During our big night out at Audacy’s Leading Ladies presented by Olay Body on March 20 at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, NY, singer Christina Perri sat down with NEW 102.7 morning host Karen Carson backstage in the Dunkin' Artists Lounge, walking us through how writing music has helped her work through not only painful, life-altering moments but also some amazingly joyful ones as well.
LISTEN NOW: Christina Perri backstage at Leading Ladies 2024 with Karen Carson
“When I started my family building, I thought I was kind of like taking a little bit of a break from music,” she says, “because I was touring for six years straight and had a blast, traveled the whole world and all my dreams came true.”
“It was amazing, but I just wanted to have a family,” Perri explains. “So, I met my husband and I was like, ‘OK, great… let's make babies.’ I had no idea it was gonna be, you know, amazing and heartbreaking and hard and wonderful all at the same time,” she adds, referring to the birth of her first daughter in 2018, and subsequent pregnancy complications two years later.
“When I had my first daughter, Carmela, I remember my record label saying, ‘OK, like when do you wanna, you know, go back to work and put music out? Like, what's your plan?’” says Perri. But that just wasn’t what her heart told her at the time. She admits, “I was like, ‘you know, I really feel like I just wanna sing lullabies. I just wanna sing to Carmela,’” Perri says.
Though Christina’s label wasn’t exactly sure what she meant, she stuck to her idea, explaining, “’This is where I'm at… so I wanna sing how I really feel. I don't wanna pretend.’”
“I didn't just become a mom,” Perri continues, “because it changed my whole world, brought all the color to my life. So I made ‘Songs for Carmela,’ and then in the back of my mind, I thought, ‘Well, every child I have, I'm gonna have to make a lullaby record for them, which is fine with me.”
Addressing her pregnancy complications two years later, Christina explains, “I had my daughter, Rosie who passed away. That was absolutely heartbreaking, but I knew I needed to make an album for her because I wanted her memory to live forever. I had already picked all the songs for her, so I made ‘Songs for Rosie’ -- it was a beautiful, end of the story of my family building, which is, I got pregnant with my double Rainbow baby Pixie and she came a year and a half ago. So, I got to make ‘Songs for Pixie.’ Funny enough, the record label now is like, ‘When's your next lullaby record?’”
“People love them, moms love them,” she says of the response. “I felt so lucky to be able to sing to people's babies. Honestly, as a mom… I'm very grateful to be at your wedding or for you to walk down the aisle to my song, but there's something about being a mom and knowing that my songs are helping your kids stop crying. That really makes me happy!”
“I was really able to turn a lot of my pain into music,” Perri explains. “Also, just genuinely be where I'm at, and be grieving, or be, you know, singing or spending time with my girls. I was able to figure out how to do it all at the same time.”
Of course, as time passes, Christina’s got a whole new set of challenges when it comes to her career. “Now I'm trying to figure out how to do it like I used to, but not… like now I have all my autonomy back and my girls are like, ‘Let's go on tour!’ I gotta ask P!nk what to do. Now I want to bring the show on the road.”
Discussing her song “Mothers,” Christina says she’s realized that “there's no topic that's off limits for me. I started with heartbreak and then it was grief, and with ‘Mothers’ it's postpartum depression. Like, if anyone's going to write a song about it, it's me… I got this. It was definitely a topic that meant a lot to me because I had gone through such a challenging transition from not being a mom to being a mom. I was so blown away by it.”
“Writing with another mom, named Amy Wadge, who's one of my favorite people in the whole world,” she adds. “Her and I both had the same experience and she was like, ‘Yeah, people don't sing about this thing and this thing and this thing.’ So we just sat there and wrote this song together and it made us cry and it made us feel better… I was like, ‘All right. Well, I guess I'm supposed to say it.’”
“I'm so honored and glad that it's helped a lot of women.
Getting ready to take the stage, Perri says she’s “super honored,” to take the stage with her fellow ‘Leading Ladies’ Rachel Platten, Elle King, Kelsea Ballerini, and Meghan Trainor. “I'm a fan of all the girls here tonight, but I also happen to be friends with all of them in real life,” she tells us. “Getting to come here is just such a cool thing for all of us because some of us only really were chatting online for years. Like Megan Trainor and I have never even met in real life but have talked a million times. This is such a cool event for us to get together and finally all hang out. But at the same time, like, they're so talented… I just feel so cool to be included.”
“I feel so ready to be back on stage and be having fun and to have a night where we're celebrating women… I'm all for it," Perri says.
Keep your eyes and ears peeled for announcements from Christina coming in May and June, and the Fall, and Christmas time. “Yeah, I'm coming back,” she adds excitedly. “It was an incredible couple of years and I definitely feel like I got to spend such incredible time with my girls and I still will, but I want them now to see mom do her thing and live my passion and my dream and, you know, be a boss mom.”
Don't miss Karen Carson's full chat with Christina Perri above, and stay tuned for more coverage from Audacy's Leading Ladies 2024 right HERE.
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