Sara Bareilles gives previously unreleased songs new life on Apple TV+’s ‘Little Voice’

Apple TV+ (Brittany O’Grady as Bess King)Sara Bareilles is ready to take on the small screen with the new Apple TV+ series inspired by her musical journey and named after her debut album, Little Voice. She’s executive producing the show with J….

By ABC Audio on July 10, 2020

Apple TV+ (Brittany O'Grady as Bess King)Sara Bareilles is ready to take on the small screen with the new Apple TV+ series inspired by her musical journey and named after her debut album, Little Voice.

She’s executive producing the show with J.J. Abrams and she’s also soundtracking the episodes with new original songs. The series follows aspiring singer-songwriter Bess King, played by Brittany O’Grady, as she tries to make it in New York City.

Sara tells ABC Audio that the show contains many “Easter eggs” from her own life, including the storage unit Bess uses to rehearse. Even some of the songs you’ll hear in the show are previously unreleased tracks from Sara’s own private catalog.

“There [were] a handful of songs that were pre-existing that lived in kind of my trunk, that were songs that I had either written for a record or they hadn't found a home yet,” she says. “[Showrunner] Jessie [Nelson] and I sat down and had a big listening session and we went through all these songs and kind of chose the ones that felt the most resonant for the character.”

Other songs, she says, were informed by the script. Sara says there are definite plans to release an album -- or two -- featuring all the songs from the show.

“I mean, this show is just packed with music,” Sara says. “So we, of course, wanted to make a really beautiful companion piece and so there will be a cast album. And then hopefully we'll be able to get a concept record not so dissimilar to what we did with Waitress, where I'll be singing the songs at some point, too.” 

Little Voice debuts today on Apple TV+.

By Andrea Tuccillo
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