Singer Christina Perri—who hails from Philadelphia—proved herself before even signing a record deal with a gem of a song called "Jar of Hearts" that was used on the television show So You Think You Can Dance. She was signed to Atlantic Records and followed it with another hit "Arms" and a Twilight Saga song "A Thousand Years."
Armed with only a blonde streak in her hair and a body inked with tattoos, the songwriter made the season bright on A Very Merry Perri Christmas in 2012.
Her new album, Head or Heart, was released this month, and she dropped in on Chicago to the House of Blues to perform some tunes from it. She talked the day before the performance, and here is what she said.
Windy City Times: First off, I read you were in musical theater as a child.
Christina Perri: Yep. I was obsessed and I still am. I did theater from about eight years old until 18. I used to teach the same camp that I went to afterwards I moved to L.A.
WCT: What is your favorite musical?
CP: That is so hard to say. I have to say Rent because I have seen it the most. I really love Book of Mormon, Mary Poppins,and The Sound of Music. I am a super-nerdy old-school musicals fan! Oh, I love Wicked and Once also.
WCT: How was having your song "Jar of Hearts" on Glee?
CP: Oh my God. I am a huge Glee fan, too. I am so obsessed with Lea Michele [who plays Rachel]. She is my favorite—Spring Awakening, hello! When she did "Jar of Hearts" I remember it was actually the day my first album came out. We did not plan that. I don't even know what you call that. It was the best luck ever. She sang the song so strongly. It was so rad, there is just no other way to put it. It was so overwhelmingly cool.
I also didn't believe anyone until I saw it because that is too awesome, like no way! Then when I saw it I knew it was real. I told Lea I loved it; then she ended up cutting one of my songs recently on her album. That whole thing keeps blowing my mind. I wrote "Empty Handed" on her album Louder.
WCT: I just spoke with her about the album and we mentioned you, actually. You have a new song on the soundrack of the TV show Girls called "I Don't Wanna Break."
CP: That is true. I love that show, too! That was really special. I got to hang out with Lena Dunham [who plays Hannah on the show]. She is just as amazing in real life as you would hope she is. She came out to the studio when I was doing that song. I wrote it with her boyfriend Jack and he co-produced it. We were in New York and did it in one day. She came and we had sushi. She is just awesome and so is Jack Antonoff—you know, from the group fun. We really hit it off and wrote that song in 20 minutes.
WCT: Jack is a really nice guy.
CP: He is so cool and really not cool at the same time—more like my kind of not cool.
WCT: He's a big gay supporter so that is why I liked hanging with him.
CP: And am I, just so you know...
WCT: I was hoping with all of this Broadway talk.
CP: Of course. All of my friends are hairdressers. I grew up in a hair salon.
WCT: Where did that blonde streak in your hair come from?
CP: Oh my God. I had that for years before my record deal. Then I had it all the way until it grew out basically. After I switched up my hair on purpose to not be stuck with that because I had this awful premonition wondering if Slash doesn't want to wear that top hat but has to because it's his thing. I thought no way and being a girl makes me want to change my hair all the time! I didn't want to be the same all of the time, new album, new hair so that is how it goes.
WCT: Looks great to me. Was the track "Be My Forever," with Ed Sheeran, inspired by your previous tour with Jason Mraz?
CP: It totally has a Mraz-y vibe to it. I get that. I wrote it with a guy named Jamie Scott about six months after the Mraz tour. I still had a little of that in my system. I'm a huge Mraz fan in general and have been since his Java Joe days. I was like 15 when I fell in love with Mraz.
I wasn't thinking of it consciously but I wanted that campfire, like a party, sit around with a guitar to have a little jam style in that song. I think Jason just happened to patent that. It wasn't my intention, then again Jason is known for writing happy songs and that is the first happy song I've ever written so of course it is like his thing.
WCT: With the album being called Head or Heart, is it about connecting to your emotional side?
CP: To be quite honest, I don't know how not to have an emotional side—I'm Italian, a Leo and a girl. I could name about 50 things! My number one inspiration would be emotions. I have been writing songs since I was 15. It is the only thing I know how to do when I am feeling an 11 or a zero, which is how I describe it. Most people are somewhere in between. I feel like writers have a super high or a super low. We have to have a place to put that. It is funny because in real life I am so dorky, silly, and happy all of the time. People ask me why my songs are so emotional but that is where I put my stuff. Everybody has somewhere where they put that heavy stuff so I put it into my songs.
I am just happy this album is not a break-up album. My first album I didn't realize was until I wrote this one. I captured a little bit of everything. I think because in the three years that I wrote this album I went through so much shit. I fell madly in love and wrote about it for the first time. There are four songs on this album that are not about guys. They are about a relationship with me, learning to be me on the planet and being okay with that.
One of the songs is about the 15-year-old version of me—the last song, called "I Believe." "Burning Gold" is a song about when I moved to Los Angeles from Philly. I was absolutely terrified but I wouldn't give up on that flame inside of me that kept going. There is all of things and so much more dynamic but the one thread to the whole album is emotion. It is all of the feelings that go with these experiences that I have had. They are all true stories.
WCT: I have always wanted to ask you this. Since you started blowing up when Katy Perry did, do people get you confused with similar names?
CP: Oh, constantly! Here is the thing, everyone asks if we are related. I'm like, "We don't spell our names the same so no." I wouldn't mind it because I love her. Every single radio show I have done ever since the beginning of my career everyone has brought it up. I hear it all the time.
WCT: You have such a way of connecting with fans.
CP: It is so awesome to connect with people's hearts.
