album, Kaleidoscope Heart<\/em>, boasts similar beginnings. \u201cI was starting to share my demos for this album with my inner circle and asking for feedback but found myself getting defensive,\u201d she says. \u201c\u2018King of Anything\u2019 was sort of a pep talk to myself. It was a reminder to take things with a grain of salt.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean Bareilles, a self-taught pianist, doesn\u2019t welcome advice. When burnout and nerves left her with a serious case of writer\u2019s block this time around, she turned to several close confidants for support. Ultimately, going into the studio with a new producing partner, Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy, Say Anything) to lay down a few tracks proved liberating. \u201cI felt so creative there and loved how things were coming to life, so it freed me up to write the rest of the record,\u201d she says. Rolling through the South on a tour of radio stations to promote the highly anticipated Kaleidoscope Heart<\/em>, Bareilles took the time to chat about being brave and breaking bad habits.<\/p>\n

Did the sophomore jinx worry you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh my God, yes. I won\u2019t even be proud and pretend like it didn\u2019t. I was terrified, actually. I worried about people comparing this record to the last, even though I know that is a natural reaction. It got in the way initially. I had a hard time getting started writing and couldn\u2019t finish any songs. It\u00a0was strange because that was so not part of the process with Little Voice<\/em>. When I\u00a0was writing the songs for the first record, I didn\u2019t even think they were going to end up on an album anywhere. I was just writing them to write. So at this point, the\u00a0game changed.<\/p>\n

How did you conquer those nerves?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What really helped me was having a conversation with the producer of my first record, Eric Rosse. I told him how scared I was, and he said, \u201cWell, it sounds like that\u2019s your song there.\u201d That ended up being \u201cUncharted.\u201d I\u2019m so grateful for that song because it opened the floodgates for me. It was the first song I had written in a long time that I connected with. I started thinking that I had to divorce myself from the idea that I needed outside validation to know that this was good. I wanted to get to a place where the only opinions I cared about were mine and Neal Avron\u2019s. I\u2019m so proud of this record and feel like it\u2019s exactly what I want it to be. Of course I hope people enjoy it, but that\u2019s out of my hands at this point.<\/p>\n

What were your goals for the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I tried to be a little more fearless than on the first record. I was so new then, and everything was intimidating. I was scared of making decisions, making choices and taking risks. So this time around, having much more experience under my belt, it was so fun to let go and enjoy the process. I also wanted to become a better pianist. I\u2019m not a really chops-y player. I can be limited in terms of what I can actually do with my hands on the keys. So I tried to write songs that were more challenging to play, more complicated, more arpeggiation. I tried to push myself a little, and I definitely did. As we went into rehearsals I thought, \u201cOh, I have to figure out how to play these!\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you meet Neal Avron?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was a suggestion from my longtime [Epic Records] A&R guy, Pete Giberga, who\u2019s not with Epic anymore, but is still a really close friend. He brought up Neal\u2019s name and I looked up his discography and thought, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t make sense at all for me. This is a rock guy.\u201d But I made an effort this time around to be open-minded. I used to have severe knee-jerk reactions about\u00a0trying anything new, but I\u2019m trying to break that bad habit. So I agreed to meet with Neal, and we had an awesome first meeting. He seemed really passionate about helping to articulate my vision musically. I felt so safe with him. I felt like whatever I wanted to try, I had a co-pilot.<\/p>\n

The album opens with an a cappella <\/em><\/strong>interlude. Are all those voices yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes. I have an a cappella<\/em> background\u2014I sang in a group at UCLA [Awaken A Cappella]. That was one of the first communities where I felt embraced and supported. I wanted\u00a0to tip my hat to that. But this was an idea from my guitar\u00a0player, Javier Dunn,\u00a0and it was so fun to\u00a0write. I also wanted to\u00a0expand on the idea of what \u201ckaleidoscope heart,\u201d which is a\u00a0lyric from \u201cUncharted,\u201d\u00a0meant to me.<\/p>\n

What kind of pianos do you play?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a Yamaha girl. I have an upright at home. Someday if I can graduate to a grand in my house, I\u2019d like to. But I really like the brightness and the tonality of an upright piano. It seems to be a good fit for me in terms of what I\u2019m saying musically right now. On the road I use a Yamaha Clavinova. It\u2019s a MIDI keyboard, but I use the baby grand model so it really looks beautiful. Of course\u00a0everyone who\u2019s a piano player would rather play a real piano, but if you have to use a keyboard, I love the sound of a Yamaha.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is your writing process like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I usually just sit at the piano, and if I don\u2019t have anything specific to start from, I\u2019ll literally put my hands on the keys and see what comes out. To this day, I still feel like my piano is one of my best friends. It\u2019s a very warm, welcoming, safe place for me to release what\u2019s in my mind. I\u2019m not a great guitar player, but I have had some ideas start flowing when I\u2019m\u00a0playing it. Some of my favorite songs on the record, \u201cLet the Rain\u201d and \u201cBasket Case,\u201d\u00a0are guitar based.<\/p>\n

Do you write on the road?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a difficult time writing while on the road. There\u2019s so much stimulation and so little alone time. Some people really thrive on that and feel a lot of ideas rushing through them. But I need a lot of space and isolation to feel like I can write. So everything gets put on hold while we\u2019re touring, but I have a Rolodex in the back of my mind with all these images and experiences filed away. I\u2019ve been fortunate in the past that when I\u2019ve sat down to write, they kind of flow out. I\u2019m just going to hope that happens again.<\/p>\n

\u2013Katie Dodd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SARA BAREILLES Finding the keys to confidence and beating the sophomore jinx Sara Bareilles doesn\u2019t like\u00a0being told what to do\u2014but it does seem to inspire some of her best work. The singer-songwriter\u2019s 2007 breakthrough hit, \u201cLove Song,\u201d from her Grammy-nominated debut album, Little Voice, is a clever rebuke to a record exec\u2019s alleged appeal for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[970,2310,1062],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3158,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3156\/revisions\/3158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}