Sara Bareilles didn't tune in to the Grammy nominations broadcast on Dec. 6; she didn't think she needed to. So she missed Enrique Iglesias announcing her third major-label release, The Blessed Unrest, as one of the contenders for the Academy's top honor, Album of the Year. (She also got a Best Pop Solo Performance nod for her chin-up anthem ''Brave.'') ''I thought I was on my way out, to be honest. If you're looking at record sales, [Unrest] was successful but it wasn't like 'Oh, s---, this is making a huge wave in the world,''' Bareilles, 34, admits on a cool January afternoon in Santa Monica. ''My manager was screaming into the phone. And I was screaming right back at him and just shaking. I was so shocked.''
It's fitting that the California native's greatest triumph would come from an album sprung from one of the most tumultuous periods in her life — one that saw her ending a relationship with a boyfriend of six years, splitting with her band, and ditching Los Angeles — her home for 14 years — in favor of the fresh energy of New York. (When we meet, she's back in L.A. to do the TV rounds, including a live performance of ''Brave'' on Ellen.) Following the end of the intense touring cycle for 2010's Kaleidoscope Heart, her only chart-topper to date, she took her first real break in nearly a decade for what she describes as a ''soul quest,'' indulging in yoga, meditation, and therapy in an effort to find some direction. ''I was really burned-out,'' she recalls. ''There was a stagnancy in my life in general.''
