Michelle Branch is the newest teen pop star to catch the limelight today. She’s pretty, has a beautiful voice, and sings catchy tunes. The only difference between her and the other teen pop divas out there is - Michelle can’t dance. Oh yeah, and she writes all of her own songs. If that weren’t enough, Michelle also plays the guitar and keyboard on her new album The Spirit Room which is due out August 14.

This Arizona native just turned 18, but her deep soulful voice leads you to believe that she’s an old, experienced soul trapped in a the body of a teenager. That may not be too far from the truth, however, seeing how Michelle was never interested in attending her high school when instead she could be writing music with her best friend Jenifer Hagio. So, at 15 Michelle left high school in order to be home schooled, and she never looked back.

Since then, Michelle has been signed to Maverick Records and has slowly begun to wow audiences with her maturity and talent. The Spirit Room was produced by John Shanks of BBMak and Chris Isaak fame, and is quite different from her indie album, Broken Bracelet. Shanks added a subtle pop flair to Michelle's acoustic- based songs, giving the album a fresh, vibrant feeling and Michelle a revamped style. With influences like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, Michelle is destined to be different than the rest - a force to be reckoned with. Heidi Antocicco caught up with Michelle in Los Angeles while she was preparing for her performance with Evan and Jaron.

HA: You’ve been doing a lot of promoting for The Spirit Room, is all of the traveling starting to get to you?

MB: Well, traveling is a lot of fun. It’s always fun at first, but after a couple of weeks, I’m like, "I want to be in my own bed!"

HA: When was the last time you were home?

MB: It was actually just for like two days a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty rough towards the end cause I ended up getting a cold on the airplane and passing it onto my whole family when I got home which I’m sure they appreciated a lot, but I’m getting over it so I’m ready to go out again.

HA: Have you been traveling with your dad?

MB: Yeah, actually, I have. The first week of radio promo I went out on my own and I think everyone thought I was having too much fun or something and they were like, ‘Wait a minute, lets go out there and just check out what you’re doing.’ So my dad's been with me and I think the first week of the tour my mom and little sister are going to come out for a while.

HA: I got your CD last week, and I’ve been listening to it nonstop. I really enjoyed it. I noticed that you wrote a lot of the songs yourself and some of it was collaboration with John Shanks and others. When you first signed with Maverick, were you worried that maybe you wouldn’t have as much creative freedom, as far as writing songs on your own?

MB: Well, before I was signed with Maverick I did an indie record and had written all those songs. Writing is one of the main aspects of who I am, and I’m very into writing. But when I first started making The Spirit Room, we didn’t really have a game plan and we didn’t know what I was going to do. So they were talking about setting me up with a lot of writers and co-writing. It was a little weird at first because I had never done it before, but once I started meeting with people it ended up being something that I’m actually a fan of now because it’s a lot of fun getting to write with people and see how they do things. Every time you write with yourself you learn something new, but having someone else in the mix, you get to see how they write and you pick up little things. It was cool writing with other people. But I don’t know, I have opinions of both but I don’t really know which one is better.

HA: Is there anyone you dream of writing or recording a song with?

MB: Actually, I’m a huge Shelly Peiken fan. She wrote Genie in a Bottle and Bitch. I just thought she was a really cool writer for females, and she was on The Spirit Room actually.

HA: She helped you with You Get Me. The first time that I heard that song, it reminded me of Abra Moore's style. A couple of days later I looked at the writers again and noticed that she was on there as a co-writer.

MB: Yeah, there’s actually a funny story about that song. Abra Moore had already done that song, and she had co-written it with John and Shelly Peiken. It was really different when she did it. The song never went anywhere, never made it on her record or anything. When I heard the song I was like, 'Man this is a great song', and John said, ‘Well, I don’t know we could play around with it but do you want to work on some of your songs first?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know we could play around with it.’ Then all of a sudden, the phone rang, and he picked it up and it was Shelly and she was in London and it was three in the morning and she said, ‘I cant sleep. I felt like I had to call you.’ And he was like, ‘Oh my god; you wont believe what I was just talking about.’ So we all went on speakerphone and we ended up just talking about the song and rewriting it, and I ended up recording it. It was a really weird concept. I mean, I’ve never even met her face to face, but here we are writing together over the phone while its three a.m. for her. It was really cool.

