First Posted: 3/10/2014
Lea Michele released her new album “Louder” amidst a whirlwind press tour that included radio stations, “LIVE with Kelly and Michael,” “Good Morning America,” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
“I’m so proud of him. I’m so happy for him,” Michele told “Ralphie Tonight” after taping with Fallon. “He’s, like, the nicest guy.”
Michele joined Fallon once when he hosted “Late Night.”
“He sits and chats with you and just makes you feel so at home,” she said. “It was one of my favorite performances, I think, but mainly because he’s so awesome.”
The “Glee” star chatted with “Ralphie Tonight” before her second of three album signings in the tri-state area. The promo tour continued on the West Coast through the weekend.
“I just think that my background has been the best preparation and it’s given me such a solid ground,” Michele said of transitioning into a major label recording artist. “This is a really tough industry and it comes with a lot of pressure and stuff like that, so I think coming from Broadway and then also going on to ‘Glee,’ this has all been great preparation for this next phase of my life.”
Phase one included a leading role in the Broadway smash “Spring Awakening.” Duncan Sheik (“Barely Breathing” singer) scored the musical, although the two did not link up on Michele’s latest project
“I don’t even know where he is,” she joked. “I think he’s in London actually, right now.”
Close – Germany when we caught up with Sheik a day after the interview. He was then headed to London before returning to New York.
Michele lived in New Jersey and New York before moving to California and landing on “Glee.”
“It definitely helped me learn how to be in the recording studio, how to record songs,” she said of her time playing Rachel Berry at William McKinley High School. “Working on ‘Glee’ really helped me to understand what the studio life was like, and then recording this album.”
Singing into a microphone that is directly in front of you as opposed to singing to the back of the house was the biggest difference for Michele between performing on Broadway and recording this album. The California resident will wrap up Season 5 of “Glee” and then tour across venues overseas. Michele then returns stateside to film the sixth and final season of the Fox TV show before she possibly tours in the States.
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