Interview: Sara Bareilles (‘Girls5eva’) on Finding Comfort in “The Medium Time”

She might not write a love song because you asked for it, but Sara Bareilles might write another song for the soundtrack of Girls5eva when approached. 

The singer/songwriter/actress is known for many projects at this stage in her career, whether you’re familiar with her career as a singer (“Love Song” was on every radio station across the country for the better part of a year), her work on Broadway with Waitress, or on her current venture, the now-Netflix-used-to-be-Peacock comedy Girls5eva. On Girls5eva, Bareilles plays Dawn, a married mother trying to keep the flame alive for her girl group while keeping everything together at home. Bareilles, known for her songwriting abilities, has now lent her songwriting pen to each of the three seasons that have aired, all three songs appearing in the finale of their respective season. There’s a progression through the three, from “4 Stars” to “Bend Not Break” to the latest season’s entry, “The Medium Time,” a reference to existing within a space that allows creative freedom while large enough in popularity to possibly create a lasting cultural impact. Bareilles is nominated for an Emmy for music and lyrics for her additional contribution to the third season. 

I sat down with Bareilles to chat about writing music for the series (and her surprise when she was asked), using the music to progress the plot, and the difference between writing lyrics for Broadway and writing for a television series. 

Tyler Doster: When you were first approached about the show, and we first heard about it, did you know that you would also eventually be writing music for this show like you do every season, or you’ve done every season?

Sara Bareilles: No. That really came as a surprise, a very welcomed surprise, but yeah. When I just said yes, in fact, part of the reason I was excited to step into this was that it would be purely as an actor. And I think I’d come from so many projects, one after another, where there was this other demand of producing creative material on top of being involved. And it was really exciting. But then I’m just, I can’t. I am like a kid with candy. So when they invited me, they’re like, “Did you want to try, or do you want to?” Tina and Jeff both proposed it in a really very inviting way, with a non-pressuresome. It was like, “If you want to, you can. You don’t have to.” So then of course, I’m like, “Well, let me try.” And then I just fell in love with not only just the writing, and the show, and the process of making this show. I also fell in love with my co-stars, and then it just spiraled out. And then I was very, very happy to contribute where I could.

TD: What is your difference in approach when you’re writing music and lyrics for an album, a musical, and now this, a television series?

SB: I guess I’d say essentially the essential nature of the process feels very similar, which is I try to stay attuned to something very instinctual. With the Girls5eva songs, I usually am following a first impulse. I would say writing for musical theater has much more revisions, because you’re doing the dance between so many departments, and it’s such a collaborative experience. And there’s so many things that one song needs to accomplish within the arc of the piece, and with choreography, and direction, and story, and the arc of the character. So I would say that maybe the most complicated process is musical theater, and then when I’m writing for myself, I just get to be purely narcissistic. So the essential nature of the process I think comes from that instinctual place, of just trying to find a little seed of truth, and parse it apart into a song.

TD: Do you think it’s gotten easier for you to write these songs for Girls5eva as the seasons have gone on, and you’ve been with the character more?

SB: Yes. I think what I’m also noticing is that they just have gotten a little more heartfelt as my relationship to the world has gotten deeper, and more just meaningful to me. So writing, when I think back on the first song, “4 Stars,” there’s more jokes in there. And then I think as we progressed, as I would write these finale songs, they got one click more earnest. And then this season, I remember sending it to Meredith, and just saying, “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s funny enough.” And she wrote back. She’s like, “Well, I’m crying in the Adidas store. So I think it’s fine.” But I really feel like it encapsulates this journey of this group, and these women who we fell in love with each other on camera, and off. And this idea that you get to feel like you’re enough for each other in this place in their career was, it felt very meta, and really beautiful.

TD: From “4 Stars,” to “Bend Not Break,” then “The Medium Time,” there’s definitely an evolution of not only Dawn, but every character. So that’s why I think it’s so fascinating. Do you think when you are looking towards these songs, and you were looking towards “The Medium Time” specifically, did you have those other two in mind, or were you purely going off of what had happened in season three?

