I was waiting for "that moment," says Haley Pharo about beginning work on her debut album, produced by Grammy winner Andrew Dawson (Kanye West, John Legend, Beyoncé). Considering that Pharo, who is now 23, has been onstage since she was eight, writing since she was 11 and recording since she was 13, it's been quite a wait.

The moment came when she was in the studio with King Logan (of Timbaland's production crew) working on the track "Con Artist." Pharo recalls thinking: "This really feels like me; I want my record to have this kind of feel." The song is indeed characteristic of the soulful, rhythmic pop presented on Pharo's forthcoming disc, which finds the artist unabashedly vulnerable – but not without a certain sass. "In that song, I was saying what I wanted to say the way I wanted to say it," she reveals, "which I couldn't have done when I was a teenager."

Nonetheless, Haley Pharo has been pursuing her muse with precocious focus for some time. At seven, she saw a fellow camper sing "My Favorite Things" at a talent show, then reasoned, "If she can do that here, I can do it everywhere."