REBLOGThe pop star is working with collaborators such as Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Bonnie McKee and others.
Katy Perry is halfway through her third album, the follow-up to “Teenage Dream,” which spawned five Hot 100 No. 1 singles. She has yet to feel any pressure.
“When I put myself on a timeline, when I tell the record company when I want to release the album, that’s when the race starts,” Perry said during a session Thursday at ASCAP’s I Create Music Expo. “That’s when I put pressure on myself.”
So far she has collaborated with many of the producers and songwriters behind “Teenage Dream,” among them Max Martin, Dr. Luke and Greg Wells.
Wells, she says, “allows me to vomit words. Not that I can’t find that with other but he just lets me [makes retching sound]. Max and Luke push me the most. As a team we have certain strengths. With Max, it’s melody choices, Luke is production and I’m topline and melody.”
She has also written new songs with Sia and continues to work with Bonnie McKee, her collaborator on “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream.”
Working with Bonnie McKee “is like an emotional abuse session,” she said. “Bonnie and I argue (like) we’re in the ring fighting for the best lyric. We presented ‘Teenage Dream’ three times (before it was recorded).”
At a recent session, Perry went in with a melody and verse to work with Greg Kurstin and McKee. “She came in from a yoga class and said, ‘I want to write a song called ‘Double Rainbow.” So we have a song called ‘Double Rainbow.’”
Perry spent an hour taking questions from ASCAP executive VP, membership, Randy Grimmett, who had the singer-songwriter detail her career from her beginnings as a 13-year-old learning to play guitar to working in the Christian music world and then the ups and downs of her career prior to her chart success and arena tours.
She began many of her anecdotes with “want to hear something really depressing” – or words to that effect – to draw a complete picture of what she went through as struggling artist. She detailed negative and positive experiences working with Glen Ballard (pro) and the Matrix trio (con), Island Def Jam (bad) and Capitol (positive and improving with the new management team), and regularly reinforced the idea that she loves to collaborate with other writers.
A few other tidbits Perry said:
On the music and artists who have had the greatest influence on her, Perry rattled off Queen’s “Killer Queen,” the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds,” Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill,” No Doubt, Patty Griffin and Jonatha Brooke.
Dave Stewart, with whom she wrote “I’m Still Breathing,” was the first collaborator to give her the freedom to write whatever she wanted.
Once she goes on tour, she stops writing. “I don’t get into a studio when I’m touring.”
Her favorites that she saw at Coachella last weekend? Purity Ring, M83 and Sia.
Career highlight? “Firework,” she said, is “the most important song I’ve written.” Performing it with an autistic girl accompanying her on piano and vocal harmony at a fundraiser was “the most important performance of my career so far.”
She does not like the use of aliases by songwriters and producers. “I wouldn’t meet Dr. Luke for six months because I knew he wasn’t really a doctor. What’s wrong with your first and last name? Why do they have to be from outer space?”
Katy Perry will be making an appearance at tomorrow’s special The Ellen DeGeneres Show episode celebrating Ellen’s 55th birthday!
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Katy has been nominated for a 2013 GRAMMY award. Katy is up for Best Pop Solo Performance for Wide Awake. Music’s Biggest Night, the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards, will return to Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, and will air live on the CBS Television Network from 8–11:30 p.m.
Congratulations Katy!
(Source: iheartkatyperry)
Katy Perry, Quincy Jones, Alicia Keys and Vince Gill are on the same bill: The singers are performing at an event to benefit the late Paul Newman’s The Painted Turtle Camp.
The Dec. 4 gathering at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles is being billed as “You’ve Got a Friend … A Celebration of Carole King and Her Music.” King will perform alongside John Legend, Amy Grant, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall.
Newman’s The Painted Turtle is a camp in Lake Hughes, Calif., in The SeriousFun Children’s Network, which the actor founded to assist children with serious illnesses as well as their families.
Tickets for the event go on sale Monday. A VIP party will follow at The Ray Dolby Ballroom.
Newman died in 2008.
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Dream Foundation, the first and largest national wish-granting organization for adults and their families battling life-threatening illness, is proud to announce Nigel Lythgoe, Katy Perry and the families of Dream Foundation as honorees for the 11th Annual Celebration of Dreams Gala, occurring Friday, November 16, 2012 at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara. Celebration of Dreams combines touching dream stories with world-class entertainment and creative cuisine – all to benefit the services of Dream Foundation.
