Rachael Yamagata: she ditched her band and found her voice

Rachael Yamagata had to snap in order to get her first real break. She had been toiling in the high-energy, rootsy Chicago funk band Bumpus for five years, playing second string to the group's other songwriters, all the while being forced to keep her more introspective balladry at bay. But one day after a rehearsal, Yamagata cracked. "We would have practice for, like, five hours and all the people around me were getting their creative juices flowing, and I still didn't have that outlet," recalls the 26-year-old Washington, D.C., native. "I had this complete emotional collapse, and I was like, 'I just have to at least sing my own songs. I don't care if it's at an open mic.'"

Yamagata sent her demos out the very next day. If her five-song debut, EP (Private Music/ Arista), is any indication, she's in store for a lot more than the pass-the-tip-cup coffee-shop rounds. Musically, the singer has quickly found her footing as a solo artist, performing with the likes of David Gray, Ed Harcourt, and Damien Rice; and producer John Alagia, who helmed John Mayer's Room for Squares, is behind the boards for her first full-length album, due out early next year. Her dusky pipes and confessional style are already leading to inevitable Fiona Apple comparisons. (Yamagata considers this a compliment but sees her own simply constructed songs as more along the lines of performers like Carole King.)

But Yamagata still has some issues to resolve. "I'm a bit traumatized about everything right now," she admits, only half-kidding, speaking about her split from both Bumpus and her boyfriend, one of its members. Nevertheless, all those years in the background were not exactly wasted time: "It taught me how to be more dynamic than just a girl who sits there and plays her love songs."

Ray Rogers is a frequent Interview contributor.

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