Katy Perry: ‘women are unstoppable. They create life, they carry life. They do it with beauty, they do it with grace’

Katy Perry joined Zane Lowe on New Music Daily to tease her upcoming album, 143, and two unreleased tracks, “Gorgeous” and “Lifetimes.” She also shares how becoming a mother has impacted herself and her art.

Katy Perry on the perspective that motherhood has given her…

I always respected my mother, but after I gave birth, there was this huge level of growth, of respect for her. Just like watching her as I grew up, all the invisible work that she did, how she raised three kids without iPads. Come on. In the 80s. And just how women are unstoppable. They create life, they carry life. They do it with beauty, they do it with grace. They are not one thing. They are are soft, they are strong, they are chaos, they are cruel, they’re all the things and they contribute so much to the world. And I feel so celebrated in my life and I hope that other women feel celebrated when they hear this [album] and that everybody connects to the feminine part of them inside of them.

On channeling positive energy into her music…

I’m full up now. So I am creating from a place of happiness and wholeness, which is super rare, I think, and scary for artists because I think the biggest lie that we’ve ever been sold is that we have to stay in pain in order to create great art. But once you’re full up, you’re operating from light and joy and beauty and you can share that with the world.

On her identity as an artist…

I think that people, when they think of me, they think of “Roar,” they think of “Firework,” sometimes they think of “I Kissed a Girl,” but I think mostly they think of these kind of empowering songs. Songs with a message, songs that are captions on t-shirts and stuff like that or things that help people get through. And I love that. I love hearing the stories and really, I write these songs from a place where I need to get through something. But so I wanted to continue with that and also, this is the first contribution I have given since becoming a mother and since feeling really connected to my feminine divine.

On the title of her new album and the inspiration behind the name…

It’s called 143. It’s my angel number. It’s my symbol, it’s my sign. A couple years ago, we were going through a little bit of a hard time medically in our family, and it was a little bit scary and I started seeing 143 in many different ways, not just on the phone. It was just trippy, almost, and I looked it up and it’s just that it’s like code for I love you, and I really believe it was my angels, my guides saying, “I love you. We got you. We’re going to protect you. You’re exactly where you’re meant to be. You’re on the path.” And so I named my album 143 because I feel like I’m exactly where I’m meant to be at this moment, and I do love the listener and I want to give them the love that I’ve received as best as I possibly can and help invite them into this kind of love frequency.