Rising star Sara Bareilles: 'I was letting others decide what was good'

As a small-town girl from the backwoods of Northern California, Sara Bareilles had what she calls a ' sheltered upbringing'. The third of four sisters, she was a sporty, outdoors type who enjoyed the theatre and never wore anything other than jeans and T-shirts.

Beneath the happy trappings of a 'borderline normal' childhood, however, a less sunny Sara lurked. Her alter ego was, she says, 'a bit of a basket case': prone to tearful, emotional outbursts.

These days, Sara (whose surname is pronounced 'Bah-rell-iss') bares her soul through her songwriting. At 28, she is one of America's fastest rising new stars. Her soaring single, Love Song, is helping to soundtrack the summer. Her album, Little Voice, heralds the arrival of a big talent.

Bareilles is also breaking through on her own terms. Neither a pop princess, country queen or leatherclad rock chick, she is happy to shun the stereotypes and let her songs speak for themselves. She even shudders slightly at being dubbed a 'singer-songwriter'.

'I love breaking the mould, and there are a lot of great, kick-ass girls out there at the moment trying to do the same. It's great that girls are showing their sensitivity, and my songwriting obviously comes from an emotional place. But it's also OK to play soccer with the boys and run the company.'

In keeping with her spirit of kooky individuality, Sara's current hit was inspired by her reluctance to kowtow to artistic demands. 'I'm not gonna write you a love song,' she scolds, although her paymasters at Epic were no doubt pleased with the outcome.

'Love Song is about my record label,' she admits. 'I turned in some new songs, and they didn't seem interested. That shook me up and made me feel as if I didn't know how to write music any more. It was a real confidence-buster.

'So I started thinking about how I could please them, maybe by writing a love song. But that in itself made me angry. I got really fed up that I'd even allowed myself to become so insecure that I was letting them decide what was good.'

While numbers like Love Song pack a powerful emotional punch, Little Voice is more than just a series of Dear Diary outpourings. A skilful pianist and composer, Bareilles works with a co-writer on only one of the album's 12 original songs.

Her musical hallmark is a flurry of pounding rhythms, tumbling chords and complex yet catchy vocal arrangements. And while she grew up listening to Elton John and Billy Joel, Sara also cites the maverick New York jazz-pop singer Fiona Apple as the artist who pointed the way forward for her.

'She changed my awareness of what you could do in a song,' Sara says of Apple. 'Her perspective is very dark and vulnerable, but she's also an incredible lyricist. I was really drawn to her wordplay.'

Sara's musical education began in a local choir in her hometown of Eureka, but it wasn't until she went to college in LA that she started writing in earnest. At UCLA, Sara also met a band, then called Kara's Flowers but now Maroon 5, who would become musical soulmates.

'They've always been very supportive,' Sara says. 'They were more folksy and Beatles-inspired back then, and they faced a real backlash when they shifted to a more modern sound. But they are very talented.'

But Bareilles wasn't always quite so enamoured with the Brentwood band. On one of their early tours together, Maroon 5 interrupted Sara's set with an impromptu prank.

'I was about to sing a ballad when they invaded the stage wearing just their boxer shorts,' she sighs. 'I had no idea what was going on and I was completely distracted. They really got me there. Cheers for that, guys.'

Like Maroon 5, Bareilles has seen her career blossom after embracing a more mainstream approach. Little Voice is her fourth album, following two live CDs lifted from small club appearances in 2003 and one previous studio effort, Careful Confessions, that came out independently four years ago.

While she admits to putting a radio-friendly sheen on her intimate, soul-baring pop, Sara still puts those ever- churning emotions into everything she does. She says that music is a vocation, and wants to establish herself as a consistent live performer. She hopes to announce UK dates soon.

'My songs are more polished than they used to be, and Little Voice is quite calculated,' she says. 'That might have negative connotations to some, but making Little Voice was a matter of life or death. I was very precious about it, but I have more perspective now. The album captures my songs, but they really come to life onstage.'

Little Voice is out now on Epic