SB: I think it’s natural that the evolution is baked in, but I was really looking at I hadn’t really written a ballad for us, or a moment for them to just sit and sing together, just sing a heartfelt melody. So that felt really right. It was ready to go, and they went through so much in season three. And Dawn, I think that coming from Dawn’s perspective, she’s pregnant, and she knows she’s giving birth to a girl, and she’s surrounded by her sisters. And I do think that there’s something growing for them just about, “What do we want to teach?” What does she want to teach her child? And I think it really, so many of the lessons come from her love of her friends, and her bandmates.

TD: Has it gotten progressively easier with this now that you’ve gotten into season three? And do you think if you guys were to keep going, it’d be easy for you to do another song?

SB: Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I think with anything, as your relationship deepens, there’s so much more to draw from. The nuances grow. And because our music department is so wildly talented, they go in a lot of directions. So I feel like the sky’s the limit in terms of mapping out the creative playing space. So I really hope we get to keep going, and keep making music, and all kinds of stuff for Girls5eva.

TD: Do you have any personal attachment to existing within the medium time?

SB: Most definitely. Yes. I think that it’s funny. Accidentally I think when I was younger, and imagining the version of my life where I got to be a recording artist, it probably looked different in the scope of my imagination, and what has actually bloomed around me is so much richer, and more fulfilling than I think the version of my life that I was imagining, which I think would’ve looked a little bit more like a movie, like a movie of this star. Maybe not a Taylor Swift, maybe not that level, but I think that I got exactly the life that I am programmed for. I hit the jackpot in a big way, and I love being somewhere in the middle. It’s really good for me.

TD: It seems like it’d be the best artistically and creatively to exist there.

SB: I really feel like there’s a misconception around fame, and I think it’s a prison. I really, really do. There are other people I think that can handle it, and do it much better than I probably could have. But no, not for me.

TD: Sure. Because with that fame, there comes the pressure to do stuff that might not be as personal as you want to do, or exist within the creative space you want to be in.

SB: And I think the life of an artist is trying to tap into what’s true, and unique, and in evolution, and I think there’s a lot of, yeah. I think at a certain scale, I do think it is just harder to maintain, because there’s the balance of maintaining a career that has achieved such a huge footprint, that there’s just a tremendous amount of energy goes to managing that big of a machine.

TD: I think it is now perfect that Girls5eva is now existing in this space as well, because it seems to be something they’ve realized, especially Wickie, that this fame might not be exactly what they’re looking for, and they might just be looking for a great creative endeavor.

SB: I think they’re all asking themselves that question. I’m not sure if Wickie’s really ready to give it up yet, but I think that’s good. She’s usually she’s got us by the hand, and dragging us forward into her grand schemes, which is part of what makes the show so delightful.

TD: If the show is to progress any longer, or further, do you have any predictions on what could happen next for Dawn?

SB: Well, I do think that it’s interesting to see what happens now that Dawn has made some peace with the fact that she stopped giving herself grief for really just loving it. She’s just letting herself enjoy what is ridiculous, and nostalgic, and maybe the parts about this that haven’t aged well, she stopped giving herself grief about that, which I love. And I remember Meredith Scardino talking about if we were to get a season four, to think about what it might look like to see them have a modicum of success. What does that look like for these girls?

And what complications does that bring? Because I feel like there’s a lot to tease out around that. But I think for Dawn, juggling two children now, and also this fully matured sense of, “I love this. I want to do this. I want to do this for the rest of my life,” that’s not no longer a question. She’s no longer one foot in, one foot out, seeing if it might work. But it’s a different thing when you allow your dream to actualize, and stop asking yourself, or stop being in the place of looking for permission to have the dream. So I think people take big swings from that place, which is always really fun to watch.

TD: Is it also just as fun to play that the more confident she gets in realizing she does have this dream?

SB: Oh my God. Yes. And she gets more ridiculous, and wild, and a little unhinged. The way you get unhinged when you’re near the thing you really want, and the desperation comes out a little bit, yes. I love all that in her. I relate to that so much, because I always think of her as the one holding the balloon strings for the rest of the girls. And it’s fun when Dawn lets her feet come off the ground a little bit too.

Sara Bareilles is Emmy-nominated in the category of Outstanding Music and Lyrics for the song “The Medium Time” from the episode ‘New York’ of Girls5eva.