Sara Bareilles, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
(chuckles) I'm so happy to be here.
I'm glad that you are here, because you're one of the people
who very early on had COVID.
And everybody experienced different symptoms.
I've heard some artists who've said
that their vocal cords were never the same.
Are you completely fine now?
I-I somehow escaped relatively unscathed, actually.
I was so, so lucky.
Um, yeah, it was a-- it was a very mild case really early on.
Last March. I had been in London,
and I was doing a show I wrote called Waitress in the West End.
And I think pretty much everyone in our cast got it.
-Wow. -And, um...
And it was-- It-- For me, it was pretty mild.
But, you know, I-I've lost a friend to COVID.
-Wow. -Nick Cordero was one of our company members,
and-and we lost him to COVID.
So I-- it's-it's extraordinarily serious.
But, you know, it feels like we-we can kind of see
-the finish line here a little bit, maybe. -Definitely.
Yeah. Definitely. It-it feels like
we're now all optimistically seeing
the light at the end of the tunnel,
trying to come out of it, you know?
Um, you are here because, um,
you have a few new projects coming up,
which is I feel like the perfect time
for new life, you know?
As-as we're stepping out into the world.
You're somebody who's been successful
in almost everything you've done.
I mean, from New York Times bestseller
to winning a Grammy,
nominated for Emmys and Tonys.
Everything you touch turns to gold.
This new show that you have on Peacock,
Girls5eva, seems like it's gonna be no different,
not just because of your talent
but because of the talent of the cast,
and it is executive produced by Tina Fey.
Tell me a little bit about this magical c-connection.
I mean, this legitimately was, like, being...
getting a... a message from heaven.
I was... It was the middle of the lockdown.
I, like so many people, was struggling deeply emotionally
with what was going on, you know,
-globally and certainly within our country. -Right.
And the disaster of the past administration.
And I was in the depths of despair,
as so many found themselves.
And I got a phone call from Tina Fey.
And I feel like, if that's a lifeboat...
If that's the kind of lifeboat I get once in my life...
I'm thrilled about it.
So, um, Tina, and Meredith Scardino,
who's the creator of Girls5eva, um, called me
and offered me the role of Dawn, who's, um,
you know, a member of this '90s girl group
who have had their shoot fame, and
it somehow, miraculously, comes around again
where they get a chance.
And they're in their middle age, and-and
have moved on to families and responsibilities,
and they're deciding to go for it, and it's just...
It was such a gift, so much fun.
Yeah, it-it isn't just fun to-to watch.
I mean, the music is fantastic.
The performances are amazing.
You know, the premise is-is really fun.
Oftentimes when I... when I interview people,
they're playing a version of themselves
in the successful sense.
Here, you are playing-- if I could say this--
you are, um, playing a much less successful version
of yourself essentially.
You're... you know, you're playing in this world
where it's like, things have not gone right.
I'd love to know what that was like for you to play.
(laughs) Like, well, you know, how...?
It doesn't matter what it looks like from the outside.
Like, it might look like my life is really shiny,
but we all are just...
-I'm just a self-loathing machine on the inside. -Oh, wow.
Ultimately, ultimately, I feel like, actually, I relate
a lot to this character.
You know, she's kind of a mess,
but she tries really hard.
And she really loves her family, and she's very loyal,
but she makes mistakes and bad fashion decisions.
And I feel like, I think it's... it's loosely based on my life.
Um, because you-you... It feels like you're doing it all.
You know? I know nobody's life is perfect,
but it is fun to see somebody
who is constantly challenging themselves,
finding new avenues for what they want to do
and how to express themselves.
I mean, I know you worked in producing Little Voice
-on Apple Plus, you know, for instance. -Yeah.
Just-just stretching how you do things.
And one of the biggest things
your fans would always wonder is,
does this mean that you are leaving music?
No. No, 1,000% no.
And, you know, I think, before I moved to New York,
I found myself in this place where I just...
It wasn't that I was unhappy.
I was just stagnated.
And it felt like it was time to take some left turns
and to take some risks.
And I have found in my career that the more that I do
that's a little bit outside of my comfort zone,
the better time I have, the more I learn from everything.
So, we're all on this ride together. (laughs)
I feel like that makes the title
of your new album so perfect-- Amidst the Chaos.
You're going to be hosting a concert at,
um, the Hollywood Bowl.
You know, for musicians, for performers like myself,
I mean, we haven't been out, audiences haven't been out.
That sense of normalcy has yet to fully come back.
What are you hoping to do with the show
and why did you decide "You know what?
Now's the time for me to put a performance together"?
Well, so, we recorded this...
We recorded the live album.
We went on the Amidst the Chaos tour at the end of 2019
with all intentions towards releasing this live record, um,
last year during 2020.
And, of course, you know, the lockdown happened,
and it felt completely inappropriate
to do anything self-promotional.
But, um, so here we are at the...
you know, on the cusp of things
sort of coming back to life.
And, um, I wanted to pair the release of this record,
this live record, that was recorded at the end of 2019,
um, with a little bit of a-a return to the vault.
And the biggest takeaway for me was
that even these incredible venues,
these, like, cathedrals of music--
they don't carry the same meaning without people.
-Right, definitely. -So, I mean, we took the stage,
and it was... it was beautiful to be there,
and it was so special to play an excerpt of the concert.
But at the end of the day, I was like, "Wow.
I have never felt the absence of an audience more."
And so all, you know, it...
I turned it into just one big PSA for vaccinations.
We're so close to getting back into real life
in reality with each other,
which is the thing I miss the most.
And so many people, of course, you know--
artists, musicians, poets, technicians, crew, vendors--
you know, everybody's waiting to go back to work.
Most definitely. Most definitely.
Sara, thank you so much for taking the time today.
Congratulations on everything you've done.
Um, good luck with the show on Peacock.
Good luck with the new album.
And, um, hopefully we'll see you
on the other side of the pandemic in person.
Thank you so much.