San Diego native Leah Andreone has it all going for her right now. She is young, she's beautiful, she's superbly talented, has a lovely voice with an amazing range and yes, she's intelligent to boot. I guess the only thing she's lacking right now is Brad Pitt as a boyfriend. The following is what transpired whilst Ms. Andreone was in a hotel room in Missouri, and I was, well, you know where.

Campus Circle: Is this your first time out on the road?
Leah Andreone: Yes. Yes, it is.

How do you like it so far?
I love it. It's been really fun. It's been, um, an eye-opener, you know.

There's been things I haven't expected. I didn't know it was going to be so much fun, for one. For two, I didn't know I'd miss my family and my friends so much. But it's been really fun.

What do you make of all the stellar comparisons to Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Alanis Morissette?
I don't like it, but I understand it. I think in order to understand something and explain something, it's a lot easier to kinda use a comparison rather than explaining what the voice sounded like, and what she looked like when she sang, and what her hands did and what you saw in her eyes. Some people take a simple approach, which is "Well, she sounds like this..." It's a lot easier. It's kinda like tasting alligator meat for the first time and saying it tastes like chicken. It's a pretty simple and shallow way to explain it to you.

Who or what influences you when you write?
I grew up listening to a lot of gospel. I grew up listening to, well, it sounds funny, but I grew up listening to Elvis Costello, a lot of John Lennon.

I had a lot of different influences because I had a lot of different people in my family that had different tastes in music. My brother was into a lot of rockabilly and Adam Ant and Stray Cats. My mother was into gospel, Gladys Knight and Aretha Franklin.

Was anyone in your family musically inclined?
My mother was but no one chose to take it in the crazy places I'm taking it.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a musician?
For the first time when I saw my sisters up on stage, and I was about six, and I knew I wanted to do it. It's kinda like, if you idolize someone -- I really looked up to my sisters -- you kinda want to do what they do, if they look good to you.

Your album was semi-autobiographical?
Yeah. It was also intentional that it was only semi... I love to sit and watch the dynamics of different relationships around me and different conversations going on in a bar, in a park... When I get tired of thinking about myself, I go into another environment and watch other people's situations and go home and write about it.

Do you write anything else besides music?
I don't write poetry, but I did as a child. Now it's kinda like well, if I write a poem, I'll turn it into a song, so I kinda just start at the song base and go from there.

Your lyrics are very thought-provoking. Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Anything that really knocks me over, any emotion that can either bring me to tears, bring me to laughter... something that really, really touches some kind of soft spot in you, whether it's tears or happiness.

What are some of your favorite songs on the album... other than everything?
Today, my favorite songs would probably be "Problem Child" and "Imagining You." That's because I was singing those for, like, hours yesterday. I'm rehearsing with the band, and we're doing the same song over and over.

Did growing up in eternally sunny SoCal affect your musical outlook?
I don't think it affected my outlook on life. I didn't even know ice existed until this year. Maybe I just took it for granted, because now when I go back to San Diego, I really, really appreciate what I'm looking at. It's really beautiful to me now, and I wish at 17 I could've looked at it and gone, "This is so cool what I'm living in." But I just wanted to bail. I just wanted to get out. I just wanted to leave. I left at 19 and moved out on my own to try and do this singing career thing. (laughs)

Do you have any plans for the future? Any schemes for world domination?
World domination? (laughs again) I like that question. At least how it sounds. No, I don't have plans for world domination. I'm happy right now, and it's my goal right now to keep myself in the presence of the music and the people I'm around. I want to be able to stay where I'm at because I think it's hard to hold onto having a place to sing, and I do right now, and I love it. All day long, I can't wait for my evening to come, so my goal is to kinda hold onto that right now. I don't need to, you know, be a quadruple-selling artist. I just want to keep being able to sing.

Check this lady out when she arrives in L.A. at the Troubadour in December.

Karin Edmondson