KortneyKaty Perry was on NPR’s Morning Edition and talked about preparing to release her upcoming album “SMILE” and give birth, breaking out of the loop of the idea of what people thought she can do musically, what the pandemic has changed for her, if being pregnant has made her think differently about what a woman is, the turning point in her life that happened in 2017, how she thinks she’ll look back on “SMILE” in 50 years, and more.
It sounds like you’ve gotten used to dealing with uncertainty. I think in this job, you have to roll with the punches, or just know how to ebb and flow, bob and weave — all the sayings. But this year is definitely a year of the loss of certainty and for me, it’s learning how to surrender. All control freaks are spiraling right now, and I’m definitely one of them.
[…] Your new album is a compilation of all of your lived experiences and all of your authenticity. When you think about being 50 and looking back on this album in particular, what do you think you’ll say Smile is about? People that survive and are still artists their whole lives, they haven’t always had an upward trajectory, it’s been peaks and valleys. But it’s about how you are in those valleys which takes you to the next peak. I think maybe I’ll look back and I’ll be like, “Oh, this is where the expansion happened. This is where the character was built. This is where the making of me showed up.” Because I don’t think you really know who you are until you get thrown down the stairs of life and/or just punched in the face a couple of times. So I think this is going to be the beginning of the wholeness of me, not just one part.
