I Heard Her First… Kinda…

Before I start, I would like to give a very sincere “thank you” to all of you who have read my posts, and have offered words of encouragement. I greatly appreciate it.

Alright, back to business. So the last post I wrote was about the music that was filling my head at that moment. This one will be about something that has been lost in my brain for a few months, but has found its way back because of a TV commercial.

Sara Bareilles. Many of you may know her by now, but some of you may not. She is a budding young songstress, cut from the mold of Fiona Apple, Sarah McLachlan, and Norah Jones (again, all these comparisons are debatable). She comes equipped with a very soulful voice, a decent piano-playing ability, and a unique writing style – which may or may not be attributable to hired songwriters… I’m not sure. But anyway, she has proven, thus far, to be for real. Her single “Love Song” has been holding strong on the charts (Billboard and iTunes) as well as on the radio and the aforementioned television commercials, and has helped inspire a host of young women to buy digital tracks and ringtones, and melodically proclaim “I’m not gonna write you a love song”… Oh yes, I have seen this.



So what’s the big deal? Well, it’s a big deal to me, because in my time working as an intern at SonyBMG Music, Sara Bareilles was one of the few unknown gems that I was privy to before the public. Now that she seems to be attaining some stardom, I can’t help but feel that obnoxious “oh yea, I knew her before she was famous” attitude coming over me. Let’s be clear though. I have never met this woman, and I know hardly anything about her as a person. All I know is that my boss let me hear her demo long before anyone knew who she was, and that, for some reason, makes me feel like a record industry insider. C’mon, I sit in law school classes all day… I have to keep my dreams alive somehow.

Anyway, the story is this. My boss, Josh, went to the Sundance Film Festival last winter, and when he came back he told me about the celebrity and semi-celebrity people he had hung out with, one of whom was this up-and-coming young singer named Sara Bareilles. I had never heard of her, and I wasn’t particularly interested to find out about her or her music. I was more into the stories about how Josh kept running into Tara Reid. A few weeks later, a song coming from Josh’s office caused me to freeze at my desk and drop whatever it was I was doing… I was literally just sitting there in a daze, listening to this song. Josh always played music, and I would always listen to whatever he had on. Usually it was new Sony artists, which was cool, because then I could check out then-unreleased new music. Some of it I liked, some of it I didn’t, and either way, the songs would often spark some good conversations about music in general. But this was just weird. It was something that I never would have thought would hit me so hard. Female singer, soft piano chords, faint strings in the background… no drums, no bass… very stripped down, and very simple. But it was incredible. It was the complete opposite of everything I had been hearing out of popular female artists for so long (I promised no bashing on this page, but the likes of Fergie can make people want to quit music and never come back).

So I walked into Josh’s office, looking astonished I’m sure, and asked him who this voice belonged to. He told me it was Sara Bareilles, the girl he had told me about from Sundance. Well I felt a little stupid. But nonetheless, I asked him to play the song again, and we just sat and listened. Amazing voice. Not overpowering. Not impressive because of the range and improvisational ability… but because it was strong, and clear, and clean, and real. Her piano keeps the harmony and the rhythm, while her voice holds the melody… the strings fill in the rest of the sonic space, and really no more is needed. The lyrics were poignant, but not overdone. A love song, but not one which leaves you feeling lost. You can connect. Everyone probably can. And thankfully so. I hate love song lyrics that either don’t touch you at all, or are just so vague or cheesy that you don’t even want them to touch you. When I heard this song I was just really taken back that people even sang like this anymore. We concluded that the song was perfect, and that Sara Bareilles was going to make it. I’m sure Josh had concluded that long before, but for me that one song sold me.



You’re probably getting annoyed, going “well, what the hell was the song?” Well, it wasn’t “Love Song.” In fact, I didn’t even hear “Love Song” till months later when Josh finally got me a copy of her 3-song EP. I had annoyed him about it for quite some time because I wanted to play it for people so they could affirm to me that this girl was as incredible as I thought she was. I just wanted that one song.

“Gravity.” That was the song. That was where I found Sara Bareilles and renewed my faith in the idea of the musically talented young female artist, out there singing and playing as a real musician and not a fake, marketable commodity. I hope so much that the producers of her album didn’t take the beautiful version of that song from her EP, and change it and “pop”-produce it to make it more radio-friendly. I haven’t heard her full album, but I have at least checked the 30-second sample of the song on iTunes. It seems to be the same version. However, I can’t make any promises that the “Gravity” on the album is the same exact incredible one that I own. I certainly hope it is.

I’m normally not one for ballads, or slow love songs, or soft piano music… I like faster, funkier, bassier things… and quite frankly, that for me is what makes this girl, and this song, that much more impressive. Right? The real impressive artists are the ones who get to everyone… the ones that you just can’t help but feel their music. And that’s not to say that all of you who read this will find this song as impressive as I did/do. But if you are willing to take the time to check it out (and dudes, if you’re willing to be comfortable enough in your masculinity and sexuality to admit that you like a song that features a girl with a piano, singing a soft ballad) then I think you will find that there is something different, unique, and definitely refreshing about it. At least that’s what I found. So give it a listen and see what it does for you. Enjoy your weekend all. Go Giants!