Three questions with Ingrid Michaelson

Despite having notched the No. 4 download on iTunes and the No. 1 most-played song on AOL Music you remain unsigned. Why?

Things are going very well being independent. I’m achieving a lot of success, almost for being independent. It’s an interesting story, and I think it’s leading to the success I’ve had so far. If I was to sign I’d be just another person signed to a label. So it’s not broke, why fix it—that’s sort of how I’m feeling. But if there comes a time where I’m feeling like I can’t handle things or I need to grow more, then I’ll take that step when I need to.

You’ve had songs featured on Grey’s Anatomy and in commercials for Old Navy and Chevrolet. How are those folks discovering your music given your total non-affiliation?

It kinda happened through MySpace. A licensing company found me on MySpace, and they said that they thought my songs would sound great on TV, and then a couple months later I got a placement and that just sort of started everything. We—me and my manager and the people that are working with me—built on top of that and used that to get other opportunities. It was just this organic situation that’s just kept building and building to where I am right now.

Having had four songs on Grey’s now, are you a fan of the show yourself?

Honestly I never watched it before. My mother told me that my songs would sound good on it, and I was like, “Uh ... really, Mom? Okay.” And then I watched to listen for the music, not really to watch the TV show, and I sort of got sucked into the drama of it. It’s very addicting if you start watching it. But I can’t really keep up with television now. I don’t have the time anymore, which I think is a good thing. I used to watch TV all the time. I was a freakin’ couch potato.