As part of the event, special surprise presenters will acknowledge the compassionate care and philanthropic service Nigel Lythgoe and Katy Perry impart on behalf of the families served by Dream Foundation – noting how each delves beyond their status to uplift and nurture the dreams of others. Lythgoe and Perry will be on hand. They will also be honored for their dedication and commitment to a multitude of other nonprofit organizations and humanitarian causes close to their hearts. Sharing the honor will be the families of Dream Foundation.
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Katy Perry** will take home the Woman of the Year Award at the 2012 Billboard Women in Music event on Friday, Nov. 30, in New York City, capping off a year that’s seen the pop star break chart records, release a 3D feature film and bring her candy-colored tour all over the world.
After launching into the mainstream with the saucy single “I Kissed a Girl” and hit album “One of the Boys,” Perry set fire to the charts with 2010’s “Teenage Dream.” The record-setting album notched five Hot 100 No. 1s, a first for an album by a female artist, and has sold 2.5 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. “Dream” spent over 100 weeks in the Billboard 200.
Perry’s impressive numbers also include a record nine No. 1s on the Mainstream Top 40, a record seven on the Adult Top 40, 10 on the Dance Club Songs and an overall seven atop the Hot 100. She’s sold 48 million songs in the U.S. alone, according to SoundScan, with tracks such as “Firework” and “California Gurls” among the top 30 downloads ever.
Her chart dominance extended to her ambitious “California Dreams” tour, which sold out 124 arenas while helping fund charity efforts for the Children’s Health Fund, Generosity Water, the Humane Society and the Red Cross. The tour was documented earlier this year in “Katy Perry: Part of Me,” the 3-D concert film that Perry both starred in and produced. She debuted the film in Los Angeles with a special performance for Billboard and Pepsi’s Summer Beats series this summer, shutting down the Hollywood and Highland intersection for hundreds of fans.
Perry debuted her latest hit single, “Wide Awake,” during a high flying performance on the Billboard Music Awards on May 20 in Las Vegas. The song went on to reach No. 2 on the Hot 100.
“Katy Perry broke into the industry not even five years ago, and has already accomplished more than most artists can hope for in an entire career,” Bill Werde, Billboard’s editorial director, says. “We are thrilled to celebrate these incredible achievements and her amazing past 12 months by honoring her with the Billboard Woman of the Year Award. With what seems like a never-ending supply of record-breaking, chart-topping hits, coupled with her unique and fresh style, Katy Perry is hands-down one of the most exciting and inspiring artists in the industry today.”
Billboard’s annual Women in Music Event, now in its seventh year, celebrates the most powerful and talented women in the music business, coinciding with the publication of Billboard’s Women in Music Power Players list. This year’s event will be taking place on Friday, Nov. 30 at Capitale in New York City. Previous honorees include Taylor Swift, Fergie and Beyonce.
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Katy Perry has signed on to perform at the President Obama fund-raising concert Oct. 7 in Los Angeles, a campaign fund-raiser told The Hollywood Reporter.
Perry is expected to be one of several artists who will sing for the president at the “30 Days to Victory” concert at the Nokia Theater.
The other performers are expected to be disclosed in coming days. The tickets, which will be available through the campaign, start at $44 a person for supporters under age 40. General admission is $250 a person.
Following the concert, there will be a dinner, hosted by Jeffrey Katzenberg, with the president at a nearby restaurant. Those tickets start at $25,000 a person.
(Source: hollywoodreporter.com)
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Museum galas are reliably glitzy affairs, complete with A-list celebrities wearing red-carpet fashion — all for a good cause, of course. This year, the Hammer Museum will boast the likes of Katy Perry, Armie Hammer, Steve Martin and MSNBC personality Rachel Maddow at its 10th annual fundraising gala set for Oct. 6.
The Hammer said this year’s gala celebration will honor artists Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman.
Hammer, the actor who appeared in “The Social Network” in the dual role of the Winklevoss twins, is co-chairing the gala with his wife, Elizabeth. He is the great-grandson of Dr. Armand Hammer, the oil tycoon and founder of the museum.
The museum said Perry will appear in “a special performance” at the gala. Getting into the celebration won’t be cheap. Individual seats are going for $1,500 to $7,500.
Last year’s gala raised approximately $1.7 million, according to the museum.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will hold its owngala celebrationon Oct. 27, honoringStanley Kubrickand artist Ed Ruscha.Steven Spielbergis expected to pay tribute to the late Kubrick. The band Florence and the Machinewill provide musical entertainment.
Earlier this month, the Museum of Contemporary Artcanceledits fall gala, though a museum spokeswoman said it will hold one in the spring.
(Source: Los Angeles Times)
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