HA: So you recorded The Spirit Room in January of this year?

MB: Yeah we went in actually January 8th and finished it 35 days later. The cool thing, I think, about this record is if we would co- write a song or something, as soon as we got an idea, instead of waiting around and feeling it out and kind of seeing where it went, we would just push record and record it as soon as inspiration struck I think that’s why it happened so quickly. It was my first major label record, so everyone was really excited about the project; everyone had the energy. So, we would just press record, it happened really fast. It was so fun.

HA: What is the writing process like for you? Do you write music first and lyrics second, or is it usually the other way around?

MB: Well, every time it’s different. Sometimes I could have lyrics that I'm writing but I don’t have access to a guitar, like if I’m on the plane. I’ll write lyrics sometimes and try to put music to it. Or sometimes, I’ll be playing guitar and find something really cool and I’ll be like, ‘Oh man, I have to write something for this.’ Sometimes they both happen at the same time; I’ll just come up with something. It’s different every time, and I think that’s something that I love about songwriting, it’s a surprise every time. You never know what’s going to happen.

HA: Do your songs usually come from personal experiences?

MB: You know, with a lot of them, parts will be inspired by things that happen in life. I don’t think I can avoid that, because it’s me who’s writing the songs. But most of the time I leave them pretty much open, because I want other people to be able to interpret them and make them their own and I don’t want to make them very specific because then they cant really relate to them.

HA: So you’re 17?

MB: Yeah, I’ll be 18 soon, July 2. I don’t know, I’m excited, but then I’m like ‘oh man, I have to kind of act responsible.’

HA: Well, you seem really mature for 17. Do you ever forget how young you are? Do you ever feel older than you really are?

MB: A lot of times, especially when dealing with my music, I’ll act a lot older. I’ll go out and meet people and have dinners and do that whole thing, and sometimes I think, ‘Wait a minute, I’m 17, what am I doing being so serious all the time?’ But I guess its because I care about the music so much that I’m really focused and serious when It comes to it. But other times, I’m such a 17-year-old girl. I’ll be out with my friends giggling nonstop, its horrible! But I feel like I have a nice balance of both.

HA: Have you been writing songs while you’ve been rehearsing and traveling?

MB: Yeah, I write all the time. If something pops in my head, I’ll write it down and see where it goes. I’m ready to make the second record!

HA: Do you like being in the studio, is that a comfortable place for you to be?

MB: Yeah, I love being in the studio. Actually, I’m really excited to get out and play live because I haven’t for a while. Being in the studio, I didn’t have time to get out. So, if there was a way I could have two of me, one in the studio and one playing live, that would be cool!

HA: So, I bet you’ve been getting a lot of attention with people wanting to interview you and the label gushing over you. How does that make you feel?

MB: Well, I don’t know. It’s funny because I feel like I’m lucky to be doing what I love as a job. Right now, I kind of haven’t been thinking about it that way. I’m just like ‘oh yeah, its my job, you know, I just happen to be going in and talking to magazines.’ I don’t really step aside and think about it. Because if you start thinking about everything that’s going on, it kind of messes you up. So I just take every day as it comes and try not to think about it.

HA: You described your music as folky pop. The label "pop" has gotten a bad wrap. How do you feel about that and why do you think that is?

MB: Yeah people kind of cringe when they hear that word. But you know, I think music goes in cycles. There’s always going to be pop music because there’s always going to be younger kids who it appeals to. I’m a huge pop music fan. I think there’s enough people in the world so that there’s room for everything. But we’ve had a huge wave of the teen pop recently, and I’m not against it or anything, but maybe people are just ready for something a little bit different.

HA: Who do you think your music appeals to?

MB: I appeal to a wide range of people. I have kids and their parents coming to my show. It’s really cool because my lyrics appeal more to the older people and the actual sound of the music appeals to younger people. Its something that’s really cool. My parents are into my music, not just because they’re my parents but because they’re like ‘hey, this is a really cool song.’

HA: What one artist do you dream of touring with?

MB: I’m a huge Aerosmith fan. And I guess the Beatles and Led Zeppelin is kind of impossible now, but if I could open for ANYONE that would be cool! But yeah, I’d say Aerosmith or The Rolling Stones, because those are the people I look up to, and I think it would be so amazing just to be able to play with them.