Q&A;: Sara Bareilles

For Issue 1049, Caryn Ganz spoke to Sara Bareilles about breaking big with an inescapable hit single and her long journey to the Top Ten (it involved an audition for The Mickey Mouse Club). Click above to watch Bareilles in action at SXSW performing "Love Song" and her cover of the Beatles' "Oh! Darling" and chatting about her upcoming headlining tour. Keep reading for more Bareilles on recording Little Voice and meeting Fiona Apple.

What did the first song you ever wrote sound like?
My first song that I ever played in front of people was at this choir recital in high school. At that time I was trying to be really heady, and I was listening to a lot of Tori Amos, and the song was called "Water Dancers" if that gives you any idea ? people were so confused by it and not into it at all, I think it really made me retreat and I didn't play music for anybody for years after that. I'm a believer that things don't happen until you're ready, and I wasn't ready to be criticized or have people tell me it wasn't good.

Have you ever met one of your idols, Fiona Apple?
I met her once. She was wasted at a bar, and I was like, "I'm wasted, you're wasted!" But I really had always held her up on this pedestal, she was super-human. I just said, "Hi Fiona, I'm a big fan." I got all tongue-tied and totally star-struck. There's people that for whatever reason are so special to you and you don't know how to let them know how special they are to you, because they don't know you, and that's weird, to have a stranger come up and be like, you're my life.

We've established that "Love Song" isn't exactly a love song. Are there relationships you do write about?
I've had a handful, but I've had great success in turning one relationship into a lot of songs. Some of them are just about the idea — I like with songwriting the idea of diving into the psyche, I can put myself in someone else's shoes.

You've said being in the studio is a challenge for you — how hard was recording Little Voice?
I just was a basket case in the studio. I cried more in the studio than I think I've cried in ten years — that's not true, I cry all the time. It was just really emotional. Trying to illustrate your ideas with music is really hard and when you're somebody who doesn't have experience in the studio, the studio is like a whole other language. And I'm really stubborn, like, "I can do it, don't tell me how to do this." It was really hard for me to suck it up and let people make choices.