Careful Confessions, an independently released album, was a success for pop-soul singer Sara Bareilles. Here, Sara talks about her new album, Little Voice, recently released under a major album label.

QUESTION: Tell us a bit about yourself.

SARA BAREILLES: Growing up in Humboldt County, California, I did a lot of community theatre and choir-singing.

I spent a lot of time fooling around on the piano. I gravitated early towards music and pursued it in school.

I didn’t study it, but I was always a part of it in college.
At the end of college (University of California Los Angeles, or UCLA), I started to do a lot of live shows in LA. I’ve been performing for about six years now. I quit my waitress job when my music career started taking me places. It’s been awesome so far.

Q: Do you read music?

SB: I don’t read notes, but I can read chords. I don't read music in the traditional sense.

Q: Did you take classes in music in college?

SB: No, I participated in the UCLA Chorale, which is their choir.

Q: You were signed by Epic Records in 2005. How was that for you?

SB: It’s been great. It opened a lot of doors and has been a huge opportunity for me. It comes with its share of challenges. You are inviting a lot of people into what you do creatively but overall, it’s been a huge opportunity for me. I feel very lucky to share my music on a much wider scale.

Q: Did you record Careful Confessions before that (signing with Epic Records)?

SB: Yes, that was recorded in 2003. I co-produced that with a good friend — singer-songwriter/producer Gabriel Mann.

We co-produced the six EPs and also put in some live tracks. That was a really long time ago and we did it to have something recorded. We sold thousands of copies of it, which is awesome!

Q: With your new album, were you doing a lot of the same music from the earlier album or a completely new set?

SB: We re-recorded several of the songs. There were some songs on Careful Confessions that were just live performances. We did studio performances of some of those songs. There is also some new material in there as well. It's kind of a mix.

Q: How would you describe your genre of music?

SB: I usually say pop/soul. There is definitely a lot of R&B and jazz influences in my music. I guess that's where I would say I end up.

Q: In the concert, you played the piano. Do you play other instruments on your album?

SB: I play the guitar on one song. I am not a very good guitarist but I can manage some song-writing on the guitar. We had studio musicians come in. We have the drums, bass, electric guitar and strings. We went all-out for the CD.

Q: Are you going to be able to tour with a full band in the future?

SB: In the future, we will. Right now it's hard to — budget-wise. It is easier for us to travel, you know, in a smaller unit. It is also easier for us to open for bigger bands.

We have a really simple set-up instead of having a full drum set and electric guitars with amps.

We try to keep it really simple now so we can have the best mobility. Then, hopefully, we will expand and have a full band.

Q: Did you take vocal lessons?

SB: Recently, I took some to increase stamina, mainly just trying to protect against fatigue.

As you go on tour, obviously it gets harder to maintain doing shows every single night.

But for the most part I didn’t do a lot of training. In the past year, I did some vocal training with my voice teacher who’s based out of Los Angeles. He's given me a lot of guidance in terms of warm-ups to do and stuff to protect against atigue and strengthening.

Q: If you had the chance to collaborate with an artiste, who would it be?

SB: There are so many people. I guess right now it would be Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows. I would really like to do some song-writing with him and collaborate with him. — Courtesy of Sony/BMG Music.