b. 7 December 1979, Humboldt County, California, USA. A singer-songwriter and pianist in the mould of Fiona Apple and Michelle Branch, Bareilles was raised in rural California before leaving for the city in her late teens to attend UCLA. She completed a Communication Studies degree but was also active as a performer on the Los Angles open-mic club scene, in addition to singing with the collegiate vocal group Awaken. Her songwriting began to take shape during this period and she was soon confident enough to begin performing her own material in public. Between 2003 and 2004 she self-released two live albums and the demo CD Careful Confessions in limited runs. The latter collection featured seven studio recordings and four live tracks, with the tracks ‘Love On The Rocks’, ‘Gravity’ and ‘Fairytale’ showing notable maturity for a young songwriter. Of equal note were Bareilles’ strident vocals, which helped set her apart from many of her waif-like contemporaries.
The album came to the attention of Epic Records and within the space of a year Bareilles had signed a recording contract with the label. She revisited several songs from Careful Confessions on her major label debut, which was recorded with producer Eric Rosse. Released in summer 2007, Little Voice featured re-recorded versions of ‘Love On The Rocks’, ‘Gravity’ and ‘Fairytale’, alongside the chiming pop of the Internet hit single ‘Love Song’. The latter had topped the iTunes chart prior to the release of the album, and it was online that Little Voice established its grip on the public imagination before crossing over to the mainstream US charts. ‘Love Song’ also reached the US Top 5.
