Michelle Branch on The Spirit Room at 20: ‘It was allowed to remain authentically teenage’

Sign up to Roisin O’Connor’s free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Get our Now Hear This email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “She was out doing promo for her first song, and she and I met and she’s like, ‘Oh my god – The Spirit Room was such a huge album for me! I think maybe that’s why it hit the way it did, because I was feeling these new, abstract feelings that every teenager goes through, and then writing about them.” open image in gallery The cover art for Branch’s ‘The Spirit Room' Branch came up in a divided time for pop music. When reigning princess of pop Olivia Rodrigo – all of 18 and hating it – admits that “god, it’s brutal out here”, it feels like a cry for solidarity only possible because Branch did it herself 20 years earlier. The 20th anniversary edition of ‘You Get Me’ is out now, tickets can be bought for the live-streamed concert at Moment House, while Branch’s re-issued ‘The Spirit Room’ will be released next year